We had hoped that there would have been time for our room to have been sorted by the hotel staff in our absence but they had not reached our door by the time we got back. We may have to make do without housekeeping today!
The playground we went past on our way to Portonovo was jam-packed full this morning. It might, of course, be because the schools have now broken up and there are just more children around to play there. Or it may be that parents of holiday-making children have decided that today is not a beach day and so are availing themselves of the playground. I fail to understand the reluctance to go and play in the beach in cloudy weather. OK, it may not be the kind of weather for going in and out of the sea or stretching out and toasting yourself but it's perfect for building complicated sand castles, which used to be a favourite holiday occupation of our son. How often we waited for the tide to come in and fill the moat of a very elaborate construction! But this morning, apart from a few hardy souls walking the timeline, the beach was almost as deserted at 12.00 as it had been at 9.00. Among other things, yesterday I read in the newspapers about new immigration rules to be introduced in the UK which will mean that lower-earning non-EU workers can be deported. After April next year non-EU workers who are earning less than £35.000 a year after being on the UK for six years will have to go. This is causing consternation for the Royal College of Nursing because it means that loads of foreign trained nurses, recruited at great cost by the NHS, will have to leave. A spokesperson said, “The NHS has spent millions hiring nurses from overseas in order to provide safe staffing levels. These rules will mean that money has just been thrown down the drain. “The UK will be sending away nurses who have contributed to the health service for six years. Losing their skills and knowledge and then having to start the cycle again and recruit to replace them is completely illogical.”
Did no one see this coming? Why are they not recruiting in the UK? I know from my experience as a sixth form tutor how hard it is for young people to get onto nurse training courses. The system is crazy.
Meanwhile, I have seen on the streets of Sanxenxo a beggar with a cardboard sign that read "ESPAÑOL sin recursos" pointing out that he is a SPANIARD without any means of support, not some FOREIGN beggar, I assume.
And last night, as we strolled along the promenade here, we spotted an odd young man, long and lean and sunburnt, scruffily dressed, barefoot, wrapped in a blanket of sorts. He was walking along with two young women - mincing, rather than walking, doing an odd sort of dance along the pavement, perhaps because the hard surface hurt his feet - laughing and chatting with them. Suddenly he thrust a plastic cup in our faces, making some comment to the young women at the same time. A beggar! But one with would-be style and panache, trying to impress the girls! We had moved on before we really had time to realise he was asking for money.
How very odd!
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