In My View by Jonathan Schofield
UNLIKE some of my previous jobs, which include digging out pungent latrines in America or sanding floors in Australia, I find the job of a journalist a difficult one to let go of when I go on holiday.
Which explains why I found myself questioning people, taking copious notes and studying the local press with avid fascination during a recent two-week holiday in Spain's Costa Blanca with my wife.
I usually convince her that two weeks in a tent, hiking across the mountains of Scotland or camping on a storm-ravaged Welsh coast is the only way to spend those precious few weeks off work. This time I was persuaded to do something a bit more relaxing. I must be getting old.
On a few occasions we found ourselves in an English bar, drinking English beer, watching England win their World Cup qualifying games, talking to retired English couples who had sold up life in Old Blighty for twilight years of sun, sea, sand and Sudoku. There was Roger and Sheila from Basildon, tanned to a handbag brown after 20 years in Spain, who couldn't tell us any places worth visiting because they only swim in their pool, then leave their villa late in the afternoon for beer, bingo and a meal with friends from the Costa Del Essex.
The district council that governs the region held a public meeting last week. It was front page news in the local. The leader of the council questioned why English people were not embracing Spanish life. Why the free Spanish lessons they provide for immigrants were rarely used and why the English liked to create their own "urbanised enclaves" behind electronic gates.
The answer is quite simple really – we are still tribal, we like our own, even if it is in another country. This became more evident when we visited Valencia to see that beautiful city's football team play Numancia in a Spanish league game. It was loud, vibrant, colourful and friendly in the stands.
There was just one group who soured the atmosphere by throwing peanuts, cups and rubbish onto the heads of people sitting below them. Yep, you guessed it – it was a pack of English lads, out for a day of beer and footy, showing all the best qualities of our island tribe to our fellow European citizens. Makes you proud to be English.
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Weather for Sudbury
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
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