Competition between our 5 local daily newspapers is tough and I’ve queried before how they can all survive. A favourite strategy is offering free or heavily discounted books but things have now taken an odd turn; one of the papers hopes to lure new readers tomorrow by giving away a rattan tray. What next, I wonder. Will they, like the banks, start to offer entire sets of porcelain?

A British journalist had a bad night in Pontevedra last week. Not having taken any advice, he appears to have booked himself into a cheap hostel in a run-down alley in the old quarter famous for its noisy nightlife. Specifically, a couple of drug addicts appear to have woken him at 4am with their shouting, crying and fighting. From this he concluded that ‘The young of provincial Pontevedra don’t need Kate Moss and Pete Doherty as role models.’ God knows I take a few liberties with the truth in this blog but I rather feel this is stretching things somewhat. And who tries to sleep in the old quarter of Pontevedra at 4am?

One of the features of Spanish towns – at least in this part of the country – is shops selling a vast variety of cheap household items. These used to be called ‘Todo Cien’, or ‘Everything at a 100 pesetas’. In the past few years, for obvious reasons, they’ve all morphed into ‘Todo Un €uro’ outlets. Since the Euro is about 167 pesetas, you can see what it’s done for the cost of living. Anyway, the Chinese have muscled into this business and the town is now bristling with ‘bazaars’ whose owners seem to have a very un-Spanish aversion to leisure. I get the impression they are not very popular. With their competitors, I mean.

Another type of outlet springing up like weeds is the health food shop. This is a tad ironic, given the difficulty of finding vegetables on a Spanish menu. If the current rate of growth continues, there won’t be any other sort of food shop left and those of us who don’t patronise them will be compelled to starve to death.

Which reminds me – I saw 4 foreigners coming towards me this morning, eating as they walked. Or ‘grazing’ as I think it’s called in the Anglo Saxon world. It struck me that I never see any Spanish people doing this. So I guess it’s considered ignoble. They must get a shock when they travel in the UK and the USA, though it surely helps to explain the size of many of the locals they see. But hopefully not bump into.