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   

• Some researchers are wrestling with a hopeful possibility. More than a dozen scientists have said that the herd immunity threshold is likely to be much lower: just 50%, perhaps even less. If that’s true, then it may be possible to turn back the coronavirus more quickly than once thought.
• Spain’s bad news:  
• A bit of good news? Relevant sites here and here.       

Living La Vida Loca  

• As I was saying  . . . Various types of establishment closed down but not the obvious one of Spain’s uncountable brothels. Until Covid strikes. In this case in a village called Cox  . . .  
• It’s 4 weeks since I applied for my TIE. Interestingly, the British Embassy says folk like me don’t need one. Assuming we’re happy to  carry our passports around all the time. 
• Day 5 of María’s Dystopian Times.  What’s round the corner?  

The UK 

• Richard North on the country’s future: My only sure prediction is that, within 10 years, this will be a very different nation, in ways that we cannot even imagine. Whether this will represent an improvement is also impossible to predict, but I'm fairly confident that it will get worse before it gets better. See his rationale here.    

The USA 

• Two things in the USA are higher than ever - gun crime and -Covid notwithstanding - the stock market.  Which must say something. Or perhaps a lot. A dream world?
• Thanks to said Covid, the end of the American era?  
• A very long  document:  Trump’s lies about the coronavirus.   

English

• Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in “England lost by 6 wickets” (meaning the English cricket team).

Spanish

• Feo tras feo: One (bad) thing  after another?

English/Spanish/Finally . . .  

• Three more refranes:- 

- Truth will out: Las mentiras tienen las patas cortas/Se pilla el mentiroso antes que el cojo.

- Try to strike a happy medium: Ni tanto que queme el santo, ni tanto que lo alumbre.

- Walls  have ears: Hay ropa tendida. Las paredes oyen.

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