MUCH OF THE SAME

I thought it was rather fitting yesterday that the school where I work celebrated El Dia del Paz or Peace Day while Tony Blair tried to save his soul for six hours. While he continued to justify his decisions the pupils of San Viator danced albeit a bit North Korea style to the sounds of John Lennon singing Imagine. If ever there was a song to fill me with inertia this one wins everytime but the sentiment was there and I asked some of the other teachers why every day couldn't be peace day when Don Jesus cajoled me into dancing and that's when I realised I am glad it isn't if it means tripping the light fantastic around a playground. I hate the group thing here in Spain as it is difficult when you have lived beyond the fringe for so many years. It did feel strange as we all wafted around the playground with Our John singing over the Tannoy. On a more surreal note, I overheard one boy ask another 'who sang the song?' 'what song?' the other asked. 'The peace song, you know, Imagine'. 'Oh that' he said. 'Un negro'. A black man.

Every week the local paper on the internet tries to glean the mentality of its readership by offering them a question which they can give their opinion with a click on the old mouse. This week they want to find out what the locals think about the idea of raising the retirement age to 67. At the last count 22% thought this was inevitable while 78% thought it was a bad idea as it was an 'aggresion on the rights of workers' or something like that. I suppose it depends on which job you do but most people in this town can't wait to retire at 50 and spend the rest of their life bored or in the bar. I intend to keep working on or at something till I am too old to and 67 seems too young for me but we'll see when I get there and if they still want me, and how much money I will or won't have.

Having said goodbye to my salad days I am not sure if I have entered my cake or wine years or perhaps both. The best cake shop here is called Vilas and I have found out they have WI-FI so it will make a nice change to have cake and coffee before or after writing instead of tapas and red wine.

Lastly, a loudspeaker or Tannoy on top of a van can mean one of two things in Spain,. Either the circus is in town or elections are imminent. If you hear it coming from a school playground you'd better hide in the toilets.