I
woke at 6.30 this morning. Not because I wanted to but because
someone was cleaning the street with a machine that sounded not like
a leaf-blower but like a hedge-cutter. My decision, the previous
night, not to get out of bed and find my ear-plugs looked, in
retrospect, like a very bad one.
A
few more things about Portugal:-
- The Portuguese introduced the samosa to India.
- Cafés, bars and restaurants in Portugal still have internal Smokers' Areas.
- If you're stuck in an autopista queue, there's every chance a stack of motorbikes will roar past you on the hard shoulder. Plus a car or two.
- Mobile phone use by drivers seems to be even higher than in Spain.
- The bureaucracy is even worse than in Spain.
An
interesting correlation – A Snickers bar in an autopista
café in Portugal costs 1 euro 65, against 1.35 in Spain. And petrol
was 1.65 a litre in Portugal, against 1.36 in Spain.
Back
in Spain, the government seems to be taking a leaf out of Gordon
Brown's book on fleecing the voters. Our Gordon was fond of what were
called 'stealth taxes'. Ways of increasing the tax burden that were
less visible than, say, a one percent increase in income tax. Later
this year, the Spanish government will announce a change in the way
the regular inspection of your car needs to be done, increasing the
frequency and, thus the fees payable. Nowt to do with safety, I
suspect.
Up
to La Coruña tonight to see Kurt Elling and his combo. Which may or
may not be a word which is still used in jazz circles. Excellent. And
worth the 260km round trip.
Plus
he made an excellent joke when finishing up at 10.20, telling the
audience he knew they all had dinner appointments for two hours time.
Finally
. . . Kurt Elling, performing My Foolish Heart. Enjoy!
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