MALLORCA TODAY - Doctors and nurses start work-to-rule

Public health doctors and nurses have started a go-slow and work-to-rule in protest at health-service cuts by the Balearic Government. The action means, for example, that discharge from hospital may be delayed and affects the main hospitals such as Son Espases.

See more: Ultima Hora

MALLORCA TODAY - Son Espases cuts back; hospitals could be privatised

More evidence of the turmoil in the public health service in Mallorca. Son Espases, the island's main public health hospital, will reduce by 50% its non-urgent operations between July and September and close 150 beds during the same period. In all, 300 beds in different hospitals will be closed over the summer. Meanwhile, the UGT union is stating again its belief that the regional government intends to privatise the public health hospitals in Inca and Manacor and to sell the Joan March hospital, closure of which has already been announced.

MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca hospitals in crisis

Staff from the emergencies department at Son Espases hospital will protest tomorrow (15 February) against the situation that exists in the department. The protest, due to only last five minutes, is planned to draw attention to cuts that, say the medical staff, have led to overcrowding, too few beds and too few nurses. Meanwhile, the college of doctors in the Balearics has said that the health system is in a critical state, and it has been confirmed that, following the resignation two weeks ago of the director of emergencies at Manacor hospital, in protest at cuts to personnel, the director at Son Espases has also resigned, along with two chief nursing supervisors. The Balearic Government's health minister has said that the resignation of the Son Espases director is for personal reasons and President Bauzá has stated his satisfaction with the health service being provided in the Balearics.

Murder On The Dancefloor

One Dakota, two Dakota, three Dakota, four.

Not yet five Dakota, six Dakota, seven Dakota, more, but is it just a malicious rumour going around town that Puerto Pollensa is to get a fourth Dakota Tex-Mex? What huge entertainment if it is. For this would bring forth (or maybe that's fourth) a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, as also would the news that the fish and chip shop was to turn into a Chinese, though, in all likelihood, a reallocation of an existing Chinese. It (The Codfather fish'n'chip shop, that is) has moved, by the way, to where the Ivy Garden was. Of course, fish and chip shops are ok, it would appear. No-one has ever seemed to moan that there is one, but it is hardly authentic, as in not being typically Mallorcan or some such, which is, of course, deemed to be the only sort of restaurant allowable in Puerto Pollensa (by many expats, that is). Tex-mexs's, an abundance of Chinese; these are not right, these ruin Puerto Pollensa, but a chippy on the other hand ... Oh well.

As for the fourth Dakota rumour, I know where it might be going, though of course it might just all be someone's vivid imagination and that the place in question will turn out to be nothing of the sort - or maybe another Burger King. Meantime, I'm not saying.


Two evenings ago, there was, apparently, a programme on some obscure channel about Mallorca. How dumb can TV get, do you suppose? How dumb can the people who watch this drivel get, do you suppose? I have a nightmare that hell is a constant loop of The Jeremy Kyle Show - tribes of Karen Matthews or those with brains the size of hers, faces to match and sitting in bars wearing ill-washed bras. Actually, I have seen a few like that here, wandering gormlessly along The Mile. The thing is we don't need Virgin Channel One, or whatever it was, to tell us that there are stupid and ugly people who come on holiday to Mallorca. If you missed the programme, and I certainly did, it was called "Sun Sea and A&E". My, what a hoot, must have thought the production company. Let's do a docu on some chavs kicking the crap out of each other, getting rat-arsed and ending up in the casualty departments of some Mallorcan hospitals - specifically in Son Dureta and the Muro hospital. The surprise is that they actually got to the A&E department at all. Normally, they skip that bit and go straight to the morgue having taken a quick dive from the hotel balcony. According to the website of the production company, the series - and yes there are seven more like this - ranges "from too much booze to too much sun; from accidents on the dancefloor to kids' catastrophes in the pool". At least there were only accidents on the dancefloor and not murder.

