One way or another, I’ve come into contact with a number of teachers over the last 6 years. My impression is they have a life not too many steps short of cushy. For one thing, their conditions of employment as civil servants even include private medical insurance. So it came as something of a shock yesterday to read that an OECD report says Spanish teachers are the most demotivated in the developed world. Can this be because Nirvana is slowly evaporating as Spanish society ‘progresses’ in the general direction of ‘child-centred’ education?

Well, despite all the baloney, bravado, bluster and buffoonish calculations of space from the head waiter, I can report that part of my favourite café/bar has now been closed off by a glass partition, creating the no-smoking section we were told would never happen. I suspect the requisite ventilation system hasn’t yet been installed but, nonetheless, I’m both delighted and impressed by this new-found resolve to [almost] obey the law, albeit after a few months delay. This, of course, amounts to nothing in Spain. And, let’s be honest, who cares about smokers choking in their own toxic fumes? Only joking.

Only in Spain? 1 – A rather fat and ugly transvestite who is a regular participant in the abysmal TV gossip shows has been arrested for involvement in international prostitution. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy/gal.

Only in Spain? 2 – Residents of a village on the hills above Pontevedra have been delighted to see that a building they strove to save from the fires in August has been fitted out as a ‘club’ called ‘Tu y Yo’ [You and Me]. It must make all the effort seem so worthwhile.

Galicia Facts

Our several local political parties are currently spending time and energy which could perhaps be better devoted elsewhere to negotiating an acceptable-to-all description of the region for the final draft of our new Constitution. The front-runner is said to be ‘The nation of Breogán’. This is a reference to a mythical Celtic king who, rumour has it, sailed West and conquered Ireland in a couple of days or so. Showing that we are not as backward here as the rest of Spain thinks, a gentleman has written to a local paper to dismiss this as unacceptably sexist. Much better, he says, to add the name of a mythical heroine as well. And who could disagree; if you’re going to be daft, you might as well go the whole hog.