I'm typing this in the the piano bar
on Brittany Ferries. Not sure why, as the ample-gutted pianist
appears to be learning his profession at the expense of my ears. I
may remove myself to the talk on whales and dolphins that's just been
announced.
This post has a Santander flavour,
reflecting the fact I drove there yesterday from Pontevedra to catch
the 9.30 evening ferry.
I turned off the A8 autovía halfway
to get petrol and a bite to eat, ending up in a little restaurant on
the side of a road which turned out to the the Camino del Norte (Way
of the North) to Santiago. Perhaps I should have been warned by the
sign of 2 forks outside, by the owner greeting me in his chef's gear,
by the (rare) non availability of a Menu of the Day, and by the high
prices on the menu. Plus I was the only person there. The
owner-cum-chef did offer 3 courses for 20 euros but somehow this
didn't eventuate and the bill was 24 euros for a main course of
Asturian fabada (bean casserole), a dessert of banana
ice-cream ('home made') and a bottle of water. I retaliated by not
leaving a tip. Hard to imagine many pilgrims refreshing themselves
there. But perhaps it's a famous watering hole for the gourmets of
the locality and comes alive in the evenings. Or perhaps it's going
bust.
Several people have just applauded
the last song of the pianist. He looks stunned. As well he might.
The ferry-boarding arrangements in
Santander have changed in the last year or so. Where we used to park
up is now a huge building site. A placard says this will be the
Centro Botín. As some readers will know, Sr Botín is the
founder, owner and president of Banco Santander, one of europe's
largest banks and a serial acquirer of troubled entities in the UK.
So much so that you can rarely turn a corner in the country's
shopping centres without seeing yet another Santander branch. But not
all is plain sailing. It didn't take long after the initial
acquisitions for Santander to become infamous as the bank causing the
largest number of complaints to the ombudsman. And now it's been hit
with the biggest ever retail banking penalty(€14.9m) - for
"widespread investments advice failings." According to the
Financial Conduct Agency: "Santander let its customers down
badly. They trusted Santander to help them manage their money wisely
but it failed to live up to that responsibility." Now, there are
bad banks everywhere but one does wonder whether some Spanish
practices haven't been imported into the UK. In fact, I think I
forecast they would be.
The piano-playing just improved. It's
now a pianola. Of the modern sort, where the keys depress themselves.
I have to stop myself applauding the machine. It's that much better.
Finally . . . I've been known to
criticise some aspects of Spanish driving but I'm still surprised by
a report on Europe-wide standards which says Spanish drivers are
"more likely to honk their horns and to insult other drivers or
pass them on the wrong side than other European drivers." I
wouldn't have thought this was true. Even though I provoked a fair
amount of honking last night when I reversed down the outside lane of
a busy road in Santander to get to a parking place. Which I never
would have done 10 years ago.
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