I feel that much more educated today after my friend Paco explained the traditional spanish saying, " Ley de Murphy ". He and his family on the other hand are having great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that this nugget of ancient Spain did originate here. Perhaps I should have said nothing. Ignorance is bliss.

Madrid is still growing on me by the day. There is a big carnival on the streets this weekend. Why, I m not exactly sure, but it is yet another excuse for the Spanish to party and that seems like as good a reason as any. However here is not the place to be. Cadiz in the south is where it is all happening. People have spent all week preparing their costumes before they head south for a weekend of latin madness. It is the same carnival as they have in Rio De Janeiro. Apparently it originated here ( but you never know, it could be like the case of their "Murphys Law" ).

The job is working out fine at the moment. I received the short end of the straw amongst the teachers because I do so much off site teaching. It was infuriating at the beginning but now it suits me just fine.I work from 8.30am until 9.30pm from monday to thursday. However unlike the other teachers I have fridays and saturdays free. All of my classes are great fun and most of my students have become personal friends. Teaching in the companies means that the students are obviously not paying for the classes out of their own pockets. This means that they like to take things easy and have a bit of a laugh. Usually my classes are of around ten people. There is always at least one joker. Naturally the good looking girls are my favourites.

Last weekend there was another demonstration in Madrid. This time it was the "Nunca Mais (Never Again)" march. This is the name of the action group set up by the Galician people in reaction to the governments half hearted handling of the Prestige disaster. Over 200,000 people turned out this time. Not bad at all. The Prestige crisis is something that is not going to go away very quickly in the minds of the Spanish people. It is one of the few times that you will ever see the whole of Spain completely united over a domestic issue, which says it all. The clean up is ongoing. Over three thousand of the "clean-up volunteers" have had to receive hospital treatment due to infection etc. The number is thought to be alot higher as this figure does not include the people who fell ill after they had returned home.

I might visit Toledo again this weekend. I went two weeks ago and I fell in love with the place. The city and the surrounding area is really beautiful. It is great to walk up through the mountains or along the gorge. Some great photos for the taking. It all depends on what the carnival does to me tonight or tomorrow !