It's almost September and Ibiza's kids are on the annual downward spiral back to the start of school. With three months summer holiday almost over the little angels have now completely forgotten everything (if anything) they ever learned and remain blissfully ignorant of the cost involved for their doting parents.
The association of housewives on Ibiza has calculated that it costs in the region of €600 to send each student, fully equipped, fed, watered and shod, back to college. The main item of expenditure is textbooks for the term, which the parents have to order and pay for in the bookshops of the island - though some local councils do give a subsidy to cover some of the cost. Other outgoings include new uniform, school bag, transport and school dinners.
The housewives have issued some hints and tips about how to reduce expenditure though some of them seem rather impractical to carry out. For example, to reduce clothing costs, mums should not buy trendy designer tracksuits, but cheap nerdy substitutes, and send their offspring off to the snake pit with an inferiority complex the size of San Antonio!
Anyway, no matter how much it costs, it will all be worth it come the 18th, when the summer holiday chant, 'we're bored, there's nothing to do,' will be closeted away for the next nine glorious months.