Dawn

Dawn

Friday, June 25, 2010

Two weeks ago, the president of the Vigo Fishermen’s Association railed against the illegal practice of using dynamite to stun fish. This week he was arrested with two kilos of the stuff hidden in his life-jacket. On the eve of the day on which sardine prices rocket to meet the needs of the fiesta of San Juan. Such is the way of things in the city which is the capital of both legal and illegal fishing in the EU. For some, of course, there’s not much difference. Which is possibly why the EU Fisheries Office is now based there.

Prognostications for the Spanish property market continue to be depressing. Especially if you’re trying to sell a house that, against your judgment, you stupidly bought because a woman wanted you to. A couple of days ago, the Bank of Spain said it will be at least the middle of 2011 before the market begins to pick up Yesterday, the Fitch agency plumped for the middle of 2012. But who the hell really knows, with around a million properties on the market and prices still not as low as most people think they should/will be? The property expert Mark Stucklin says here that “We now know that Spain’s economic miracle of the last decade was largely just a mirage built on an unsustainable bubble in the real estate sector. When that bubble burst, as it did in 2008, it sent the Spanish economy into a tailspin.” Well, yes, Mark. But some of use were saying this before it was either fashionable or blatantly obvious. I think “phoney boom” had become a favourite expression of mine at least four, but possibly even five, years ago. One didn’t really need to be Einstein.

On a wider – but equally gloomy – front, here’s some of the latest thoughts on the possibility of Germany quitting the eurozone. Make of it what you will.

And here’s more on the unresolved issue of respective banking strengths around Europe. As I’ve asked, when will it all end? And how? And where should I put my savings?

Closer to home . . . I may have mentioned a health food shop in the shopping mall nearest to my house. In which the only customer I’d ever seen was me, buying cilantro/cilantro seeds to grind. Well, it started to open only in the evenings but couldn’t stave off closure for ever. There were a lot of these place opened in Pontevedra during the carpetbagger years. I wonder how many of them are left. Must do a survey.

I almost suffered an infarct today. I saw on the side of a packet of juice from Mercadona that this supermarket’s Customer Service department was contactable via a free 900 number. I mentioned this to my visiting daughter as being perhaps unique in Spain but she assured me that one of the many electricity suppliers she can now (theoretically) choose from also offers a 900 number. The beginning of the rot, I suspect. Can we now expect shop assistants to say “No, I’m sorry. We don’t have that but we can order one for you”. Again my daughter had a comment on this, telling me that this did recently happen to her in Madrid. With the rider that it would cost her an extra seven euros. To which she replied – “No thanks. I’ll just get it on e-bay”. One day Spain will catch up with the existence of this, and similar, net-based options. But not just yet.

Talking of said fruit of my loins . . . If you’re an adult looking for an English course in wonderful Madrid during the summer, click here.

And now for a rather important football match.

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