On my daily walk into town I used to pass a pet shop. Now I pass two. But the new one is rather more up-market than the old one. Or ‘alto-standing’, as they say here. It’s clearly aimed at those residents of Pontevedra who’ve completely taken leave of their senses. Not only have they bought a dog which is only fractionally larger [and less attractive] than a rat but now they want to dress it in a pullover or overcoat. And buy it food that has ‘Royal’ in the brand name. Sadly, there must be enough of them around to make the shop a going concern. What a shame they don’t sell hunting rifles next door.

Two Galician trawlers have been arrested by the Norwegians for fishing for a protected species, Greenland halibut. The Spanish government has said they were in international waters but, given the quantities of illegal fish available in tapas bars throughout Spain, my guess is no one in Spain actually believes this. Especially in view of the clip on the news, showing tons of fish being quickly jettisoned from one of the miscreant boats.

One of the joys of the English language is its capacity to generate new words. Some, of course, are more appealing than others. I can’t say I’m taken with Sky News’s attempt to turn ‘recap’ into a transitive verb, as in ‘We’ll recap you now”. Even worse than ‘Appointment-to-view television’.

Manchester United may feel they have their problems but these are nothing compared with those of Real Madrid. On Saturday, the world’s most expensive team of over-the-hill galacticos was trounced 3-0 at home by their arch [Catalan] rival, Barcelona. Actually, it’s sad to see a player as great as Zidane struggling to compete with the best. Should have gone at the end of last season, along with a few others.

It’s 30 years since Franco died. Astonishingly, around a thousand Falangeists of all ages went on to the streets of Madrid at the weekend to mourn his passing. The good news is that more than 30 million people didn’t.

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