Employment prospects and new words.

Well, I’ve been back in the UK a week now and I fail to be impressed. Today was the first day that I felt inclined to take myself out for a long walk. A week of damp and dreary grey weather has not been conducive to going out much. Today started fine and dry, although very windy, so I took myself out. It’s a good job I got out bright and early as the day deteriorated later.

I understand it’s not been much better in North West Spain, despite the fine and sunny send-off Galicia gave us last week.

Scanning the papers online I discovered from El Faro de Vigo that I may be missing an employment opportunity in my absence. As part of the Plan de Competitividad Turística de Vigo the ayuntamiento plans to recruit retired people and train them as volunteer tourist guides. They will receive some language tuition so that they can greet people, give them directions and do some basic conversation in English, French and German. I can do all that already so I could save them some time. Then the volunteers would be taught some history of Vigo, a little information on places of interest to visit and so on. I could cope with that. They would be expected to point out good places to eat in the city. I already do that to any visitors who come our way.

Volunteers would be able to visit all sorts of places of interest free of charge, including the Islas Cies, one of my favourite places. The drawback is that all the volunteers would be expected to wear una indumentaria identificativa, in other words, a uniform. Uh, oh! Not my idea of fun. Maybe I should be happy to give it a miss. However, on my return to Vigo I shall look out for retired folk in uniform and maybe test their knowledge of Vigo history and see if they can give me the information in a range of languages.

Meanwhile I have learnt another new and interesting word in Spanish, again from scanning the newspapers online. This is another slightly twisted borrowing. It appears that because of la crisis fewer workers are eating out at lunchtime. Instead they are taking a packed lunch. This packed lunch is carried in un tupper. Now, is that not a quite delightful corruption of Tupperware? I am once again impressed by the versatility of the Spanish.

The article from which I gleaned this linguistic gem also informed me that despite la crisis the Spanish continue to eat well. The amount spent on food has only gone down by 1.5%, a miniscule amount compared to the reductions in spending in other sectors of the economy apparently. Spain remains in second place in the list of countries where most people go out to eat.

I am only surprised that it is not in first place. (The article fails to tell me which country is in first place.) With a host of places where you can get a good three course meal + wine for under €10 per person, Spain gives really good value for money. Long may she continue to do so.