It’s official - Spain leads Europe for cosmetic surgery operations. The Spanish spend 800 million euros a year on them. The most popular intervention is, of course, breast enhancement [breasts enhancement? breast enhancements?]. Around 20% of patients are men, who go in for eyelid or abdominal surgery and liposuction. Which is also the second most popular operation for women.

The two main parties have issued their manifestos ahead of the May local elections. The socialists [PSOE] promise to place a cop in every school and to make it an offence to bother your neighbour or abuse public spaces. The opposition [PP] party says it’ll reduce taxes and take serious measures to eliminate town hall corruption. But I suspect there’s a low level of expectation in Spain that many of the commitments will be implemented. A propos, a columnist in yesterday’s Voz de Galicia wrote of the widespread and growing cynicism about politicians here, with 60% of the populace believing they’re in it merely for themselves, their families and their cronies. But this is not a suspicion confined to Spain, of course.

One of the things I enjoy about Spain is that commercialism is not as well ‘advanced’ as it is elsewhere - the other side of the coin of poor customer service. For example, supermarkets are not as skilled as in the USA and UK in forcing you to spend more than you want to. But, naturally, things are catching up. On Saturday, for the first time, I found it impossible to buy the product I wanted except as part of a bloody bundle. Thin end of the wedge, I fear.

Bullfighting does not, by any means, have the support of all Spaniards. On the other hand, I wonder in how many other countries a major newspaper would publish an article claiming that science proves a bull [or at least one of the toro bravo variety] actually enjoys being lanced and stabbed in the ring. Even if it is true. All to do with endomorphins, apparently.

80% of grandparents here are said to look after their grandchildren at least once a week. But only 4% are involved in any volunteer work. Outside the family, that is. I wonder what the percentage is in the UK of kids who don't even know their father, never mind their grandfather.

Galicia Facts

The female Galician soldier killed in Afghanistan was buried on Saturday, with more than 2,500 mourners attending her funeral. I’d guess this was a lot more than for the young woman hit at 3 in the morning by a car doing 130kph on the streets of La Coruña and being driven by a young man three times over the legal limit. Her family wrote to the Voz de Galicia yesterday asking, like me, why more isn’t done to stop this. And pointing out that the sentence handed down was a one year suspended gaol term and a two year driving ban. Who could blame them for feeling hard done by?

The average pension in Galicia is 7,044 euros [4,728 pounds] a year. I suspect this is close to the average UK state pension, so much better in terms of purchasing power. However, it’s 14% below the national average of 8,028 [5,388 pounds].

A reader [Carlos/Xoan Carlos] suggests I’m over-set in my ways and that my attitude is “sometimes so smug, post-Imperially British ‘I’m holier than thou and know better than thou too’ that it hurts.” He adds that, in my photo, I really should be wearing a pith helmet and carrying a bible. This is very unfair. But can anyone send me one or both of these? When I’m thus armed, I’ll consider publishing my list of the shared character traits of Nationalist contributors to my blog. Right now I’m working on making it less smug.

Mind you, it could have been worse. He could have accused me of being a Daily Mail reader. Or a Blairite.