Ja porto tants anys aqui a Tortosa que fins i tot crec que se m'està canviant l'ADN. Però de vegades tinc visitants (ooohh, I see visitors!) i em comenten les coses que a ells els xoquen, per bé o per mal, venint d'Anglaterra. Ultimament m'han nombrat 3 o 4 ...
1. Les voreres - a qui va triar les rajoles d'en terra, li haurien de penjar del monument de Franco! En serio, relliscosos a no pugui més, fins i tot quan no plou. Quan plou, són un "death-trap".
2. Aparcar - sempre sorpren veure com els cotxes es toquen entre ells al moment d'intentar aparcar, i com els conductors aconsegueixen entrar 4 m de cotxe en un espai de 3,50m. Per no parlar dels llocs poc-correctes, tal de la vorera, a les puntes dels carrers, damunt de passos de vianants ... he de continuar?
3. Cafés - el temps i calma que la gent pren quan estan (estem!) fent un cafe, tranquilament deixant passar el temps, xarrant o llegint el diari, i l'amo del bar/cafe no et fot fora.
4. Que la gent sembla vestir segons el calendari i no el termometre - per que, per example, quan venen al juliol i fa 30 graus la gent va vestit lleuger, pero si venen al maig i fa 30 graus la gent va en jaqueta, mocador, botes .....
Com va sent habitual, la cançó no té res a vore amb l'apunt. Eddie Cochran, amb Somethin' Else del 1959.
....
After living so many years in Tortosa (Catalonia) it even feels like my Yorkshire DNA is being watered down as I live breathe and feel like a local. However, from time to time we get English visitors who comment to us on things which catch their eyes as being "different", for better or for worse. Just had some said visitors and a brief summary would be:
1. Pavements. Who chose these dastardly slippery pavement tiles in Tortosa needs stringing up! Seriously, whether wet or dry, they are a death trap. In the UK, the council would have been sued out of existence by now!
2. Parking. Always amusing to see how cars shunt into each other when parking and no one seems to care. The only way to get a 4 m object into a 3.50 m gap, I suppose. Less amusing is how folks park on street corners, pavements, zebra crossings and so on ....
3. Cafes. The time and patience people calmly take to gently sip their morning coffees, chatting away, reading the paper. People spend ages sat in the cafes, and the owner shows no sign of "moving them on"!
4. The fact that local residents seem to dress following the calendar rather than the thermometer. That is, why do they dress all summery and beach-like when it's 30º in July, but wear jackets, boots, and scarfs when it's 30º in May? A mystery.
As usual, today's song has nothing to do with all this. Sit back and enjoy it (or simply "enjoy" without the pronoun if you are a teenager).