Jessica Rose in her party frock seems like a good way to start the new year, although none of us actually went to a party, preferring the homely and intimate to the the public, the loud and, in the Spanish case, inevitably smokey. So a good time was had by all!
Now it's back to the routine, two Pilates sessions a week and two Spanish classes with more Spanish on the television news (also an excellent way of understanding what is important in a country through what is prioritised) and through the newspaper. This year I am determined to move beyond "consolida" to the level optimistically called "perfecciona". We shall see.
We shall also see who is to form the next government in Spain-again an insight into what is considered important. The two major political parties seem to be setting their stalls out around the economy (which is said to be in a baddish way, with rising unemployment and inflation and a stagnant property market) and issues of social cohesion. The Catholic bishops (are there any other kind in Spain?) have weighed in with a defense of the traditional catholic family, code for anti gay rights, anti choice and anti women, thus saving the conservative Partido Popular the trouble. The PSOE (socialists) have responded with a defense of all families, which seems reasonable to me. But the third big issue-terrorism-is really significant, because by this of course the Spanish don't mean al-Quaeda but their home grown variety, ETA. Now, I wouldn't want to minimise what an arrogant pain in the neck these people are nor deny that from time to time they do blow people up-mainly in the Basque country itself, which can't do much for its economy. But in a total world perspective they do not match up to al-Quaeda who, quite frankly, hardly get a mention in the Spanish media and hardly seem to be of concern to Spanish politicians. Javier Marías, who is a novelist and commentator who writes a weekly column in El País wrote about this recently and I have read elsewhere about the inward lookingness if Spain of which this seems the clearest example. Is it a result of isolation under Franco? Because, if so, they really need to start getting over it.
Whilst we wait for politics to heat up here, there are of course the American primaries. Iowa was a few days ago and last night was New Hampshire. I couldn't sleep last night so stayed up as the results came in and was delighted to see the tone of the commentary change as Hillary confounded the media and beat Obama. The night started off with questions about whether she would end her campaign if she lost, through discussions about how various levels of loss would be spun by her campaign team through puzzled silence (fortunately for them the commentators were able to get excited about the Republican vote being called for McCain at this stage) and then a slow recognition that Hillary had won. Actually I have nothing against Obama, although I think some of his ideas are rather naive, but I think Hillary stands a better chance against the Republicans and, besides which, my residual feminism is stirred by the though of a woman president. Hopefully the scare caused by her loss in Iowa will encourage her to talk more about public service on which she is very good and to appear less controlled by the party machine.
Anyway, that's all for now. Must go and cook.
