A sad day. I got my first spam text message. A person very interested in knowing me wants me to text them for a photo. As if. I fear it won’t be the last.

Equally disappointing was the decision of the Google computer yesterday to start treating comments to this blog as spam. Including my own!

The quest for celebrity takes numerous forms in today’s TV age. But here an increasingly common way of getting yourself on the front pages – of Interviú magazine, at least – is simply to take your kit off. In recent weeks, we’ve seen our own local heroine, Ana Maria Ríos, reveal nearly all but the latest example is of a PP party counsellor – a deputy mayor, no less - in Lepe, who decided to raise her profile in this very Spanish way ahead of the May elections. Personally, I felt it was revealing she had to lean forward in order to impress us with her political assets.

Still on politics - As he surveyed the prospect of his Labour party being wiped out in the imminent local elections by the Scottish Nationalist Party, Tony Blair yesterday opined that "In the 21st century, when the world is moving closer together, the idea of breaking countries apart is an old-fashioned reactionary notion". This must have come as a great comfort to the Spanish government looking northwards from Madrid.

Finally, the local police reported yesterday that only 1 out of 48 motor-cyclists stopped had been charged with infringing the noise regulations. As ever, I am astonished at this. However, it could be the campaign was well advertised in advance, as it usually is. And it might be that the legal maximum of 91 decibels is way above what I – and perhaps you – would regard as acceptable. And so hard to exceed. The idiot who doesn’t read the papers or talk to his mates managed 99. For completeness, a relevant UK law says ‘The level at which employers must provide hearing protection and hearing protection zones is now 85 decibels and the level at which employers must assess the risk to workers' health and provide them with information and training is now 80 decibels’. And I think the bike limit is 84 decibels. A dull place, Britain.