Sunday 16 December 2007

Firewood

Maggie went out for one of her walks with Luisa tonight. Talking about the cold weather Maggie said how I hadn't been using the log burning stove back in Culebrón but how we were intending to use it over Christmas.

Luisa instantly offered Maggie "quality" firewood from Castilla y Leon, not like the olive and almond rubbish we have in Alicante.

When Maggie drives from Ciudad Rodrigo to Alicante next week she will have a few kilos of good quality wood in the back of her car!

Friday 14 December 2007

Old enough to remember The Strawbs and the Union song?

"You don't get me I'm part of the Union till the day I die!"

As I remember it the early Seventies song about Union power sung by the Strawbs was not very complimentary. I suppose it was the time of Red Robbo after all. Nonetheless, the idea of workers banding together to give a collective strength seems both reasonable and necessary to me given the potential for abuse of workers by their bosses.

Maggie works as a teacher, but she is classed as something less, akin to a teaching assistant, because teachers in Spain have to undergo competitive examinations and other EU qualifications do not seem to be transferable. Maggie puts up with it because something is better than nothing. Today a couple of Union reps turned up at her school to talk to Maggie and her co-worker about their role and responsibilities within the school. It seems that they think the situation is unfair and they intend to take up their case.

Maggie is not, currently, a member of their Union. Proactive or what?

Sunday 2 December 2007

On pals

On Friday night Maggie went out with her aerobics class for the end of term meal, on to a bar later for a couple of drinks and a bit of a bop. Touch of the hangovers later. Yesterday evening, having assured me that she was on for a quiet night in, she rang to say that the people from the towel shop had invited her out to the local cinema. Today she went to get some Christmas cards from a charity fair and bumped into a Spanish woman, serving on the stall, who had married a Brit and spent 27 years in the UK. When he died she returned to Spain so, as a direct result of shopping for a few cards, Maggie ended up going to the woman's home for a cup of tea. Whilst she was out the mother in law of one of her landlords phoned to see if she fancied a walk.

Those people in Ciudad Rodrigo seem like a sociable lot.