Better news is that the Top Gear laddos are to come for the Classic Car rally in March and do a show. This normally features a stage from Puerto Pollensa, with the starting-point in the nautical club, so this year, one imagines, it will be thronged with expats desperate to try and ingratiate themselves with the Top Gear trio. I would advise caution. Clarkson's vitriol would doubtless extend to mostly all expats. If I were you, I'd avoid the Top Gear-ists like the plague. Not that I don't like Clarkson; quite the opposite. And anyone who has seen fit to punch Piers Morgan is fine by me. One trusts that the programme will show some suitably pleasant landscapes and be a rather more positive representation of Mallorca than some Chardonnay who has vomited over a nurse in Muro hospital A&E. Oh, and if you think Clarkson might go easy on the local expattery, do be warned: remember he once said that anyone who had moved to Spain had held up a post office. And I daresay he's had time to work on that particular theme and to come up with something of equivalent hostility to Alexei Sayle's one-time character assassination of Leapy Lee and rubbishing of the Costa expat. Here's hoping.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Clash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trolcS3V7dY). Today - this was just so good.

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I've Been Waiting So Long

The fiestas and fairs of Mallorca are often the signal for the appearance of "giants", the peculiar models that often have an air of American Amish or puritan about their appearance. There is another type of giantism. It was on display at the fair in Muro at the weekend and will be at the prestigious "Dijous Bo" fair in Inca tomorrow (Thursday). In Muro there were giant pumpkins; indeed the fair itself was dedicated to the pumpkin (they do some strange things here, that's for sure). The winner of the competition to find the largest pumpkin had one that weighed in at 93.5 kilos. That's a whole lot of pumpkin, but with so much of it knocking around, the local restaurants were able to prepare dishes of a pumpkin nature. So if you don't like pumpkin, best to give the annual Muro fair a miss. This was the second year that the pumpkin had taken pride of place, and doubtless there will be the hat-trick next year.

If, on the other hand, you prefer something comprising sugar and fat then the Dijous Bo gig will be just the event for you. There will be one huge great ensaimada to feast your eyes on and presumably also to feast on. It will be some 15 metres in diameter. 15 metres in diameter of something that will do you no good. It is a curiosity that for all that healthy Mediterranean diet that one is supposed to enjoy here, there is a local delicacy as junk as the ensaimada. And they make such a big deal of something as dull and unhealthy as it is. If you have not sampled an ensaimada, my advice is don't bother. Just look at it - all 15 metres in diameter of it.


It is how long, a year, since the Alcúdia hospital closed? It may not have been perfect, but there were procedures that it was very good at. Take the simple one of having a blood test. Since Alcúdia closed, those of us who fork out for the not especially expensive private medical insurance that is available here, go to the hospital in Playa de Muro. Just up the road, for me at any rate. Shouldn't be a problem, but then there is this business with the blood test.

At Alcúdia, it was the case that you pitched up before ten in the morning and handed in the form at the main reception. The nurse, who was in a room more or less opposite the reception, would come and collect the forms of the patients as they had been presented, i.e. in order of arrival. Not that there were ever that many patients. You might wait ten minutes and ... you might feel a bit of a prick, sir (not that they say that here of course), apply a plaster and now get out. Very simple and very orderly.

Contrast this with the Muro hospital. Go to reception, and you are instructed to head off downstairs. There, there are numerous people milling around, some standing, some sitting. You head to the laboratory reception and a kindly Mallorcan woman who speaks perfect English stops you and says that the chap will come out and collect your papers and that there are these other people before you. (You realise that many of those milling around, including the Mallorcan lady, have already had a visitation from the chap and that they are, therefore, all before you.) You thank her and go and stand around for some twenty minutes, trying to ignore a child who is staring at you, during which time more people turn up and are told what is happening by this Mallorcan lady patient. You see, it's not just stupid Brits who have no clue, no one has a clue. Then the chap appears and of course everyone who is in the second wave of chap-visitation rushes towards him. You calculate that you should be third in the queue, and so you push yourself into that position - with success; that Mallorcan lady has told all those after you the same thing, so they do at least have an inkling as to where they should be in the non-existent order of things. Then you sit down, and sit down next to a gentleman from Puerto Pollensa who you have overheard talking to that same helpful Mallorcan lady and who you heard mention the fact that he was from Woking. And so you talk to him as Woking used to once be part of your manor. He says that really it would be just as easy going to the national health hospital in Inca, this is all chaotic. You agree, there is no system. You sit, and sit, and among the patients before you are one and then a second family with a young child. The first child screams the place down from inside the laboratory. It goes on for an intolerably long time. What on earth are they doing to him? He finally emerges red-faced and red-eyed, and everyone looks at the poor little mite who was the same one that had been staring at you. And then the second family, and the boy screams his head off for an intolerably long time. A third family, who are to come after you, sit there, and their little girl stares towards where the screams are coming from. And eventually it is your turn, and it takes all of a minute and it is done. But you have waited an hour and a half and reckon that maybe it might indeed be better to just go to the national health hospital in future instead and also to reckon that Clinica Juaneda, the operators of both Alcúdia and Muro hospitals, have cut their service levels since closing the Alcúdia branch. That wait though. Enough to make you scream.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Fifth Dimension, "Wedding Bell Blues" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMhWQgkZ8c). Today's title - a line from a mega blues trio; lick your lips, kitty - it's warm.

