Madrid Teacher

I have been ill for about a week, there seems to be a zillion viruses in Madrid at the moment, everyone I know seems to be coughing, spluttering or making quick dashes to the loo. I am doing the latter but my voice is getting so hoarse that I have been likened to Vera Duckworth tonight on the phone. in Vera Duckworth mode I treated my self to a day in front of Spanish tele and was corazoned out. however Pantoja was missing today so I felt as though I had been cheated. If only Julian Muñoz could sendLa Pantoja a couple of million euros via a swiss account (like he did with his ex) it would bring her back to our screens.

I must admit I was a bit corazonny when asking R to get me some razors today itchy beard and irritable bowel dont make the best of friends. The pained expression on my face and weak voice would not be out of place on Dolce Vita. It always amazes me how the stars open their hearts and discuss all their suffering (aide memoire remind my sister not to marry a bull fighter), then they seem to leave the stage smiling.

I love la pantoja but I think it would be quite funny for her to spend a bit of time in Jail, can´t say this to R though, even if she was caught with thirty false planning permissions and a suitcase full of readies R would still say she is innocent.

Saw a man with a hunting gun again today in Alcala walking into the bar below where I live, its twice I have seen this. Watching street life is one of the compensations of missing work, normally I only see Alcala life post 6 o clock usually during the working week. Although when I start describing the daily changes in the buiding work carried out on the flat infront, and providing daily updates then it might be timne to see the man with the gun and ask for a favour.

R has been working nights so I have loads of free Internet time this week, did a tiny bit of work for work (not advisable) and caught up with some blogging and family tree. I have also been a bit ill so a good excuse not to make dinner for R. it is a bit of a busmans holiday that R must now make own supper, but honestly this week I don´t care.

Its been good reading about peoples experiences of living in Spain on Notes from Spain this week, although why people have high expectations from estate agents beats me. In this discourse working in Spain is often an issue. I can categorically say in my opinion apart from the customers and colleagues, work is bloody awful. But, and it is a big but, it finishes at 4:30 so life can start then. This is often the big difference from the UK, especially in Winter where brown bears probably see more day light that I used to.

Been listening to Klezmer music this week. This fushion of jazz and traditional jewish music is vibrant, lively and and has the effect of popping a few caffine tablets, R doesn´t agree with this R prefers flamenco. So late last night we finally settled on listening to a great CD of jewish and secular spanish music (not downloaded this time).

Going to take a big step tomorrow, seeing James Bond in Spanish I wonder how he will say shaken not stirred. Hows that for cosmopolitan!!!

When I travel to work by car I am also accompanied by 1000s of other drivers. Previously in order to leave Alcala in a morning I had to leave at 6:30 to earn the chance to only queue for about ten minutes, but now thanks to the wonderful police who have taken up post on the main roundabout I can leave at 7:30 and still only have to endure a 10 minute wait. But rest assured I will still take the train most days for the environment and all that. However it was noticable that people have returned to what can only be said driving normally, no more shaving in the car, no more using the rat run, no more reading El Pais (I don´t know why but it was always El Pais) while waiting and not looking at the road, no more watching people sigh and mouth swear words, LESS beeping, no more looking in envy as the train speeds past. When I have caught the train this week I also found a seat. It makes one wonder if there will be election soon.

My other environmental news this week is of even more importance I have found a walled space in a park near my house where Nova can run. This will save my foot leather (and legs). Hurrah for Alcala (maybe I should stand in the election its a good slogan!!!)

Just taken Nova for a walk in the park and was sat with a Polish family all of us speaking in Spanish eating pipas. English and Polish speaking a mutually recognisable language eating Spanish snacks fussing over a Spanish dog and discussing the weather of last week and the twins who rule Poland (badly was our conclusion), is this not what the EU is about? (although it will take a lot more than this for me to support the Euro)

When did a good percentage of European Countries go barking mad??? Holland is now wanting to ban the burqa . I dont class my self as a sandalista but this islamaphobia is going completly crazy. Since when did fashion sense or lack of sense become a thing for politicians to legislate on? People should be able to wear what they want even the trashiest alcala babes ( sorry for this but there is a large proportion of Alcala women who think ski pants are still stylish). I know that british airways thinks that someone wearing a cross is likely to cause a mid air conflagration but when we start legisating against clothes it really is coming to something. This is quote from the Dutch Government Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, who is known for her tough policies, she said "it was important that all people in the Netherlands were able to see and identify each other clearly to promote integration and tolerance".

