Just when you think it’s all going swimmingly ...

... another little bit of chaos breakout. Naturally I’m talking about the bijou residence here. I went out for a run this morning as usual, said hello to the old chap who walks round the Castro with his cap, his sunglasses and his umbrella/walking stick, stopped to buy some bread and came home. That’s when I discovered that my key wouldn’t open the door to the building. It went in fine but just wouldn’t turn either way. No way, José! This blogger had left the building and wasn’t getting back in any time soon.

So, as no-one else was around to try and open it, I did the sensible thing and rang the doorbell .... several times .... at length. Finally a sleepy voice said, “¿Síííííííííííí?”; I had successfully woken Phil up and he let me in.

 Later in the day I went out shopping, hoping that someone might have fixed it in the meantime but once again had to ring the doorbell to get it. Phil told me that he had had to buzz the door open several times in my absence. I went down and tried Phil’s key: same result. The key would work from the indoor keyhole but not from outside: useful!

Eventually I popped round to the estate agent’s to inform them of the problem and to see if they knew how to contact the “comunidad”. They told me they would contact the owner of the flat as she was the one with the contact details and I left it with them. On my return one of the neighbours was being buzzed into the building so I asked her politely if she knew what was going on with the door. “Es la cerradura”, she replied, helpfully. Translation: “it’s the lock”. Wow!!! I NEVER would have thought of that. Hopefully by the time I want to go out or come in again the problem might have been solved.

Meanwhile up at the Castro I saw the remains of posters urging people to protest that they want “una zona para los perros”. When I saw these the other day, I commented to Phil that there would be a demonstration before we knew it. I was right. In the free paper was a report of a march through Vigo yesterday of dog-owners protesting at the new regulation that says dogs must be on a lead at all times. They want a place to let the dogs off the lead for a run-around. This always used to be a big grassy area of the Castro Park but apparently they risk a fine now if they let the dogs loose. I can’t say I saw or heard their demonstration. They can’t have had any whistles, the usual sign of a demo but I suppose the dogs would have been very confused by lots of whistle-blowing.

Also in the paper was a picture of Prince Felipe, the lovely Letizia (Mrs Borbón) and Presidente Rajoy watching the football match between Spain and Italy yesterday. They all look rather concerned but in the end Cesc Fabregás saved the day and the final score was 1-1. Alls well that ends well.

 I read last week that since the demise of Paul the Result-Predicting Octopus not long after the last European Cup, they have had to find another creature to choose the winners. There is now an elephant doing Paul’s old job.

Hooray for the animal kingdom, say I.