Outside Spain there’s a bit of a standing joke about the pace of life over here – the fact that if you need something to be done, then it will probably be done “mañana” (tomorrow). Unfortunately there is a element of truth behind this old adage, and trying to get things done can be very frustrating. Sometimes there just appears to be a complete lack of urgency….

On the other hand the Spanish people are very spontaneous, which can make life fun and very exciting, albeit that this too can have its down side. This apparent spontaneity can sometimes be borne out of a lack of planning, leaving things very much to the last minute. I believe that I once wrote about receiving invitations in the post, for meetings or courses, perhaps as little as one or two days before the actual event. I am not sure why this is, but I’m afraid to say that it usually gives the impression of either being very informal or perhaps not particularly well organised.

So the point of my story? Well, for the last ten years or so, since I arrived here in Spain, I have always had a year planner pinned to my wall. Until this year it has been a gift from the business manager at our local bank, but to cut a long story short they will not be giving them in 2013. Not a problem, I will just go out and buy one, or so I thought. Unfortunately this proved to be much more complicated than it sounds. After walking all around the city of Pontevedra and visiting every major stationery store, I almost gave up completely. The word for a planner in Spanish is a “planning” and no matter how I tried to describe it (I began to think that my Spanish was much worse than it really is), I just got blank looks all around. I was offered every type of calendar known to man, but with not one single planner in sight. Could it be that planning in advance is simply not the ‘norm’ here, or maybe it’s just that everyone uses computer planners these days and I’m just completely out-of-date? The search continues…..

Outside Spain there’s a bit of a standing joke about the pace of life over here – the fact that if you need something to be done, then it will probably be done “mañana” (tomorrow). Unfortunately there is a element of truth behind this old adage, and trying to get things done can be very frustrating. Sometimes there just appears to be a complete lack of urgency….

On the other hand the Spanish people are very spontaneous, which can make life fun and very exciting, albeit that this too can have its down side. This apparent spontaneity can sometimes be borne out of a lack of planning, leaving things very much to the last minute. I believe that I once wrote about receiving invitations in the post, for meetings or courses, perhaps as little as one or two days before the actual event. I am not sure why this is, but I’m afraid to say that it usually gives the impression of either being very informal or perhaps not particularly well organised.

So the point of my story? Well, for the last ten years or so, since I arrived here in Spain, I have always had a year planner pinned to my wall. Until this year it has been a gift from the business manager at our local bank, but to cut a long story short they will not be giving them in 2013. Not a problem, I will just go out and buy one, or so I thought. Unfortunately this proved to be much more complicated than it sounds. After walking all around the city of Pontevedra and visiting every major stationery store, I almost gave up completely. The word for a planner in Spanish is a “planning” and no matter how I tried to describe it (I began to think that my Spanish was much worse than it really is), I just got blank looks all around. I was offered every type of calendar known to man, but with not one single planner in sight. Could it be that planning in advance is simply not the ‘norm’ here, or maybe it’s just that everyone uses computer planners these days and I’m just completely out-of-date? The search continues…..