Today I expect to invest in the future of Catalonia by buying some of the attractively priced bonds which the Generalitat is issuing in a desperate attempt to get some money. As these offer a relatively high rate of interest my disinterest in the development of my adopted country is tempered by enlightened self-interest at the same time!
Buying bonds which have an odd time limit of one year and two days to produce their return is also another way to keep the cash out of my hot little hands. Money in the bank is a foreign concept for me and in the present parlous circumstances of the financial organization of the world seems to be a deliberate slap in the face of recovery. One feels almost a religious fervour in trying to spend to encourage the frail shoots of economic growth. To save is virtually an act of treason!
My recent reading of “Stuff” has shown that there is a whole world of gadgets which I do not possess. It is comforting to learn that gadgets, like the poor, are always with us. While I have no real enthusiasm for communing with the down and outs in this world I do feel that I could develop a mission to those neglected gadgets which are consigned to the ignominy of lying neglected in their cardboard coffins with the seals unbroken. I feel myself to be a Carter or a Caernarvon breaking through and seeing “Wonderful things!” as each new gadget is freed and brought out into the light of day!
Buying the bonds was not as simple as I thought it would be. The issue by the Generalitat is oversubscribed, so I have been told, therefore there is likelihood that we will be given a proportion of our request if not the full amount.
Talking with the bank, the lady who was dealing with me said that the majority of the issue has been taken up by people in Catalonia. She said that Madrid had not been as forthcoming; she also confided that if Madrid had issued the bonds she would have been disinclined to take them up. “I would subscribe to bonds from your country of Wales before I supported Madrid!” she said. Good to see that national prejudice is alive and well and living in the banking system.
I might also add that the Generalitat is using a vast range of banks to sell its product but not BBVA (aka The Worst Bank in the World) they obviously have some scruples even in the unseemly scramble for cash that this bond issue represents!
The Name Day Jaunt to Terrassa is complete with the presents generally deemed acceptable, though one book will have to be changed as it had already been read by the recipient. Talking of presents: I also had a late present of a couple of bottles of wine with a large cheese – more than acceptable!
I am now more tired than I care to admit and I am trying, vainly, to put out of my mind that my teaching starts at 8.15 tomorrow, which means that I have to get up at 6.30 at the latest.
Perhaps as early a turn in is called for as possible.
That would be sensible – and just think how difficult that last sentence would be for an English learner to come to terms with. (Nothing like ending with a phrasal verb!)
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