Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.   

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

The Bloody Virus

• Sweden continues to move up the rankings and is now very close to displacing France in 5th place in the Top Ten list - after Belgium, Spain, the UK and Italy.. Which means little for the eventual toll but does raise some interim questions about its de facto herd immunity strategy.
• And it won't be long before the UK moves up from the 7th place of 6 weeks ago to displace Spain in 2nd place. Underlining the incompetence of the British government.

Life in Spain in the Time of Something Like Cholera 

• An optimistic view of the near future?
• Meanwhile, it had to happen . . . The high-street chain store Mango is selling branded masks, with prices ranging from €8 to €10. Need I add that: To complete the 'look', Mango has also started retailing its own-brand perfumed hand-sanitiser in two different varieties.
• A propos . . . Chucking your used mask into the street could be a very expensive anti-social act.
• María's Come-back Chronicle, Day 19. Retail reverses.

Real Life in Spain 

• Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas gives us here an overview of the tribal politics of the moment.
• The government has finally introduced its minimum income provision for poor families. I'm guessing this is similar to the controversial (and badly managed?) 'universal credit' in the UK.
• Well, the high fence down one side of O Burgo bridge has finally been removed, leaving the new railings visible in all their dubious modernistic glory:-

But a temporary fence is still in place on the other side, for no obvious reason:-

But I expect it to be removed by October, the 12 month anniversary of its original completion date. The remaining question is - Will the railings be painted, or left as ugly gun-metal grey? I suspect the latter.

• Which reminds me . . . I bumped into 2 Belgian 'pilgrims' on the bridge the other day and helped them with their search for a shady place to eat their sandwiches. To my surprise, they were on their way South, to Portugal. As it's still forbidden to leave one's home province, I assume they were heading, not for the Catholic shrine in distant Fátima, but for Oporto airport, en route to their 'principal residence'. No other 'pilgrims' have been seen since early March, almost 2 months ago.
• There are, of course, 4 other exceptions to the restriction on leaving one's province and here they are.

Finally . . .

• Because I have 3 or 4 decent house plants, there's a view abroad that I have 'green fingers'. Which status is rather queried by the fact that I've somehow managed to kill 3 trees and 3 bushes in my garden over the last 2 years. Possibly by over-pruning. The latest death is of a large hydrangea(hortensia) at the front of my house. Though this pride of place might soon be taken by my lemon tree, as I've just stripped it of all the leaves suffering from what, I'm told, is a Galicia-wide plague which curls most of these. Thus:-