Among friends

Gold cherry

By Parson Thru

Fri, 15 Feb 2019
  • 7482 reads
13 comments
 

I feel more Spanish when I’m out.  It’s a strange old business.  Three and a half years.  Brexit one year in.  Ties in UK.  Ties here.  Responsibilities.  My mam.  First and foremost.  N – who knows where she might go next?

I’ve been feeling rough today.  Past few days or weeks even.  It’s the cold and flu season.  Fighting it.  Carrying the bug.  Carrying the weight of the world.  Brexit.  Cataluña.  The failure of democratic government.  How global finance has done that to us.  Stress.  Anxiety.  A strange feeling in my chest.  Exhaustion.  Vertigo.  The feeling that flat floors are no longer flat.  The listing deck of a ship.  The need to sleep.

Tonight I feel I’ve been among friends.  Camareros.  I’ve known them a while now.  Foreigners like me.  Bangladeshi.  Peruvian.  Good folks.  Working hard.  It was good to see them, and I knew they were happy to see me. Hugs. When are you coming again?  When the time’s right.  I answered.  When it’s time to hit the sidra and tuck into a solomillo de cerdo, and just enjoy being here again.  Thanks for the chupito – hierbas – a drink I first tried on the penultimate night of the Camino.  Just as welcome in this tourist trap offered as a parting shot (Ha!) among friends.

Among friends on WhatsApp.  Student group in a French multinational.  Known some of them three  years.  More than students.  More than teacher.  Would that happen in England? I don’t know.  It happens here.

Pablo.  Mate.  Leganés fan and benefactor of my La Liga experiences.  “What you talking about?”  No idea Pablo.  Maybe it’s my Spanish, or maybe it’s the time of beer.

I feel most English during the week (la jornada laboral).  That old Protestant work ethic thing.  Learned.  I wasn’t always that way, but now I am.  The excluded Catholic takes on the characteristics of his Protestant mentors.  Well, so be it.  He plays it well.  To a point.  But it kills him.  

Tonight, I feel different.  Standing in the bar drinking cañas, busy camareras pushing around me.  Trying to vanquish the oh so English idea that I might be in their way – they don’t mind, smiling and flirting.  

Waiting for the 53 bus back home.  (I nearly bought a guitar in that shop, there.)  Grumbling with the older couples in the queue.  Almost fitting in but always a guiri on first sight.  Knowing that.  Being what I am: something in between.  Yes, that’s where to be.

The language comes more easily with a few beers.

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Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Hope you feel better soon. I love these bits you write from Spain, they are like sequins

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Di. Thank you and thank you. Hope you're well. X

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you for the cherries. Xx

Bit of a thick head this morning. Need to give my glasses a clean and head out for coffee and toast.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

I was thinking about writing a bit of a ramble about a totally different subject, but reading this brought familiar thoughts and also some nice memories of my Las Palmas and Lanz. days. Eight years away from Spain punctuated by occasional trips to friends in Alicante.

Back home I feel more of a foreigner than ever .. . . Home being Belgium that is. It might be my imagination, but since Brexit the Flemish seem less amiable. The new Right-wing Flemish government have instructed local government workers and police to speak only Flemish and its up to foriegners to learn the language or get an interpretor (Its not that bad yet, but it's going that way). English language seems less welcome now and it's even harder for my Spanish speaking friend. Sure I've been lazy, working for many years in an international company where the local empoyees were obliged to know English and French as well as Flemish (Dutch) it didn't seem to matter about learning more than enough Nederlands (Vlaams) to buy food. Having a (now ex) partner and a son who were born here also made it easy.

Living alone wasn't a big problem for the first few years, most people spoke or attempted to speak English we got by quite efficienly using a bit of each other's language. Not so now, people seem released from the need to speak English, even the youngsters don't even bother to try. Politics or Internet? I dunno but the atmosphere has definitely altered. I am forced to squeeze more words and grammar from my memory than before.