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Oh Doctor, I’m In Trouble

One always looks for some balance. I have had cause (justifiable) for slagging off the Juaneda group for its handling of the hospital closure affair, but I have never once questioned its medical capabilities. And now I have had first-hand experience.

Like many who have private insurance here, I used to use Hospital d’Alcúdia as a sort of doctor’s surgery. One could pitch up and see a doctor in no time. It was a damn sight more convenient than schlepping all the way to Muro town to see the national-health doctor to whom I am assigned (it also short-cuts the system as you merely get referred to a specialist in any event).

With the move to the Hospital General de Muro in Playa de Muro, I went along yesterday. I have been suffering skin irritations, caused – perhaps – by some medication. I wanted to see the doctor from Alcúdia who had prescribed the original medication. He wasn’t available; he is now also the kind of senior registrar at Muro, the top medical man. Anyway, they booked me in there and then to see a doctor. Waited a few minutes, saw him, a nurse injected me in the backside and then, as I was pulling my pants up, in walks the senior guy. “You wanted to see me,” he said. I had not expected him at all.

The Muro hospital is much more pleasant than the old Alcúdia one. The actual doctor consultation was more like being at a doctor’s surgery than used to be the case at Alcúdia. And you know what? At the reception, there was a lady with a badge which said “interpreter”. You never got that at Alcúdia, except when Helen was working there and acted as one in an unofficial capacity. This, the speed of service and the wholly unexpected appearance of the senior doctor (somebody had to have taken the trouble to have sought him out), and all I can say is very impressive. Never let it be said that I don’t try for a balance.

Oh, one other thing. Returning to a theme that ran for a while last year on the blog, the nurses wear crocs at Muro hospital as well.


QUIZ
Yesterday – The Cocteau Twins. Today’s title – first line of a “comedy” record by which duo?

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Dallied And Dillied

You wonder what all the fuss was about. I still hold with the accusation that the Juaneda group could have handled the closure of the Hospital d’Alcúdia better, but the fact that it plans to open a new facility in Alcúdia softens the blow. This new centre will be located in two buildings on the Camí del Mal Pas (this is the road leaving Alcúdia in the direction of Bonaire, La Victoria and also of course Mal Pas). As such, it won’t be that far from the closed-down hospital and will offer pretty much all that was available at the hospital save for in-patients and presumably also intensive care (which ceased at the hospital some months ago).

But why did Juaneda not just say what they had planned rather than letting the rumours drag on? Had they envisaged, all along, a new facility and shifting actual hospitalisation to Muro, and had said so, they could have saved a lot of headache, confusion and ill will. That patients will be assigned a bed down the road in Playa de Muro is hardly an inconvenience, and it was never going to be an inconvenience: Juaneda’s obfuscation allowed it to be presented as such.


The front page of the current “Mallorca Zeitung”, the German weekly, flags up the promise of riches for estate agents in the form of Russian buyers. I knew there was a reason why Anna Kournikova was a “face” of Mallorca. What better for some oligarch, pockets bulging with roubles and various other denominations, than to offshore the wonga into a Mallorcan dacha with its own helipad, beetroot plantation, vodka distillery, and lodgings for the bodyguards? Should be fun for someone trying to sort out that money trail. Should be fun for some of the estate agents with their translations as well. Russian? There are those that struggle with English, some of them run by the English. Comprises of, anyone?


