I’m not sure why but the Spanish public radio and TV company [RTVE] has proposed to the unions a deal under which 4,000 of its employees will be allowed to retire at 52 on 87% of their salary. Not only that, they’ll be allowed to take another job without this affecting their pension. Nice work if you can get it. It’s taxpayers’ money, of course, so painlessly spent but I personally think it would be better invested in fixing my teletext service, which hasn’t worked properly for several months now.

Down in Pontevedra’s main square, there’s a delightful exhibition of the colours and smells of Andalucia. This features mock trading stalls, houses and a whole range of spices for one to smell. Galicians, however, are notoriously conservative when it comes to food so I wasn’t too surprised to read comments in the book about the exhibition being nice but bad-smelling. Or to find myself behind people assuring their partners ‘Of course, I don’t really like all this foreign muck’. All very reminiscent of my own mother when I first tried to cook curries in her kitchen and she told me she’d never be able to use her pans again. Needless to say, Asian restaurants are thin on the ground in Galicia, especially if you discount the Hispanicised Chinese places.

It’s not only in Catalunia that Spanish is losing out to the local ‘co-official’ language. Here in Galicia – or in this part at least – nothing comes out of local government in anything but Gallego. This contrasts with only a few years ago when documents were in both languages. Nationalists tend to put economic considerations way down their list so I don’t suppose they care but I know this promotion of Gallego is off-putting for money-bringing British families who consider moving here with young children. Simply put, they don’t want their kids to have to learn two foreign languages, one of which is of no use to them outside Galicia. Would it really kill the local authorities to issue documents in both languages? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a legal obligation to do so.

Happily for me, the Andalucia exhibition mentioned above is travelling around the country so all the information is in Spanish. However, the glossy leaflet handed to you at the door is only in Gallego. And, in my view, utterly redundant since everyone can read the placards in Spanish. But it’s so easy to spend other peoples’ money. Especially on a ‘good cause’. Or when you want to ‘make a statement’.

Footnote 1: The Catalan government says it's been traduced; it insists it hasn't diluted the anti-smoking law and that owners of large bars have deliberately misinterpreted its comments. So it's not true that only bad news comes out of that region/Autonomous Community/national reality/real nationality/nation.

Footnote 2: My thanks to the Galician Gadfly, Duardón de Albaredo [or whatever his real name is]. Firstly, for revealing more of his mindset and, secondly, for opening my eyes. Although I’m pushing 60 and have worked in some of the most complex parts of the world, I never realised how naïve I was. It turns out that the slogan ‘Spain is different’ was not the simple and effective marketing ploy I thought it was – aimed at tourists - but a coded message from Franco directed at the governments of other countries, telling them to let him keep on raping and pillaging Galicia into the 70s and beyond. Assisted, no doubt, by his fascist heirs in the PP party.