Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

There's a widespread belief that the Spanish are not terribly entrepreneurial. I suspect it's true, though government bureaucracy and swingeing social security taxes from Day 1 don't do much to help. Anyway, the subject is dealt with here and it makes rather depressing reading. The Spanish are willing to study hard to ensure they get a job which will never be very taxing and which keeps them in their patria chica. Close to Mum and Dad. The free babysitters.

Perhaps my experience today can illuminate why I'm never optimistic when I go shopping and why I believe businesses here are not very, well, commercial . . . . Having mislaid my phone yesterday, I went to The Phone Shop to ask where the Yoigo shop was in town. We can do whatever you need, said the young lady. This would be giving me a new SIM card and cancelling the one in my missing phone. Things started to go wrong when she noticed that my Residence Card had expired. But I blagged my way around this and we moved to purchase of the card and the signing of several documents, after she had, of course, taken photocopies of both my Residence Card and my driving licence. Then she asked me whether my old phone had been configured by Yoigo and when I said not, she told me there was nothing they could do for me. So, off to the Yoigo shop I went, where I went through the same palaver about my Residence Card. And the signing of forms. And the handing over of a SIM card. And payment. All done and dusted, I told her the phone wasn't working and the message was 'Invalid SIM'. Don't worry, she said, it will work after a while. Well, 6 hours later it still isn't working and I've remembered the question about configuration of the phone. This paragraph is already far too long so I'll end by saying I have no doubt this would never have happened in the UK. Anyway, I now have to return to the shop tomorrow morning, prior to driving to Santander and the ferry to England and the family funeral.

If, like many of us, you wonder just how accurate Spain's 26% unemployment rate is, this article from Charles Butler of IBEX Salad will be of interest to you.

And talking of expert opinion, this is the blog of someone who really knows his stuff about the EU. Here he is on EU legislation and its (non)impact on member states. And here on Global Warming

The King of Spain is going through a patch so bad that the monarchy is said to be at risk. Here's a good overview of the travails of Señor Bourbon-Bourbon.

Finally . . . Here are a couple of Spanish words which have interesting meanings apart from their main ones:-
Lata – Tin/Can. Or Pain, Nuisance.
Hueco – Hole. Or Spare moment

And an 'unusual' phrase which has popped up about a hundred times in the book I'm reading:- A la sazón – Then, At that time. Interestingly, each of my 5 Spanish friends at dinner on Saturday had a different view of how this should be translated. 

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