The leader of the opposition party has offered a return to bi-partisan politics around the ETA terrorist and Catalunian constitution challenges, provided only that the government admits its policies todate have been mistaken. It seems unlikely he expected this offer to be seized with both hands. Which is just as well. The President’s reply was that the opposition continued to be the party of old policies and old falsehoods. Which makes a change from calling them merely rogues and liars.

Well, it didn’t take long for us to get the full Monty from the cosmetic surgery company. Just 3 days, in fact. For now, it’s admittedly only a side view of a naked woman but I feel sure we can expect further developments. Very a propos, the government has asked the media to self-regulate itself and to stop publishing stereotypical images of women. I wonder what it will do if [and when] its polite request is completely ignored.

I resumed my search for a second bar/café in Pontevedra which bans smoking this evening. Eventually, I found one which said it had designated no-smoking areas but, as every table had an ashtray on it, I was a little incredulous. While reading the paper there, I came across an ad from a firm of Madrid lawyers which guarantees to find ways for a bar of any size to evade the law and avoid the cost of making the changes demanded by it. Which made encouraging reading. I am less and less confident that my regular café will become smoke-free by September, despite being above the trigger point of 100 square metres. Presumably the lawyers can make much of this disappear.

I took another step today in the not-unpleasant-but-time- consuming process of getting my residence card renewed. On a previous visit to the police station, I had surprised myself by having too many photocopies. But this time, when the clerk asked me for something not listed as a requirement, my strategy of copying everything imaginable allowed me to comply and thus saved me yet another trip. Not just a pretty face.

The latest early-hours-of-Sunday death on Galician roads didn’t quite fit the normal pattern, as it was of a 40 year old taxi driver. Mind you, he was hit by a young man in an Audi A3 coming round the corner on the wrong side of the road.