BIT MORE

Another exemplar might be parking. Granted most small Spanish towns are wholly unsuitable for motor cars but where cars have any access, drivers will park just about anywhere. Pedestrian crossings, school gates, disabled parking all seem to make no difference.

Furthermore most smaller towns have never bothered with yellow lines or parking wardens. Yes, they can be right bastards in bigger towns but in el campo Anarchy rules.

ANARCHY II

Another example could be seat belts. In the early days new cars had a cautionary light on the dash to advise you that seat belts were not being worn. As time went by a little light was deemed insufficient and a variety of warning screeches were incorporated into the cautionary mode. Worse, the longer one left the belt unsecured, the louder became the screech. While accepting road safety is not to be underplayed, the idea of being nagged to death by some electronic autocrat grates on the intelligent individual's sense of self. Here in Spain though the law and the car noises seems to conform with EU standards nobody wears a belt in a built up area. Even when driving with our solicitor when we reached for our belts he declared reassuringly "no es necesario". Whether this is the law or just accepted practice we cannot deduce but the laidback attitude seems to dovetail perfectly with the smoking ban.

Evidence of Anarchy? I think so.

ANARCHY

My learned friend Leo Keohane is writing a thesis on the nature of Anarchy. Initially Jack White became a bit player in the scenario, however JRW seems, like Topsy, to have become the focus of the Opus. Leo´s draft thesis created a whole new range of thought processes for me.

Now living in Spain I cannot fail to associate anarchy with what some might consider to be its spiritual home. Anarchy, like Socialism, has never been tried. The nearest exemplar was probably Catalonia in the 1930´s. Living amongst these philosophical people one has to reflect on the nature of the Spaniard vis a viz Anarchy.

Take one example. The smoking ban which has tyrannised smokers in Dublin, New York, Edinburgh and elsewhere was introduced in Spain in January 2006. The media had countdown warnings of so many days to go. As a great Hispanophile I was fascinated to see how the average Spaniard would react. Anyone familiar with the country will quickly picture the scene - rows of wee men with voices conditioned by many years of smoking black tobacco and glasses of chewy red wine, all addressing the entire bar in tones so far up the decibel scale as to be approaching the pain threshold. The idea of them standing on a clean floor without a hint of ash, matches, dogends and fag packets just seemed perverse.

So it was with keen interest that we visited our normal run of bars in the New Year 2006. We prised open the door and lo and behold nothing - but nothing - had changed. All the wee men still puffed away at their Ducados and Fortunas; the layer of smoke still as dense as their voices.

Why no change? Apparently, all a bar is required to do is state at the door whether it is a smoking or non-smoking establishment. Above a certain square metreage there has to be a section for smokers, below it, it is simply a Yes or a No. Needless to say every bar opted for Yes and even the larger bars, though they claim to have smoking/non-smoking sections seemed completely oblivious to any divisions.

Anarchy? I think so. Too many people associate anarchy with chaos and ferment or as Leo put it - men with Christmas pudding bombs. Anarchy is about the absence of rules and reflects a peculiarly free state of mind. We could see no protests, no civil rights demonstrations, no indication whatever of smouldering dissent. New Year 2006 came and went and Spain´s cafe society carried on as normal.

One caveat, we have only observed rural southern Spain. What happened in the more northern parts and in the sophisticated cities of Barcelona and Madrid (or on the bastardised Costas) we cannot say but somehow one feels that the Spaniard´s great love of food, drink, talk, decibels and smoking will not change much from region to region.

GODS STILL AT IT

Certain ironic humour here. Bought a Lamp which is rechargeable by solar power. Alas no Sun these last 7 days. Ergo No Lamp.

Bought a Chain Saw - wouldn´t start. And this morning our primary source of power, our Generator, packed in - no light, no hot water and no water pump. Drove 25km for meeting with Health Social Worker in Talarrubias - Not In, nice drive tho.

Rain continues Deluge style.

Otherwise spirits amazingly high.

Don´t give up reading, the best is yet to come.

Beanscene Achievements

We have achieved a lot.

New Chain Saw, new Car, a huge delivery of Firewood. Yes, it´s cold. And Damp.
The eagles were soaring over our roof this morning, and through a mist seemed spooky. Today we are to choose a new floor for our Casa, and hoping to get it tiled before our shipment arrives on 26th Febrero.

The highlight of our day is next, Coffee and Brandy in the Meson Carlos, just a few doors up from this cyber shop in Talarubbias, some 11km away from our home.

Hasta Later

THEY FIRST SEND MAD

As the Greeks succinctly put it, whom the Gods wish to destroy they first send mad. Well, the bastards nearly sent me yon way. We left our Borders home, delivered the car to Jim Darling at the car auctions and took a hotel at the airport prior to our flight to Cardiff.

It was probably something to do with the humping of 60 odd boxes (2cuft.each) that either dislodged my stent or tore the surrounding tissue, but the result was severe pain all the way from Wales to Herrera Del Duque. I have now arranged to see medics here as pain is ongoing but will save the next piece of jolly talk for the next blog.

Overall I was convinced the Gods had conspired against me.

Jollier blog to follow concerning our picaresque neighbours and their secretive hunting exploits. The Italian word omerta makes the Sicilians seem positively gregarious next to this band of brothers (literally everyone is a cousin). Let it be known that you need something and Lo, it can be arranged and pronto..