UNTITLED

Woke up with the words 'lie low on a lilo off the coast of my imagination' in my head which made sense for a few seconds. Then I wondered if I should title today's blog Mein Kampf or Candide. While most days feel like a struggle the best way to deal with them is to imagine that 'all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds', even if you have to deal with class 4B.

The local rag has been bleating on about what used to be a bugbear of mine but lately involves me not holding my breath. Yes it's that time of year again when the paper reports on the soon to be pedestrianisation of the 'old quarter', which somehow includes our 'barrio'. It is all part of what I call the 'easing in' of things that in other parts of the world are not seen as a problem. The Spanish need to be 'eased in' with many things like when it comes to not smoking in bars. Everywhere else they just got on with it, here it is seen as an abuse of people's rights, those of the smokers. People often feel they were better off under Franco when they could drive without thinking or seat belts and smoke like bastards. The 'easing in' of pedestrianisation here involves many years of writing and talking about it and then threats that certain roads will be cut off to traffic on certain days. When this has passed the council repeats it all again a few times over the years and then they start naming roads. Then the words'imminent' start to appear in the articles. As anyone who lives in this town knows, this could mean somewhere in your grandaughter's lifetime if she is lucky. I found a Facebook page devoted to this subject. It had the rather confusing name of 'are you fed up with everyone talking about the pedestrianisation of our town?' which lead me to think it was for people who had alternative ideas and planned on doing something wild and interesting. It has been on the web for a few years now but despite having a quite a few members few of them had written anything. The latest comment bemoaned the state of the town and compared it to Africa. There was also a comment form someone young who was lamenting the noise that comes from those other bastards who ride around on mopeds and up the noise they make. Her solution was to turn her tele up even though her neighbour would start to complain. And on it goes. I am sure the group was set up with a lot of gusto and ambition but like a lot of things here the idea just fizzled out. Watch and wait.