In the early hours of this morning the lovely Letitia gave birth to a daughter, Princess Leonor. Right now she is next in line to the throne after her father but, if a brother comes along, she will be relegated. Spain is rather obsessed with its monarchy so there was little, if anything, else on the TV news this morning. Sanity had returned by evening.

Like most people in Spain, I guess, I’m getting to the point where I give no credence whatsoever to forecasts of availability of such things as the high speed train between Madrid and Galicia. Or even between cities in Galicia. Or between Galicia and Portugal. The stretch between Vigo and Oporto in north Portugal has moved from 2007, to 2009, and most recently to 2013. But now the Portuguese government has said it’s postponing it indefinitely, because of national economic problems. However, it’s an ill wind that blows no good and this unhappy development has allowed all the town mayors in the cross-border ‘Atlantic Axis’ Euro-Region to justify its existence by demanding a crisis meeting.

The British government says there’s a ‘growing consensus’ in the EU about how to tackle globalisation. I’d like to know how this is possible. Either you have unanimity or you don’t. A consensus – like a pregnancy – is entire or it is inexistent. This wouldn’t be so bad if Mr Blair hadn’t actually followed up with ‘"I don't think we are pretending there is total agreement.’ What is he pretending, then? Next, they’ll be ‘neither ruling out nor ruling in’ something. Would you let these people teach your kids?

Catalunia has achieved its first recognition as a country by an international sports body. But, as the latter is the International Federation of Korfball, this may not amount to much of a precedent. Especially as, on their website [www.ikf.org], the federations wimps out and opts for the term ‘Catalonia (Spain)’.

For new readers – If you’ve arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, you might find my non-commercial guides interesting – at colindavies.net