Of course, I realise that, after giving the Saturday’s picture a description, I’m going to get hit by a lot of women [and perhaps a few men] looking for NUDE PICTURES OF RYAN GIGGS’. But not so far, strangely enough.

Today’s Oxymoron - Spanish Planning: This covers both ‘A Spaniard doing some planning’ and ‘You doing some planning that involves Spaniards’. The former is, in fact, very rare. But the latter is hazardous. Albeit inescapable when you live in Spain. Neither are very productive.

I’ve mentioned before there’s a different attitude towards risk here in Spain. In essence, it can be viewed as at least pragmatic or quite possibly fatalist. And it may stem from an admix of Islamic and Catholic sentiments. For example, if something falls over and nearly injures you [as I saw in a restaurant today], the general response is that you were lucky: nothing happened; so let’s forget about it. Not, ‘You were lucky but we certainly need to do something about that before someone does get injured or killed’. If pressed for remedial action, the next recourse of the proprietor is likely to be, as it was today, ‘There’s no need; I’ve got insurance’.

Meteorological note: A correspondent, Jesus, has kindly pointed out that ‘moderado’ normally does mean light/moderate and only ‘heavy’ in the context of the weather. This is the fault of the old Beaufort Scale, he tells me.

Quote of the Day

People think politicians will only do things if they are pushed into it by celebrities. That's not healthy but we're resigned to it.
A Downing St. official, endorsing my view that the UK is now an insane place, dominated by the false values of the tabloidised media