Well, the wind arrived at 2.30 and then left again at 3.00. But it reappeared around 5.20 and blew for a bit longer. Though not very strenuously. The blossom is still on the cherry tree, the street rubbish bins are still exactly where they were, and the Leaning Lamposts of Poio are still standing, no more or less askew than yesterday. Bit of a washout, really. Unless something happens tonight.
It’s been a bad week for the credibility of the Spanish government. Such as it was. Both Standard & Poors in the USA and the EU in Brussels have dismissed their financial forecasts as over-optimistic. Which shouldn’t really surprise anyone, given their track record. And their need to avoid the take-over of economic management by Brussells.
What did surprise me was a chart in one of our papers today showing what percentage of final salary is received by pensioners in many developed economies. Guess which two countries top the list – Why, Greece and Spain, of course. With 95% and 81%, respectively. France comes in at 53%, Germany at 44% and the USA at 38%. Who on earth needs 95% - or even 81% - of their final salary after retirement? Perhaps it made a little more sense when salaries were low on the international scale but this is hardly the case in Spain these days. At least not for those on the infamous ‘permanent’ contracts. No wonder the Spanish government thinks it has a problem serious enough to address now, under the guise of recession measures. For details of the time-bomb, click here.
To be even-handed here’s a comment on the British economy – “Barclays Capital concluded that the outlook for long-term growth – and therefore the already calamitous state of the public finances – is almost certainly worse than the Treasury has been forecasting. We are in a hole all right, and there is worryingly little sign in our liberal democracies of the strength of will and vision that will be needed to get us out.”
And here’s a new bit of Spanglish, the first I’ve seen for a while – Cachibol. Or Catchball. Though I’ve no idea what this is. Probably not a group of young girls in a circle chucking a tennis ball at each other.
Talking of languages . . . I saw a sign on the library door today about French and Gallego Book Clubs. Sad to say, there doesn’t seem to be either an English or Spanish equivalent. Anyway, the poster for the French Club said the level required was Very Good Intermediate. And the Gallego sign said Virtual o Presencial. It took me five minutes to work out this wasn’t a reference to any sort of level but an indication you could do it from home or in person. I think. Presumably your level doesn’t matter. Or everyone is assumed to be very good. So I may go along and confuse them.
Come rain or shine, boom or bust one thing you can be sure of is that Telefónica’s profits are going to keep on rising. If you’re an investor, you’d be daft not to have some of their shares in your portfolio, even if you hate the company as much as the rest of us. But this recommendation could be the kiss of death for them. With a bit of luck.
Finally . . . Here’s reader Richard’s two responses to my request for sentences using ‘clerical and ‘lay’. They won first and second prizes. And the third prize, actually:-
Due to a clerical error, your local lay preacher will not be making his usual Saturday night sermons on the mount.
By clerical order from the Bishopric, it was announced that none would get to lay the preacher.
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