converting hotels
from 4 to 5-star. Good luck to them.
The other
excellent news of yesterday was that President Rajoy has finally
bowed to pressure and promised to address parliament on the issue
of illegal funding of his PP party. This followed a day or so of
various PP mouths telling us he would do this when it suited him. In
the arrogance stakes, none emerged higher than the Deputy PM telling
us Rajoy would "give his explanation at the time and in the
manner he feels appropriate." To be followed by the Foreign
mInister telling us he'd appear "when he considers the timing to
be right". This turns out to be at the end of either this month
or the end of August. So, either when everyone is setting off on holiday or
when they're coming back from holiday. Can this be a coincidence?
No sooner had I
given my car its bi-annual wash than they started to tear up the road
with a jack-hammer. The result? A car covered with a layer of tarmac
and granite dust. The lovely Ester tells me they're connecting to the
electricity grid the 23 houses behind me, finished at least 2 years
ago but still unoccupied. Which is odd as there's an electricity
sub-station alongside the access drive. I guess this means they've
solved the problem of the drive and the first 4 houses being
illegal. Anyway, pending completion of the works, we now have regular
blasts of metallic thunder, as cars drive over the lids on the trench
in the road. Noise and dust, a wonderful combination.
The good news is
that I've learned the Spanish for 'jack-hammer' - martillo
neumático. Which is closer to the British equivalent of 'pneumatic drill'. So,
comparing syllables - Spanish: 8; British: 5; American: 3. Sounds
about right. No wonder notices are so much longer in Spanish than in English.
My mother called
me yesterday to say my old college (King's, London) had topped a chart of crime rates near British universities. A bit of
checking revealed that 1. This is true, but 2. Crime is measured
within a 3 mile radius of the main campus. As King's doesn't have
one, crime was measured within 3 miles of its location in The Strand.
In other words, central London. Likewise, the LSE and University
College, London, who ranked shortly after King's. So, not a very fair
comparison as no students actually live in central London. But
thanks, Mum.
In the late 19th
century, after military defeats to Germany, the French were desperate
for a great national figurehead. They went with Joan of Arc. In other
words, they chose someone who'd been tried and executed, not by the
English, but by the French themselves. Likewise, although the
Catholic Church later made her a saint, she was tried in an
Ecclesiastical Court and convicted of heresy, before being burnt at
the stake. By the French. So, an episode rich in irony. By the way,
the miracle said to allow sanctification of Joan, was a change in the
wind which benefited the French in their attempts to end the English
siege of Orleans. Which smacks of desperation to me. Not a
coincidence, then? Maybe my Catholic daughter take take advantage of
any change in the weather that occurs just before my death. Not much
for a father to ask, I feel.
That other French
hero - Napoleon - is also rather tarnished. Aside from ending his
years in ignominy and exile (twice in each case), he was also an
invader of a Hitlerian scale. Not to mention the initiator of a new
royal family in Spain. Where I doubt he's remembered with affection.
All in all, it was odd to see monuments to the tyrant when watching
the end of the Tour de France. By the way, next year's Tour de France will start in England, but in Leeds - not at Waterloo Station.
While I'm on this
French theme, my elder daughter told me of this recent conversation
with a friend who works in international personnel (or 'human
relations' as we now have to say):-
So, Helen. How
do you find working with people from different cultures?
Fine. I enjoy it.
Are there any
significant differences between nationalities, in terms of being hard
or easy to work with?
No, not really. Of
course, there are occasionally difficult people from every country,
Except for the French. They're always difficult.
Publisher's
Note: If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may find the
easiest way to access it is via an RSS reader. I used to use Google
Reader for the blogs I read but Google killed this a month or so
ago. There are several alternatives, all free, but I've gone with Old
Reader as it pretty accurately replicates Google Reader. But
don't go there today as they are experiencing problems.
http://theoldreader.com/
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