This is the second of today’s posts. The first was a photo special.

Xosé Luís has written to quarrel with my comments re Galicia’s status as a nation. This is fine and I respect his views. But – as the many reader comments have shown over the years - the problem is there are several relevant words – state, country, nation, land, ethnicity, community, people, race – for which there are any number of definitions. At the extreme, one man’s nation is another’s village community. So everyone can find at least a few people to agree with them. And an awful lot more to disagree. But we’re all entitled to our views and to their expression. My only real quarrel is with violence. I’ve always wished the nationalists - and even the Nationalists - the best with their aspirations, provided only they’re democratically professed and pursued. Ultimately, the best policy is to defend your views and to agree to disagree. As amicably as possible. Some of my best friends are Nationalists. Honest.

Still on this subject – I’ve now identified there’ve been four attempts to revive the nationalist-but-not-Nationalist Partido Galeguista since its creation by two of Galicia’s heroes in 1931. In fact, two of these are still in existence. The one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago has been subsumed into the Galician Nationalist Party [BNG] but still has its own web page, as cited then. The second remains independent and also has a web page. Confused? I certainly am. See what I mean about a wide range of views? Even when you number among the non-extremists.

During the last few years, bank branches and estate agent offices have sprouted like mushrooms in deep dung. Which is perhaps a fair description of the property boom which has driven this. But this week I noticed the first estate agent closure. Is this an early sign of the recession? Possibly but contrary evidence came in the form of a placard on the window of an empty office saying it was to be the second branch of the Mediterranean bank, CAM. A mere 100 yards from its first. I suppose there’ll still be a lot of cash lying around even if the economy does cool down. Mostly in 500 euro notes.

As for the [in]famous construction boom, it’s regularly said 800,000 properties were built in Spain last year - more than in Germany, France and the UK put together. But I wonder what this means. It takes between 2 and 6 years to build a house here in Spain, one reason being there are several [taxable] steps to be taken around various licences. Sometimes these are obtained, as they should be, before and during construction. And sometimes forgetfulness is corrected after completion. Be that as it may, the question is – Were 800,000 properties completed in 2006, or merely started? If the latter, there are going to be an awful lot of properties appearing on a declining market over the next few years. Unless the builders go bankrupt, of course.

It had to happen . . . Someone has invented the ‘vertical work station’. This is ‘designed to allow people to work at a computer while walking on a treadmill at a speed of their own choosing’. Perhaps this is a silly question but why don’t they just walk to work?