Earning money. And beach attitudes.

Leonor is the eldest daughter of King Felipe. Still quite a young child she is nevertheless the heir to the Spanish throne and is known as the Princesa de Asturias. This, Prince or Princess of Asturias, is the title given to the heir in Spain, the equivalent of Charles being the Prince of Wales in the UK.

My Spanish sister posted this on social media yesterday:
“Leonar ganará €102.000 al año como Princesa de Asturias y los comedores escolares para niños desfavorecidos no se abrirán este verano por falta de presupuesto.”
Basically, that little girl will “earn” a large amount of money each year because of who she is, while school dining rooms which usually provide for children in need will not be able to open this summer because there is no money in the coffers to pay for them.

The simple unfairness speaks for itself.

I suppose little George in the UK also has a budget allocated to him. I don’t really know. However, it seems to me that until a child of a royal family is old enough to start carrying out proper royal duties, then surely their parents should support them out of their “earnings”, just like ordinary parents have to do.

I say this with absolutely no belief that we need royal families at all.

There are, of course, those who have no royal connections but still consider themselves a kind of “people’s royalty”. The rich and famous who have their stars on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Yesterday I read that Donald Trump’s star has been destroyed. Someone took a pick-axe to it and left a vaguely star-shaped hole in the pavement.

Direct action!

It’s not the first time the star has been involved in anti-Trump protest. A wall was built round it in 2016 to symbolize the president’s policy on immigration. But now it’s well and truly messed up.

I wondered why Donald Trump has a star in the first place. After all,who would award him such a thing? Then I read that a committee considers applications from people who want to purchase stars for £30,000. So really it’s a case of self-aggrandisement, especially in his case.

But maybe in many other cases too.

As the heatwave continues in the UK I read about travel problems caused by the hot weather.

Trains have been cancelled in some parts of the country because of fears that tracks will buckle. So, in winter you can have the wrong kind of snow on the line, leading to train cancellations, and in hot summers you can clearly have the wrong kind of sunshine!

And there have been problems on motorways because the hot weather leads to mor breakdowns and more punctures. The British motorist is just not prepared for extremes of weather of any kind!

Do other countries suffer in this way?

Escapes to the beach are called for.

Main roads leading to the most popular beaches around here have been at a standstill at certain times over the last week or so by all accounts.

Nothing quite like sitting in a queue of traffic on a hot afternoon. Especially with kids and buckets and spades in the car!

Zoe Williams in the Guardian yesterday gave her view of the beach:-

“The beach: my idea of an existential crisis Whenever I get on to a beach, my first thought is: how long, realistically, do I have to stay here? It’s nothing in particular – I don’t mind being too hot or ingesting sand, the sea is fine – it’s just the absence of meaningful activity, the enforced peace, all possibilities collapsing down to two: staring, or napping. At least when you’re a child, you can add “fighting”. My offspring argued yesterday about whose idea it was to dig a hole. Pacing and foraging for food don’t count; they’re what you do as a prelude to telling everyone you want to leave. But look around; everyone is pacing or foraging. Everyone feels this way.”

Now, somebody needs to introduce into England the Spanish habit of walking up and down the tideline, usually in your swimsuit but some people topless, maybe dipping your feet in the water, getting some exercise and some sea air.

That’s the way to do it!