To return to the Formula 1 controversy – It seems both payers were guilty of transgressions. Unfortunately for Alonso, his infringed the rules of the sport whereas Hamilton’s only broke those of the McLaren team. So poor old Fernando – irritated by Hamilton’s prior provocation – took his revenge and then “paid the price for his petulance”. Am I going too far to see examples of national stereotypes in these two gentlemen? Both of them are undoubted geniuses behind a wheel and have immense courage. But, whereas Hamilton has the steely reserve admired by the British, Alonso has increasingly been coming across [to me, at least] as something of a macho braggart. Take his post-race comments yesterday as an example. These were along the lines – I was the best on the track today and would easily have won if I’d been on the pole position I deserved. Which is possibly quite true but, in the circumstances, looks rather like sour grapes. Perhaps he was just playing to the Spanish gallery. Anyway, it seems unlikely Alonso will stay in the McLaren team for much longer, so a clean battle can then commence properly. May the best man win.

Talking about national characteristics – My Argentinean piano teacher arrived at 11.15 a week ago and thanked me for a shortcut that avoided the holiday traffic. It had, he added, allowed him to arrive on time. I didn’t bother to remind him the lesson was supposed to start at 11.00. This week he arrived at 11.25 and said nothing. Whenever I mention my piano teacher to Spanish friends, they tell me Argentineans are notoriously talkative and prone to lateness. Quite how this distinguishes them from the Spanish I’m not entirely clear.

It’s the week of the annual bullfights here in Pontevedra. El Mundo said last week the relationship between man and bull went back 2.5 million years. It doesn’t seem to have changed much in that time. At least not here in Spain. Actually, the opposite is probably true. I guess it was merely a farm animal until comparatively recently.

This time last year, Pontevedra province was engulfed in flames and the hills around the city were all ablaze. This year, it’s been the turn of the Canary Islands. I wonder whether they have the same impressive range of conspiracy theories as we had last year. My favourite was that the fires had all been started by narcotraficantes who wanted to distract the Guardia Civil while they landed massive hauls of cocaine along Galicia’s coast. Given the high number of arrests of alleged pyromaniacs last year – 194 - It was interesting to read last week that only one these was in prison. There was some suspicion of media–driven overreaction at the time.

The Spanish government is having problems getting town halls in the Basque Country to obey the law obliging them to fly the Spanish flag. In fact, the issue’s gone all the way to the Supreme Court. Or the Constitutional Tribunal. Or both. Anyway, there was a nice cartoon in one of the national papers on Saturday, showing a troubled President Zapatero taking a call from an angry President Putin. The latter was complaining the Russians had found the Spanish flag underneath the polar ice cap and Zap was explaining this wasn’t an attempt to beat the Russians at their own game; it was only a case of the Basque president hiding it there so that he wouldn’t have to fly it on top of his offices.