Dawn

Dawn

Friday, July 31, 2009

Another of those Anglo-Spanish moments today. Forgive the personal detail but it’s germane . . . On a whim, I decided this week to comb back my hair in the Spanish fashion, flat on my head, without a parting. At lunchtime today in my regular bar, one of the waitresses confided that ‘It makes you look more ugly’. When I protested it would have been better to say ‘less handsome’, she claimed that’s exactly what she’d meant. Too bloody late for that, of course.

And here’s another one – The Spanish media has picked up on David Cameron apologising for using the word ‘twat’ in some interview or other. One of the papers today explained this was a rude British alternative for ‘vagina’ but stressed it was nowhere near as strong as the Spanish word coño. Which is a little confusing. How can a word which one hears a hundred times a day be considered ‘strong’. Carallo!! It’s hardly taboo, coño.

Although Spain’s major banks have been downgraded by Moodys, they continue to turn in results that are good in all the circumstances. But, then, I’ve always wondered how difficult it is to make money when you charge your clients for everything except the air they breathe in your branches and - when things get tough - you simply raise all these fixed and variable charges by 30% without a word of explanation. And then summarily close down many of the branches you opened during the boom years.

Here’s a surprise – After decades of a Common Fisheries Policy, it turns out that most of the world’s illegal over-fishing takes place in EU waters. I have to admit I’d always thought most of the ships involved in this sailed from our nearby port of Vigo. But, in a recent article about Sarkozy’s battle with the fishermen of southern France, I read that the latter were the main culprits. But, hey, French or Spanish, they’ll all be off to Icelandic waters once that little country enters the EU. Problem solved.

I can’t say I have a good grasp of the Spanish legal system but I can say I was intrigued by two similar developments reported in today’s local press. In the first of these, it was announced that a massive illegal block of flats in Vigo condemned to demolition by some court a few years ago would not now be knocked down. And, closer to home in Pontevedra, another court has pronounced that the shacks built on top of the illegal houses demolished in the gypsy encampment last year are not illegal. As regards the former, I recalled talking to a Spanish friend about the original judgement and hearing him tell me, with an air of condescension, it would never happen. “Why not?”, I asked. “Because this is Spain and it never happens” he replied. Unless, of course, your name is Prior and you live down in Almería.

Finally . . . Here’s the page of the George Borrow Society, in English and in Spanish. And here’s a Spanish view of his book, written a few years after its publication, in both Spanish and English.

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