Premios

October 27th, 2008 Posted by john
principesasturias Originally uploaded by tunelko.

As I’ve been on the hard daily commute to work (that 7 minute stroll past the pricipality’s seat of government, a couple of cafes, a square with a statue of a chunky lass with baby and the posh theatre) the last couple of day’s I’ve noticed a bit of activity. There have been groups of men laying cables, others building things out of scaffolding, yet more constructing a white google shed with the google map locator flags on the side. Today I saw groups of camera wielders and their assistants. One of the constructions was revealed to be a big screen, on which I saw Al Gore, Woody Allen and others saying things like ‘it’s an honour’ and ‘strewth’ (okay, no one said strewth but they could have).

It was the Prince of Asturias prizegiving ceremony. They’re kind of like the Nobel prizes except the Nobel committee never gave a prize to Bob Dylan (2005 Arts) or Fernando Alonso (Sport) and the world’s press seems to ignore them. They do tend to pre-empt the Nobels too, although I doubt Fernando Alonso is in line to bow the the Swedish king any time soon (and I’m not sure they’ll be so quick to give anything so nice to Hamilton). This year, it’s Rafa Nadal, Google (Larry Page turned up), The fight against Malaria (catchy organization title), Margaret Atwood and Ingrid Betancourt among others. The Theatre Campoamore is being done up, with velvet drapes and flags out back. The lights are being placed and the royal police guard have been standing on street corners since Tuesday. The prince and his wife will be dishing out the goodies, the national TV gang will be reporting it. The ovetense will be mostly ignoring it…

And now the after action report. Except there isn’t one. I was working and as I wandered home (my normal route was blocked so that the cars to carry the Royals the 400 metres from the theatre to the Hotel Reconquista can wait nice and close) I noted the prince giving a speech on the big screen… there were a few hundred still gathered, I walked on feeling all republican (on days when I’m John Irish, I feel proud to be a citizen not a subject)…

Tags:
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Comment

  1. Noel
    October 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    I think I’m mildly in favour of the Prince of Asturias, on the basis that

    a) he looks fairly tall, which is generally better than the opposite, with people in authority.
    b) I’m mostly not in Asturias.