It's
all funny money, isn't it. Depending on whom you listen to, Spain (more accurately, her banks) needs a handout of 16, 25, 62, 100 or
even 350 billion euros. Self-evidently, no one knows any more than
you, me or my deceased dog. And, as I forecast last week, we're
already hearing suggestions that dates and deadlines will be set so
as to accommodate Europe's long summer holidays in July and August.
Confidence-inspiring it certainly ain't.
Anyway,
back to the daily grind . . . Having seen some old friends in the UK
enjoying a host of feathered friends using a 'feeding station' in
their garden, I bought one and brought it back with me. Despite my
minimal DIY skills, I managed to assemble this a couple of days ago
and set it up with a supply of peanuts. Since then, nothing. Absolutely
nothing! Not even one of the forty sparrows that used to live in my
roof. Current theories are:- 1. The birds have been frightened off by
a cat which has taken to walking through my garden since the death of
said dog; and 2. It wasn't wise of me to take the big plastic owl
into the garden to show it to my lovely neighbour, Ester. Worst of all, I see Toni has blackbirds in his garden.
Talking of Toni . . . I was in the front garden when a couple of gypsies came to ask for foodstuffs. Toni's excuse for not giving them anything was that his wife wasn't in. Which they seemed to find acceptable. A lot more acceptable than my response of "No entiendo." Such is life.
Talking of Toni . . . I was in the front garden when a couple of gypsies came to ask for foodstuffs. Toni's excuse for not giving them anything was that his wife wasn't in. Which they seemed to find acceptable. A lot more acceptable than my response of "No entiendo." Such is life.
Well,
I went to the regional tax office (the Facenda, as opposed to
the Hacienda) to ask about the re-instated Wealth Tax (the
Patrimonio). The chap at the Information desk was rather
amused and said he'd never heard of this. He suggested I try a third
office (the ORAL) but, not wanting to waste further time, I went on
the net and quickly found that it had, indeed, been re-introduced
(bad) but that the the threshold of one million euros was way beyond
my assets level (good). So, that's that.
The
Euros: Just one (third party) comment:- The
events of this season cannot have left anyone in any doubt as to
whether England can win the European Championship defending deep,
playing cautiously and inviting pressure from their opponents. Of
course they can. [God forfend!] By the
same writer:- Can they win the
competition? If Terry and Lescott stay strong, if their opponents
continue to spurn chances, if good fortune smiles on them, they can.
But it won’t be pretty to watch.
No, it bloodywell won't. And who on earth wants it to happpen?
One
of the internet cafés I use has come up with a new definition of
'outdoors'. Basically, what they've done is to put a large
translucent plastic 'tent' over their external tables and taken away
the door between this and the café itself. As there's no ventilation
in the tent, cigarette smoke quickly makes its way into the café
proper. Which I realised when my eyes started to smart this morning.
I mentioned the probable illegality of this to the waiter, who looked
crestfallen. But he always does; so this was no measure of anything.
I said I knew it wasn't his fault and he smiled and thanked me.
But he didn't apologise for the pain in my eyes.
Talking
about apologising - this is something that comes easily to the
Spanish. As it does to me these days. The simple reason is that we
rarely mean it. I'd go as far as to say that the Spanish are the best
in the world at apologising. Essentially because they get so much
practice at it - for parking in front of your garage, bumping into
you in the street, jumping the queue, etc., etc. All of these, by the
way, assume the offender has been caught in flagrente and has
had to say something.
Finally
. . . And taking of manners . . . Here's a picture of a car which parked near us in Vigo
yesterday, on a zebra crossing. Of course, the driver left the hazard
lights on to show the car wasn't really there. After ten minutes she
emerged from somewhere and proceeded to park parallel to the
legitimately parked cars, blocking one of the two lanes. There she
waited until her friend turned up twenty minutes later.
Inconsiderate? Moi! Viva yo. Yo tengo un gran Audi!
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