Prior to another camino in June, I've booked rooms in about 10 hotels in
the last week. The result, of course, is that my Facebook and Gmail
pages are now festooned with ads for hotels in Spain. The very ones
I've just made bookings in. I guess this makes sense to someone but
it seems to give the lie to the 'targeted ads' theory. At least in my
case.
And talking of promotions . . . They're back! The ads down the right side of my
Facebook page, offering me 'rich, mature women' but showing fotos of
extremely well endowed young females.
"Excess winter deaths" are those above and beyond what you'd predict for any country's winter months. And you'd expect them to be
higher in colder countries than in warm countries. But, in fact,
they're lower in Scandinavian countries than in southern European
countries like Spain and Portugal. No one really knows why but
'preparedness' has been put forward as a likely explanation. A
proportion of southerners are unprepared for the cold snaps and keel
over as a consequence. Or perhaps set fire to themselves sitting over
the charcoal burners still used in the South.
Back to the North - If you're not yet aware of the marvels of Galicia,
this should help you out.
I know I go on about the stupidity of having 3 (loss-making) airports
in Galicia but at least things are not as bad as in Albacete (an
average of 3 passengers a day) and Huesca (an average of less than
1). I guess I don't need to say these are products of the senseless, corruption-driven spending spree of the boom times that
looked so permanent 10 years ago. At least the Galician facilities
were constructed in normal times. Well, as 'normal' as any times can
be in Spain when it comes to public expenditure.
Which reminds me . . . A new book - Eternal Spain: Corruption and Crisis
by Trish Wilson centres
on "the shadow of Franco’s dictatorship lingering over
democratic Spain, fostering a climate of rampant corruption and
sleaze, particularly in politics and the public sector". Sounds
like a good read. Kindle only, though.
Finally . . .The water gods are not being kind to me. Over the last year,
I've had 3 leaks in my system, which have cost me around 800 euros in
total. But I've now developed a 12-point plan to cut my consumption
by at least half. The trouble is, water bills here are so weighted
with fixed costs that the bills don't really reflect usage. Except
when it's very high. So, it'll take me at least 10 years to recoup my
money. The most promising way to save cash would be to shoot guests
who don't share my view that it shouldn't take more than a minute to
shower and 3 minutes to wash your hair. But this would probably be
considered bad form on the part of a host.
Talking of water . . . The BBC weather woman said the other night that people
in the SE of England could expect pulses of rain. I appreciate they
have to jazz up the reports and invent different terms for water
falling from the sky but what the hell are 'pulses of rain'?
No comments:
Post a Comment