Brian Micklethwait's Blog
In which I continue to seek part time employment as the ruler of the world.
Homewww.google.co.uk
Recent Comments
-
Brian Micklethwait on Jamie Hannah's new video
-
6000 on Jamie Hannah's new video
-
Michael Jennings on Four Channel Islands and a fifth Channel Island
-
Brian Micklethwait on Tulip approved
-
Michael Jennings on Tulip approved
-
Brian Micklethwait on A new (remote) control tower for City Airport
-
Michael Jennings on A new (remote) control tower for City Airport
-
jack whiteley on Food photo
-
Cynthia Coleman on Spring in the air
-
Brian Micklethwait on New Big Thin Things in New York
Monthly Archives
-
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
Most recent entries
- Brian Micklethwait’s New Blog starts now
- Now you see it now you don’t – then you do again
- Quimper Cathedral photos from a year ago
- Another symptom of getting old
- Quota photo of a signpost
- Three professional Japanese footballers play against one hundred children
- Sculptures and scaffolding
- There is no day that can’t be improved by seeing pictures of how they weigh an owl
- Meeting Oscar again
- A musical metaphor is developed
- Mobile phone photoing in 2004
- France is big
- Pink windscreen
- Just kidding
- Capitalism and socialism in tweets
Other Blogs I write for
Brian Micklethwait's Education Blog
CNE Competition
CNE Intellectual Property
Samizdata
Transport Blog
Blogroll
2 Blowhards
6000 Miles from Civilisation
A Decent Muesli
Adloyada
Adventures in Capitalism
Alan Little
Albion's Seedling
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
Alex Singleton
AngloAustria
Another Food Blog
Antoine Clarke
Antoine Clarke's Election Watch
Armed and Dangerous
Art Of The State Blog
Biased BBC
Bishop Hill
BLDG BLOG
Bloggers Blog
Blognor Regis
Blowing Smoke
Boatang & Demetriou
Boing Boing
Boris Johnson
Brazen Careerist
Bryan Appleyard
Burning Our Money
Cafe Hayek
Cato@Liberty
Charlie's Diary
Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry
Chicago Boyz
China Law Blog
Cicero's Songs
City Comforts
Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
Clay Shirky
Climate Resistance
Climate Skeptic
Coffee & Complexity
Coffee House
Communities Dominate Brands
Confused of Calcutta
Conservative Party Reptile
Contra Niche
Contrary Brin
Counting Cats in Zanzibar
Скрипучая беседка
CrozierVision
Dave Barry
Davids Medienkritik
David Thompson
Deleted by tomorrow
deputydog
diamond geezer
Dilbert.Blog
Dizzy Thinks
Dodgeblogium
Don't Hold Your Breath
Douglas Carswell Blog
dropsafe
Dr Robert Lefever
Dr. Weevil
ecomyths
engadget
Englands Freedome, Souldiers Rights
English Cut
English Russia
EU Referendum
Ezra Levant
Everything I Say is Right
Fat Man on a Keyboard
Ferraris for all
Flickr blog
Freeborn John
Freedom and Whisky
From The Barrel of a Gun
ft.com/maverecon
Fugitive Ink
Future Perfect
FuturePundit
Gaping Void
Garnerblog
Gates of Vienna
Gizmodo
Global Warming Politics
Greg Mankiw's Blog
Guido Fawkes' blog
HE&OS
Here Comes Everybody
Hit & Run
House of Dumb
Iain Dale's Diary
Ideas
Idiot Toys
IMAO
Indexed
India Uncut
Instapundit
Intermezzo
Jackie Danicki
James Delingpole
James Fallows
Jeffrey Archer's Official Blog
Jessica Duchen's classical music blog
Jihad Watch
Joanne Jacobs
Johan Norberg
John Redwood
Jonathan's Photoblog
Kristine Lowe
Laissez Faire Books
Languagehat
Last of the Few
Lessig Blog
Libertarian Alliance: Blog
Liberty Alone
Liberty Dad - a World Without Dictators
Lib on the United Kingdom
Little Man, What Now?
