Graciela

Here there is a person for every job, although certainly not the other way round. Or rather, whatever you want doing, there is someone to do it for you. I was hard pressed to find a 'self-service' laundrette and so for the first time in 18 years I had someone else wash my clothes for me (which I was initially very excied about with however I realised yesterday that my favourite jeans have been shrunk). Federico, one of the sone in the flat I am staying) recounted to me a time when traveling in Europe and had to fill the car up with petrol himself. He asked for help and was told that all the information he needed was there, just read the instructions. Helpful.

Here it is not uncommon to have a maid. In our house Graciela catches 2 hours worth of buses to work from 9am until 3pm weekdays doing the cooking and cleaning. Graciela speaks no English and so has been very helpful for me to practise with... although she has fallen out of favour a little as late for telling me my Spanish is getting worse. Graciela leaves various dishes inthe fridge for the family to heat up in the evenings. Many people here cannot cook and it is odd to them when I say that cooking is very fashionable in the UK. Many flats for sale are advertised as having 'maids quarters' which is essentially what I a staying in.

There are a lot of jobs that folk have invented for themselves: finding parking spaces, opening cab doors, groups of people on the streets who sort the rubbish into recycleables which can be sold on and repack the rest for the bin men.

Ok thats it from me... next time I will tell you about the Jesus theme park - Resurrections every half an hour. And on that note, feliz navidad and eat lots of roast potatoes for me please.