The TIM blog

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Along with a group of other people I'm doing some bits and pieces for the blog of a local, English language magazine. I've added the link in the box to the right but, if you want to have a look it's here

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Flat hunting

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We saw nine flats today. Alright, as two were on the same landing maybe we "really" saw eight but the range was incredible. From modern, double glazed, furnished at Ikea to a place where the louvred grill in the kitchen gave a good view into the tiny bathroom. Most were a bit seedy with Oxfam furniture and a vaguely unpleasant odour. Only one had aircon and none had any form of fixed heating. Just as in the UK flat hunting is a tedious process. There are basically two ways. Wander the streets and look for signs attached to the balcony and ring the owner direct. Or go to an Estate Agent and ask what they have. There are classified ads in papers too but usually the number of properties listed is small. We started with the Estate Agent route. It's an expensive option because as well as the month's deposit and the month's rent that everyone asks for in Spain the agent also charges a month's worth of rent for matching you and the property. Most of the properties w...
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Money rich, time poor?

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Outside the flat we have a box for all the advertising blurb that people deliver. The supermarket offers, mega deals on beds or super special deals on computers. Most of it goes straight to the recycling bin. The other day though there was a small ad for a dog walking service. I thought it was interesting. Most Spaniards I teach are relatively well off. Talking to them I don't get the idea that many of them have "servants". If the kids need parking somewhere before they are old enough for nursery, kindergarten or school or after they come home from them it tends to be with the grandparents rather than with child minders. Cleaners are pretty common but they don't seem to do the ironing or the laundry. My perception is that, unlike middle class Britons, there is not a culture of buying people's labour to give the better off middle classes more free time. So a dog walker is out of the ordinary. Of course it may well be someone just having a go, they may not rea...
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Forty Years On

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I think it's Old Harrovians that use the song Forty Years On as the school anthem but I wouldn't have been too surprised if Maggie had started humming it as she pottered around the flat yesterday evening. Maggie works at José María de Lapuerta School here in Cartagena teaching five year olds English as part of the British Council Bilingual English Project. Last night she went to an evening do as the start of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the school. She came back with all sorts of stories - about how the petroleum company Repsol first founded the school in 1969 and built the local housing as part of a "model village" type project for it's employees. She told me how well the school has been doing in the local chess league and how the school has also won a prize for the quality of it's excellence in sports teaching. She reminded me that the school had also won the "Silver Blackboard" (there isn't a gold one, silver is as g...
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