Health and safety matters!

It’s been a very quiet Monday morning here in Vigo. It’s not a proper public holiday as far as I know, not the kind when everything comes to a complete halt, but the schools are closed, presumably so that the children can get dressed up as superheroes and take part in “entroido”. The supermarkets are open, as are most of the small shops - those that remain as more and more of the “bajos”, small ground floor establishments traditionally shops or cafes, are boarded up these days.

The bakers shops are all selling “orejas”, strange sugared lumps of batter in the shape of oversized ears, hence the name. I just saw a group of elderly gents (yes, even more elderly than we are) tucking into one that one f their number brought into the bar from a nearby cake shop. Nobody has ever explained the significance of these strange confections to me. I suppose it might have something to do with using sweet stuff up in readiness for the fasting period of Lent, in the same way as pancakes are traditionally served on Shrove Tuesday in England. But why they are shaped like ears escapes me completely.

At the airport the on Friday we saw a chap resolutely walking around with a face-mask on. We commented, to each other but not to him, that we had read that face-masks do little to help protect you from the coronavirus. However, if it made him feel better then he is free to do what he chooses in that respect. I read yesterday that experts think we might be approaching a “tipping point” in the spread of the virus. (Is it a sign of its ubiquitous presence that when I mistype the word spellcheck immediately offers me “coronavirus”?) The World Health Organisation is urging international action. Apparently 11 towns in northern Italy have people in lockdown because of an outbreak there. Maybe it needs to get really close to home before we really start an international cooperation. Or are we all just going to be defeated by germs?

Also I was reading journalist/columnist Peter Hitchens ranting about health and safety, something which they are not really very conscious of here in Spain. Here’s a sample:-

 “My day is besieged with infuriating health and safety warnings. If I buy coffee at the station it says on the lid that the ‘Contents May be Hot’. I should jolly well hope so, just as I was rather hoping that the biscuit I have bought ‘may contain nuts’ as its label solemnly informs me. As I cross the bridge to my platform a treacly, ingratiating male voice intones ‘When on the stairs, please use the handrail – and take care!’ If I had been thinking of using the handrail, I always give up the idea as soon as I hear this. I probably take less care, too, on the principle that I will decide when to take care, not when some computerised social worker tells me to.”

I was reminded of the annoyingly, cloyingly sweet voice which informs us in Oldham bus station on rainy days that “floors may be slippery when wet”. There’s a surprise! And I regularly wait for a friend in Piccadilly Station, Manchester, close to an escalator, where an electronic voice tells travellers over and over to “Please stand to the right and hold tight”. It took several minutes of listening the first time to decipher the message and then I noticed that it was also printed on every step of the escalator. Nowadays they need to add “and be sure to wash your hands after holding the safety rail!” 

I particularly enjoyed Mr Hitchens’ account of health and safety concerns at a cheese-rolling event:-

“But what are we to make of what has happened to the cheese-rolling contest in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, an event now protected with fencing, in which a Double Gloucester cheese is chased down a steep hill for fun?  Nowadays this ludicrous but happy festival takes place in a semi-official limbo.
Growing insurance costs meant that nobody would take responsibility for it any more. Supposed ‘health and safety fears’ led to the actual cancellation of the ‘official’ event in 2010.  Now, though it happens, it is surrounded with off-putting precautions, which seem to me to be there to keep lawyers away rather than to promote safety.  Roads are closed all around the site.
One year police – police! – warned against the perilous use of a real cheese, weighing eight pounds, and it was replaced by a lightweight foam substitute.  On one recent occasion stern notices warned those rash enough to attend to go away. They stated grimly ‘Cheese rolling is a dangerous activity for both participants and spectators. The cheese roll is not managed. You are strongly encouraged not to attend. It is especially unsuitable for children. You attend entirely at your own risk’. “

There you go!