Princess Leonor is born to Prince Felipe and his once newsreading wife Letizia, posing an interesting question for the Spanish constitution… Looks like a promised change will now be rushed through allowing Leonor to rule as Queen one day – another victory for the women of Spain!

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Tortilla making in the kitchen whilst Marina and I discuss a range of culture clash topics from salad obsessions to Brits’ confusions about rabies in Spain. And here’s the recipe…

Tortilla Paisana

4 big potatoes
1 large onion
2 small corgettes (zucchinis in the U.S. !)
1 green pepper
olive oil
6 eggs
salt

After Mayor Gallardon’s sterling efforts this summer to dig up every other street in the capital in time for the autumn return to work, a new plan is born to bring further agonies to the city streets in the New Year. This time, ironically, it’s more public transport that’s going to cause all the problems. The Metro will not be opening throughout the night on Fridays and Saturdays as had originally been hoped. A fleet of 109 buses will be following the exact route of the Metro lines and stops instead.

That should be interesting in the case of Line 3, whose stops pop up in some of the tightest streets of the old quarter. Driving a car past Lavapies Metro is hard enough, let alone a bus. And anyone who has sat in atraffic jam in a taxi on the Paseo de la Castellana at 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning will quickly spot the futility of this plan. The traffic in the early hours of a Saturday is as bad as it is at 9 a.m. on Mondays. Adding 109 more heavy diesel vehicles into the mix is not going to help, especially as the Madrileños are far too addicted to their cars to see this as an interesting alternative, whether they have been drinking or not.

The real question must be, however, what is wrong with the Metro? Why clog up the city streets by following these perfectly good underground routes, routes that would ease the overground chaos instead of exacerbating it? Perhaps it’s part of Mayor Gallardon’s secret plan to drive us all to hate our cars with such a passion that we eventually sell them all in exchange for bicycles. Yes! The suicidal pursuit of cycling in Madrid! Don’t get me started on that…

Matt from “Housetrapped in the sun” is looking for people to participate in the next series of programmes.

“There are two aspects to the programme,” explains Matt, “the first part looks at properties that have been on the market for around six months plus and haven’t sold, be it for cosmetic, structural or other reasons. The idea behind the program is that Andrew Winter our presenter, with his 20 odd years experience in the property market, will step in to offer advice to the vendors to overcome the issues with their property and ultimately get that sale! So far on Selling Houses our programme’s UK sister production, we’ve had a 100% success rate with properties Andrew has been involved with and we’re looking to repeat this success in the foreign market.”

“The other part to the programme aims to help people with other property related issues, situations that they are completely stuck in.In the past we have covered topics from the Valencia Land Grab Laws in Spain to termite infestation in France. In each case we hope to offer some sort of help, some way to move the owners situation forward.”

For further details and to take part, check out the website:
www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/sellinghouses/his.html

Now this is a sensible move. While the UK falls into another collective psychosis over the next epidemic that is(n’t) going to wipe out tens of thoudands, millions even, the Spanish government puts up a simple informative website, http://www.gripeaviar.es/, helping everyone over here to calm down. Good common sense.

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At last! Notes from Spain brings you the real deal! Real Madrid playing live at the legendary Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the heart of Madrid. Just listening to this makes my hair stand on end!

Thanks to Stephen, Alistair and Chris for extra commentary. For tickets keep an eye on the Real Madrid website. Wow, what a game!

If you enjoy the podcasts please consider sponsoring my charity motorcycle ride across India, 2,500 kilometres in 15 day! Details on the trip and all the charities that benefit can be found here.

‘With a birth rate estimated at 1.28 per woman – far below the replacement rate of 2.1 and one of the lowest in Europe – Spain’s population will fall (and age) dramatically over the coming years. According to Expatica: “By 2050, Spain will have only 30 million people – three quarters of its current population – as well as one of the oldest population profiles in the world”.

No matter how the current crisis around Ceuta and Melilla turns out, a people like the Spaniards, with so little commitment to their own future, will never have the strength to resist being overwhelmed by the burgeoning and desperate masses of the third world at their doorstep.’

An extract from FaceRight.com

Interesting facts in the first paragraph, but is this really about Spaniards having no commitment to their own future? I would say that it has more to do with new professional opportunities for women that disappear as soon as they try to integrate a large family into their working lives, and the fact that rising prices and mortgages make it very difficult to be able to afford to have more than one child these days. I’ll have to find out what the Spanish think about this…

I have tickets for this Wednesday’s European Cup match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium… now that seems like a podcasting opportunity if ever I saw one! Watch this space…

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Bit of a one-off experimental-cast this one… Books about Spain and excerpts from my book ‘Errant in Iberia‘. The other books mentioned in the podcast, Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’, ‘Voices of the Old Sea’ by Norman Lewis, and ‘South from Granada’ by Brenan, can all be found on this page at Notes from Spain’s sister website Books on Spain.

Details of the sponsored ride across India can be found here. Please consider sponsoring me if you enjoy the podcasts!