Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

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

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

 Life in Spain: Living La Vida Loca . . .

• Amazon have still not delivered the packet for my daughter which was in a local depot 6 days ago. If she’s lucky, she’ll get it tomorrow, the ‘latest date’ quoted to her on Wednesday last. In real terms, I’m cynically sure, the planned date.
• Yesterday was one of those days in Spain when when one irritation comes hard on the heels of another. First thing, I discovered - ahead of planned shopping for a large lunch party - that the Supermarkets in Pontevedra were all closed. Because it was the - unheralded - feastday of a locally celebrated holy guy - St Bloody Benito. Luckily, these things are so mad that the supermarket on my (Poio) side of the bridge was open, as the municipalities have different saints to honour, by not working. So, my Dutch house-guest and I drove down to Carrefour, to find that most of Pontevedra had discovered it was the only place open. Not just a calvario but a pesadilla. I’ve never seen a supermarket so crowded, and keen motoring skills were necessary just to move around the place, trying to find things whose location I had no idea of. And then there was the long wait to get to the check-out, at which - after logging just 2 of my items - the girl turned to deal with a woman who’d come back to pay for some items at the side. At the end of which the latter demonstrated the lack of forethought which I often complain about, by asking - after she’d paid for her goods - Can I have a bag and do I have to pay for it? So, more delay while she fiddled in her purse for the 8 centimos. So busy was the place that not only were dozens of shoppers waiting to check out but there were also more than a hundred people queuing to go in, prior to which they’d each get gel sprayed on their hands. Mayhem in other words.
• And my Philips filter coffee machine stopped working, after less that 2 years. Dutch crap.
• And I can’t find my Kindle. 
• And the plumber has twice failed to come as promised to replace two cistern systems. 
• And the gate bell doesn’t work. 
• And the blind company I visited 3 weeks ago has yet to send someone to fix/replace the main blind downstairs. 
• All adding up to my version of María’s Adjusted Normal . . .
• Talking of which, here's Day 27 of this.

The USA/Finally . . .

• A Fart Feast here, here, here, here, and here. At least I think they all relate to The Great Crook. As YouTube keeps sending me an error message, I can’t check . . . Just another of yesterday’s irritations.

English/Spanish

• Another 3 refranes:- 

- Least said, soonest mended: Cuanto menos se diga, mejor/menos hay que rectificar.

- Let bygones be bygones: Borrón y cuenta nova. Lo pasado, pasado está.

- Let sleeping dogs lie: Mejor es no menearlo/Mejor no revolver as asunto.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.