One
thing I did see was a large-ish Italian cruise ship in the harbour.
It looked rather like the one which keeled over in shallow waters
early last year. I think that one had a big C for Costa on its funnel
too. You'd have thought they'd have got rid of that.
And
I could get into the Catalina fort, built to deal with the
depredations of the beastly British and the dastardly Dutch in 1597.
As you go through the gate and into the courtyard, you realise you're
in the Alamo. Or what Hollywood thought it looked like anyway.
It's
interesting to see the Spanish press following the EU line that
Britain is being illegally miserly and discriminatory with its
medical benefits for immigrants. The truth is that the UK is paying
the price - though no one knows how much - for being overgenerous
with its entitlements. Here in Spain, it was 10 years before I could
get anything free from the Spanish national health service, even
though I was an officially resident EU-citizen. Naturally, things are
even tighter now. But this is old news.
Finally
. . . I'm writing this in a café in which there are only 4 other
customers, 2 men and 2 women, all in their sixties. All of them are
communicating by shouting, simultaneously, even though they're all at
the same table. Not only can I not hear myself think, I doubt I'll be
able to hear my mother on Skype when I call to wish her a happy new
year, after I've finished my coffee. Spain is different. Who was it
said all Spaniards are born with a built-in quadrophonic sound
system? With the volume at 11.
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