Heat, poolside talk and some statistical info!

We've been having another heatwave. When I went out running first thing this morning, the temperature indicator on the advertising hoarding down at the roundabout already registered 30 degrees. And that was at 9.00 this morning. It was 30 degrees at the other end of the street at 9.00 last night so maybe the temperature just didn't go down at all overnight.

Late morning I went down to the pool and a bit of cloud was moving in, and a light breeze. Not quite so hot but still hot enough to make me want to sit in the shade when I wasn't in the water. Opinion down at the pool is that "hay que aprovechar" - we must make the most of it - as the rain is coming on Friday. By which point I shall be in London, visiting our son. The forecast for there is quite reasonable by all accounts.

At the pool I had one of those odd conversations with a very small boy. A series of questions:

 "Do you have a swimsuit?"
"Why don't you go in the little pool?"
"Why have I not seen you here before?"
"Can you swim?"
And so on. The sort of question three year olds ask.

He told me his name was Brian, a name I have not heard here before. Or in England since I was a small girl for that matter. All the English Brian's are of my generation I think, like the Maureens. Of course, it could be that the small boy's name is spelt Braian and that it is some traditional Galician or Celtic name.

I read yesterday that there are almost two-and-a-half times as many UK citizens (expats) living in Spain as there are Spanish citizens (immigrants) living in the UK. Most of the expats choose to live near the coast in Spain and about half of them are retired. The figures provided by the National Office for Statistics didn't say where most of the Spaniards live but I suspect a lot of them live in London and Manchester. Most of them are between 20 and 39. 59% of them are employed. Only 5% are unemployed - the Spaniards are not benefits scroungers then! The rest must be students, spouses or children presumably.

There were 219,000 visits of between one and 12 months to Spain by British citizens, mainly not for work or study, so perhaps those with holiday homes in Spain or visiting friends and relatives. We contributed our bit to those statistics. And there were also 13 million visits of less than 28 days to Spain in 2016, the vast majority holidays.

Only 849,00 Spaniards came to the UK on holiday. You'd think they don't like our weather. Considering that most of those I speak to are firmly convinced that we NEVER have hot weather and, in fact, that it rains most of the time, when it's not actually foggy, that is, they probably don't like the weather.

Those I have spoken to have enjoyed visiting London, Edinburgh, the Lake District and, in one odd case, Milton Keynes. I think it was because her son worked there for Banco de Santander, the bank that seems to be taking over the financial world!

None of this explains why the British living in other countries are expats rather than immigrants!