Today
I went slipper shopping on behalf of my sister. She bought a
particular pair when last here and wanted another one. But the shop
had closed and I had to do an (unsuccessful) tour of the shoe shops
in the old quarter. All seven of them. Tomorrow I will try those in
the new quarter. God knows how the town can sustain so many shoe
shops. Not to mention the women's clothes and accessory shops that
are still opening up. Just how many wives, girlfriends, sisters and
daughters of money-laundering drug traffickers can there be?
Talking
of clothes . . . Today I made my annual trip to a seamstress shop –
of which there are also quite a few – to get the moth-holes in my
pullovers repaired. They buggers weren't put off by the bunches of
lavender in the wardrobe. And not for them the cotton, wool or even
the lambswool sweaters. Only the pure lambswool and cashmere items
will do for their bloody eggs.
For
a couple of weeks or so, I've been on the verge of retracting any
negative comments I've made about the repeat prescription service
here. For I've discovered that, armed with your health card, you
simply go to the pharmacy, where they insert your card, look on the
screen and give you want you want. Or they did until today, when I
was told I couldn't have any more until 26 of December, even though
I'll run out in two days. The pharmacist suggested the doctor had
made an error or that something had been erased but, whatever the
reason, I needed to go back to the surgery. So I'm leaving my
negative comments on the record for now.
Opus Dei is a Catholic organisation which is considered pretty far to the
right by everyone who isn't a member of it. Some would even say
proto-fascist. Anyway, it's said to be powerful in Spain (where it
originated), so I guess we shouldn't be surprised to read that around
a third of Spain's judges belong to it. But it's discomforting.
Finally
and still on Church matters . . . Not many of us will ever forget
Cecilia Gímenez, the 80-year-old Spanish woman who restored a picture of Christ in her parish church, turning him into an attractive orang-utang in the process. Well, it
seems she's come out of her self-imposed purdah and is selling
one of her works on eBay. As I write, the going price is 630 euros
but who knows how high it'll rise. If interested in bidding,
you've got just over 5 days left to get someone – possibly yourself
– an unusual Xmas present.
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