Things read and things heard.

Here we are in Pontevedra, staying a few days at our friend Colin’s house, finding reasons for staying another day and then another, social reasons, of course: a visit to Santiago de Compostela today; the possibility of eating at El Pitillo tomorrow, the restaurant where we intended to eat on Sunday evening and found it closed. And then, it’s very pleasant here with a splendid view from Colin’s picture window. 

We’ve adapted quickly to a much simpler breakfast: toast and coffee. Hotel breakfasts always have too much choice, catering for those who want a cooked breakfast (although the Saga tourists from England complained to me that the fried eggs were not good enough) or a selection of cold meats and cheese to those who only want a bit of fruit and yoghurt. We fell in the middle with bread and croissants with out fruit and yoghurt. 

At breakfast on our last morning I overheard a small girl prattling about going off to spend the day at the beach. She started showing off her knowledge of English (many nursery schools here include English as part of their curriculum) by running through beach vocabulary. Then she asked her parents, “¿Cómo se distingue entre “sun” y “sand”?” - How do you tell the difference between sun and sand? There are two common problems of English pronunciation for Spaniards demonstrated in that question. She had obviously been taught to pronounce “sun” as “san” and then there’s the difficulty of making the “d” at the end of “sand” nice and clear when there’s no other syllable to follow it. And they go on about the English having difficulty differentiation between “r” and “rr”!! The Italians even criticise our pronunciation of the letter “t”. That’s really advanced pronunciation for you!!!! 

In the Guardian there’s a regular feature called “Ask Hadley”. The journalist Hadley Freeman gives amusing, often ironic answers to fashion problem queries that people send in. The latest was, “What is the etiquette for taking part in themed weddings?” Themed weddings? Apparently you can have such a thing: 1920s weddings, Gone with the Wind weddings or, as for the person who sent in the query, 1950s rockabilly weddings. According to Hadley, you should either go along with the happy couple’s wishes – it is THEIR big day, after all – or you turn down the invitation. 

She revealed that the (very rich) internet entrepreneur Sean Parker spent $9 million on a Lord of the Rings themed wedding. He went and found the perfect bit of woodland for the ceremony to take place in. It must have been some part of the world where you could guarantee good weather. I imagine guests dressed up as elves, hobbits, orcs and trolls standing in the pouring rain in some less meteorologically-favoured place. And how do you get old Aunt Jane to agree to go in fancy dress? 

Whether you like dressing up or not, $9 million dollars is a silly amount to spend on a wedding! 

With that, I’m off to get ready to go to Santiago. And no, I’m not dressing up as an old-fashioned pilgrim. And for once I’m not taking my umbrella but my sun hat and sunglasses.