This
may sound strange but I sometimes I catch myself wishing I smoked.
Why? Because it would give me a reason to sit on my back steps and
revel in the setting of the sun on Pontevedra, way down below me. Why
don't I just go and do this without a cigarette in my hand? Dunno
really. Perhaps it's a function of the protestant work ethic. I
wouldn't feel comfortable just sitting there doing nothing.
As
expected, there are reports that, despite the awards of tenders, work
on Spain's high speed train – the AVE – has ground to a halt. As
someone has put it, neither the paperwork nor the machines are
moving. I hereby withdraw my prediction of 2018 as the year in which
we'll be able to train rapidly down to Madrid. Mind you, in the UK
they're talking about dates like 2035 for high-speed trains to the
north.
The
latest thieving politician in the dock is
the Mayor of Alicante, Sonia Castedo, who's been arraigned on three
counts of corruption. As has her predecessor. Is there a clean mayor
out there? By the way, I have to confess to getting daughter and
father mixed up yesterday. The woman whose father has won the
Christmas lottery three or four times is the politician who said Que
se joden!
(Fuck 'em) when the socialist deputies complained about the effect of
cuts on the unemployed.
One
of the governments new tax measures is to bring in prescription
charges for senior citizens. I think I've expressed already some
concern as to how this would be done. But, here, we have a fulsome
description of the modus operandi. Keep
it complex and paper-heavy
again seems to have been the approach taken. As you would expect.
Here's
a quote on the property situation in Spain - The
housing stock has increased by 3.5%, or 888,972 new homes, since the
crisis began in 2008, despite a 95% collapse in new housing starts.
Thanks to the inertia in the home building industry it can take two
years or more for declining housing starts to feed through into lower
construction completions.
“Two years”? We should have been so lucky. It took 6 years to
build the 23 properties behind ours. All of which lie empty. And
without even a Se
Vende
sticker in any window.
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