Dawn

Dawn

Tuesday, June 26, 2012


There's a junction down near the A Barca commercial centre which is a thing of either true brilliance or rank stupidity. As you approach it, with an eye on the traffic coming from the left, there's vegetation on the central verge. This used to form a partial block of your view. But vegetation grows and now the block is total. So, either this is a case of potentially fatal negligence or a clever example of how to force traffic to stop because it can't see a bloody thing. You choose. I'm going with brilliance. Honest.

Ana Botín is the daughter of the chap who set up the Santander Bank empire. She heads up the UK organisation and announced a week or so ago that she wanted to 'transform banking in the UK'. Not, one hopes, in the direction of Spanish banking. Perhaps she could start by ridding Santander UK of the reputation it has for achieving the most complaints to the Ombudsman.

I read recently of a couple of giant tortoises that had split up after more than a hundred years together. The male, it seems, had turned his back (shell?) on the female. I was reminded of my first night in my lodgings in the Seychelles back in '65, when constant love-making - or efforts at it - between two of these creatures penned below my window deprived me of most of my sleep.

I've finally discovered why baby-carriers are so much bigger than the push-chairs which served my two daughters. These days you can lift child and chair out the car as a single unit and seat them in a frame with wheels. Plus, I've been assured, a vehicle like this with big wheels is easier for a jogging parent - almost said 'mother'! - to push the bairn ahead of him/her.

Some interesting facts:-
1: Rembrandt sold his dead wife's grave and burial plot to pay for the grave of his mistress.
2: London is drier than Barcelona, Rome, Istanbul and Dallas. And it gets only half as much rain as Sydney. Whatever that means in gallons/litres, it's bound to fall during both Wimbledon and the Olympics.

Finally . . . Can anyone vouch for the gentleman who sent me this message yesterday? Dear Friend, 
I am Mr. Bernard Williams, the Auditor General, Santander Bank, UK. In the course of my auditing, I discovered a floating fund in an account, which was opened in 1990 at Abbey National Bank before it was bought over by Santander Group of which I am the auditor, belonging to a dead foreigner who died in 1999. Kindly view the attached memo for more details.

Finally, finally . . . News of a book written by a fellow blogger and friend of mine. After he's sent me a free copy, I'll review it. Positively.

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