Hits to my blog normally fall to around 40 at the weekend but not so this week. Today’s total was over 200, after more than 500 yesterday. This, of course, is thanks to the followers of Diana the Hunted.

Continuing the pseudo-classical theme, in the last week or so I’ve come across three Spanish words whose origin lies in ancient allusions:-
Una medusa - A jellyfish
Un cicerone - A guide
La canícula - The dog days of summer

You will, of course, have realised the last one of these stems from the same point of reference as the English expression. This is the dog star, Sirius. ‘Can’ being Latin [and Galician] for ‘dog’. As in ‘canine’, to labour the point.

I went down to town at 7 this evening and returned at 9. On each occasion I was passed by the motorcade of the King and Queen as they arrived at and left a new building they were opening. You'll have to take my word that, the second time they passed, Juan Carlos lowered the window and shouted ‘Colin! Don’t forget to mention us as well as Diana in your blog tonight.’ Nice people, the Bourbons.