I wanted to write something about the Spanish concept of ‘nobility’ tonight so Googled the phrase. I got 2 citations, both of them blog entries by me. So, I seem to be ploughing a lonely furrow here. Or ‘plowing’, if you are American. Anyway, what I was tinkering with saying was that, just as the concept of ‘truth’ is subordinated to ‘harmony’ in the Far East, there is a similar process here when it comes to rules and ‘nobility. But I’ll have to come back to you on this when my rationale is less subjective.

Meanwhile, I’ll stick with individualismo. The granite carvers’ school behind my house has a huge car park, complete with strange granite sculptures that are featured in the Photo Gallery on my web page [colindavies.net]. At most, this is only ever 10 per cent full. So I was a little surprised this week to see several cars parked on the lawns, rather than on the tarmac. Then I realised there are shade-affording trees on the lawns. Stuff the grass, then. Actually, even though it’s 35 today, the evidence is that the practice has been stamped on.

The Galician opposition parties have decided to take a leaf out of President Fraga’s book of oratorical flourishes. The Socialists have said that Galicia is a hotbed of political barony and clientalism. While the Nationalists have - more colourfully - accused Mr Fraga of being the Godfather of corruption. Which probably amounts to the same thing. All the parties agree, however, that more should be done to minimise voting by emigrants in South America who aren’t really entitled to participate because they are, in fact, dead.

Just reverting to ‘truth’ v. ‘harmony’, if you go to this site and enter ‘truth’ in the box, the response may surprise you - www.freedict.com/onldict/ind.html. More on this tomorrow.