Added to that, I have the feeling I've been abandoned by my own country. Brexit (FUCK! how I hate that word!) is like a woodworm in my wooden head, gently boring away not causing pain, just a dull ache of awareness that eventually there will be "consequences." The uncertainty is the worst thing . . . not knowing if I'm fucked or not. How I'd love to head-butt arseholes (well cunts actually) like Jacob Rees-hyphen-fucking-Mogg into submission and get them to realise how cruel their narcissistic retro-Empire-crap is to actual real British people, both at home and abroad. But then again, some of it is self-afflicted due to Brits being a nation of people far too influenced by the media. I'm ashamed to admit that now, I just want the MPs to accept the Fucking-Bitches plan so at least I can get an idea just how screwed I really am.

Sorry, Mate ----- Rant over.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Morning Ed. It's lovely to hear from you again and I know exactly what you're saying. I expect there's a less than pragmatic reason for moving away from English close to centres of government and administration in the EU. The pragmatic reason for staying with it is the global trade reality. It's become (embarrassingly at times) a necessity for wider global connectedness. As a palliative for the smug preening that might go on, I like the idea that the second language thing is taking on a life independent of its origin and may one day leave it behind. Other, more localised factors might come into play, such as changing commercial partnerships. That would make a difference at a stroke. By choice, England (yes, England) is turning in on itself and can only lose influence, except as a centre of crooked and ruthless finance. Makes you proud. There are big problems with democracy and politics generally everywhere I suppose. I've spent the morning thinking about "Left" and "Right" and are they really valid expressions in a pluralistic and pragmatic world. There are some characteristics, I suppose, that are really coming to the fore. Acknowledgement of difference and respect for that, making the necessary accommodations to thinking and actions vs the idea. Just that. The idea, and conformity to the idea and a concept of order and belonging that go with it. Brexit, Cataluña, "America", Christianity or any religion. All human inventions that we seek to inflict by force if necessary. I had a conversation yesterday about the Catalan situation. Sánchez has come up against the idea of Catalan independence and found he can't address it with reason and so has called an election that the Right seem likely to win. In the face of that we will have a stand off between two invented ideas whose outcome will depend on whose idea is bigger and stronger. This seems the main characteristic of May and her Brexit extreme wing. Head butt everyone with your idea. No plan, no rationale necessary. People get hurt that way, then someone will finally have to pick up the pieces and they will need to recognise and work with difference. Smart things, humans, eh Ed? I'll stick with cañas for now.

Apologies for this rant.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Oh, I forgot money. At the level of influential individuals, money trumps everything. No pun intended.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Pity that the ghost of Franco still hovers over the peninsular. Bit of a worry really,

I hope the Spanish have more sense than the Hungarians and Poles though.

On re-reading what I wrote I realised that the Belgian fall int three groups now when it comes to speaking english

1 Over 65 about half speak excellent english when necessary the rest didn't learn or have forgotten

2 Middle age nearly all speak good english and are ready to jump straight into it with apparent pleasure

3 Many younger adults either can't or refuse to speak english and will do so in a surly way when pushed. The rest will speak english readily, but I can't say many of them enjoy it unless they are discussing music and stuff like that

I find that sad really, not for me but for them, after all as many have said to me in the past, "Nobody in the World speaks our language so we have to learn theirs,' Its a pity to lose that mind set. 

An example of the bad influence of Nationalism on cultures I think.

 

Submitted by celticman on

everything becomes easier after a few beers [discuss]. 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

:)))) True enough.

Parson Thru

Submitted by blighters rock on

Natural flow and would like to read more

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Cheers Blighters. I'm really glad you liked it.

Parson Thru

Submitted by blighters rock on

No problem. Actually I’d be glad to know whether I’m on the right track with a journo piece I just posted called Spain. You seem to have a good handle on what’s happening so I’d respect your view

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

I'll go and have a look. Looking after my mother at the moment after a nasty strain of flu.

Parson Thru