Dawn

Dawn

Friday, June 22, 2012


Well, you wait around for a day or two and the amount needed by Spain rises from the last figure cited this week of 350 billion euros to a new peak of450 billion. Shades of the Spanish property market in 2006, when the fever reached, well, fever pitch, I guess.

Meanwhile Spain’s woes are mounting relentlessly and the collapse of confidence has at last begun to infect blue-chip companies, with groups such as Iberdrola, Red Electrica, and Gas Natural facing a jump in borrowing costs of 30 to 50 basis points since Friday.

Talking about Spain's property market - or what's left of it - Some expert has today opined that it's so far only fallen half as much as it should/will do. Some evidence for this comes in the report in the Voz de Galicia yesterday that Banco Santander was selling 76 flats at 20-30 thousand euros each. Interest is said to be high. Which is not terribly surprising, given what they would have sold for (100k+?) 5 or 6 years ago. Which reminds me . . . None of the 23 new houses behind mine seems to have been sold Or, if they have, the owners are clearly sitting on their (unused) assets.

Articles on tax declarations start to appear in British newspapers several months before the deadline for submission. Here in Spain, there was an article in yesterday's Diario de Pontevedra about changes to this year's reporting requirements. The deadline is next week. I wonder if this tells us anything about the respective cultures. And about me, as I've just started to prepare mine . . . En passant, the Guide to the Income Tax form that I've just downloaded is a mere 155 pages long.

As midsummer day approaches, along with the feast day of the patron saint of Santiago, Galicia and Spain - St James - the locals are gearing up to queue up for free sardines, drink and then jump over one of the various bonfires that have been built up for the occasion. Health & Safety? You have to be joking. We have higher priorities here.

News on the bird front: The local blackbird has strayed from Toni's demesne to eat the bread I threw on the lawn yesterday. But no attempt yet to use the 'feeding station'. Which is probably the domain of smaller birds.

Driving home late last night, I heard a chap on the radio mention Jorgito (George Borrow) and La Biblia en España (The Bible in Spain). The dissertation seemed to be a satirical jab at how Spain is perceived and several references were made to España de cañe. cañe is slang for coffee and I'd be interested to know what the expression really means. Possibly the same as café para todos.

If interested, you can get more info on GB from my web page. Must remove the ad for the sale of my ex property in the hills.

Finally . . . More on the videos of singing and dancing in Spanish banks by disgruntled customers.

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