Ask for a bail-out, that is. Zapatero is full of the "We're fine, thank you very much", while Economy Minister Elena Salgado tells us the banks' improved transparency, as insisted by the Bank of Spain, is working (and soon they'll have to spill the beans on how up to their necks in unpaid property loans they are, too). And Zapatero told investors that if they bet against Spain, they will lose money. Brave, bold, confident words.
Unless you're fluent in Spanish when you come here to Andalucia - whether to live, or to have a holiday or extended stay (to write that novel, for example) - speaking the lingo is one of the biggest challenges, but also one of the most essential skills for starting a new life, making friends, and getting things done, whether it be shopping, tax returns, or registering with a local doctor.
Few characters are as closely associated with Sevill
This post will either be of considerable relevance (and hopefully interest, too) – if you have children at school in Andalucia; or of none whatsoever – if you don’t. If your kids are being educated in another country, for example the UK, it will hopefully be of some interest. I'd love to hear from any UK parents of schoolkids as to how things there differ from here in Spain.
One group who will be happy with how the Pope's second official visit to Spain last week went, are gays and lesbians. Their kiss-in on Sunday morning, outside the archbishop's palace in Barcelona as Benedict XVI was leaving to consecrate the Sagrada Familia, attracted headlines around the world.
After living in the western Andalucian countryside for three years, in a fairly quiet area with very few foreign people around, coming to the Costa del Sol is a shock to the system. I went down there for a work meeting this week, and felt like the country mouse in the big city (although it’s more of a suburban seaside sprawl).
OK, I admit it. I love TV movies about famous people. Even better if they're royalty or aristos, and we get a glimpse inside their everyday lives - the king eating his breakfast in a grey chandal (tracksuit), Prince Felipe glued to the telly. The mini-series about the Duquesa de Alba, which aired earlier this year, was marvellous, mainly because it was filmed in her actual palace in Madrid.
