(Insert witty blog title here) Charlie's

So.. i'm working in madrid.


The hours are ridiculous and in split-shifts; the prep and paperwork required usurps most of the weekend, and you collapse into bed at 8pm some weekdays, but why should I complain?
Outside my flat (gorgeous) there are skips we use to chuck in random rubbish. every day without fail i see people rooting through the remains of the skip, flat refuse and my bag of rubbish filled with diet coke cans and the occasional noodle packet.

These people are so poor that, dragging a dirt-incrusted trolley behind them, anything can be of use. I even saw a urine soaked and smelling mattress, full of holes and stained with all manner of things, vanish into one of the said trollies.
I'm feeling not so much homesick as sad at my own reflections; that i feel within my selfishness i have a right to moan when there are people living like that right outside my doorstep. I can't settle in madrid, feeling i have left things unfinished in the uk and being unsure whether i will have paid off any debt at all by xmas, but also the guilt trip is quite profound. I could afford a trip back to see the folks; these people couldn't afford clothing.
Perhaps i should move into charity work..