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'*  

Covid 19   

• As you'd expect, cases have leaped up along our coast - because of, says someone important -'meetings of family and friends'. Not to mention the influx of tourists. So, we’re back to May’s level of infections. Though not, deaths, I imagine.
• Our lucky break is that few of these tourists are international. Though many - if not, most - will  have come from the Madrid ‘hotspot’.  

Living La Vida Loca  

• My elder daughter is here from Madrid for 10 days. Unluckily for her, the first 5 or 6 are forecast to be as rainful as today.
• But . . . If next week is as sunny as forecast, the rain+sun will be good for the grape harvest. Though with demand well down, this is not necessarily as good a bit of news as it might have been,
• When I flew into Madrid 2 weeks ago, I was obliged to report I’d passed through that city to the Galician health authority. So, I fully expected the same thing to happen to my daughter, through the good offices of Renfe, But, no. Nothing said and no form distributed. IGIMSTS.
• Nice line from Lydia of the Olive Press: You aren’t really the king of Spain until you’ve been exiled. More from her here on our roguish ex-Rex.  
• Lawbreaking  is not exactly uncommon in Spain, especially when the chancea of getting away with it are high. As used to be the case with illegal constructions. But drones have changed the equation and I wasn’t surprised to read this morning that more than €16m in fines have been dished out here in Galicia in just 5 years. 
• A case in point . . . Crowds have been subjected to new coronavirus measures at bullrings after a huge backlash from the public for not following the original rules.  More on this here.
• And this report is somewhat inevitable, in every aspect. It seems that, while discos, nightclubs etc. have been closed down, brothels haven’t been. So very Spanish.   
• Here’s María’s Day 2 of our Dystopian Times . Spanish politics.   

The UK 

• The Minister of Health was asked how he knows if people are properly self-isolating on their return from Spain and whether the R rate is above 1 in some parts of the UK. His answers were “I know because I know” and “I’m not going to tell you” respectively. Confidence inspiring, no?

The USA 

• More (counterproductive?) mocking of the most powerful (yet most stupid) man in the world.   
• Not so very hard to believe. Covid 19 has made the country's billionaires even more insanely rich. Click here to find out how.     

    Finally . . .  

• On top of the expensive replacement of the telefonillo came, first thing this morning, a new car battery. I wonder what the 3rd nasty surprise will be this week.

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