It Wouldn't have been Fun Anyway

People often claim they have "just missed out" on something, as if they were striving to attain a specific goal and were narrowly thwarted by the penalty shootout. The reality often turns out to be that they weren't even picked for the team.

Life frequently relegates us to the substitutes' bench, where we have no opportunity to influence the game except by shouting, and feeling we could have done better, given half a chance. And more skilled team-mates. Or fewer skilled team-mates. End of analogy. There are various things I'm glad I didn't experience, because they probably weren't all that much fun. As a young child I was old enough to escape tonsillitis and measles, and as an adult I was sufficiently senior to be vaccinated early for Covid. In my youth I only just missed National Service, having previously avoided two world wars. (Through no fault of my own except my date of birth.)

Long before I obtained gainful employment (ha ha), my life seemed proficient at staying out of trouble. Take the case of Danny the Red and the year of student protests in 1968, which affected many of the universities in Europe. The blissful exception being St Andrews, where the future king of England later followed in my footsteps, first as a student in my hall of residence and then as a graduate, as was his future queen. I'm surprised they could still find my footsteps three decades later.

Dany le Rouge's red hair and politics didn't prevent him from becoming president of the Green Party in the

European Parliament. Red and Green and purple prose; he was a colourful character, who achieved the rare distinction of being expelled from France, the country of liberty and fraternity, as a revolutionary! A badge of honour equivalent to a Greek adding JBB to his qualifications ('Jailed By the British') or an Indian graduate's

'B.A. (Calcutta, Failed)' which is generally reckoned to be better than a Pass anywhere else.

My luck held out in other ways. I was the beneficiary of a student grant, whereas nowadays I would leave university owing 7 times the amount I paid for my first flat in central Edinburgh. How I wish I owned that flat now.

I fled the Middle East a few days before the first Gulf War began. (All right, I retired two years before, if you want to be literal, but fled sounded more adventurous.) I was spending the night on the east coast of Cyprus when an earthquake demolished my village house on the west coast. I rented in town from then on. I was either a lucky dog or a harbinger of doom.

I've rambled from the point, and it was generous of you to follow. The point being, sometimes just missing out on something is a boon, a positive advantage, when we look back with 20/21 vision. It often turns out that we've staved off something that was just no fun at all, without even being aware that we possessed a stave. What if Covid had come along before Edward Jenner invented vaccination? Would you be reading this now, or burying your face in your hands? Or are you doing that anyway?

Spain has been ranked as the fourth most attractive country in Europe for property investment in 2023, according to a study by global real estate group CBRE.

Ä258m SPENT ON TRAINS THAT DONT FIT THROUGH TUNNELS

Spain spends on trains that donít fit through tunnels Two Spanish transport executives have been fired after a train fiasco that saw the design of 31 trains that were too big for the tunnels on the line where they would run.

The country recently spent Ä258m in designing 31 trains that will now be delayed by several years due to a major design flaw.

The trains were meant to be used in the FEVE line, which runs through Asturias and Cantabria on a line that dates back to the 19th century, and with narrower than the standard 1,435mm (4ft 8.5in), tracks, something that the manufacturer failed to notice in the designs.

The station at Apeadero de Salinas in Asturias

The governmentís infrastructure secretary, Xavier Flores has admitted to knowing about the issue for several months. The trains will now likely arrive in 2026 rather than mid 2024.

Hendrick is a 3.5 month old medium x who is full of fun and energy. He is fully vaccinated/passport/mic rochip.

places from its seventh position in the previous year and is now only behind the UK, Germany and France. The study shows good forecasts for the Spanish real estate sector as well. For