I can’t help but feel that scrapping IRIS is wrong. I am (or I guess was) a big fan of the IRIS recognition as I have said before and I can honestly say that in all the time that I have used it I have never had a problem.

There was never anybody else using it, the doors never jammed and seriously how hard was it to look into a screen a line your eyes up?

As for what the report in the Telegraph said:

Travellers frequently had difficulties lining up their eyes with iris recognition camera embedded in the gates.

As a result the sight of passengers shuffling forward and backwards in an attempt to be in the right position for the gates to open was commonplace.

It was subject to constant criticism and five years ago a study showed that if failed half of the targets that had been set.

In many cases passengers found that they could get into the country quicker by joining the queue to have their passports inspected by an immigration officer

Total rubbish in my opinion and the ‘expert’ I saw being interviews on Sky (didn’t get his name but he and a cream jacket on) was talking a load of rubbish at well.

Am sure the software did crash, but it would have become more robust over time just as every other application in the world has.

As for people struggling, that is a shame, but everyone has to get used to a more technological world and if they can’t look straight at something then god help them!

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Received this ‘feedback’ from a mate who has just been to Greece which I think gives a really good insight, first hand as they say!

They are depressed because officially the suicide rate has gone from the lowest in Europe to the highest. However, shockingly, the businesses still aren’t giving out receipts meaning they aren’t paying taxes at all. Also, the Greek government have made citizens into tax inspectors. If you don’t present a certain number of receipts with your yearly tax report you get in trouble – but with cash in hand tourism businesses this doesn’t make any sense. And the real tax inspectors still haven’t started looking at anyone.

So you will get a receipt at McDonalds or when you buy water at a kiosk but not from restaurants, bars or even hotels that make lots of money. So you still see lots of Porsche Cayennes in Naxos but the schools don’t have computers and didn’t have any books on the first day of term!!

That’s the current situation!

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Reading that foreign lorry drivers could pay as much as £10 a day to use UK roads. Will only apply to lorries over 38 tonnes so our little Van wouldn’t ‘qualify’.

As UK haulage firms already have to pay to make journeys in other European Union countries, including France, it seems reasonable that such a charge be implemented, but of course EU rules means that you can’t discriminate between home and foreign vehicles so all UK lorries would have to pay the daily charge, but the UK Government would reimburse the haulage companies.

Now I may be wrong on this but surely charging, processing and reimbursing must cost more than not charging in the first place?

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Ever stopped to think why Germany, France and the other Eurozone countries are so keen for Greece to accept the imposed austerity cuts that will enable the release of further bailout funds?

There has been much debate recently, and again over the weekend, that the Eurozone should ‘just let Greece default’, or alternatively ‘Greece should just leave the Euro’.

After all how hard can it be? A bit of printing of new currency, some re-labeling of prices and re-programming of systems. They certainly wouldn’t have to worry about promoting or marketing the forthcoming change would they!

Living in Spain I have been asked many a time if I think Spain will or should leave the Euro, and to date my answer has always been that I don’t think they will, nor do I think they should, and if asked about Greece I would say the same!

Note, please, that I am talking about remaining within the Eurozone, not remaining with the EU, which I think is a totally different debate and one I am engaged in elsewhere!

My reasoning is pretty simple really: cash is all about confidence. If you have cash in your pocket you feel confident, if you don’t then you don’t. If you have cash coming in at the end of the week/month you feel confident, if you don’t then you don’t. If you know how much that cash is worth & what it will buy you then you feel confident, if you don’t …… you get the picture.

In many ways that was the whole point of the Euro and the Eurozone, to provide increased confidence in cash, to provide a collective confidence through belonging to a more stable community, with the stronger nurturing and protecting the weaker.

Consider for moment that Greece left the Eurozone. Regardless of whether they ‘jumped or were pushed’ one thing is certain: the change wouldn’t happen overnight. Three to six months I reckon between announcement and implementation and while I am sure all kinds of mechanics would kick in to protect the risk of fraud, possibly including an interim currency or a specially marked Euro, what mechanisms would be in place for people’s confidence.

It is pretty safe to assume that to date there have been some ‘mini’ runs on the banks as those with cash in Greece look to house it elsewhere, with the main question not being should I do it, but where should I put it (is no coincidence I suspect that many an Expat has been transferring their savings into $’s recently) and more importantly will I be able to as governments look to seal their borders against large cash transactions to avoid an unsurvivable devaluation.

Then we get the risk of contagion. Greece today, who tomorrow? Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy. If you lived in any of those countries and heard that Greece had left the Euro your confidence in your own cash in your own country would be dented.

Sure governments would look to ‘firewall’ the political and financial implications of this mood swing, but public mood can be a mighty powerful tool as we have seen this last six months with the riots and public demonstrations of dissatisfaction across the globe.

All things considered Greece seems better off remaining in the Eurozone during this current crisis.

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‘Like’ it or not Facebook’s Timeline is here to stay, well at least for as long as they want us to use it, so rather than bemoan the fact here are five (5) tips that many may find useful to consider.

1. Featured Posts

Something that I ‘Like’ is the ability to hover over a post and click on the star to resize a post and as a result give it more prominence on the Timeline.

In a similar vein if you want to temporarily remove (or hide) a post from your timeline hover as above and click on the pencil icon.

