I occasionally allude to the Spanish way with rules and laws, on which there was a article in El Pais on Wednesday. This started with a Civil War quote that ‘In this country, some day someone must stop shooting’ and ended with the sentiment that ‘In this country, some day someone must start obeying the law’. The basic argument was that Spain needs judicial transparency, predictability and reliability. Without these – as with property rentals – there is no market. And without this, there’s no economic progress. The last sentence ran ‘Stranger things have happened’. All very true.

The share prices of construction and real estate companies fell again this week and figures are emerging of the national/regional drop in property sales last year. For Spain as a whole, this was 10% but in Galicia it was 20. El Mundo forecast the building of 600,000 new properties this year, against 800,000 in 2006. Since most of these will remain unsold, the stock of unwanted properties will inevitably rise. The paper stressed it would be alarmist [Who, me?] to talk of a bubble bursting but then added it was essential something be found to take the place of the stalled motor of economic growth, the construction industry. I wonder what this will be.

You wouldn’t normally expect elections in Belgium to be of much interest in Spain. Or anywhere, for that matter. But there’s a Flemish nationalist movement there. And, as with Catalunia, this involves a region/‘nation’ averse to subsidising another. So, as with the future of Kosovo, sensitivity to developments is high here. An odd wrinkle is that the Spanish for ‘Flemish’ is ‘Flamenco’. Which leads to confusing headlines. For me, at least.

Talking of which . . . First thing this morning, the headline on Typically Spanish News was Fernando Alonso dies there is a civil war in McLaren. This, of course, turned out to be a typo - ‘dies’ for ‘denies’. But momentarily riveting.

I was a slightly taken aback this week to find Vigo’s shopping precinct adorned with statues of cows. This, I should add, is an area I wouldn’t normally venture into but my sister is visiting and regards this as therapy. Anyway, as Wikipedia says, CowParade is a public art exhibition that has featured in major cities all over the world. Fibreglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists and set up in places such as train stations, important avenues and parks. Afterwards, the statues are auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity. So know you know.