It’s now around five years since construction began on the row of chalés behind my house, between me and the School for Granite Carvers. As work on these has recently resumed, my guess is they’ll be finished within as little as a year or so. And possibly occupied some time within the next decade. Anyway, it’s now clear that the very last thing to be done is a car-park which would have allowed the workmen to park on the site for the last six years. Rather than all along our street. I’m hoping we’ll have a party when we get our spaces back again.

Which rather reminds me . . . the unions here have now confirmed a general strike for September. September?? Well, yes. It’s already June and there’s no way summer fun-time is going to be consumed in arranging and holding a strike. Plus hardly anyone works in August anyway. So September rather selects itself.

After years of denying Spain had any serious banking or economic problems, President Zapatero is now paying a handsome price for his impression of a retarded ostrich. The opposition PP has soared way ahead of his PSOE party in the polls and things look grim for the regional elections next year and the general elections in 2012. The former have so much wind in their sails, they’re showing symptoms of folie de grandeur. Clothed in a Palestinian-style scarf, the Secretary of the PP has now claimed that her (rather right-of-centre) party is and always has been the party of the working class. Hmm.

After a long drought, I may have happened upon several new examples of Spanglish. In an ad for foot reflexology, I read of:-
(Un) kneading
(Un) tapping, and
(Un) cupping.

Finally . . . The latest person talk of the possible failure of the euro experiment is the female head of the French company, AXA. Who may or may not be called Cassandra. Referring to the prospect faced by Club Med countries (including Spain) of “years of pain for the sake of foreign creditors”, she opined that this was a pipe-dream. In the absence of overriding EU legal powers over member states, she added, “We are looking at a noble experiment on the brink of failure.” Well, maybe. Perhaps Brussels will get its act together before the various peoples speak. Or, indeed, riot. Albeit in woeful ignorance of what the politicians and bureaucrats know for their best. Or at least believe. But I wouldn’t bet on this. The initial test case, of course, is the Franco-German proposals for reforms of the financial industry. Interesting times. One thing’s for sure, the politicians are now finding out what every businessman knows – it’s a lot easier to manage growth than decline.