Retirees in Spain are up a creek

interesting article in the London Times Sunday Magazine. We usually get the Sunday Times and then I spend all week going through it. Spain has more British ex-pats than any other country except Australia. A number of them are pensioners (retirees) who sold their homes here when the pound was king and retired to sun and sand on pension that, paid out in pounds, would go quite far in Spain. Now that the pound has taken a dive, many of them are finding themselves in financial straits. Even those who went to Spain to work are in trouble as Spain now has the highest unemployment rate in all of Europe. We're heading there for one last vacation before returning home, and after my experience in Ireland, I will be keeping all valuable possessions on my person!

On a more positive note, the front page of today's Daily Mail was all about a big breakthrough in treatment for autism. Just like in the States, the rates of autism have increased dramatically here in the UK over the last 20 years. They claim to have discovered some genetic markers that could help prevent autism and help treat those who are autistic. I didn't see anything about this on the news sites from the states, but it could have been eclipsed by all the swine flu scare.

I'm still a little bit in mourning for Bea Arthur. How fabulous was she? I wonder is they'll ever come out with a DVD collection of the episodes of All in the Family in which she appeared as Ethel's cousin before Maude got her own show. Those are just hysterical.

Got my friend who has a newborn out of the house today. We strolled the baby into town for lunch and he didn't start crying until we finished. Cried all the way home, though. He's got the same tummy problems as our nephew Oliver had, so he does better when someone is holding him. After my friend fed him, I just sat and held him for about 45 minutes so she could get in a nap. I told her we'd make it a weekly thing--at least!

Am hoping our house rents soon. Keeping it in "showing" mode is no fun. Two families came yesterday. Hopefully one of them will sign a lease starting July 1 and we can be done with it!