A survey of other countries as tourist destinations has found that most Europeans regard the British as ‘insular, unfriendly and painfully unfunny’. The Daily Telegraph theorises this may because most of us have moved on from the antics of Benny Hill and Mr Bean that still seem to amuse so many of our Continental friends.

Thanks mostly to the absence of my jinxed younger daughter, there were only 3 days of rain during this Galician summer, a huge improvement on last year. And temperatures in early September have reached record highs, with 42 in Ourense against ‘only’ 37 here in Pontevedra. Not surprisingly, the albariño grape harvest is at record levels for the third year running. By all rights, this should lead to price reductions in your local wine store but my guess is this will only happen in respect of the grapes in their pre-processed, ‘commodity’ manifestation. Leaving a few others in the chain with improved margins.

The president and most of the board of one of Spain’s main banks - Banco Santander - face prosecution for financial jiggery-pokery around the acquisition of the Banco Banesto in the mid-90s. The Spanish Prosecutor General is seeking lengthy jail sentences and huge fines for each of them. This should go down well with account holders in the UK’s Abbey National, recently acquired by Banco Santander.

I was surprised to read today that only 10% of Spaniards buy a newspaper, though readership levels must be much higher because of the availability of papers in all the cafés and bars. But I’m once again moved to ask how on earth 5 or 6 daily local newspapers can all survive.

A reader has suggested that, through my guide to Galicia and links to property agents, I’m doing my best to replicate what I describe as the hell hole of the Costa del Sol. This is a reasonable point but possibly an unfair one. First of all, Galicia does not have sun all the year round; it has 5-6 months of grey and damp. So it has little or no appeal to the sun-seekers who populate the south coast. Secondly, over the last few years, I’ve responded to perhaps 200 people looking at buying here and I don’t recall a single one of them wanting to live along the coast. All were looking for something in the rural countryside. Finally, the two agents I link to operate in the hinterland and offer properties in rural areas which have been abandoned by Galicians. These are a long way from the coast and could do with the investment. If my reader wants to debate this issue with me, perhaps he or she can cast off the cloak of anonymity and write to me at the email address on my Galicia site. Where, incidentally, he/she will also find the following blunt comment - Galicia is still a place in which you can enjoy Spain at its simplest and its best. And where any foreigners you bump into are likely to be looking for the same things as you – beauty, serenity, culture and good living. Not packed beaches and restaurants which open at 5, close at 7 and serve only local variants of British ‘staples’. If this is what you want, stop reading now; you are wasting your time. Galicia is decidedly not for you.