It's in the news.

I got up early to go for a run, hoping to get the exercise before the day gets too hot. The papers have warned us not to take vigorous exercise at the hottest times of the day. Mind you, I’m not sure my running really counts as vigorous. As I came towards the end of my run I noticed that the temperature notice on the hoarding at the bottom of Calle Aragón was showing 30°. And this was before 9 o’ clock!!! 

It’s official! This is a heat wave. The newspapers say so. Not just a couple of days of exceptionally high temperatures but a proper heat wave. Saharan winds are pushing the weather front northwards. Vigo has had 33° and 35°. Today is predicted to be just as hot, if not more so. And it should continue until the middle of next week. Although my panadera says she has heard it will last until next Friday. And she should now. Bread shop ladies are a fount of important knowledge. This is an accepted fact. 

So I think that, apart from a possible sortie to the pool, it may be a day for staying in the shade and reading the papers. 

I read about a variation on the drive-by robbery. As a rule this type of theft involves someone on a motorbike snatching a shoulder bag from a female tourist and driving off. In this case a right-hand drive car (the article explained that this is the kind of car you find in England – was there some implication that the thieves were British?) stopped at the roadside next and called the victim over. The passenger produced a map and asked for directions. While the victim helpfully indicated places on said map, the chap grabbed his hand and pulled off his finger a gold signet ring. The car immediately drove off. The victim said that it was lucky he had lost quite a lot of weight recently or they might have broken his finger. How about that?! And there have been two other cases reported recently. They didn’t say exactly where the ring snatch had taken place but the victim was a Cambados resident so perhaps it was there. In any case, the moral is, do not show your hands when giving directions, at least to people in cars. 

Here’s another bit of news. Since it seems to be open season on the royal family there has been some discussion about the possibility of King Juan Carlos having money stashed away in a Swiss bank account. Now, it seems that there was such a bank account, not his but his father’s, but he, Juan Carlos not his father, closed it in 1995. Well, that’s all right then. I’m sure we’re all relieved to know that. The bad news is that no-one seems to know what became of the money in the bank account. Hmmmmm!!!!! 

On the subject of royal family baiting, I saw this headline: “Felipe, el rey que nadie quiere.” I was a little surprised. I have heard some people say that they don’t expect the monarchy to survive for all that much longer and I am aware that certain members of the Borbón family have been getting very bad press recently but I didn’t know that people didn’t want Prince Felipe to be king. And then I read on. It’s not that Prince Felipe. It’s Philip of Belgium, whose father has just abdicated. Even at 53, he is considered to be unready, too timid for the throne. That’s another thing to be relieved about, isn’t it? 

It’s that Spanish habit of changing all the names to Spanish. The UK’s Charles, William and Harry become Carlos, Guillermo and Enrique. Even Queen Elisabeth becomes Isabel. It’s very confusing. What’s more it transfers into other areas of life. Posh Spice, as I said the other day, becomes La Spice Pija. 

And on Thursday a friend of ours asked me what we call the singer Rihanna in English. Well, actually, we call her Rihanna. There’s a surprise!