2. Cover Photo

Am surprised how little people have been using the huge amount of retail estate Facebook have provided for the cover photo. As they say “fill this wide, open space with a unique image that represents you best. It’s the first thing people see when they visit your timeline.”

3. Spring Clean Your Content

With the increased visibility and easier search facilitated by the Timeline it is now so much easier for people to find everything you have ever posted, including all those ‘early days’ ones (and drunk night ones), and with more and more employees searching social media to find out more about applicants ……. need I say more!!

Unfortunately Facebook seem determined to hold onto everything that you have ever posted and you have 3 options to consider:

a) review every item ever posted to your wall individually, and set your privacy controls accordingly

b) make all your posts friends-only

c) limit the posts by others on your Timeline

4. Don’t be shy

Have you seen the ‘Life Event’ button on the Status Update bar? Lots and lots of stuff you can tell people about, and you can set privacy settings for the Life Event.

5. You ‘Like’ what!!

The Timeline is all about increased visibility so all your previous ‘Likes’ are now far more visible, just below the Cover Photo.

Probably a good time to go back and make sure that your Timeline reflects what you currently ‘Like’ rather than all those ‘seemed a good idea at the time’.

Personally I ‘Like’ the Timeline, but I am not the biggest Facebook fan or user in the world, although I use it far more than I thought I would.

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In this months Telegraph Expat column I take a look at how getting passionate and involved can be the best thing for an expat.

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Driving through Barcelona and the north of Spain over the weekend I was reminded just how much I enjoyed working in Barcelona several years ago, not least because of how easy it was to travel around the city and the great Hotel In Barcelona that we stayed at, and returned to last July to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

There is a lot to be seen in Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain, and of course the capital of Catalonia and home to FC Barcelona and the extremely impressive Camp Nou. Of course the football club is about more than just football having become the symbol for Catalan culture and Catalanism, with the motto “Més que un club” saying it all: More than a club!

I was explaining to my friend that what impressed me most was that in many ways Barcelona was the perfect dual destination vacation, with the benefit of being in a single location. The city is perfect for a short weekend break, or a longer cultural holiday, and the beaches make for a perfect relaxing holiday with great food, and a pretty much perfect climate.

As I said above, it was the ease of travel that most impressed. Driving round the city on the motorway on a Friday afternoon when the Spanish are typically starting to head up north to the weekend homes by the sea we didn’t hit any traffic, roadworks or delays at all, which is more than can be said about the M25 around London which we had the ‘pleasure’ of experiencing pretty much exactly 24 hours later.

How is it that a two lane motorway can move more freely and efficiently than a 4 lane one? Spain is getting some pretty bad press at the moment, much deserved it has to be said (am thinking their attitude to animals for example), but more often than not things just work as they should her in Spain, and traveling around the country as I have been doing a lot recently just reminded me of that!

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Saidi is seven today, but more importantly she will have been with us four years today, as she spent the first three years of her life out on the street having at least three litters, ad for the the last 12 months being fed by Sands who slowly fell in love with her and finally succumbed and couldn’t bear the thought of her being out on the street any longer and adopted her to join her son Moreno.

She is a remarkably sweet, small cat who wants nothing more to sleep in her favourite places (which tend to include the sun) and be stroked a lot! She gets on well with Dusky and Fleur, has a few issues with Oscar, and growls a lot at Moreno, yet they sleep pretty close to each other most nights on our bed!

After a trip to the vest last night for her annual injections and check up (she is fine) she will be spending the day as normal: a lie in on the bed snuggled into the duvet, her favourite Mousse for breakfast, a play and a kip on the roof, followed by an afternoon in the sun on the balcony. This evening she will no doubt be snuggled on the sofa with the heater on watching some TV with us, before claiming her fvourite place at night: snuggled between Sands and I, generally with my arm wrapped round her!

Enjoy the latest photo of our Duchess taken this Christmas.

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So another year starts. For me that means another alcohol free month as for the 24th year in a row I have given up booze for the month of January.

Originally it was pretty much a way of shedding the weight put on over the December packed with work functions back in the day when companies didn’t mind the odd boozy lunch, you were allowed a Christmas Tree in the office and meetings didn’t start until 11am during December.

For many a year it has been the catalyst for a fitness drive, and one year it extended into a two year period on the wagon, something I am seriously considering again, although I think I would really struggle these days living in Spain such is the way of life, and my increasing appreciation of a good bottle of wine accompanied by great food and interesting conversation.

To be honest I find it easy not to drink, primarily because we are not big drinkers at home and I just don’t go out in January so avoid temptation.

This year I hope to use the month to establish an exercise routine again, being realistic about my capabilities these days!

And as for New Year Resolutions just one: to concentrate and focus only on the things I want to do!

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Interesting iPad application for news junkies which takes feeds from twitter and bit.ly (the URL shortener i.e. http://chrismarshall.ws/calm-down-dear-its-only-a-plan to http://bit.ly/vlDInf to assess and share popular content.

The links that people post online are ranked using algorithims to create a list of articles that the people you follow have read and shared.

Use of the app costs $0.99 a week or $34.99 a year and there is an initial free week-long trial for the service.

Developed by Betaworks the real time web programmes company, the application uses content from a range of publishers including the Telegraph.

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