Between 2007 and 2013, Spain will receive 19.5 billion euros in EU subventions. This is 24% of the total, for a country which has a booming economy and which seems far from poor. Some senior Brussels functionary has appealed for more control of where all this money actually goes. Which might cause a few problems.

The most recent comment I’ve read on the nationalists’ proposal to move the Galician clock back an hour was the surprising suggestion this was not enough. Much better, the local wag said, to go back 2,000 years and get hold of a few Romans who could build a highway that wouldn’t collapse after only a decade or so.

The day after I noted the Poio council thinks there are no Brits here, I received a letter from them asking me to confirm the data on an enclosed census form. Interestingly, the letter is in Gallego but the form is in Spanish. Though on it my street name is in the Gallego version. No wonder I’m schizophrenic.

Finally 1: As you can see, I’ve discovered it’s easy to change the style of my blog with Google’s Beta Blogger. Sorry about that.

Finally 2: Now that I’m podcasting as it there’s no tomorrow, I’ll just mention notesfromspain.com, where you can download Spanish conversation sessions. There are probably others around but I love Marina’s voice.