A sad day for Spain
What a strange day it has been today. Bit of good, more of bad.
The good was an amazing YouTube film I found, explaining how to set a perfect fire in the woodburner. A lovely chap called Mike Craft has kindly taken the trouble to film his ingenious 'V' formation method where you put two large logs in an inverted V shape on the outside edges of your grate, and then make a pile of a little paper, lots of cardboard, a bit of kindling and some small logs in the middle. I set the fire yesterday, rueing the fact I don't have the requisite airing cupboard to get the wood tinder-dry (the thought of an airing cupboard is quite surreal in the context of a Spanish mountain house!).
It was too warm for a fire yesterday, so I waited til today before lighting up. To say I was dubious is an understatement, but it literally went up with a whoosh and kept going. It's now settled into a cosy glow and the house is toasty. Mike has saved me 5 hours and warmed the cockles of my heart. I even dug out the novel-in-progress - it's on a separate laptop which hasn't been turned on for so long it seems to be suffering from shock and is going very slow. Hopefully it will recover!
The bad news is that the extreme right Vox Party won 12 seats in the Andalucian elections yesterday. Susana Díaz, regional chief of the dominant PSOE Socialist Party, will almost certainly not return to power. Her 33 seats (down from 47), even if combined with the seats of another sympathetic party, wouldn't make the absolute majority of 55 seats required.
This is the first time a far-right party has won seats since Spain's return to democracy after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. Díaz said she would call on other parties to "build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain," adding: "Each party must decide if they are against the extreme right or if they will rely on their support to enter into government."
When I moved out here, I was excited to be coming to a country that was welcoming refugees that other European countries had turned away. We have a centre for unaccompanied child refugees nearby and it has been brilliant to see how the team (all local to the area) are working to integrate these children into Spanish life, while community members are volunteering with football games, art classes and more. Now, more than ever, is the time to carry on. Never give up the fight.
Here's some uplifting music - Ojo de Brujo's groovy take on the Wailers' classic, Get Up, Stand Up (don't give up the fight):
The good was an amazing YouTube film I found, explaining how to set a perfect fire in the woodburner. A lovely chap called Mike Craft has kindly taken the trouble to film his ingenious 'V' formation method where you put two large logs in an inverted V shape on the outside edges of your grate, and then make a pile of a little paper, lots of cardboard, a bit of kindling and some small logs in the middle. I set the fire yesterday, rueing the fact I don't have the requisite airing cupboard to get the wood tinder-dry (the thought of an airing cupboard is quite surreal in the context of a Spanish mountain house!).
It was too warm for a fire yesterday, so I waited til today before lighting up. To say I was dubious is an understatement, but it literally went up with a whoosh and kept going. It's now settled into a cosy glow and the house is toasty. Mike has saved me 5 hours and warmed the cockles of my heart. I even dug out the novel-in-progress - it's on a separate laptop which hasn't been turned on for so long it seems to be suffering from shock and is going very slow. Hopefully it will recover!
The bad news is that the extreme right Vox Party won 12 seats in the Andalucian elections yesterday. Susana Díaz, regional chief of the dominant PSOE Socialist Party, will almost certainly not return to power. Her 33 seats (down from 47), even if combined with the seats of another sympathetic party, wouldn't make the absolute majority of 55 seats required.
This is the first time a far-right party has won seats since Spain's return to democracy after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975. Díaz said she would call on other parties to "build a firewall against the extreme right in Spain," adding: "Each party must decide if they are against the extreme right or if they will rely on their support to enter into government."
When I moved out here, I was excited to be coming to a country that was welcoming refugees that other European countries had turned away. We have a centre for unaccompanied child refugees nearby and it has been brilliant to see how the team (all local to the area) are working to integrate these children into Spanish life, while community members are volunteering with football games, art classes and more. Now, more than ever, is the time to carry on. Never give up the fight.
Here's some uplifting music - Ojo de Brujo's groovy take on the Wailers' classic, Get Up, Stand Up (don't give up the fight):
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