One of the great things about life in Spain is that we’re visited regularly by the bread sellers and the fresh fish van. I remember when this used to happen in the UK. And when there was a fish seller in Knutsford market. And a fishmonger in Congleton High Street. Now there are just supermarkets. We have these in Spain too but it will be a long time, thank God, before the city-centric Spaniards totally forsake their wonderful small shops for these.

Up until last week, I would have said that the one thing lacking here was newspaper deliveries. But now one of the local papers has offered to drop copies off before 8 each morning, the equivalent of 6am elsewhere. This sort of progress I can live with.

And still on a positive note – I’ve stumbled across the quickest and most efficient web site in Spain. Sadly, it belongs to the Inland Revenue. They kindly sent me a draft of my tax return and invited correction via the internet. Needless to say, I had problems getting access to my file as I don’t have the ‘First Surname’ they demanded. But experience told me it was likely to be one of my forenames and so it was. Plus they didn’t really want the tax number they requested but my identity card number. But as these are usually the same thing in Spain and I am the exception, this was easy to forgive. And, once into my file, the process couldn’t have been easier or quicker. What a terrible waste of efficiency. Well almost, as they owe me money, not the other way round.

Galicians, it seems, are second only to Andalucians in the fatty stakes, with 69% of men and 53% of women said to be either overweight or obese. Not in Pontevedra they aren’t. In this self-regarding, fashion-conscious little city, the evidence all around suggests it’s a hanging offence to be above average weight. That said, as I was walking across the bridge into town tonight, I came up behind a young lady who certainly was on the wrong side of the line. She had SOC printed on one buttock and CER on the other but, such was the disarticulation, I never got to read the whole word.