Monday, October 13, 2012

It was a very uneventful weekend.  My cold was in full bloom and it seemed that the intelligent thing to do was to stay indoors and take life easy.  That is exactly what we did.  Yesterday Susan prepared an outstanding lunch consisting of a veal Marsala, some green beans using a recipe of Ina Garten’s and, last but not least, a salad.  We opened a bottle of a Verdejo called El Palomo Cojo – The Limping Dove.  It was very tasty and at 7.50 Euros, it was a bargain.  We spent the rest of the day reading and watching TV.  We purchased several episodes of Inspector Morse, which is one of our favorite BBC programs.  It is both witty and well acted.

I am feeling considerably better this morning.  I had an appointment at the gym for an evaluation, but I cancelled it because I don’t think I am up to heavy exercise or cardio yet.  I did get to the Banco Popular to get an official statement of our account, which we will need for our visa renewal.  We spent part of the weekend gathering all the necessary documents and, according to an e-mail just received from our friend, Salva, we should have an appointment real soon.  It will be a relief to have the renewal out of the way.  Susan is currently at her Pilates class and should be home soon.  We will most probably go out for lunch this afternoon and this evening there is a CIVAC meeting and, if I am feeling up to it, I will be there.

Political discontent continues to grow here in Spain.  The only decisive steps that the current government has taken has been to cut funds for health care and education and raise taxes and the VAT, which is a national sales tax.  It currently stands at 21% having been raised from its previous 18%.  They have also frozen or reduced the salary of government employees.  The current PM is rather indecisive about asking for a bank bailout and that has resulted in a very shaky stock market and bond market.

In addition to the economic crisis, the issue of independence or separatism has raised its head again with both Cataluña and The Basque Region being at the forefront of that movement.  The politicians are having a field day batting the issue back and forth and who knows how it will turn out.  Personally, I do not think that a secessionist movement means that, in the end, all parties will lose.