Banking in Spain is a very face-to-face business, except when you just want cash. I can’t say I was surprised, then, to read that Spain has not only the highest number of bank branches per capita in Europe but also the highest number of ATM cash machines. The former often seem to be full of people behind desks doing very little and the latter sometimes refuse to disgorge money because they’re undergoing a chequeo but, by and large, it’s pretty easy to get cash in Spain. Even, if you’re visiting, from your own bank back home. And all the ATM’s offer a variety of languages. Which is impressive.

Which reminds me . . . The Spanish language is forecast, by some at least, to rise from its current 4^th position to become 2^nd after Chinese [Mandarin, I guess] by 2030. As I may still be around then, maybe I should drop Gallego and concentrate on Castellano. Only kidding, X-C.

I was unusually complimentary about the Spanish yesterday but I have to admit I still find it hard to adjust to some of their customs. Braving the astronomically high noise levels of a rock concert in the main square at 11pm on Saturday night, I was taken aback to come upon a woman breast-feeding a very young baby while she swayed back and forth. And, returning home at 12.30, I passed several families entering town for the night’s fun, including one or two mothers pushing baby buggies. It seems ironic to me that, although grandparents are usually close to hand, they don’t assume the role of babysitters whenever the parents want to go out on the town. Perhaps it’s because the grandparents insist on joining the party. There were certainly plenty of them shuffling around in front of the bandstand on the Alameda when I came home at 11 last night. Fun-lovers to the very end, perhaps. And why not?

A while ago I posted on my Galicia web page a short dissertation on the fine old houses which are disappearing from in and around Pontevedra. Shortly, I’ll be posting a sister piece on the ugly new houses which are replacing them. But, for now, here’s a sampler. These houses are in what I call the Toilet Block style, which I suspect owes a lot to Galicia’s premier architect, Mr César Portela. They resemble his mortuary niches at Finisterra. By the way, these houses are on one of the 2 building sites fore and aft of my house. The orange machine on the right is one of two which have been breaking up solid granite for 8-10 hours a day for the last 18 months. A cacophony in stereo, in other words. The operators are not very popular around here.

A few Galicia Facts:-

- Galicia has the lowest rental fraud in Spain. Here, a mere 53% of landlords fail to declare their income to the tax authorities.

- In the first 6 months of 2007, the only region in Spain in which average car prices rose was Galicia. Your guess is as good as mine. It’s supposed to be a poor region.

- Despite this, car prices in Galicia are still below the national average.

- Construction in Galicia has fallen 5% so far this year. One factor is said to be the concern foreigners have about places built on the coast turning out to be illegal. ‘Foreigners’, of course, means anyone from places like Madrid or Malaga. Which might be accurate in the latter case.

Finally, to round off my report on Pontevedra’s weekend bacchanalia – After Saturday night’s revels, a record 32 tonnes of rubbish were collected by 10.30 on Sunday morning and 4 people had been hospitalised with alcoholic poisoning.