Sunday evening

My daughter and I are staying tonight in the Estremadura town of Alcántara. This is high on 14th -16th century splendour but low on wi-fi cafés. So this Sunday blog is probably coming to you on Monday. And there may be another one later.

I alluded yesterday to the lack of precision and consistency when it comes to numbers in Spain. And, just by chance, Charles Butler of Ibex Salad made this comment in his own blog yesterday:- “The Spanish Ministry of Housing releases a wide variety of property-related statistics. Many of their studies, particularly those that claim to represent price levels, are useless beyond description.”. I rest my case.

I forgot to check the fashions in Cáceres yesterday but, by pure coincidence, while we were sitting having dinner in Plaza Mayor, my daughter pointed to a passing young lady and said she was the fifth she’d seen in half an hour strutting her stuff in shorts and high heels. So, a national fashion, then. Not just a Pontevedra fad.

At a more serious level, President Zapatero has used the occasion of a PSOE conference to obtain the support of closed party ranks, to assure us he won’t bow to ‘powerful forces’ - meaning the PIRSA media group - and to insist that his government will continue to implement policies which maintain social cohesion. In other words, if the ship is to go down, it will be very much a socialist ship. Which is all very commendable but is it really what Spain needs right now? Meanwhile, though, Señor Z may or may not be encouraged by the endorsement he’s received from the right-of-centre El Mundo paper for his ‘courageous’ decision to break the PSOE’s traditional links with the PIRSA group.

I’ve now checked and confirmed that - at the invitation of a friend - I joined Tagged in 2007 and that I’d received not a single contact until last week. When I was besieged by a number of women of varying morality. I assume, therefore, that Tagged has initiated some sort of strategic shift, which may or may not pass the test of time. Or the legal authorities in the USA.

And now a couple of unsolicited testimonials . . .

1. The Barceló hotel chain. On the evidence of the staff and facilities of their place in Cáceres, they are one of Spain’s better operators, and

2. The Turismo in Alcántara. This is open on Sundays and ‘manned’ by a very charming and helpful lady. They try harder, it seems, in Estremadura.

Finally . . . here’s a couple of pictures of my 15 year old dog, Ryan, doing what he enjoys most:-

1. Avoiding the attention of a small child


and

2. Swimming after a stick.


I hope I’m just as sprightly when I am, like him, in my 90s.

And here’s one of my elder daughter doing what she does best – contemplating which artistic photo to take . . .