So, famine-ravaged Zimbabwe has been elected head of the UN's main inter-governmental body on the environment. The words ‘Caligula’ and ‘horse’ spring to mind. But at least this helps to explain the difference between ‘development’ and today’s in-phrase ‘sustainable development’. In the latter case it means only that some form of ‘development’ exists. Whereas in the former – in Zimbabwe, for example – it’s a chimera.

I chanced yesterday upon a site called Pray for Spain. Among the titbits of advice was the comment you might be invited home for lunch after a Sunday service but you shouldn’t be upset if you weren’t as “Most Spaniards, particularly the Castilians are actually quite distant”. Despite the great affability/sociability of the Spanish, I’d endorse this. Especially as my [Catalan] neighbours have said ne’er a word to me in more than 6 years.

Another site I stumbled into was this one, dedicated to the amassing of signatures against the threatened/feared increase in lessons in Gallego from 50 to 100%. I’ve no idea whether this is a real possibility but I guess it might well be. I mean throughout Galicia. It's already the case in some rural areas.

Talking of nationalistic language measures, I wasn’t dreadfully surprised to read these comments about Northern Ireland - If Paisley and McGuinness were solely concerned with the efficient running of the devolved government and the immediate improvement of the lot of all Northern Ireland's people, the first thing they should do is to agree a freeze on government-funded "expressions of culture" designed to wind up the other side. The official veneration of cultural sensitivity has already led to the preposterous situation in which, despite the fact that everyone in Northern Ireland speaks fluent English, a Civil Service hotline was set up to receive messages from those who preferred to ask an administrative question in either Irish or Ulster Scots. Translators were then employed to transcribe the question into English for puzzled civil servants. The sum total of calls to the hotline since 2004 has been 15 in Irish, and none in Ulster Scots.

I’ve always been impressed by the ability of butchers around the world to give you far more meat than you asked for. But yesterday’s here in Pontevedra took the prize. In response to a request for two 500gm steaks, the first cut was ‘600’ [actually 690] and the second – as I found when I got home – was 975! But by this time I’d already convinced myself I’d got enough meat for several meals. The bill had been a bit of a clue.