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 Galicia/Spain
Two worrying reports this week on the issue of attitude to risk/safety:-
1. The day after a large chunk of our Cathedrals Beach fell onto the sand, the Voz de Galicia found no safety measures in place below the cliff face.
2. The same paper reported a driver of a school bus had had all the points taken off her licence and so was banned from driving. To be fair to her, she wasn't over the alcohol limit when stopped by the police when taking the kids to school.
Talking of whom . . . The police, I mean. An officer this week booked a motorcyclist under the rather wide rubric of 'distracting' himself. The chap protested he was merely looking in his rear-view mirror. But was still fined. And then reimbursed by crowd-funding
Here's a very amusing tale from Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas. With a comment from me at the end of it . . .
Big/super moons. It's hard to take good foto but here's a nice view from Pontevedra's Plaza de Leña. Buildings that used to be our museum. And will one day ‘soon’ be private flats. Like the old San Francisco convent, which ceased to be the Tax Office about 6 years ago and still sits empty.
Walking to my my car yesterday, I noticed a pretty brass plate in Pontevedra which read (in Spanish):-
Activiza - by Saraiva
Social Innovation Consultancy
Active Ageing
Attention centred on the person
Intrigued as to what on earth this meant, I then wasted far more time than I should have in trying to find out what sort of services were on offer. Saraiva is a company providing local day-care centres and Activiza is an offshoot which will accompany you on the path of Person-Centered Care(ACP) through training experiences that adapt to your organization, your team, the current moment and, of course, you. Via Person-Centered Care Training and our didactic methodology which supports the personal and organizational transformation necessary to make ACP something real and possible. I’m not sure I'm much wiser. And I suspect you didn't feel the need to be . . .
The UK and the EU
A definitive statement from Richard north today on the negotiations on the post-transition relationship. Nothing of what we're hearing seems to make complete sense. I suspect he thinks the EU will do their famous stopping-the-clock act, which means everyone pretends deadline dates haven't passed. This is what happens when you're governed by a mix of unelected bureaucrats and presidents that do answer to an electorate. And pretty soon in the case of Macron, who's playing the traditional French role of la mouche dans la pommade.
English
Finally . . .
Amusing aphorisms No. 7. I remember being able to get up without making sound effects.
* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.