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'*
Living La Vida Loca in Spain/Galicia
An alleged good trend.
And excellent news. A real Spanish plan. Quite rare creatures. Of course, there’s always many a slip twist cup and lip. Thanks mainly to the infamous tribal politics.
More traditional news. . . Corruption . . . A big local scandal. A major fish firm driven into bankruptcy by Board fraud. Here's the Guardian on one aspect. The main developmesnt is that several directors were jailed this week.
Some sound advice for resident Brits. But I believe the fee is only 12 euros, though the online form is certainly confusing on this.
For last night, I’d re-arranged the dinner with Spanish friends postponed 2 weeks ago because of so many last-minute no-shows. This time it was for 8, which, during the afternoon, was progressively reduced to 5 and then 4. Each of the 3 friends remaining gave me different ETAs between 8 and 8.45. And each of them arrived at least 20 minutes 'late'. When I remonstrated with them, each claimed I'd misunderstood what they'd said. The truth is I'd understood their words but not their (subconscious?) thoughts/assumptions. It's the last time I'll try to herd cats. Especially the Spanish breed.
María's Fallback chronicle: Day 25
The USA
An 'attack ad' on Fart. From Republicans! The latest in their fabulous series.
This should go down well with his base. Which is well versed in sophistry, of course.
The Way of the World
HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for advice that this is available now. Though you might need to use a VPN.
Spanish/Gallego
A challenge: Amenacer. Amenazar. Amenizar To dawn, liven up, threaten. But not necessarily in that order . . . The C in the first one is pronounced like the Z in the second two. What a difference a little vowel sound makes . .
English/Spanish
Three more less-common refranes:-
- If you think the worst, you won't be far wrong: Piensa mal y acertarás.
- If you want to watch, you'd better keep quiet: Los mirones son de piedra[?]
- if you want good advice, consult an old man: Quien quiere saber, que compre un viejo[!]
Finally . .
My OCR exercise yesterday ended with the last page of my diary for 2001 being so indistinct it took me over an hour to correct the mare's nest produced by scanning and downloading an RTF version for conversion to Word. Along the way, the word Spam was added to Span, as a machine reading of Spain.
* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.