QUIZ
Yesterday – “Fire”, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. Today’s title – in honour of Juaneda, where does this line come from?

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The Public Gets What The Public Wants?

Overhearing a confused conversation in a newsagents as to what was going on at the Hospital d’Alcúdia and what it all meant, I went into the hospital to see what information was available. Looked around, expected some notice or perhaps some sheets of a “dear patient, it is with regret that we have to inform you” variety. Nothing.

This has been a PR disaster for the hospital managers. The denials were one thing, but now that the decision has been taken to close the hospital, they should have set in motion a communications plan. Perhaps they yet will, but to this point the handling of the affair has demonstrated a disregard for the local community, and not just in Alcúdia but also in Pollensa, Sa Pobla, Can Picafort and other towns which have relied on the hospital.

The Juaneda group will doubtless point to the advantages of shifting everything to Muro. Fair enough. However, it is neglecting not only the “hearts and minds” psychology of the consumer but also its own role in the community. For most businesses, there is a degree of social and community responsibility in what they do, no more so than in the provision of heath care. Must do better.


PR of a different sort. “Euro Weekly” leads on the crackdown in Calvia on the work of those who tout for bars etc.: they are comically referred to as PRs. In Magaluf and other parts of Calvia, bars will be liable to hefty fines if they use them. In a way, this is good. The PRs, sometimes quite aggressive, jack-the-lad Brits looking for an excuse for a summer in the sun, can be a real nuisance. They operate mainly or exclusively on a commission basis, and can be found in many resorts. In Alcúdia, the actions of the PRs can be a source of irritation. They are to be found along The Mile, but do also pop up in the port and in Playa de Muro.

But to damn all PRs would be unfair. There are some I know who are in a sense “professionals”. They have been at the PR game for years, are good at what they do, have amusing lines in banter and form a part, if you like, of the “local colour”. Not all are as they are portrayed, the female PRs in particular who for the most part are cheerful and charming. The problem lies with the occasional aggression and with the numbers of PRs – it is the cumulative effect that irritates as much anything else. It is seemingly inevitable that if one bar has a PR, the next bar will want one, and so it goes on. But not always. In at least one part of The Mile, the bar operators have agreed amongst themselves that none of them will operate PRs. Self-regulation in other words. Perhaps this, or a code of practice amongst bar and restaurant owners is the solution, though this would fail if the likely-lad PRs have to drag tourists kicking and screaming into a bar to secure their only source of income, i.e. a commission. If the PRs were to be outlawed, I wonder what difference it would really make. In some cases they must surely be counter-productive if they hack tourists off so much. Were there to be none, then all the bars would be on a level playing-field and have to look to more subtle forms of promotion than hassling some poor visitor and his family.

I don’t wish to see the PRs banned, but I suspect it will occur on a wider scale than just in Calvia. Because of some bad apples, the whole PR produce is likely to fail.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Bonnie Tyler. Today’s title – I’ve made a question out of this line from which song? Huge English act of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

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How Can I Be Sure?

The local papers all go with the news that, after the months of rumour and denial, the hospital in Alcúdia is to close: at the end of December. (See previous: 4 November: And When I Woke Up In My Hospital Bed). The managing director, who had until recently been saying that rumours of closure were just that, rumours, has now come clean. The reasons for closure centre on the fall in the number of patients since the opening of the Inca public health hospital, a lack of specialists and the obsolete nature of some of the hospital’s equipment, the latter being something - one would have thought - that the Juaneda group who run the hospital would have been aware of for some while. Most of the hospital’s employees and its operations - in the general sense of the word - will transfer to Juaneda’s Hospital General de Muro. Alcúdia’s mayor still hopes that there might be a reconsideration, but this is no sudden consideration for closure; it has been on the cards for ages. The hospital will become a home for geriatric care.

