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I was disappointed to read that a recent survey of workplaces found 57% of companies in London and more than 70% outside of London don’t allow employees to drink at friday lunchtimes…
“Last Orders for the Lunchtime Pint” BBC Magazine Saturday 13th May

Yes, yes… I know it makes sense for lawyers, doctors or drivers and machine workers, but I think these strict rules can damage the social life of many offices and might actually encourage irresponsible drinking outside of hours. That’s my experience anyway.

What do you think?

Here in Chile, long lunchbreaks are fairly endemic and expected. On a thursday or friday, they can last up to two and a half hours! In fact, it makes getting things done here quite difficult sometimes (I still haven’t paid for a spanish course I did in March because the office staff are never in!).

As far as I can see, without any “nanny state” legislation or corporate restriction of such practices, all employees that can afford it or who are not escaping Santiago for a weekend or do not have urgent family commitments, join their collegues to eat a huge lunch with some of that great Chilean wine not just every friday… but every day of the week!

The lunchtime pint has yet to take off here. But I hope it does… maybe when they get bored of wine?!

Today is Mother’s Day in Chile. Fancy that, eh?

Sorry to our Mums…. we didn’t know till this week. In fact, till yesterday, when the flower stands started exploding onto the streets everywhere!

Well, the G.I.F.T. Day at Santiago Community Church was really interesting….

After a party last night to celebrate Rachel’s Birthday (this wednesday coming), we only made it to two of the four sessions due to excessive… errrr…. talking and eating of deserts with coffee cream.

I went to the seminar on Changing Catholic Identity. It considered the growing ecumenical stance of the Catholic church and the challenges of finding a credible, influencial role in politics and social action in a nominally Catholic, proud-to-be Catholic country like Chile.

The trend towards ecumenicalism appears to be due to necessity rather than choice. While 65% of the population in Chile claim to be Catholic, only 10-12% actually attend the Church regularly; the same proportion that attend Protestant churches regularly!

At the same time, state and church have separated further and seemingly irreversibly. It is unclear what influence the Churches will have upon policy development or defence of minorities or the poor in Chile through a newly established “Chilean Office of Religious Affairs” under La Presidenta Michelle Bachelet.

While providing a thorough and academic overview of the major paradigm shifts within the Catholic Church worldwide and in Chile, the speaker seemed loathe to admit that the next major paradigm shift may be initiated by or even originate from outside of the traditionally closed Vatican policy machine.

Or, that the working of the Church may be forced to adapt to new political structures in modernising countries like Chile, where they do not hold either men or instruments of power anymore.

And did you know that the worldwide Catholic Organisation “Opus Dei”, while a champion of social action, is actually formed only of invited, influencial or rich professionals? I didn’t… but we all came away wondering why such an organisation had to be so secretive? It’s like the Group of Free Masons. We’ll be watching for those secret handshakes, signs, or mafia-type cars at Catholic Churches from now on!

How wrong can a man be?! I cynically assumed that our Church was providing us with an opportunity to give money….. and instead, I discovered that this acronym stands for “Growing in Faith Together”. Although it costs £3, it turns out that this pays for lunch and refreshments… and the rest of the morning and early afternoon will be spent in discussions or lectures on a range of subjects of interest to the congregation. The line up is as follows:

Genesis to Revelation in an hour

Communication and managing conflict in the Church

Changing Catholic Identity in Chile

Challenges in Youth Ministry

So we’re “Going In For Tea” and hope to learn something along the way.

Yuck…. its pretty minging in Santiago at the moment. What looks like dust is hanging in the air, hanging over the buildings, obscuring the view of the mountains and giving us all long, crackling, whooping coughs.

Its still 26 degrees during the day. But that causes the problem… the sun converts emissions into toxic gases!

Its 4 degrees at night. Another problem (temperature inversions). The smog is trapped in the city and just swirls around, day and night. Gently descending on our balcony, our clothes, the cars, the streets, the gardens.

We’d jump in the car to escape if we owned a car…. but that would only make it worse!