After a decent early morning swim, a nicely surrealistic accompaniment to my post-swim cup of tea by sighting a man with a parrot on a collar and lead, arriving to have a coffee (the man and his lady companion, not the parrot) at an adjacent table. The white parrot (cockatoo?) alternated his perch from the man’s shoulder to the top of a free chair, but was generally unobtrusive, and certainly quiet, though constantly disconcerting.
I think it was the collar and lead that discomforted the most but was not enough to distract me from answering Carles’ questions about English Usage, with which he assaults me most days.
Yesterday, he wanted to know about expressions of surprise and, knowing his predilection for the archaic (he uses “spiffing” with relish!) I offered him “Goodness gracious me!” as something suitably outré in modern use! He had forgotten it by today, though after a Herculean effort of memory he dredged up the “gracious me” part. I wonder if it will make it to his RAM tomorrow!
Today’s Word of the Day was “spoil” and its use with regard to children (specifically his grandchildren) and to things in general.
I enjoy our little chats because it keeps me in touch with my teaching side and, while I do not think that I have the same agility with explanations that I had when I was in the classroom, it does make me think to try and find the way to explain things that to a native English speaker need no explanation.
I hasten to add that these little forays into education do not, even in the slightest, make me regret my “retired” status from the teaching profession.
Teachers have my admiration and sympathy, but not my emulation!
The weather is certainly on the change. I have not only started wearing a short jacket when I set off in the early morning on my bike to the pool, but also when I go on my extended bike ride to the end of the Gavà Paseo after my swim. The days of a t-shirt being adequate for both are now gone, as indeed are the nights without a sheet and with an open French door.
Although somewhat overcast, there are intervals of sunshine, and I am still using a small electric fan to keep cool in my chaotic squalor on the third floor. There are still times in the mid afternoon when the big fans are needed, but the weather is decidedly “fresher” which is our euphemism for colder.
As with the UK, though not in such a squalidly chaotic way, Spain is dreading the winter with the increases in power and prices generally. Although the winter is cold, it is not as bitter as the UK, though central heating and blankets with a couple of eiderdowns are necessary to get through the colder snaps.
Castelldefels is a rich little town with a selection of Russian oligarchs and Barça players living here in multi-million-euro houses (as well, of course, as we, the genteel poor-ish) so the fear of what the winter can bring is somewhat modified by the fact that many here are well able to compensate for the hike in prices and still smile. But, like any sizeable town, you need an army of lower paid people to keep the place running – and how are they going to survive?
As part of my forced awareness, I am determined to find out how and what the council is planning to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the coming financial hardship.
From time to time, we have volunteers stationed at the check-outs of our local supermarkets asking for donations for Food Banks. I have no idea where these are situated in our town, and I also don’t know how they are funded. But I am going to find out. And Do Something.
With my not-fit-for-purpose knees there is a limit to what unskilled help I can give, but there must be something that I can do. I am aware that, though I might “preach poverty” I am comfortably well off compared to many given my status as a Baby Boomer who got born at the right time for virtually everything! So, even if we have to make some cutbacks in our expenditure to cover exorbitant fuel bills, there will still be something left over to help those who are really having to make the decision between buying food and staying warm.
I suppose that I am writing this down as a way of forcing myself to do something more than just ruminate. For example, I am sure that my pool would be more than prepared to collect food for the Food Banks, they have done it before, and perhaps they might be prepared to do it on a more regular basis during the winter months.
Before I ask anything of institutions and myself, I have to find out just how these things are organized in Castelldefels and then take it from there.
Responsibility begins at home, and my home is here.
