My mobile phone company, Orange, tells me they’d like to reward my fidelity. Not the fidelity of the last few years, you understand, but my fidelity of the next twelve months. To benefit from this largesse, all I have to do is contractually commit to them for this period. So, not so much a reward as a bribe. Or at least an inducement. But that’s marketing for you.

It must be summer. Both the French and the Spanish air-traffic controllers are on strike. Or bunking off sick in large numbers. Which amounts to the same thing. You’d never guess there’s a recession on in both countries and that security of employment is a widespread concern. Unless you’re hard to get rid of, of course.

I mentioned last night that local councils around Spain are running very short of cash. In this article Mark Stucklin reports on a new scheme some of them have lighted on. Which will surely catch on, given the identity of the victims.

If you haven’t already seen it, you might like to scroll down to a post I made earlier today, inviting contributions to a survey of both efficient and inefficient aspects of life in Spain. My thanks to those who’ve written already.

Finally . . . Because I think of nothing else to write, here’s a bit of doggerel I like:-
Before your mind just drifts away,
Reflect a while upon your day.
And ask yourself if you can say
“I brightened up two lives today”.

Well, did you?