Dangerous side effects of pigeon poo

A word of warning for anyone visiting Barcelona - leave credit cards, passport in the hotel, and keep hold of your wallet and handbag. Pickpocketing is rife. A fairly standard scam that gets many people is the sudden realisation that a bird has crapped on you. Well - it hasn't - someone has thrown a white mixture of stuff on you. A helpful person then appears, full of concern, and conveniently armed with a wad of tissues and begins to clean you up - usually moving you into a doorway or somewhere away from the street. Magically, after you have been seriously cleaned up, your wallet has gone, or your bag has been rifled. Happened to two people with us yesterday - one realised what was happening and got away, the other didn't and had his wallet nicked. Unluckily the latter person happened to be Stuart, my husband! As one of our Assistant Directors said this morning - "Send him home - a man without a wallet is useless".