Pontevedra party; Malfeasant mayors et al; Double ugly; Dubbers down; & More RT TV nonsense.

In its relentless search for new reasons to have fun, Pontevedra has hit on St Patrick's Day, possibly because of the (over-touted) Celtic connection. There was a large marquee(tent) in Plaza de España today and the liquid fare was 3 Irish beers and Heineken. For food, there was St Patrick's beefburgers (your guess is as good as mine), St Patrick's biscuits and tripe. There are plans to show the Real Madrid-Barcelona match in the marquee tonight, much to the annoyance of the town's hotel and bar owners. BTW - The Spanish word for 'unfair' (as in competition) is desleal. Or 'disloyal'. Very personal.

Here's an every day story of mayoral tendencies. Except it isn't; this guy had to resign.

Which reminds me . . . The President of the Provincial government had been accused of some skulduggery or other. As he's risen from being a hospital porter to millionaire politician, some would say not before time.

I suffered a double fright yesterday when I turned the page of a newspaper and came upon Mick Jagger's craggy face on the left and the even uglier face of the Duquesa de Alba on the right. Spain's richest woman, the Duchess is 88 but, thanks to plastic surgery, looks 125. Despite the expenditure, the only thing young about her is her (third) husband, who's in line for a large compensation for his stewardship of her final years. A true romantic.

Spain's soundtrack dubbers are on strike. So it's probably a good time to watch a bit of Spanish TV. And maybe catch an original version movie. Which reminds me . . . Is there not a material difference between "12 Years a Slave" and "12 Years of Slavery"? I ask because the latter is what the film title became in Spanish. As if an accurate translation were impossible.

Finally . . . RT TV has been scoffing for 2 or 3 days at the illogicality and uselessness of the US and EU sanctions, stressing that most of those sanctioned had nothing to do with the annexation of Crimea. As if this were the point. The channel has to be either astonishingly stupid or deliberately mendacious to take this line. The sanctions are aimed at Putin's oligarch cronies, who might influence him to backtrack. But I suppose RT could hardly say this.