Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Another accolade for Pontevedra province. It seems we hold the record for the number of false insurance claims in the Galician region. Five times more than any other province, it was reported in the Diario de Pontevedra today. The standard scam is, after a minor accident, to claim for damage unrelated to it. With some assessors being in on the game, it's said.

And talking of fraud, it appears that quite a few of our local studs have lost money in a Do-you-want-to-be-a-gigolo? scam. When asked, they all sent money to a non-existent organisation which the police are now trying to trace. They say. But I bet they're just laughing themselves silly.

A nicely balanced article on the eurozone in The Economist this weekend. Their final paragraph stresses a point I've been banging on about for years . . . “Euro-zone leaders find themselves buffeted by a crisis they cannot control. How much more fiscal and political integration does the euro need? Nobody knows. Are citizens ready to give up more sovereignty to save the euro? Nobody has asked them. The more leaders try to fix the euro’s flaws the more they risk exposing a flaw in the European Union itself: a project of European integration that lacks a strong democratic mandate.” As I keep saying, interesting times.

I'm we all have problems with predictive text on our phones. So I was amused by this paragraph today:-”The auto-correct device on new 'smart' phones is causing misunderstandings among messagers. A daughter received a text from her mum saying ''Your father and I are going to divorce', whereas the woman had actually written 'Disney'. Another came from a girl chatting to her friend about her new boyfriend: 'He told me you’re the first girl he had ever talked about the Fuhrer with.' She meant 'future'.”

Until a few years ago, Brits represented 70% of the foreign purchasers of properties in Spain. Way ahead of any other nationality. This percentage has fallen to only 25% but the Brits still rank number one by some distance. Total annual sales are well down, of course, and one major reason is surely the publicity given to the plight of the poor Priors. Plus the fall of the pound, it has to be said.

Norway
: What can one say? Well this, for a start:- “The obsession of the [British] media and public with every detail of the Norwegian massacre is sickening. We should stop wallowing in Norway's grief. Worse still has been an outpouring of sentimentality (unlike the dignified restraint of the bereaved Norwegians) from commentators in other countries talking sanctimonious nonsense.”

Finally . . . Two new words for me today, though I fancy I may have seen the first before:-
  1. Babelicious: An amalgam of 'babe' and 'delicious' Like Sally Bretton, I guess.
  2. Ataxic: Characterised by ataxy – the inability to coordinate voluntary movements. Perhaps only Orwell could get away with it. Though I doubt he ever used 'babelicious'.

No comments: