Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Don’t you think it would be possible for some genius to invent a programme we could install to ensure that all those infuriating emails about lottery wins, Nigerian bank accounts, discounted software, free porn, cheap Cialis/Viagra, etc., etc. would be automatically stopped and routed to one or other of the senders of this stuff, so that their own accounts were deluged with growing volumes of this rubbish in perpetuity?

I had a very pleasant hour in the sun this morning, reading my paper in one of Pontevedra’s beautiful squares and partaking of my Sunday Albariño and battered squid. And then, later, I had another pleasant hour having a beer with friends in another of these squares. In between, though, I had to endure five kids running round me screaming as I tried to finish my research for this blog. And I do mean screaming, not just shouting. This is because the only reaction Spanish parents ever have to their noisy offspring is to raise their already-loud voices so that they can be heard above the din coming from their bloody kids. And, of course, from all their friends who are speaking simultaneously. And raising their own voices so that they too can be heard. So, a swings and roundabouts morning, I guess.

One article in today’s El Mundo was headed ‘What value are indicators on a car’. An excellent question. And one I have asked many times in Spain. Turns out that there is a correlation here between the size of cars and the use of indicators. In other words, it is a power thing. The more expensive your car, the less you feel the need to tell the plebs about your intentions. I don’t know if this is really true this but I can say that I have figured out why it is stupid to use your indicator on a roundabout. It’s because any signal [or combination of signals] you might give is always taken to mean that you are going straight on. Drivers coming the other way are thus invited to dash across your bows even if your signal is meant to show that you are actually going left.

The Spanglish I love best is not the single English words that don’t actually exist [un footing, un lifting, un parking, etc.] but the combination of Spanish and English words. Here’s a couple recently seen:-

En off – Off stage

La punta del iceberg – The tip of the iceberg

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