listen missy
Loic Le Meur Blog
L'Ombre de l'Olivier
London Daily Photo
Londonist
Mad Housewife
Mangan's Miscellany
Marginal Revolution
Mark Wadsworth
Media Influencer
Melanie Phillips
Metamagician and the Hellfire Club
Michael Jennings
Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal
Mick Hartley
More Than Mind Games
mr eugenides
Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism
My Boyfriend Is A Twat
My Other Stuff
Natalie Solent
Nation of Shopkeepers
Neatorama
neo-neocon
Never Trust a Hippy
NO2ID NewsBlog
Non Diet Weight Loss
Normblog
Nurses for Reform blog
Obnoxio The Clown
Oddity Central
Oliver Kamm
On an Overgrown Path
One Man & His Blog
Owlthoughts of a peripatetic pedant
Oxford Libertarian Society /blog
Patri's Peripatetic Peregrinations
phosita
Picking Losers
Pigeon Blog
Police Inspector Blog
PooterGeek
Power Line
Private Sector Development blog
Public Interest.co.uk
Publius Pundit
Quotulatiousness
Rachel Lucas
RealClimate
Remember I'm the Bloody Architect
Rob's Blog
Sandow
Scrappleface
Setting The World To Rights
Shane Greer
Shanghaiist
SimonHewittJones.com The Violin Blog
Sinclair's Musings
Slipped Disc
Sky Watching My World
Social Affairs Unit
Squander Two Blog
Stephen Fry
Stuff White People Like
Stumbling and Mumbling
Style Bubble
Sunset Gun
Survival Arts
Susan Hill
Teblog
Techdirt
Technology Liberation Front
The Adam Smith Institute Blog
The Agitator
The AntRant
The Becker-Posner Blog
The Belgravia Dispatch
The Belmont Club
The Big Blog Company
The Big Picture
the blog of dave cole
The Corridor of Uncertainty (a Cricket blog)
The Croydonian
The Daily Ablution
The Devil's Advocate
The Devil's Kitchen
The Dissident Frogman
The Distributed Republic
The Early Days of a Better Nation
The Examined Life
The Filter^
The Fly Bottle
The Freeway to Serfdom
The Future of Music
The Futurist
The Happiness Project
The Jarndyce Blog
The London Fog
The Long Tail
The Lumber Room
The Online Photographer
The Only Winning Move
The Policeman's Blog
The Road to Surfdom
The Sharpener
The Speculist
The Surfer
The Wedding Photography Blog
The Welfare State We're In
things magazine
TigerHawk
Tim Blair
Tim Harford
Tim Worstall
tomgpalmer.com
tompeters!
Transterrestrial Musings
UK Commentators - Laban Tall's Blog
UK Libertarian Party
Unqualified Offerings
Violins and Starships
Virginia Postrel
Vodkapundit
WebUrbanist
we make money not art
What Do I Know?
What's Up With That?
Where the grass is greener
White Sun of the Desert
Why Evolution Is True
Your Freedom and Ours
Websites
-
Answers.com
Arts & Letters Daily
archive.org
Arts Journal
b3ta
Bjørn Stærk's homepage
Brussels Journal
Butterflies and Wheels
Cato Institute
City Journal
Civitas
Clivejames.com
Comment Central
Commentary
Cricinfo
Daniel Barenboim
Dark Roasted Blend
Democratiya
Digital Photography Review
ECB
FaithFreedom.org
Flickr
Frikoo
FrontPageMag.com
galinsky
Ghana Centre for Democratic Reform
Global Warming and the Climate
History According to Bob
Howstat
Imani
InstaPatrick
Institut économique Molinari
Institute of Economic Affairs
Lebrecht Weekly
Libertarian Alliance
LiveScience
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Mark Steyn
Oxford Libertarian Society
Pajamas Media
Paul Graham
Sean Gabb
Signal100
Soundstage Communications
Stockholm Network
Syed Kamall
Technology Review
TED
The Christopher Hitchens Web
The Inquirer
The Register
The Space Review
The TaxPayers' Alliance
This is Local London
Toccata Classics
UK Libertarian Party
Victor Davis Hanson
WSJ.com Opinion Journal
YaleGlobal Online
YouTube
Mainstream Media
BBC
Guardian
Economist
Independent
MSNBC
Telegraph
The Sun
This is London
Times
Syndicate
RSS 1.0
RSS 2.0
Atom
Feedburner
Podcasts
Categories
Advertising
Africa
Anglosphere
Architecture
Art
Asia
Atheism
Australasia
Billion Monkeys
Bits from books
Bloggers and blogging
Books
Brian Micklethwait podcasts
Brians
Bridges
Business
Career counselling
Cartoons
Cats and kittens
China
Civil liberties
Classical music
Comedy
Comments
Computer graphics
Cranes
Crime
Current events
Democracy
Design
Digital photographers
Drones
Economics
Education
Emmanuel Todd
Environment
Europe
Expression Engine
Family
Food and drink
France
Friends
Getting old
Globalisation
Healthcare
History
How the mind works
India
Intellectual property
Japan
Kevin Dowd
Language
Latin America
Law
Libertarianism
Links
Literature
London
Media and journalism
Middle East and Islam
Movies
Music
My blog ruins
My photographs
Open Source
Opera
Other creatures
Painting
Photography
Podcasting
Poetry
Politics
Pop music
Propaganda
Quote unquote
Radio
Religion
Roof clutter
Russia
Scaffolding
Science
Science fiction
Sculpture
Signs and notices
Social Media
Society
Software
South America
Space
Sport
Technology
Television
The internet
The Micklethwait Clock
Theatre
This and that
This blog
Transport
Travel
USA
Video
War
And in an internet cafe. But it won´t read an SD card so no pictures until I get home. Although, come to think of it, maybe I will find another internet cafe which will allow me to show pictures.
