I don’t think I’ve mentioned the C de E for a while, which is a shame. For, in the interim, it’s progressed from being ‘The Queen of Vigo’ to become ‘The Queen of All Europe’. Plus it has 2 new suittes – a Suitte Japon and a Suitte Arabe. And its own website. Its advert in the local press leaves even less to the imagination than ever but what I love most is the prosaically helpful line that follows the address – ‘Next door to the Train Station’.

One of the oddest things about Spanish society is the way that male terms are used for both sexes. So the King and Queen are referred to as ‘The Kings’ and the Crown Prince and his newly-pregnant wife as ‘The Princes’. And children are called sons’, parents ‘fathers’, grandparents ‘grandfathers’ and grandchildren ‘grandsons’. It can all be very confusing. Something will have to be done about it in due course. But it’s hard to see what, when Spanish lacks the neutral collective terms that would do the job.

Still on the theme of strange aspects of Spanish society, the words guapa [beautiful] and guapo [handsome] are thrown about with gay abandon here, along with several other common superlatives. But I was a bit knocked back to hear a local politician being greeted onto the podium last night by cries of Guapo! Guapo! from the audience. Needless to say, it wasn’t the geriatric President Fraga, who bears no resemblance to his airbrushed campaign poster. In fact some wag has commented that it’s a reverse Dorian Gray story – the man himself may already look like a corpse but each election produces a picture of him looking even younger than before.

Four teenagers from the same tiny village were killed at 6am Sunday morning, when their car veered off the road, hit a wall and caught fire. Just about the only thing discernible about the car was its expensive sports wheels. I wonder how many more young deaths it will take before indulgent Spanish parents stop financing this slaughter.