Sun and Sloth

How difficult it is to enjoy the season of goodwill towards all men when there are French in the world.

One does try to regard that fine quartet in “Billy Budd” about hating the French (“Can't stand the French; don't like their manners; dammned mounseers”) as an amusing reference to the distant past when our two countries were indulging in their age old pastimes of fighting each other but then you have the International Olympic Committee.

This august body of corrupt, self seeking, self important, and overwhelmingly foreign non-entities has decreed that the prime language in the 2012 Olympics in London taking precedence over all others should be French! So, yet again the language of eighteenth century diplomacy dusts off its cobwebbed, archaic phrases and pushes its obtrusive and unwanted self into the limelight where its unregarded words will merely be the signal for general impatience before the language of the world does its job of informing people about what they want to know!

Not only is our language forced into second place but also our national flag is forced into an even lower place after the Olympic banner (fair) then the UNO flag (questionable) and presumably the Swiss flag as the flaunted symbol of where members of the committee have their private bank accounts!

I wonder how the Blatter (who not only managed to frustrate our attempts to hold the world cup but also sits on the IOC as well) person expects to be referred to: I suppose he hopes for a little more than the British designation of “Your Ignorant Corrupt Bastardship” though I don't really see why he should. His election was, at least, questionable and his style of leadership (if that is the right word) is autocratic in a way that even Brezhnev could only dream about.

If you really want to make your blood boil look through the membership of the IOC and count the number of titles. It makes depressing reading.

But today is a continuing holiday and my bile is merely mechanical and not soul-felt: who can be miserable on a sunny (though cold) day without the pressure of work to dampen enthusiasm.

A whiff of school managed to infiltrate its way into my consciousness by via a telephone call from Suzanne, but that was more to arrange a lunch and exhibition viewing rather than talk about the Institution on the Hill.

I will take with me the art history book that I have bought as it is an almost perfect accompaniment to the course that we are teaching. Its only drawback is that it is in Spanish and we are teaching the course as part of an English Credit so that all the work must be done in that language. Ironically the book itself was originally published in English, but I bought the Spanish version in a cut price bookshop and I shudder to think how much the non-discounted version will be via Amazon.com.

We are going to visit the Picasso Museum. This is one of the most popular museums in Barcelona and it does have a reasonably interesting collection of Picasso's work, but not so many of the major works to make this museum one of the most important in Barcelona. It does however have an enterprising programme of exhibitions which sometimes make interesting sense of what they actually do possess. They also create exhibitions using guest works and the current exhibition is one which uses paintings by Degas to draw comparisons and show the development of Picasso's work. I look forward to it and hope that the catalogue is not too expensive.

A visit to Barcelona is also an opportunity for me to visit the Apple shop (where ever it is) and discover if there is a machine specific and heavily logoed case for my present computer. I think that it has to be a case (exactly!) of if you've got it you should flaunt it!

Lunch today was in a cafe we have used before but not for a menu del dia. The cost of the meal was €7 and is the cheapest in the town centre as far as I know. I had a house salad of mango, avocado, olives and green leaves followed by roast rabbit with fried pineapple and potatoes, finished off by chocolate mousse all of this accompanied by a childishly assertive red wine and fresh bread. Excellent value for about six quid!

Our return home was via a hardware store where Toni has bought the wherewithal to make some new lamp shades. As he purchased plastic cups, string, glue and assorted balloons I am a little apprehensive about what the end result is going to be!

Thank goodness one has the spaciousness of a holiday to take this on board!