Life in Spain  

Reader María has kindly advised that, yes, building standards here could be rather slack during the pelotazo* years of the 1980s. My guess is that much the same happened during the crazy construction boom of 2002-2008, also pelotazo years. (As it happens, my latest water leak was from a flexible plastic overflow tube from the bath in the guest bedroom. Not very sturdy, so not surprising it gave out after only 37 years.)

*Pelotazo: Literally, a hit from a ball. Colloquially:-

1. Un lingotazo: A big swig of an alcoholic drink

2. A commercial venture which rapidly produces an easy and large profit. A ‘killing’, I guess. Think Covid contracts.

Cosas de España/Galiza

This is a nice piece on Spanish politics from Brendy Boyle, who’s clearly more up on these than I am.

Good to see that our local police now have an Underwater division, to counteract the illegal plundering of the shellfish beds.

Also interesting to read the Faithful will have to wait at least another year before they can embrace the larger-than-life bust of St James behind the crazily Baroque altar of Santiago cathedral. But, of course, they can still pay to see what might be his bones in a silver casket. No flies on the Catholic Church.

And our region’s roads are still being blessed in the name of San Crístobal/St Christopher, patron saint of travellers, as I recall.

Talking of roads . . . those in my barrio of Poio are still being menaced by drug-&-boozed-up drivers. One of whom managed to hit 4 other cars in just a few minutes last week. Literally out of his mind, I guess.

As I said yesterday, Teucro is the mythical founder of Pv city. There’s more on him below but this is his statue – nattily naked – atop the Abanca HQ in Pv:-

This was taken before half of his bow fell into the street in October 2019, an event of which I had nil recollection. To my relief, I’ve realised this was because I was in the UK when this happened.

Talking of Pv city . . . Here’s the very entertaining Diary (‘Not a blog!’) page of my recent visitor Andy, whom I last saw several decades ago. I’m considering suing him for defamation in writing that I used the American word ‘hookers’, though I doubt that what I really said was ‘sex-workers’. Maybe I’ll just withdraw the open invitation to a return to Galicia.

The UK 

A depressing ‘State of the Nation’ post from Richard North. It’d be even more disheartening, I suppose, if I still lived there.

Politics: decline and fall

More depressing right now is the current obsession with the heat in the UK media. Understandable, I guess, but I had a day-nightmare this morning about being in Extremadura and hearing the same stuff every morning for months on end. Groundhog Hot-Day.

Now, in contrast, this is actually newsworthy: Los incendios han causado 2 muertos en España y han ardido más de 30,000 hectáreas (13,600 en Galicia). Galicia, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha … prácticamente toda la Península está cubierta de humo.

The EU

For those who like – and understand – these things, here’s a – long and erudite – explanation of why the euro is ‘collapsing’ against the dollar. . . And it’s not from AEP! A taster: At a political level there appear to be terrifying levels of ignorance about the economic consequences of continuing to punish Britain for Brexit and now ostracising Russia for its belligerence at a time when the EU’s own economy is teetering on the edge of a financial and economic catastrophe. The EU exercises its political agendas despite any economic mayhem created. Plenty more where this came from . . . Should I be worrying more about next winter, and beyond??

Perhaps it’s apt to recall that the British government stayed out of the euro on the grounds that that ‘One size fits all’ would ultimately fail. Cafe para todos, as the Spaniards might call it, as they look at the consequences of this approach for their system of national and regional administrations. Corruption, basically,

English

This is a page addressing a bit of English grammar. It’s written with American spelling and uses ‘gotten’, so is clearly written by an American. It surprises me, then, that it labels as incorrect the very American usage of ‘If I would have’ instead of the British usage of ‘If I had/If I’d’. Every Spanish, Dutch and French person I know also does this and I wonder if I can blame the Irish for taking this mistake to the Americans, who’ve brought it back to Europe. As with the confusing bring/take mistake.

If I Would Have vs. If I Had

Finally  . . .

For those who thought/hoped/prayed that the mullet hairstyle had disappeared, take a look at the winner of the British Open golf championship. Too rich now to worry about what we all think of him:-

For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.

Teucro the Greek

In Greek mythology, Teucro was a Greek hero son of Telamon and his second wife Hesione (daughter of Laomedonte); and half-brother of Ajax. He was in turn nephew of King Priam of Troy and thus cousin of Hector and Paris, against whom he fought in the Trojan War.

He was reputed to be the best archer on the Achaean side, thanks to the bow given to him by Apollo. He would have killed Hector with his arrows without the intervention of Zeus, who broke the string of his bow in time.

According to some classical sources, he was one of the warriors hidden inside the Trojan Horse.

On his return home, Telamon reproached him for not having avenged the death of Ajax. Although Teucro claimed that his brother had committed suicide and there was no one in whom to take revenge, his father was so insistent that Teucro had to set sail in search of a new homeland. On his voyage he reached the shores of Cyprus, where he founded the city of Salamis, and married a daughter of the Cypriot king Cyniras. According to a legend, he arrived on the Galician coast, founding a colony which he called Helenos (present-day Pontevedra). 

According to popular tradition and authors, Teucro was the founder of the current city of Cartagena around 1184BC under the name of Tucria. However, according to earlier legends and other authors, Teucro may have arrived on the present-day coast of Cartagena, but the city may have been founded earlier by decision of the legendary King Testa.

It is said that Teucro met his death in Galicia when, trying to swim to a nymph or mermaid called Leucoiña (or Leucoina), he drowned. According to another legend, it was this same mermaid who showed him the future site of Pontevedra