Long time no post

We've been doing things. As well as various visits to the UK to do the grandparent thing, we spent three weeks in Madrid at a very good language school (Ele=madrid) which specialises in more mature students-including some even more mature than us! It had a fantastic cultural programme, including visits, conferences, films and an opportunity to meet ordinary Spanish speakers i.e. not teachers. We met an ecologist who advises the government on environmental issues (very interesting) and a judge who took our breath away with her lack of experience of life. She was very young-maybe 30- and her training had consisted of learning by heart laws and constitutional documents. Apparently judges do not have to have had experience as lawyers in Spain. Who knew?

Now we are back in La Barrosa and the big debate is whether there are more or less tourists this year than last and whether they are spending less, eating in more etc. Not as parochial as it might seem as the economy is the big issue here as elsewhere in Europe and the US. Unemployment is rising and the construction industry is falling apart-although there still seems to be plenty of building work going on in Chiclana, it is hard to imagine who is going to buy it. Zapatero (who won the election incidentally although not with the overall majority he wanted) thinks it is a matter of opinion as to whether there is an economic crisis, but has called a conference of economists to write a report for him (favourite Spanish pastime) and Solbes, the economics minister seems to be revising the growth figures downwards. For now government strategy seems to be to whistle a happy tune (not necessarily a bad thing in itself) and promise more social spending. Getting to grips with Spanish bureaucracy that works against entrepreneurship and the diversification of industry might not be a bad idea but there is no signs of it. As for our own little local economy, we are worried that the town council, whose stated aim is to promote Chiclana as a gastronomic centre of excellence, has produced a new tourist leaflet in which Telepizza is listed as one of the restaurants......