Part of me says I don’t know what the fuss is all about. At a personal level, the Muro hospital is closer, and so long as it honours my health-insurance company, it really makes little difference; indeed it is better. But for many who use Alcúdia, they will want to be sure as to which insurance companies apply. I was in the hospital in Alcúdia the other day. I met a Mallorcan couple who I know well (there is another aspect to the hospital; though private, it is very much part of the community, and one invariably meets at least one person one knows, but be that as it may). I mentioned to this couple the fact that the hospital might be closing. It was the first they had heard of it (they live in Can Picafort, and maybe news doesn’t really travel that far here), and they were taken aback as their insurance company - the same as mine - does not list Muro in its annual brochure of centres. It’s ok, I said, Muro hospital has it (the insurance company) listed on its website. These are not people who would ever look at the internet, let alone a computer. So Juaneda face a PR issue, one of letting people know how it affects them. I can well imagine people beating a path to the Hospital d’Alcúdia looking for assurance that they will be able to use Muro.

Although the Inca hospital is not that far, I do wonder how the closure might impact on tourists. Go to the Hospital d’Alcúdia in summer and there are no small number of tourist casualties of varying sorts. The Muro hospital doubtless has the same; now it will likely to have to cater for all of them. I hope they’ve thought about that.


How sure can one be on the local beaches? For once, this is not an environmental issue, but a safety one. Apparently there are 42 beaches around the islands that fall into the high-risk category when it comes to drowning; the “Diario” has a map - there are four in Pollensa, one in Alcúdia, two in Muro (Playa de Muro) and three in Santa Margalida (Can Picafort and maybe Son Serra). It does not itemise the beaches, but it is not difficult to know which ones they are talking about. For instance in the case of Muro, the “two” must be the beaches either side of where the “torrent” exits into the sea by the Esperanza complex; for two, read THE beach. The at-risk beaches are not therefore necessarily tucked-away coves. Quite the contrary, they are some of the most populated, which is part of the problem; that, a lack of appreciation of sea conditions and the work of the lifeguards (which needs to be made easier).

I know of at least three drownings near me in Playa de Muro this summer. Yet you would hardly think of the sea there as risky; it is shallow, there are no rocks. But there are, as always, currents, and - in parts - a lot of people. I wrote briefly about the dangers in August when the sea was particularly turbulent (6 August: This Is The Sea). The sea - we adore it, but we should always fear it.


QUIZ
Yesterday - “Refugees”, Van Der Graaf Generator. Today’s title - one point for the singer who had the number one, but a big bonus for knowing who did it originally.

