Christmas Eve in the Dog House

The house of dogs, that is.
Una vanished during our morning walk today and we had to go and get the car and drive back into the Promised Land to search for her. She showed up as soon as we reappeared, filthy and smelling of rotten fish. She had been rolling in some sort of fertilizer. I had to give her the full body wash back at the house. Today Tim behaved himself, remembering a couple of weeks ago when he decided to take a dip in the town sewer drain and had to get the same treatment. When they do stuff like that, I scrub them extra hard, to learn them. Some dogs like baths. Not ours.

This blog will be a bit of a rag-bag.

The weather continues to be splendid - chilly and cloudless early, and warm by lunchtime. Is this global warming or just a spot of nice weather? I think we should be told. But the locals say it´s cold.

Last night Lib and I went to a bar to watch Real Madrid play Barcelona, the game of the season so far. The place was mobbed, as the game was on pay per view only, so everyone interested had to get out of the house to see it. Real won with the only goal. I thought the result was fair, because the Mad team defended much better. It was the sort of game Americans should be shown to let them see how good soccer can be.

In the paper and on the radio, and probably on the TV as well, except we don´t have one as yet, Zapatero, the Prime Minister is making a big deal about the new high-speed train between Madrid, Segovia and Valladolid, and so he should. It will go at about 200 miles per hour, or so they say. This will enable it to stop in the stations for half an hour instead of a quarter of an hour, and still only be twenty minutes late.
Still and all, trains are the best way to get around. Comfy seats with a restaurant car in the middle (of the train, that is, not the seat). Sahagun is a train town, with a direct line to Madrid and even Pamplona, Barcelona and Alicante. Most Spanish travel, outside the big cities seems to revolve around the bus station. We don´t even have one.

The big news, however, I got from the Expat Telegraph, via email. The most popular boy´s name in Britain, which is currently Jack, next year is set to be supplanted by Mohammed. But then, what will we call our Teddy Bears?
There´s always Osama.

Merry Christmas to all, except Republicans.