Clashes

As we left the Failde cafe last night there was a news report on the TV about two boats colliding in Vigo Bay, out near the Islas Cíes: a fishing boat from Marín and a big container transporter ship. In one way I’m not surprised. The visibility out there yesterday seemed to be dire; the great Atlantic blanket just kept coming down. And yet, I always thought that modern boats had sophisticated equipment to help prevent that sort of thing. After all if cars can have devices to stop them backing into things, surely it’s even more important for boats to be equipped with something similar. 

Today is calmer and brighter. It still rained on me first thing but it wasn’t serious rain, more a bit of dampness in the air really. And since then it’s got better. So the washing has gone out on the balcony to dry. On the subject of washing, I continue to be amazed at the way people here hang washing out of windows where it bangs against the side of the building. Surely it must come in dirtier than it went out! 

Mind you, the Galicians are a bit like the British where washing is concerned. Some nationalities regard a fine day as an opportunity to arrange excursions. We just react with an urgent need to wash everything in sight! 

Where my sister lives down in Andalucía, they hang the washing on the roof to dry, the flat roof that is. They all have a designated area and as a rule the washing is baked dry rather than blown. This probably explains her need to iron everything in order to get rid of the baked in stiffness. Me, I rarely iron. It’s one of those things I really dislike. 

 Other things? 
1. people who push in at supermarket queues. 
2. parking on the pavement, thus forcing pedestrians to walk round. 
3. people who stop to talk on the corner, where there is already a car parked, blocking everyone else’s way. 
4. cyclists on the pavement – they should be on the road, for heaven’s sake! 
5. men who spit in the street – this is something you used never to see, even though I remember buses with NO SPITTING signs long ago, but nowadays it seems to be coming back. 

And then there’s Michael Gove and his plans to solve the education problems!!! His latest is a pledge to abolish illiteracy and innumeracy in the UK. Very good and laudable, I’m sure. What does he think teacher’s do? Here’s a quote: “We want at least 85% of primary school pupils to reach a level of literacy and numeracy that means they’re on course for good GCSE grades.” Apparently in 2012 46% of pupils failed to secure a GCSE pass (that’s a fancy way to put it) in Maths and English. Almost half never studied the subjects again afterwards. Are we surprised? First of all for everyone to “secure a GCSE pass in Maths and English” it might be necessary to lower standards a little. It’s in the nature of things that some people find stuff hard. We can’t all be above average, after all! And as regards studying Maths and English post-16, I think he may find it has been thus! They have tried again and again to introduce some kind of post-16 assessment and they’ve not managed it. Until the UK has a system similar to the French/German/Spanish/Italian/probably other nationalities baccalaureate system where there are obligatory subjects such as Maths, your own language and literature, and a modern foreign language (don’t get me started on that one) it’s not going to happen. UK students choose the subjects they want to study at post-16 level. 

It’s not perfect but that’s the way it works – at the moment anyway!