Where does tolerance come into clothing and how can victimising women who wear a particular type of clothing aid integration? In my opinion integration is a bit more than clothing actually paying taxes, being part of a community and not wanting to destroy a society seem to be rather more important that want somebody wears. There are always a few who might not want to be members of a society but we are talking dozens rather than thousands and I dont think Burka wearing women are a priori non - integrationalists. I know that there are arguments which push forward the view that women might not chose to wear burkas but are forced to, but this should be dealt with in an entirely different manner i.e. a debate about womens rights not banning clothes. If these citizens of europe wish to wear this type of clothing but the law prohibits it what do they do? Send them to jail? deport them? Sounds familiar to another European Loony who came to power with a message of intolerance in 1933.

Its my typing not my spelling, I promise I am not drunk when I type these entries its just that I didn´t pass my CLAIT exams when I was at college

I teach Economics and not only enjoy the subject but lookforward to the debates the subject engenders. I am an old economic liberal so I was delighted to hear yesterday the impact immigration has had on the Spanish economy. Not only was this one in the eye for many of my students who can´t seem to grasp that economies need immigration to grow and fail to understand the concept that there are illegal immigrants working but only because the bosses won´t pay their social security. 50% of growth in the last five years has been sue to immigrant workers. Maybe cartain people should reflect on this when spending the fruits of economic growth in El Corte Ingles.

Am I starting to feel my age I ask myself, well actually I have asked myself this for the past year. I was really looking forward to a quiet weekend. R was in Valencia and I thought great just me and Nova loads of walks around Alcala, and a Chinese takeaway and bottle of wine on Saturday. However this peace was broken by the scummy side of my Spanish family, they thought it would be a good laugh to ring up from the aunties mobile phone i.e. I dont have her number, and wind me up with all the rest of this side of the family. I am still fuming, but the great thing is I can now cross them of the christmas card list. Even my father who never says anything bad about anyone said they are peasents. Well they are Grrrrr.

Now to nice things, I actually pushed myself on to the train this morning, the empowerment was overwhelming, although how I would survive queue protocol in the UK if I went back nobody knows.

I am now bored with Gran Hermano, I never thought that this day would come but a friend of mine said that this is a good thing. I will take his word for it which is why it is on the positive half of this entry.

Haven´t read a newspaper for over a week and have only looked at the guardian website twice so blissfully ignorant of world politics and news at the moment except that Bush got a good beating in the US elections (again this is on the positive side)

This is quite a mundane entry but it is therapeutic nearly as good as St Johns wort.

I am halfway through one of the most insightful and interesting books I have read for a while Bloody Foreigners by Robert Winder. It is about the impact of immigration in the UK well since time began. He argues that the first people in the Uk were from Iberia (the country not the airline I hope). He then discusses the contributions immigration has brought to the UK and how is was accepted or not by the indiginous population. Some of the chapters tie in with what I have discovered while researching my family tree over the past year. I can trace part of my family back to the time of James II in Oxfordshire and Berkshire ( I always knew that I wasn´t a true northerner I fond bitter, well bitter.) I also have roots from Ireland on two lineages, although one was in the army round about 1820 and the other line were from Meath and Dublin, they came to Liverpool during the famine. Winder´s book dicussess some of the problems faced by the Irish when they arrived in the 1840s and 1850s, this has led me to further investigate this period of history.

The book has also enabled me to reflect on how in Spain immigrants are treated (I have blogged on this before). The thing is that both Spain and the UK are countries built on previous waves of immigration and it would seem axiomatic that because our countries have developed through a mix and meetng of different cultures with a new modernised culture formed from this, and seeing as both the UK and Spain are more or less good countries then maybe we all should welcome immigration with more open arms and hearts. I am sure that there is something Hegelian there.

My horrible neighbours have moved. In two years I have been to court, told by the judges that even though I won the case they didn´t have time to actually follow the law against the neighbours. This was the first time in 5 years that I had bad nieghbours (totally without any semblance of shame) but now they have gone (hopefully very very far). I feel as though I am starting a new chapter in my flat in fact so much so that I am going to buy a Wall Unit in spanish style i.e. one I can´t afford but will get credit.

Even better all this has been confirmed while I am having a day off. Could today get any better....