A little bit of a moan.

For various reasons this post did not get posted yesterday, so, with a little tweaking, here it is today. 

On Wednesday evening the clouds moved in and yesterday morning we woke to a muffled Vigo. Here it's rarely just high cloud. When the cloud moves in it's barely above head height. All right, so I exaggerate a little but looking out from our seventh floor balcony you can actually see levels of cloud. At this time of year it's a combination of cloud in the sky and sea mist rolling in off the Atlantic. Everything except the nearest buildings disappear into the murk, and a fine drizzle, more a sort of suspension of water in the air, is everywhere. Only at around midday did some blue sky start to appear yesterday but really it didn't get going until the evening. 

Nonetheless, it was already 21 degrees at nine o'clock in the morning and by midday it was sticky kind of warm. 

Today, the sunshine and blue sky are back, although the temperature at nine o' clock was two degrees lower. Up to 27 by early afternoon and promising hotter for the weekend! 

That's the weather report over with. 

Sorry about that! 

I apologise with purpose. Public apologising is one of my bugbears. The world has gone mad for saying how sorry they are for things somebody else did or for things that are just a normal part of life. Here's an example which I picked up from a newspaper recently: 

"I first saw it on Facebook: a little bag filled with candy, earplugs and a note, given to fellow passengers sitting by the parents of 14-week-old twin boys taking their first flight. The note was written as though it was penned by the babies themselves and read in part: “We’d like to apologize in advance just in case we lose our cool, get scared, or our ears hurt.” At the time I thought it was cute, nothing more. But as dozens of other parents have followed suit and the practice of handing out goodie bags in order to pre-emptively apologize for the inconvenience of a child crying has gained in popularity and become a thing, it’s also become unsettling. No parent should feel it necessary to bribe others to accept the presence of their children in public spaces. Period!" 

Wow! I have often been mildly annoyed by children on planes but usually not by crying babies but slightly older children whose parents allow them to stand on seats and put sticky fingers everywhere or smile indulgently while their offspring sing loudly at the top of their voices. The same applies in cafes and restaurants. No apologies forthcoming there! 

Sometimes an apology is not sufficient and an official investigation has to take place (also often an over the top reaction), as in the case of a British Council employee who recently was silly enough to put rude comments about little Prince George on Facebook. She should be made to apologise for being so daft as to express her opinions in writing on social media. 

All this apologising and investigating is getting to be a little too common for my liking. The apologising smacks of drawing attention to yourself as a right-thinking, all round good person (and incidentally in the example above making everyone look at your cute twin babies and encouraging them to comment on what awfully sweet parents you are!) but the investigating is more sinister. Soon we will be expressing our opinions in whispers in case anyone is recording us! 

While I am having a little moan about stuff that annoys me, here are a couple more: grown up people chewing bubble gum and blowing bubbles in the street and equally grown up people walking along sucking those little round sweet lollies that the Spanish call chupa-chup! I see examples of the first in the UK and of the second here in Spain. Granted, in both cases they are usually young adults, and I mean in their twenties rather than old teenagers, but even so, such behaviour should not be seen performed in public by anyone over the age of twelve! 

That's my opinion anyway!