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Batasuna, the only political party to have been banned since the death of Franco, struggles on this week for some political recognition. Whatever the pro´s and con´s of the argument, any party that receives between 10 and 20% of the vote should be allowed to stand. Lets not forget that banning Sein Fein did little other than to set back the process for peace in Ireland.
Signs indicate that it will not be just Rajoy´s rantings that will decide the outcome this week. Across the spectrum fingers are pointing at Batasuna´s spokesperson - Ortegi - that all the responsability lies on his shoulders. But didnt some British Tory with a fat cigar once advise: Jaw Jaw not War War? And Winston was hardlly a left wing pacifist. What excuse does this nations leaders have? It seems that despite all the talk and political manouvering it all comes down to that familiar adolescent posture: You play by my rules, or you dont play at all.


"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning¨. WC

Tea-bag taoism from the teapotmonk 1*

How do you like your coffee?
With milk, then how much milk? Con leche, expresso, or manchada? Perhaps without, then Americano, cortado or solo?
In a glass or a ceramic cup? With milk calentito, cold or tepid?
Do you like a glass of water with your coffee and do you like to partake at a table or at the bar.




Life is full of choices - moments in time that present themselves as rare opportunities - and whether we embrace them by rising to their call or slink away in the shadows of their presence - is the million dollar teapot question. Some people have called the former approach to living - particularly living abroad: “passive activity” and when in search of the perfect manchada, the teapotmonk subscribes to its un-carved principles and wu wei qualities.

Every moment of every day is pregnant with such windows for the outsider who is looking for the internal path. Perhaps its the dog sniffing at your feet that belongs to the one-eyed porter in your doorway. Perhaps its the volume of the TV that compels you to shout out your order across the room at breakfast; perhaps, its just that you will need to repeat yourself 5 times because you appear a tonto to all those avocado farmers sharing manure stories at the bar ahead of you.
Perhaps, when perusing the delights of Mercadona’s overpriced and over-sprayed fruit trays, you will spot from the corner of your eye, the town hall official that helped you with your empadron certificate contemplating a bag of rocket. What to do? Duck behind the tasteless tomatoes on special (not surprising) offer or slide forward - wheely in tow and launch into an rabid description of the damage the invernaderos are doing to the top soil in Almeria.
Perhaps even bring the subject around to an Inconvenient truth (take every opportunity - a tea-bag tip)...and before you know it you will have engaged in your passive activity event of the day.
Give yourself a realistic target of an encounter a day...and try it for a week.
Abre los ojos and note the difference.


Deal with the reality, or reality will deal with you.

HIgh winds do not blow all morning;
Heavy rain does not fall all day
Are not these made by heaven and earth?
If the power of heaven and earth
Cannot make violent activity last,
How can you?Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching






Ive been up and down and over and out and I know one thing,
each time I find myself .....flat on my face, I pick mysef up and get ......back in the race
Thats life. I tell yer, I cant deny it....
I thought of quitting baby but my heart just aint gonna buy it....Frankie: That´s Life.

Wherever you live, after a while you learn to select what your eyes see, to choose what you want to hear and to be careful what you say and to whom you say it.




But when you are new in town, you don´t give a hoot!

And, you notice with pleasure the mundane, you rejoice in the ordinary and you veer away from the cynic and the complacent types for fear of contracting - too early - their weather-beaten outlook.

Si hubiera vivido aqui por 13 years - then perhaps I too would feel the same tiredness, but Roberto admits he is a tad burnt out and maybe should move on. He runs a bar in town with all the gusto of Eeyore consuming a damp nettle bush.

- Hmmm. You sound tired of life here Roberto.

- No no Paul, Loja is a lovely town really.

- Didnt you just say it was a town planning nightmare and that the service is crap and that its filthy and has no civic pride.

- Yes thats true. Compared to other towns, like Osuna for example...whitewashed, clean, proud....Loja looks a little shabby. In fact all of Granada´s towns are shabby compared to towns in the province of Malaga for example.

- Beware falling for superficialities Roberto. The attractiveness of a town is not found in the colour of its walls. Look for a towns essence in whom it invites to speak at a public meeting. Santiago Carrillo for instance.

- Is that the mayor?

- No, Kwai Chang Caine is our Mayor, Roberto.

- He´s not! .......... Is he?

I´m beginning to get this town. To avoid falling into old behavior patterns, I am learning to walk like a cat. This is a bit like when Kwai Chang Caine has to do the rice-paper strut.

Loja is a small place and its easy to go from one end to the other without noticing a thing. Particularly when you know no-one in town. But it you slow right down, pause at every opportunity, engage in every activity on the street an entire Parallel Worlld opens up before your eyes.




One way to test this out is to stand still in a square for a moment and watch what happens around you. Don´t pretend to be engaged with something. Don´t do up that shoelace, read that paper, study the grain of the floor tiling or pretend to check your mobile SMS messages. Just stand, breathe slowly and deeply ) making sure you are not behind a bus) and wait.

Like the last night in Almunecar the moment becomes full of possibility.

Change can come about in a multitude of ways – it can be slowly acquired, like a sciatic limp or a wrinkle around the eye perhaps, creeping up on you until one day you exclaim: Hey what´s this! Or it can come about suddenly and unexpectedly in the form of an accident that changes everything forever more.


Our move inland was of the later variety, giving us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves before an unknown, unexpected and unprepared audience. We can change it all, who we are, where we have been and where we are going.

Might even change my haircut.