Stars and buses.

A couple of months ago we saw "Hail Caesar", a film by the Coen Brothers. Their films are always worth seeing, making you laugh, making you think. This one was about the early years of Hollywood and as usual had a host of well-known stars such as George Clooney. I am always amazed at the Coen Brothers' ability to get big stars to make complete fools of themselves. And to all intents and purposes they seem to enjoy doing so. Tremendous stuff. This one featured Scarlett Johansson as a sort of glamour-puss starlet. I was somewhat surprised at how well she played the vamp. I remember her as a rather subdued, very young girl in "Girl with a Pearl Earring". How nicely she has grown up into a beauty! 

I was reminded of all this because I came across an item in the paper about Scarlett Johansson making lots of money in the box office. The article began by telling us she now makes more money than Will Smith, something which is regarded as an astonishing statistic. (I must have missed this fact by reading more serious stuff in the papers!) Miss Johansson is now in 10th place while Mr Smith is down to 24th. Top of the list is Harrison Ford, so it's not just an age thing. 

Young Scarlett (31 years old) is also doing her bit for feminism as the only female actor - those beings formerly known as actresses - in the top ten box office earners. 

I found this fascinating fact surfing the net while we waited for a bus from Sanxenxo to Pontevedra yesterday. Somehow we had managed to allow at least one group of friends depart by car without hinting to them that a lift to Pontevedra, on the way to almost anywhere, would be appreciated. And so we took a taxi up the hill to the bus station and had a late snack lunch before the bus which was due at 4.20. 

We moved out of the cafe into the hot bus bay section and overheard someone else asking about the bus to Pontevedra. The Monbus employees working on a broken down vehicle assured us all that it had just left. Indignation all round! Followed by about ten minutes of stressed discussion and consultation of timetables and of other prospective passengers. And then the Monbus employees grudgingly declared that in fact the bus they were talking about was going somewhere else. So why did they get us all hot and bothered on an already hot day? 

Ironically there was a bus which had PONTEVDRA in capitals on the front of bus display. Logically (!) that bus was coming from but not going to that fair city. 

Eventually the bus which was supposed to leave O Grove at 4.00 and Sanxenxo at 4.20 left the seaside resort at around 4.45. And it stopped about every five minutes along the way to pick up passengers! 

However, we did finally arrive, somewhat hotter and more frazzled than originally planned, at Pontevedra.