Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, January 21, 2016

News from back in the homeland.

Unemployment in Spain has been falling for several months but is still around 22%, and more than twice as high for young people. One reason is that the last government felt it imperative to take on another 30,000 civil servants during La Crisis. Taking the total up to 2.5 million of the hardworking creatures.

Against that, 471 jobs have been lost at a cigarette factory in Logroño, closed by its Anglo owners. For one reason and another, smoking is a dying habit – ain't that the truth! – though I've yet to notice this among the young women of Pontevedra. Who treat ciggies as an effective appetite suppressant.

This week it's been revealed - yet again – that half of the EU vast subventions are uncontrolled and mis-spent. Right on cue comes a report of yet another huge fraud in southern Spain, involving disappearing funds of €20-25m. The police are said to looking to prosecute at least 35 employees of a desalination company operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture. And the president of a construction company. Plus ça change . . .

Just in case you live in a cave, this is the Daily Telegraph's list of the 17 things you really shouldn't do on a plane:-

  1. Go bare foot
  2. Ask your neighbour if you can finish their food
  3. Change nappies/diapers on a seat
  4. Use ineffective headphones
  5. Sniff
  6. Put your feet up through the gap in the seats
  7. Hog the armrest
  8. Stand up as soon as the seatbelt sign is turned off after landing
  9. Make small talk with your fellow passengers when they're clearly                                               reading, sleeping or listening to music
  10. Spend half the flight stood in the aisle chatting with your friend sat elsewhere
  11. Get lairy/drunk
  12. Constantly get up and down
  13. Use the seat in front to pull yourself up
  14. Complain about lack of space on a budget airline
  15. Recline your seat
  16. Pee on the carpet
  17. Run past people to get to passport control.
There's an explanatory paragraph on each of these here, as if you really needed it.

Finally . . . These are a couple of fotos of Phase 1 of the weekly Bin Battle between my daughter's neighbours, Messrs A and B. 



Mr A has put his 3 bins, as far as he's concerned, in the required position of on the pavement next to the road. Mr B considers this part of his drive and, after they've been emptied, moves them so they block the drive to the two houses at the back of the foto. One of which is Mr A's and the other is that of my daughter and her husband. Sadly. I got back too late yesterday to be able to snap the bins in their blocking position. Both Mr A and Mr B are relatively young and live alone. Which possibly tells you something.

No comments: