I made another trip today to the Corte Inglés department store in Vigo - to buy the complete works of Mozart for 99 euros. Not for the first time, I rather got the impression those employees who’ve achieved the monumentally difficult task of working as a shop assistant for twenty years take the view certain tasks are now below them. Serving customers, for example. Or maybe it’s just me and my less-than-rich appearance. The other possibility is it’s a mistake to arrive soon after they’ve opened at 10 because the assistants think it's unfair of you to be there before they’ve had their coffee at 11.

Sadly, the work-related accident rate in Galicia is running at its highest level for 10 years. I have visions of all those Brits who write to me about restoring old stone houses falling off their uncompleted roofs .

But there is some good news from Galicia today – the ladies of the region have apparently taken to belly dancing in a big way. By which I don’t mean the women of Galicia have big bellies. Though it helps, apparently.

Spanish is a very phonetic language. Possibly more so than any other. I wonder if this lies behind the inability to make a good fist of foreign names, be they French or English. If your foreign language education has concentrated, as it has traditionally done here, on written grammar rather than oral communication, you can be forgiven for never realising that other languages are not as phonetic as your own. Hence Maria Karé, for the woman who performed at the Grammy awards last night in LA.

I occasionally get telesales calls asking for the ama de casa. This translates as housewife or mistress of the house and I can’t help wondering whether companies would get away with this little bit of sexism in, say, the UK these days. Spain is making great strides in reducing macho attitudes but, nonetheless, I guess it’ll be a while before I get a call asking for either the amo or ama de casa. The concept of a Spanish house-husband is at least a generation away, I fear.