Spanish Bureaucracy

I´d heard rumours of the immense bureaucracy involved in getting anything done in Spain but hadn´t really given it much credence. People here don´t seem to pay much attention to rules when they think they´re stupid or unnecessary. For example the ´Perros No´ signs in the park up the hill from our flat is ignored so widely and blatantly that someone has graffitied over one of them so it now just reads ´Perros´.

However, going to get my NIE, Social Security and Autonomo (self employed) status sorted was another story. The forms you have to fill in are bad enough, although comparable to British ones, but its the sheer number of people you have to go and see, and get bounced back and forth between in various buildings that´s really impressive/depressing. The Social Security office is an absolute nightmare if you don´t speak Spanish (even if you´ve got a bit, the language on the forms is pretty incomprehensible) and if it wasn´t for a nice woman who took pity on my English ass I´d probably be back there today! Its more or less done now though, next stop on the organisation list: getting a bank account.

Another cultural anomaly I spotted yesterday - book vending machines. When you get the Metro you can near guarantee they´ll be someone reading a book on there, usually quite a few and certainly more than you´d see in England. I thought the vending machine was quite a, ahem, novel idea though, they´ve got the synopses printed on the side of the machine.

The clocks went back here the other day (as I imagine they did in England), and you really notice the difference when its actually sunny most of the time and you can see the sun setting. I´ve been getting some great autumnal Madrid pictures out of it though.