First impression, it´s warmer, without being uncomfortably warm. Warmer yesterday afternoon, when I arrived, than today. Whether the sun is out or not makes a big difference. An ideal place to escape the cold and damp of England at a time of year such as this, especially so as so few tourists yet seem to have grasped this notion.
Second impression, Spain contains lots of mini-mountains, often very near to where everyone lives, in fact in the case of one mini-mountain, actually right in the middle of where people live. Although actually that might have been the first impression in this impressions list, because I could clearly see this from the airplane as it came in to land. Alicante, for instance, has a big lump in the middle, with an ancient castle on top, like in Edinburgh. Today, I and my friend Tony went to the top of it. But, we didn´t walk up, we took the lift. This involved a long walk down a very strange, because very straight, tunnel. Then up in the lift. At the top we found not so much a castle, as an ad hoc collection of fortifications, clearly created over a longish time, as and when they needed and could afford them. What I especially liked was that at the top of this obviously very historical place, they still had room for some world-class, state of the art, guaranteed twenty-first century roof clutter, of which I of course have numerous photos, along with rather cloudy views of Alicante and its various nearby mini-mountains.
Third impression, the place seems pretty civilised. The children are polite to old gits like me. There are no drunken yobs to be seen anywhere. Maybe it is like this in provincial towns in Britain, but from what I read in the admittedly doom-laden British press, it is just as bad there. There are, for instance, and to mention a particular hate of mine, no bits of chewing gum on the pavement. My guess is that until recently, Spain has been too poor to afford a welfare state and the consequent inevitable degradation of the lives and morals of the lower classes.
Fourth impression: no cats. Not one. Dogs, yes, quite a few. Birds in cages, yes, lots. Cats, none. Maybe the birds in the cages contributes to there being no cats, because cats would terrify all these birds, or worse. Only cat photos so far of two china cats in my friends´ flat, and some also non-real cats in a hardware store.
Fifth impression: it´s great, when you on holiday to have a great book on the go, and on an impulse I grabbed and included at the last possible moment, in my tiny bag of stuff, a copy of Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin, to add to the book on Roman history I had already packed. Knots and Crosses is the very first Rebus book. And it´s great, I think. I have dipped into later Rebuses (Rebi?), but have not found that nearly so satisfying. Now I plan to read the second one as soon as I get home, and if that works, the third, and so on.
That´s all for now, and very possibly until I am back in London. Sorry no links, and sorry for the inevitable typos, induced by strange kit and a strange keyboard. The man in the cubicle next to me is whistling and humming tunelessly. I´m out of here.
Interesting that, about cats.
Just a few days ago I came across some travel post, describing the opposite - the over-abundance of cats. I’m not clear where, though, I think it was either Jerusalem or some place in Turkey.
Is there any significance in that, what do you think?
Did you consider maybe the dogs ate the cats? Or maybe the Spanish did! You never know what’s in that strange foreign food, Brian!
Oddly, my Spanish cat experience is precisely the opposite to yours. I have personally encountered lots and lots of Iberian moggies.
I only know the Costa del Sol in Andalusia, but there seem plenty of cats there. One problem is wild dogs that have the charming habit of occasionally half eating sheep alive (as in not finishing them off). The local dog warden in a village north of Malaga once told me he shot about 30 in a month, IIRC.
As for wintering on the Med. La Promenade des Anglais in Nice got its name from the English gentry that stayed there in the winter. It can be foggy, but warmer than the UK. Parisians do not do this. It sounds like something you might do more often.
On drinking: tapas is surely part of it as Michael says, but also the point about children rings true, they are more polite. There is no alcohol prohibition before youngsters go to university and whatever Viking-berserker DNA got into British chavs seems largely absent from the south of France and Spain.
Spain wasn’t rich enough to have a welfare underclass until recently, and I’m guessing the Franco era had an effect well into the 1980s, both good and bad. The country also lacked a poor alienated immigrant population (lots of relatively wealthy expats in the south) since the Reconquistada. The timing of Spain’s entry into the EU for freedom of movement purposes will have been useful: UK benefits will surely attract more scroungers than Spain.
Final thought about food. The surprising thing to me was 1) the variety of fish is generally greater in Spain than in the UK, 2) the amount of dishes involving potatoes and/or roast pork. Apart from the spices, some of the food struck me as closer to Ireland than Italy, in a good way. 3) nothing like the variety of cheese as in France.
If you have the chance, check out food markets.
Thanks for all of the above.
