Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The problem with nationalists is, of course, they lack perspective. The Galician government’s coalition partner is the Galician National Party [BNG] and the President of the latter is something of a loose cannon. A few months ago he prompted a spat with the governments of Asturias and Castilla y León by suggesting certain border towns there should become part of Galicia because they spoke Gallego. And now he’s provoked a furious reaction on the part of the government of Extremadura by suggesting it’s not doing enough to preserve a language spoken in a few towns there which is a related to the Latinate precursor of both Galician and Portuguese which once held sway over the western half of Iberia. The air is rife with insults from both sides. No wonder Samuel Johnson felt patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel.

A nice Spanish vignette today – I went to the dealer where I bought my car and asked if I could book it in for a service on Friday. The guy looked at the work sheet in front of him and shook his head doubtfully. Since this was for today, I stressed I wanted to bring the car in on Friday. He looked dumfounded by the very concept of forward planning and said he’d have to go and get the boss. Which he did and the matter was quickly resolved.

Under the anti-smoking law of early this year, there are provisions relating to both kiosks and vending machines. As a non-smoker, I’m not sure what. But I was told by Spanish friends today there’s a new system in operation to get round whatever it is the law now prohibits. You pay the chap in the kiosk and he presses a remote control which releases a packet of cigarettes into the tray of a machine which is technically decommissioned. Which reminds me – we’re now 4 months closer to the deadline of end August for conversion of the large café/bar where I go every day but, as yet, there’s no sign that anyone’s even thinking of implementing the requirement to close off a smoking area.

Acedre has written to say I’ve neglected to add that drivers in the USA are also well-mannered and drive calmly, unlike in Galicia. That may well be so but, as an American reader advised last year, the mortality on the roads there is even higher than in Spain. Excessive speed and drunken driving are said to be the main causes there as well.

Here’s another stab at a bit of Spanglish – I’m told the word for someone high on drugs is espidioso. As this is pronounced ‘espeedeeoso’, I assume the root is ‘speed’. But since I can’t find any trace of the word on the web, perhaps someone is having me on. Anyone heard it?

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