Decision time approaches

There were just seven of us for the midweek Eucharist in the church shop this morning, all regulars, no visitors. Afterwards, I explored some streets on the west side of town, where high rise buildings and newer hotels are concentrated, and found a second health food store in the same neighbourhood, indicating that there's a concentration of German and Scandinavian residents and visitors in the area, shaping the demand.

Back in our urbanizacion, I took a photograph of a house near where I'm staying which has been re-modelled somewhat drastically. The house on the left is what it originally looked like. Last time I was here, end of summer two years ago, work on renovation was under way.

My understanding is that dwellings in the new urbanizacions were constructed deliberately in the traditional Andalusian pueblo blanco style. The iron cage on the roof is, I suppose, the framework for a large canvas sun canopy. Next to it is a barbecue hearth also fabricated from sheet iron, in contrast to the colourful tiled hearths you often see in gardens or on roof terraces in this part of the world. The house is stylishly designed, but it seems so incongruous here. I'm wonder how planning permission was obtained to replace the original with a modernist building you might find in Germany or Scandinavia.

I sustained a collection of insect bites on yesterday's outing and didn't feel like venturing further than taking the rubbish out to the bins in their neat little house on the edge of the urbanizacion. I cooked a spicy chicken and potato casserole for lunch, enough for two days, as a single portion of meat is just more than I want to eat to feel comfortable these days. Later, I made some hummous, mashing and mixing chick peas with oil lemon garlic and tahini in a bowl with a fork, rather than using a blender. It takes longer and the mix is not quite as smooth, but that gives it a kind of rustic character I enjoy. So nice to have time to do things like this in a relaxed way. Insect bites notwithstanding.

It's U.K. Election Day tomorrow, and an end to six weeks of competitive posturing and pretentious political promises which have made each day's news as annoying as the previous. Disillusionment with the established forms of party politics and governance have been reported and commented upon far and wide in the press. But how far can the press be trusted to convey or interpret fluid factual reality, when they are backed by powerful people unrepresentative of mainstream electors, and with their own controlling agendas? Does this distrust of politics actually reflect a distrust of the media and marketing hype? 

No electoral candidate is perfect, yet a significant number of voters make their choice on the basis of ideology or special promises on offer, but on the basis of regard for the person, simply trusting that they'll do the best they can in whatever circumstances emerge. What's best looks different to different people, and the electorate is short on agreement about the order in which strategic priorities have to be tackled by government. It's hugely complex, yet in the long run it does boil down to simple trust, whether one ignores or heeds all that the media has to say.

Tomorrow is also the 70th anniversary of VE day and all it evokes, in memories of a nation emerging battered and exhausted by six years of conflict, yet united at least in relief at having survived before needing to ask 'Where do we go from here?' We may just be emerging from a bruising recession, yet this suffering and endurance hasn't made one nation of us. Where indeed do we go from here? Maybe these contrasting memories and experiences will help inform a nation of decision makers tomorrow.