I´m back tomorrow so will not be doing any more posting from Spain, but would like to add one more impression. LOTS OF GRAFFITI. It´s everywhere. Don´t know why, but maybe something to do with them thinking it´s art? Maybe they just don´t dislike it as much as I do. Maybe graffiti is the only bad thing the graffiti-ists do, so nobody reacts against it, although that seems unlikely.
Could this be some kind of British influence?
This makes me realise what a significant fact about London it is that in large parts of it, but most definitely not in all of it, graffiti is not tolerated.
I know that, as a libertarian, I´m not suppose to think such things, but might it also be something to do with London having more surveillance cameras everywhere, so whenever the powers that be want it to stop in some particular place, the can do this relatively easily?
Anyway, like I say, it´s everywhere. Again, I have pictures of this and hope to post some.
Day trip to Benidorm today. Quite a place.
Still no cats. Not one. Lots of Brits, but no cats.
Glad you are having a good holiday Brian.
Antoine: With the exception of a few groups of people in Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, the English just don’t get seafood. Cod, haddock, and perhaps occasionally salmon or tuna seem to be just about it. Don’t even ask about shellfish. The French, the Italians, and particularly the Spanish do get seafood, the Spanish to the extent that they are willing to deplete the oceans of the world in order to really enjoy it now. As far as roast pork and potatoes, you get that over the border in Portugal, too. (Salt cod and potatoes is a big deal too, and when done right it is a wonderful dish). As for cheeses, northern Spain is different from southern Spain. There are some lovely Catalan cheeses, and Basque food is something special in a great many ways.
Generalizing Alicante->Spain is not realistic…
1) warm, yes, but not in the true mountains
2) mini mountains, yes except in Castilla and in the true mountains
3) civilised… will depend on the town, and the moment. No chewing gum on the pavement???! That must be particular to Alicante.... Or maybe the cleaning service is prepared to deal with all the rubbish generated by a much larger summer population, and is therefore overkill in winter.
4) no cats? That is strange.
Michael, Portuguese love their fish, shellfish and various mollusks as much as the neighbors. Especially at the South. And everywhere they combine rice with potatoes as a standard side (practice I still can’t understand no reconcile with relative general slimness of population).
Dear B, hope you are having a lovely time.
By the way, I’ve got you in my ‘blogroll but it doesn’t update for new posts, hence why I drop in so seldom.
On the point about graffiti it seems to me that there is a lot less of it about on trains and in stations - and a lot more CCTV in those places.
And anyway, is it really libertarian to be against CCTV? Surely it is just a property rights issue?
[Lights blue touch paper and retires.]
I wasn’t meaning to exclude the Portuguese from being seafood lovers: merely to mention that they also go with the potatoes thing. They seem to have a particular love of Octopus, too. I had a lovely seafood stew on the Algarve last month - sort of like a bouillabaisse but not quite. Not seafood, but I also had a lovely cassoulet like stew in Alentejo. I think it may be that those dishes that have evolved from rural and working people’s food are rather more similar across southern Europe than some of the theoretically fancier dishes.
Prawn cocktail versus bouillabaisse.
Spot the sea food experts…
I don’t mind a bank having a camera pointed at the cashiers’ counter, knowing that the tape is erased after a week.
I do mind police cameras.
On graffiti, I think the reason for a drop is mainly that local government has staff whose job description is to remove graffiti. One reason for this is the association made by law enforcement agencies between gang tags and crime.
Persistently removing gang tags reduces the prestige of these groups. I had a conversation with the head of Chicago’s anti-gang unit about this. He told me that one of the cheapest preventative anti-crime actions is to paint over graffiti.
This is consistent with property rights.
Michael - in cataplana? I loved the local seafood stew that I ate in Lagos so much, I bought copper cataplana in the market and now occasionally attempt my version of the dish. Once I had a friend, native of Barcelona, for dinner and she approved. Although I suspect she was too generous.
I hate graffiti, no matter how artistically they’re done. One simple reason: they distort architect’s intention. Every building has a balance of solid vs. patterned, and if architect decided to leave a wall clean, it’s not an invitation to some illiterate “artist” to make a mess of it.
If you look at “January” for my four annual travel photoessays (here, here, here and here) you will observe that I certainly have figured out the benefits of going to Spain in the middle of the English winter. I even booked it for this year too, but it got called off when I decided to go to Australia instead, which is where I am now. I am also surprised at how few other English tourists seem to have figured this out.
As for the lack of yobbishness, part of it is a cultural difference. The Spanish drinking culture may or may not be to drink less, but they drink much small glasses of alcoholic beverages over a longer period of time, and they always eat food when they drink. (This is what “tapas” is, basically. Food that you eat with your drinks). I think this cultural difference is much older than any differences in welfare states. This may be part of it, but I don’t think it is all of it.
By the way, it seems impossible to leave comments on your blog from anywhere in the Republic of Singapore.