Here in Spain summer starts today. And so, after weeks and weeks of sun, it is raining. And the temperature has dropped 10 degrees from its high of 32. I might just as well be in the UK. Well, not really; it’s only 17 there.

At least the rain is appropriate for the gloom that has settled on the country after Spain’s early elimination from the European Cup. [A soccer tournament, for my American reader]. Yesterday’s papers were vicious in their condemnation of a team that was, once again, only a bridesmaid. ‘A Hell of Cowards’ read one headline. Others were less complimentary.

Yet another WordWatch Special
Whenever they want to invent mock Spanish, Anglo-Saxons add the letter ‘O’ to English words. Occasionally it works. Dogo, would you believe, is a bull mastiff. In similar [but more topical] vein, un chute is a shot at goal in football. The verb is chutar. Or shoot, to you and me.

Talking of funny games – who won at the recent EU summit? According to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Tony Blair gave way in a number of his ‘red line’ areas. Whereas El Mundo here tagged him the big winner as he went home with everything. A game of two halves, it would seem. Or different stadiums, even.

There seems to be a growing craze up here in Galicia for customising [or tuning] your car. Given that this is usually done by what would in the UK be called yokels, mere words could not do justice to the results. So I have decided to snap as many of these as I can – along with their proud owners [known as morulos here] – and post them on my web page. More anon.

Who would have thought it – a domestic constitutional court has declared illegal the new government’s flagship statute addressing the growing problem of violence against women. This, we have been frequently told, is the first of its kind in Europe, possibly the world. Except that it doesn’t address the issue of violence against old folks, children and even men. So it is offensive to some higher principle of equality. Or possibly the European Declaration of Human Rights. Or Wrongs. How the wheel turns.