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Index for November 2007

Albufera - 12 November 2007
Alcúdia’s old power station - 23 November 2007
Alcúdia’s power station - 6 November 2007, 7 November 2007, 10 November 2007
All-inclusives - 9 November 2007, 28 November 2007
Archaeology - 10 November 2007
Architecture - 21 November 2007
Autumn fairs - 5 November 2007, 12 November 2007, 14 November 2007
Balearic economy - 5 November 2007
Balearic Government - 1 November 2007
Beach-bars - 3 November 2007
Beaches - 3 November 2007, 6 November 2007, 7 November 2007, 30 November 2007
Blog second anniversary - 1 November 2007
Boats - 27 November 2007
Building - 10 November 2007, 20 November 2007
Cala San Vicente - 10 November 2007
Can Picafort - 15 November 2007
Cartoons - 14 November 2007
Casinos - 25 November 2007
Ceuta - 5 November 2007
City breaks - 14 November 2007
Climate change - 3 November 2007, 10 November 2007
Clínica Juaneda - 4 November 2007, 30 November 2007
Coastline - 6 November 2007, 15 November 2007, 21 November 2007
Condohotels - 22 November 2007
Culture - 24 November 2007, 26 November 2007
Demolition - 6 November 2007, 21 November 2007
Dijous Bo - 12 November 2007
Don Pedro hotel - 6 November 2007
Drownings - 30 November 2007
“El Jueves” - 14 November 2007
Energy - 11 November 2007
Environment - 1 November 2007, 3 November 2007, 6 November 2007, 10 November 2007, 21 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Euro 2008 - 22 November 2007, 24 November 2007
Expatriates - 24 November 2007
Ferrer, Miquel - 13 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Film - 18 November 2007
Football - 22 November 2007, 24 November 2007
Gatamoix - 12 November 2007
GOB - 1 November 2007, 10 November 2007
Golf - 1 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Gran Escala, Zaragoza - 25 November 2007
Grupo Femenía - 4 November 2007
History - 12 November 2007, 15 November 2007, 18 November 2007, 26 November 2007
Hospital d’Alcúdia - 4 November 2007, 30 November 2007
Hospital General de Muro - 4 November 2007, 30 November 2007
Hotels - 6 November 2007, 9 November 2007, 13 November 2007, 17 November 2007, 20 November 2007, 21 November 2007, 22 November 2007, 29 November 2007
House of Katmandu - 8 November 2007
Housing - 1 November 2007, 11 November 2007
Iberostar - 13 November 2007
Illegal building - 3 November 2007, 6 November 2007
Inca - 12 November 2007
King Jaime 1 - 18 November 2007
King Juan-Carlos - 11 November 2007
Language - 24 November 2007
Llull, Ramón - 25 November 2007, 26 November 2007
Marinas - 27 November 2007
Melilla - 5 November 2007
Moorings - 27 November 2007
Mountains - 19 November 2007
Nationalism - 13 November 2007
Nautical tourism - 27 November 2007
Paco de Lucía - 16 November 2007
Palma - 14 November 2007
Playa de Muro - 15 November 2007, 28 November 2007, 30 November 2007
Political parties - 13 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Pollensa fair - 14 November 2007
Pollentia - 10 November 2007
Promotion - 16 November 2007
Roman remains - 10 November 2007
Royal Family - 14 November 2007
Sa Pobla fair - 14 November 2007
Satire - 14 November 2007
Snow - 19 November 2007
Son Bosc - 1 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Theme parks - 25 November 2007
Thomson - 20 November 2007, 22 November 2007
Tour operators - 17 November 2007, 20 November 2007, 22 November 2007
Tourism statistics - 9 November 2007
Tourism strategy - 14 November 2007, 16 November 2007, 17 November 2007
Tourist spend - 8 November 2007, 28 November 2007
Tramuntana - 19 November 2007
TUI - 20 November 2007
Unemployment - 7 November 2007
Unió Mallorquina - 13 November 2007, 23 November 2007
Water supply - 13 November 2007
Winter in Mallorca - 7 November 2007, 11 November 2007
Winter tourism - 2 November 2007, 8 November 2007, 17 November 2007, 19 November 2007, 20 November 2007, 22 November 2007, 29 November 2007
World Travel Market - 12 November 2007, 13 November 2007, 14 November 2007
Yachting - 27 November 2007

And When I Woke Up In My Hospital Bed

Is Alcúdia about to lose its hospital? The rumours have been circulating for months. The “Diario” ran with this yesterday, and the report did little to quell those rumours.

The company that runs Hospital d’Alcúdia also runs the Hospital General de Muro, close by in Playa de Muro. With the recent opening of the public health hospital in Inca, one could argue that one private hospital in the area should be sufficient.

The Diario refers to this company as being Grupo Femenía. From what I can make out, this is right only up to a point. Last year, the Juaneda network reached agreement with Femenía to manage its centres; the Muro hospital has always been Juaneda. The incorporation of the Femenía centres was part of an expansion to make Juaneda the main player in private health care in Mallorca. Take a look at its website, and one finds much being made of “expansion”. For it to now be considering closure of Alcúdia seems a little surprising, given that management philosophy. There again, consolidation is a perfectly sensible management action, even if it appears to run counter to the main strategy.

Alcúdia’s mayor says that there will be a meeting to clarify the intentions, adding that there are agreements and obligations in respect of services at Hospital d’Alcúdia that have to be rendered, though - as the paper points out - he doesn’t elaborate as to what these are.

If the quality and availability of health care is unaffected or indeed improved by consolidation, it should not matter, but one suspects there is a degree of kudos lurking here. Alcúdia’s prestige might be knocked by Muro being home to the one hospital in the north.

Were the permanent population the only issue, then there would not be much need for debate. But it is not the only issue. Femenía was founded on the notion of providing health care in tourist centres. At present, the Alcúdia and Muro hospitals cater for the vast tourist population in the north as well as the permanent population. Irrespective of the opening of the hospital in Inca, one does wonder whether the closure of Alcúdia would create a strain.


