En route to and from the UK a couple of weeks ago, I managed to get to both the Museum of the Americas and the Institute of Fine Arts in Madrid. During my two hours in the former, I had one of those experiences that define Spain for me. Taking a coffee break, I waited at the bottom of some stairs while a snake of smiling 5 years olds came down with their teachers. At least half of the children spontaneously greeted me and a few also touched my hand as it lay on the rail. And the teachers, instead of scowling at me as if I were a ageing paedophile on the prowl, added smiles and greetings of their own. Coffee never tasted so good.

At the Institute of Fine Arts, I was one of only a few visitors and in most of the rooms I was entirely alone. The attendants, naturally, preferred to congregate and chat in one location rather than sit in attentive silence on their prescribed stools. This allowed me to stand only inches away from the [glassless] works of El Greco and Goya, contemplating them from the exact position from which they must have been painted. I suppose things will change - and this age of innocence evaporate - when some madman slashes one of the pictures or knocks the head of a marble statue. But, until then, what an experience!

I read this week that 56% of Spanish families find it hard to get to the end of the month. I imagine this is because 99% of these don’t think about the end of the month until the 28th or 29th.

I also read that the men in La Coruña are reputed to have the best sperm in the world, howsoever this is defined. It must be the sea breeze. Or gale, to be more accurate.

Wordwatch
Alto standing – The very best quality. This is a stock feature of the vice ads at the back of the papers. I notice.
Chequeo – A test, as in ‘You can’t have your money from this ATM as we are running a test’.
Jersey – Pullover. Very long-established, this one.