Perhaps
the obvious fact that everyone was/is in the trough explains why the
leader of the Opposition is said to have rejected an anti-corruption
pact proposed by President Rajoy a couple of weeks ago. But nothing
explains why the PP can't go ahead alone with anti-corruption
measures. Apart from the obvious reason, of course.
I
was surprised to read yesterday that Madrid had, over 12 years, spent almost as much trying to get the Olympic games as the British
government reportedly spent hosting them last year. Numbers of €9
or 10bn have been cited. Much of this, of course, was during the
anything-goes years, when running up debts was quite fashionable. And
profitable. Things look different now. Here's David Jackson on this
theme. I'm a tad surprised - and disappointed - that we haven't had
anything from Graeme on South of Watford on this. He's been a relentless critic of expenditure in the city and I hope his silence merely means he's working on a detailed denunciation of the Madrid
administration. Which certainly will be fun to read. It seems that
much of the expenditure made in the city over the last decade - e. g.
the M30 motorway - was made with the Olympics in mind.
Over
in the UK, Michelle Dewbury is an English lady who earns a great deal
of money but sees herself as 'working class'. And wants her kids to
feel the same, despite being brought up in luxury. This is daft but,
hey, it's her life. Let's just hope they don't go round saying We
was and Wasn't we, like their mother on TV yesterday. If they do, they're going to be ribbed at the private school she'll surely
send them to. What hope for the elimination of the British class
system is there when people think like this? It's not as if the
British 'working class' is what it used to be anyway. As for me, I
had no problems with moving from 'lower middle class' (complete with
thick Scouse accent) to 'upper middle class'. I'm just sorry I never
made it to the aristocracy. Thanks to bad marriage choices.
Talking
about memories . . . I was wondering yesterday whether any of my
primary (or even secondary) school friends could have been considered
to be suffering from ADD or, worse, ADHD. With the possibly exception
of myself, I couldn't identify any. So, are these effectively conditions
in search of patients? Or are they labels for long-standing
conditions that nobody thought to categorise over at least 2,000
years? I suppose that, if you've got a kid who's been said to
qualify, there's something wrong. But I do wonder.
Sadly
- but understandably - Spain is not the happy country it was only a
few years ago. Economic woes, high unemployment and antipathy to
corporate and political corruption lie behind a fall to 38th
position in the latest UN survey of national happiness levels. I can't see that rising in the next survey in a couple of years time.
I
cancelled my Economist subscription yesterday. I sent an email and
quickly got one back saying they'd done it and that they'd sent 28
quid to my VISA account as the balance due to me. Bloody hell! So
that's how it''s done. I'd quite forgotten.
Finally
. . . Some Pontevedra fotos:
The city's railway station is quite pretty. Normally. Right now it looks like this, as they lay the line that will accommodate the AVE high-speed train.
It does rather look as if the La Coruña - Vigo line will be finished, even if the Madrid-La Coruña line isn't. At least not for several years. Some of us think the vast sums of money could have been better spent on making the existing line double track.
This is the evening view over the city from the petrogliph rocks near my home. The old port is to the left of the (motorway) bridge on the right-hand side. And the turbines are on the distant hills.
This is a snap of inside the city's very first disco bar, La Cabaña. There are hundreds now.
This is the latest owl to appear in the city's cafés. I still haven't been accorded any honour for introducing this solution to the pigeon problem.
And, finally, this is something I saw yesterday and snapped before it ceased to be a figment of my imagination. The young lady owner was so proud of her handiwork that she tried to get the dog to pose when she saw me raise my camera to shoot. I wished it had been my rifle.
My apologies to those who've already seen this on my Facebook page.
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