My
visitor, Mike, was rather shocked (and insulted) today when, at the Carrefour
checkout, he was asked to show what was in his shoulder bag. I'd
neglected to tell him he had to put this in a locker by the entrance,
as every customer is assumed to be a thief. Well, not quite everyone;
ladies with handbags and I with my rucksack are not subjected to any
search procedure. This doesn't seem logical to me but there you are.
A
conversation in the Pontevedra Turismo on Sunday:-
Do
you have the Events Guide for July?
No,
it usually comes out on the 5th or 6th of the month and we might have
copies by then.
'Twas
ever thus and I'd be rather upset if I'd organised something for the
first week of the month. Even more so if I'd paid for this to be
advertised in the Guide.
This
is a nice article from Guy Hedgecoe of IberoSphere, on the decline of Spanish institutions. Rather
than cite specific quotes, I urge you to read the article in its
entirety. I believe it endorses several observations I've made over
the years. I'll just add that, if the Catholic Church is your only
institution to emerge untarnished from the boom and bust, then you
must be in very serious trouble.
Surveying the wasteland that is Spain's property market, Mark Stucklin makes
the following points:- Private
vendors might feel they're already digging deep but they might end
up the biggest losers from the European bailout for Spain’s banks. The
bailout means that banks can afford to drop their prices (and will
also be forced to) while offering better mortgage conditions to
people who buy one of their repossessed properties. As banks control
the property market, private vendors in Spain will have no choice but
to follow suit, and swallow the resulting losses. Spanish bank
losses, on the other hand, will be paid for by German taxpayers.
And
now for the good news . . . The Spanish eleven wowed an awestruck
world on Sunday night, to win the Euro Cup. This is surely the best
team any of us has ever seen and, quite possibly, it will only ever
be bested by itself. I was going to say that the Spaniards have
revolutionised football but, in truth, they've merely shown how
devastating you can be if play all the basic elements extremely well.
To say the least, the overpaid and under-performing English team are
at least one light-year behind. The only thing I can recall them doing
well, was punting the ball blindly upfield. Which, of course, usually
resulted in the loss of possession. How farcical it is that they'll
now move up the international rankings because they didn't lose a
game, other than via penalties against Italy.
Finally
. . . You know your'e getting old when the last-time-I-looked 6 year old daughter of a
neighbour is to be seen parking a BMW in front of your house.
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