Mallorca's person of the week: ministry flats and jellyfish

... was the vice-president of the Balearic government, Juan Pedro Yllanes, who did nothing more remarkable than get vaccinated - legitimately so. It is quite possible that two other members of the government who are older than 61-year-old Yllanes (the agriculture and education ministers) have also been done but haven't bothered taking to Twitter in telling everyone. The vice-president announced his vaccination on his Twitter account: he'd received the call, and so off he went. A senior judge on lengthy sabbatical, wholly incorruptible, a member of Podemos, the VP will not attract the attention of the anti-corruption office. But might there be some? The vaccination "irregularities" affair was rife with rumour.

Three cheers ...

For the Council of Majorca and the Balearic housing ministry having come up with an arrangement whereby ministry flats (empty ones acquired from large property owners) can be used by the Council as temporary accommodation for those in urgent need, e.g. because of eviction. The cheers were perhaps somewhat muted because there were just the nine of these flats. How many more must be needed? The pandemic has worsened what was already a necessity, a point reinforced by the fact that, at one stage last year, Palma town hall's social welfare department was having to help twice as many families as it would have expected to.

A big boo ...

For jellyfish in great abundance and, in some instances, of great size. Pelagia noctiluca appearing by the coasts and on the beaches in the spring is quite normal, but less normal is the size of some of them. In Can Picafort, for example, a load of these giant pelagias were washed up on the beach. Meteorological phenomena are to blame for the sheer number of jellyfish. Great storms in the north had apparently brought them to Majorca's shores, and they will hang around for some time until they die off. Meanwhile, there was also the sighting of something bigger still - a Portuguese man o'war was washed up on a Pollensa beach.