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
Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is to be produced in the EU after Moscow struck a deal to have it made it in Italy by a Swiss company which plans to make 10m doses this year, from July . . . Several member states have approved or are assessing Sputnik V without waiting for the green light from the EMA, because they’re impatient with the EU's s sluggish deployment of vaccines.
Cosas de España
Click here for an example of post-Brexit problems for foreigners who want to work here - long faced by both Northern and Southern Americans, of course. Tasters: 1. The amount of stamping and embossing and 'apostilling' makes the 18th century look high-tech. 2. The people are sweet; the system is sour. It rather reminds me of my regular comment that - especially when it comes to notaries - in Spain one moves constantly between the 18th and 21st centuries. One result, of course, is that notaries are invariably very rich. A terrible job but very profitable. Spaniards simply recoil in disbelief when told they hardly exist in the Anglo world. They dominate one's official life here.
Cousas de Galiza
A while ago I posted a foto of a tramp/alcoholic/drug addict? sleeping rough near the entrance to one of our pretty mansions. There was just a mattress back then; now there's a lot more 'furniture':-
But at least it's not where it used to be, close to the terrace of my drinking hole:
Maria's Tsunami: Day 37:
The UK
The government says it'll be removing the ban on Brits voting in general elections if they've lived abroad for 15 years or more. How exciting for us. Too late for the Brexit referendum, of course. But there might be another one some day.
If you want to hear a sane voice on that interview, click here for the take of the brilliant Caitlin Moran.
The EU
Jeremy Warner: Blaming AstraZeneca for the EU’s vaccine mess is a shameful travesty of the truth. By treating the company as a political football, the EU only doubles down on the damage it is doing to itself. . . . I hesitate to join the unseemly cacophony of triumphant Brussels-bashing we see in the UK these days - itself a form of scapegoating for failings at home - but the EU really only has itself to blame for the mess it has got itself into.
The UK and the EU
A new low? A 'shocked and angry' British Foreign Secretary has categorically labelled as 'completely false' the suggestion from the European Council president that UK is guilty of 'vaccine nationalism' by imposing a ban on the export of vaccines and components. Well, either there is or there isn't; it should be susceptible to proof. Neither side is averse to lying, of course, when it suits the politics. You don't have to be Russian or Chinese.
The USA
More than 240 years after thousands of colonists fought against their rebel countrymen in the American War of Independence, the US is once again divided over the royal family. Oprah Winfrey’s interview is the new front line in America’s never-ending culture wars. The Left chooses to listen to Meghan, while the Right sides with her in-laws. More on this here, if you can bear it.
China
A Chinese airline has suspended a captain and a flight attendant [both males] after they'd violently brawled in front of 1st-class passengers - over 'lavatory protocols'. So . . . a bog-standard fight, then. . . .
The Way of the World
'Lightworker' is a term coined by the New Age author Michael Mirdad, to mean: ‘Someone who feels an enormous pull towards helping others. It's said to be interchangeable with 'crystal babies,' 'indigos', 'Earth angels' and 'star seeds’. All of whom are 'spiritual beings who volunteer to act as a beacon for the earth and commit to serving humanity.' So far, so very 2021. But what might surprise you is that some New Agers claim Donald Trump is one such lightworker. . . . I kid you not.
English
A word you'll possibly never need to know . . . Escheat:
Noun: Under English Common Law, a reversion of property to the state, or (in feudal law) to a lord, on the owner's dying without legal heirs.
Verb: To escheat: (Of land) To revert to a lord or the state by escheat. In banking . . Escheatment is the process of a financial institution handing over unclaimed property to the state. The property has thus become escheated.
Finally
A reader kindly suggested pouring boiling water on my moth-infested rug - something I'd actually thought of doing before I went looking for relevant products. This morning I recalled I have the 1939 'Book of Hints and Wrinkles', wherein I read this advice: If moths are found in a rug, lay a succession of damp rags on it and iron them with a very hot iron until they're dry. This causes the steam to penetrate the carpet and destroy the moth eggs and maggots. So, that's what I did this morning. Until I realised I could just use directly on the rug a steam-iron not available to the 1939 authoress . . .