PREPOTENTES

Last night I went past the main square to listen to the protest which might be banned this weekend according to a law that says there can be no campaigning or any form of propaganda on the 'day of reflection', the day before voting day which will be this Sunday. Then I had a gander around the Izquierda Unida's concert and declined the free beer but in general I felt a change of mood. Typical Spanish style, everything left to the last minute but with a great sense of spontaneity that somehow works.

On the subject of vans for the various political parties here I notice Izquierda Unida has a beat up old car which almost had an old lady centrada across its bonnet as she attempted to cross a zebra, a bit like one of the old folk who got run over on a zebra crossing a few days ago and has since died, but don't worry, the council have put a speed bump in front of this zebra and could well do with putting one in front of my front door as another van came cruising along the pavement and nearly had me again splattered on my way out yesterday and not for the first time.

There is a relatively new English academy here which goes by the name You Talk. I can't help but think of opening one up and calling it You Shut Up. The idea being the Spanish will never learn English as they don't know how to listen to what the other person has to say and when they do have the oppportunity to speak in English they usually crack after three minutes and raise their arms in the air and shout 'joder, te digo en espanYol es mucho mas facil' or something similar. One of H's students told him he went along to a freebie given by the academy where they were going to have natives speaking and anyone who wanted to put their English to good use could go. He reckons about fifty bods turned up and after five minutes were all rabbiting on in Spanish and not really listening to anyone in particular.