The EU expects [demands?] that the economies of all its members converge over time. In the area of pensions, the British and Spanish economies appear to doing exactly this. Although things here might be changing because of the growth of personal pensions, the Spanish state sector has always provided far better pensions than its private sector. This is one of the reasons almost everyone here aspires to be a funcionario. But this has not traditionally been true of the UK, especially for those lucky souls with a final-salary company pension. But now I read that, thanks to a “combination of misfortune, mis-selling and mismanagement from both private companies and the government” Britain is at risk of creating “a two-tier system of retirement” and that "In 40 years' time, private sector employees may well find themselves working seven years longer than public sector employees, and still retiring on pensions worth considerably less." Stand by, then, for an explosion of interest in jobs in the ever-expanding government of Mr Brown. The problem, as the article stresses, is how these expensive state pensions are going to be funded.

To the catalogue of woes being suffered by the Catalans can now be added problems with the high-speed train to Madrid and chaos at Barcelona airport. The region appears to be on the point of imploding but whether you blame this on an incompetent local coalition "government of all the talents” or on a central government getting revenge for secessionist attitudes depends on where you’re standing. Perhaps it’s neither of these but simply a question of key matters falling between two stools. A columnist in the right-of-centre El Mundo yesterday opined that “Someone has convinced the citizens of this region that they have an imperial destiny. This lack of moderation is the cause of many of the variants of the so-called Catalan problem”. Which sounds nice but I’m not sure what it means. Opinions welcome.

A friend in the UK has threatened to start calling me by my first name, which is David. In truth – while I can’t stand the thought of being labelled ‘David Davies’ - I frequently call myself David here in Spain. This is because my identity-proving residence card naturally bears my full name and it saves confusion to let people think my forename is David and my two surnames are Colin and Davies. Spaniards have a lot of trouble believing the rest of the world doesn’t do things the way they do. Especially in town halls when you need some essential piece of paper or other and it doesn’t do to argue with the funcionario. In fact, I actually have 4 names in Pontevedra. Apart from Colin and David, I’m called Johnny in my favourite tapas bar and Frank in my favourite street café. Life is tough sometimes.

And talking of names . . . Here’s something I read yesterday - In the empty consumer culture of the rich world's poor, children are often named after brands: Levi, Abercrombie, Disney, Lexus and even Ikea have all appeared in England. There are at least 300 Armanis in America, a handful of L'Oreals, and even two boys called ESPN, which is a sports channel. Wonderful. All of them better than ‘David’. For me, at least.

DOVEWATCH: Here’s the latest pic of the chicks in the nest outside my bedroom window, bathed in the pink light filtering through the bougainvillea. The rate of progress is astonishing. But, then, as they fledge only 2 weeks after emerging from the egg, I guess it has to be.