Talking of the Diario, I must just mention something from its website the other day. On its home page was a photo of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez kissing model Naomi Campbell’s hand. Sweet. Immediately above the photo (and it was immediately above; there was no break between the two images) was an advert. It was for an escort service offering beautiful models for all events in Mallorca. I had to click both images to make sure that they were indeed separate. Coincidental or ...?


QUIZ
Yesterday - Don Henley, “The Boys of Summer”. Today’s title - it’s a line from which song? Clue: Perhaps best known is the version by an Irish group; the song itself has an Australian connection.

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Sowing The Seeds

And following on from yesterday. There was a bit of a jolly with worthies attending a conference on the need for innovation. A good excuse, as always, for some nice photos of politicans and others, listening (intently?) to the worthy speeches. The upshot of all this was that there needs to be innovation in Mallorca and the Balearics. Yes, I think we kind of got that. And that there needs to be much investment in human capital, which is management speak for training. The thing is that there is neither a tradition of innovation here nor a natural focal point to facilitate it. Nor is this necessarily a land of entrepreneurs. The structure for allowing innovation to flourish demands physical representations such as science and technology parks, financial impetus in the form of seed funding, a mental approach that does not squash risk, and good training and development. Whether Mallorca is ready for any of this, or capable of it, I don’t know.

And then there is government spending. Madrid has agreed to cough up a tad over 400 million euros for new road projects on the island, many of them designed to alleviate the numerous bottlenecks around Palma. All of this will be very much welcome. As I pointed out on 8 July (“Same As It Ever Was”), “it’s just - the road infrastructure in and around Palma is bad. It has inherent inefficiency; it is a hindrance to productivity.”


CROCS UPDATE
As promised, I duly studied feet at the Hospital d’Alcúdia. Yep. Crocs. Great swamps of them. White ones, blue ones, pink ones. Not the colours of the rainbow, more a washed-out or sun-bleached Union Jack range of colours. Can’t say that any life-saving equipment was being interfered with, but - as coincidence would have it - another hospital story has emerged (from “Euro Weekly”); allegedly someone died because an emergency call button was not functioning at the Playa de Muro hospital. One of my neighbours is a director there. Don’t think I’ll be bringing it up in conversation somehow.


QUIZ
Yesterday - Simply Red, “Money’s Too Tight To Mention”. Today’s title - it’s another song title with a missing couple of words. Who?

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My Crocodile Shoes Are Crying Too

Continuing the celebration theme (if one can call it that) of recent days, there are two sort of celebrations in Puerto Pollensa. The first is the 70th anniversary of the sea-plane aerodrome. This is now the base for the fire-fighting Canadair aircraft, itself celebrated in sculpture form on the Caprabo roundabout. The second is that, forty years after provision for it was made, the new road from the coast that will hook up with the by-pass to Formentor is taking shape (it will actually be ready next summer). The road will pass through Llenaire and Pinaret, and the anticipation is that more of the front-line will be pedestrianised.

There, bet you feel better for knowing all that. To matters of greater import, and I am very grateful to Ben (at Piccadilly) for passing this on. Crocs. Geox. You know the shoes. Everyone and his dog has a pair. I have a pair. But there are Crocs and there are Crocs, at least there are here. It so happens I know the guy who has the distribution concession for the island. He does not deal with the imitation Crocs. I spoke to a chap at a sports shop earlier this summer, and asked about his shoes. Were they originals, I asked. Oh yes, said he. Like fuck they were. While they are cheaper, they don’t have the essential quality that the originals have - that airy feeling. So, anyone seeing some “Crocs” for 12 euros here, be sure they are not the real thing. But back to Ben as he has sent me this thing from “The Sun” which says that Crocs can be harmful to health in the sense that medical staff wear them and they can give off static electricity that affects life-saving equipment. Ben points out he saw them being worn at the new hospital in Inca. I have seen them at the hospital in Alcúdia. And not just nurses, doctors as well. Moreover, the Crocs pose a potential health and safety threat in that syringes could be dropped though the holes (as you do).

I have an appointment at the Alcúdia hospital this Friday. I shall be inspecting feet closely.


QUIZ
Yesterday - Bon Jovi. Today’s title? Clue. Dec (or was it Ant) once had a child role in a series featuring this singer. Pretty easy this I reckon.

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