The good news is that Spain has an increasing number of centenarians. The bad news is that, if they have a state pension, the increase in it this year is just 0.25%.
Other bad news is that excess prescribing of
antibiotics in Spain has led to a level of resistance in
kids which is 3.5 times higher than in Norway. In the USA and
Germany, it's 'only' 1.5 times. Worrying.
I might have mentioned
that I'm a member of the George Borrow Society. GB was an
eccentric English polymath who came to Spain in the 1830s to try to
sell both Protestant Bibles and extracts he'd translated into the gypsy
language, Caló. And then wrote a very entertaining - and possibly truthful - account in his book The Bible in Spain. Well, the GB Soc will give me a discount of 10%
on my annual fee for every new member I persuade to join. So, if you do, don't
forget to mention my name. After the appropriate number,
the GFB Soc will surely start paying me an annual commission. If you want to know more about GB, you can do no better than start here, at a page written - would you believe - by a Dutchman. Who's obviously eccentric.
It comes as no great surprise to read that the city of Valencia is Number One when it comes to corruption. It seems pretty institutionalised down in the South. But it's all a question of degree, of course.
María Dolores de Cospedal is the Spanish Minister of Defence. On Friday she attended a military ceremony with the monarchs and looked, I thought, rather good. But you had to feel sorry for her having to walk behind the clothes-horse-cum-stick-insect which queen Letizia has become. Even if she was wearing the same outfit as last year. Looking at the foto in the Voz de Galicia, it struck me that Sra Cospedal had for some reason thought it smart to carry a small, long-haired dog as an accessory. These fotos give you some idea but, sadly, none is as clear as the one in La Voz:-
There really should be a bubble coming from the mouth of Sra Cospedal in the top picture. And a prize for the best bitchy comment.
Finally . . . Today's cartoon, in honour of eccentric Dutchmen . . .
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