Dawn

Dawn

Friday, September 26, 2014

A presidential mistake; Pinpricks; Satnav rage; & Spanish stereotypes.


The Spanish news agency EFE today referred to President Mariano Rajoy as RajoyMariquita. Or 'Rajoy the fairy'. In his hometown of Pontevedra this came as no surprise, as he's generally thought to be gay here. Despite this, EFE apologised profusely for its gaffe.

My daughter and I are down in Oporto tonight, visiting a friend of hers from university. It was a day of pinprick trials and tribulations. Firstly an entire hour wasted on the web trying to decode the byzantine system of booth-less tolls installed by the Portuguese government; then 10 minutes failing to master the dispensing of coffee from a machine in a service station; then grappling with a satnav which didn't recognise the street we were heading for; and finally trying to get into a hotel which hid its entrance with consummate success and then didn't live up to its boast of '24 hour reception' service. All in all, I was glad to sit down for lunch in a nearby place where they took an age to take my order and even longer to bring it. But by this time I'd a glass of wine with which to console myself. And when I finally got into the hotel, the receptionist reversed my day be telling me my pronunciation of Obrigado was perfect. Which I'm sure was sincere.

That said . . . All of the above was later topped by my satnav trying - twice - to send me down the narrowest street in the world en route to a restaurant. In the end I gave up and asked someone where it was. About 50m away, was the answer.

I continue to be amazed at what Spanish TV viewers will tolerate. When I watched an episode of the dour 'Broadchurch' series this week, I was astonished at the regular appearance in one corner of a happy chappie advertising some later program. Truly has it been said that we get the TV we deserve.

Finally . . .My thanks to Lenox of Business Over Tapas for pointing me to these 12 Untruths about the Spanish and these 12 Truths. All pretty accurate. And probably surprising if you don't live here. 

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