Way to go

In the 1960s I remember finding air travel to be glamorous and exciting. Maybe I had led a sheltered life, but it was certainly better than recent experiences. It may be cheap (though beware the added costs-at Liverpool airport last week, we had to pay 50p for two tiny plastic bags into which we had to put gels and creams) but it is also nasty. For instance, I am all for maximum safety and security and willing to cooperate with as many checks as it takes. But I would like the occasional "please" and "thank you" as I am instructed to remove jackets, cardigans, belts, boots, watches etc. rather than being dealt with as an already convicted criminal. (Do they recruit their security staff from amongst prison warders?)In addition, news from Clickair, the budget "wing" (sorry) of Iberia, which till now has been our favourite low price airline and which takes us fairly conveniently from Sevilla to Gatwick, has me foaming at the mouth. Apparently, they will now allow travellers to take animals-dogs, cats, even chickens, according to the press release-in the cabin, provided they travel in a container. So now we can add a greater variety of germs to those already circulating, not to mention the noise of terrified animals.

We have to travel by air to South America and will be taking a number of internal flights there as well. Anything else is unrealistic. But the nastiness of air travel in europe is why we will be taking the train all the way back from our nearest station to Heathrow for our flight to Santiago.

Suspicion confirmed

I was talking to our gardener Sebastian today about what we plan to do with part of the garden that refuses to do what we want it to do. This led somehow to Sebastian telling me that he was going hunting tomorrow, for partridge. Would I like some? I explained that we don't eat meat. "Are you an Arab?" he asked, indignantly.

I have long believed that the Spanish relationship with the meat of the pig-delicious though I am told it is-is inspired not only by taste but also by ideology. Eat the pig. Prove you are neither a muslim nor a jew. I take this incident as confirmation.

We have lift off!

The work on our new one way system is progressing. Yesterday men arrived with string and spray paint and marked out a path and now the road is being dug up. We are hopeful, especially as it would be economic suicide (loss of blue flag status for the beach being one possibility) if there were access problems once the holiday season begins around easter. However, elsewhere in Chiclana council things remain the same. The governing (again)PSOE has pronounced its Christmas decorations and activities "a success" but the P.P., now back in opposition after a year as the head of a coalition, has described them as "cutre" or "shabby". Not much sign there then of the pulling together for the sake of the economy which the King urged in his New Year address.

Also on the receiving end of criticism is Carme Chacon, the Defence Minister in the Zapatero Government. Her appointment last year didn't go down well with the more reactionary elements in Spanish political life-after all, she's a woman and was heavily pregnant when appointed. None of them seemed to realise that she wasn't actually going to lead the armed forces into battle, simply take political responsibility for them. Now she has upset them again by turning up at the annual Pascua Militar-a military end of year event-dressed not in a long dress, "as protocol demands", but wearing a trouser suit, "de tipo smoquin"-a tuxedo. This has led to "una polemica bastante friqui", according to our local paper-best translated, I would think, as freaking them (i.e. the non-progressives) out. Another case of plus ca change.....

2009 begins here!

Yesterday was the final day of celebrations in Spain and tomorrow the schools open again. Children get their presents on the 6th from the three Kings who turn up in thousands of cabalgatas-cavalcades-across Spain, usually in the form of disguised local businessmen or chairmen of football clubs-and the disguise does include Balthasar "blacking up". On the morning and afternoon of the 6th, weather permitting, Spanish families form their own cavalcades-in Chiclana-this mainly takes place along the paseo maritimo in La Barossa- as children "premiere" (estrenar according to the local paper) their new presents-skates, dolls prams and bikes remain popular, we can report. Whilst this activity is in keeping with the year-round Spanish love of family outings during which one sees and is seen, the 6th of January stroll has a definite edge of public display. Still, I suppose it does no one any harm and may be especially important this year since, as Jose of the supermarket pointed out, all the flash cars that used to drive around here have now gone back to the showrooms as "le crisis" bites.

It may be a new year but some things do not change. The headline in this morning's local paper announced that "El inicio de las grandes obras de Chiclana tienen que esperar aun un an(y)o"-The start of the major building work in Chiclana will have to wait another year". This refers to the plans to build a new shopping centre, including a branch of El Corte Ingles, the Spanish department store modelled on John Lewis, out near one of our two (?why?) bullrings and is typical of Chiclana's propensity to announce its intentions (we have been waiting for the new centre for two years now), perhaps even start the project and then fail to finish it. To be fair though, the work on a new one way system down to the beach from the roundabout at the top of our road together with an amphitheatre and a new police station began today just nine months after it was first due to start. Watch this space.

Nanny sometimes knows best!

One of the reasons for leaving the UK that we often find given by our compatriots is to get away from "the nanny state", sometimes rephrased as "political correctness gone mad". I thought of this when I read yesterday that in 2008 in Spain, 261 construction workers died in accidents at work, of whom 50 were in Andalucia. Although I admit that we are the kind of people who check our smoke alarm every time the Julie Walters advert urging us to do this appears, it is only slightly comforting to me (and, I should have thought not at all comforting to the 261 families affected) that this is a 6% drop on the 2007 figures.

Old Habits

I listen to Spanish radio sometimes when I am exercising (much better than the TV, though this is saying almost nothing) and have been struck by how often, when discussing a piece of news, the presenter will refer to and add a commentary about the attitude to the issue of "we Spanish" in a positive, entirely unironic way. Not only is it as if such an entity obviously existed, but also as though it held a distinct and unified, or at least dominant, point of view. Despite the federalism which requires such fancy footwork from Spanish politicians, especially now that Zapatero's socialists require the support of nationalist groups, in the absence of a substantial body of United Left MPs in Parliament, to pass any legislation, the Spanish national psychology, it seems, has yet to experience its post-modern moment.

Meanwhile, we remain fiercly resistant to any attempt to define us as British expats-although as the picture of me drinking tea from a flask on a walk across the salinas on a bright Boxing Day morning (neither the flask nor Boxing Day are Spanish concepts) identity might reside more in the doing than the thinking! Old habits die hard indeed. My new year resolution is to make more of a habit of writing this blog.