I saw a strange sight in town today. It was file of young kids aged 3 or 4, all dressed in the same style smock and walking along holding onto a rope stretched between two adults. I guess they were from a kindergarten - or perhaps an orphanage - and, on one level, it was a charming scene. On the other hand, the blue and white striped material of the smocks immediately put me in mind of one of those heartbreaking scenes from films of Auschwitz or Belsen. Quite eerie.

The region of Andalucia has joined Catalunia in referring to itself as a ‘national reality’ in the preamble to its new Constitution. Actually, ‘reality’ seems to me to be the one thing lacking in all these developments. But, notwithstanding that, it can’t be long now before Spain [taking a leaf out of the New Labour book] becomes The New United Nations. Or perhaps just The United National Realities plus The Canaries.

It seems my daughter got close to the truth about the plastic bottles [blog of 16.4.06]. I now learn the tops are taken off so as to prevent people urinating in the bottles, putting the tops back on and then hurling them at the players or fans of the opposing team. However, I doubt it’s beyond the intelligence of even the average football supporter [all of whom are ‘ooligans’ in Spain] to take an extra bottle top into the ground in his pocket.

Finally, I thought you might like to see what passes for English on the web page of a Galician estate agent who’s twigged that foreigners are coming but can’t be bothered to pay anyone who actually speaks English to translate his page from Spanish. There’s a prize of 1000 euros to the person who re-translates it back into Spanish and gets closest to the original. I’ve deleted the name so that you can’t cheat and get this from the web site….

X is a company of Real estate Services and Safe Integrals, that it works for you.

In X we have the best TOOLS of the market, own means of publicity, Internet of high speed, network of offices, agreements with the best financial organizations, etc. and provided a customized EFFECTIVE SERVICE, as much for the proprietor as for the buyer, that goes anywhere from the promotion adapted for the sale of a property of Spain, until the DOCUMENTS that safeguard the interests of both parts.

All our accumulated experience and our average ones allow TO GUARANTEE to HIM a professional service us, is transparent, effective express and. Really, the satisfaction of an AFFLUENT WORK DONE.

Thanks to trust X.