I’ve touched on this before but isn’t it a bit worrying what Google seem to be able to do? I mean, I use the words ‘Dutch’ and ‘German’ when posting my blog and within a few seconds I’m getting confirmation that my post was successful and can be seen in a new window. Or, to be exact, Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster). Interestingly, the word for window in Dutch/German is similar to those in French and Gallego – fenêtre and fiestra. But not in Spanish – ventana. Nor Portuguese – janela. Who’d have thought it? Maybe they can’t understand each other perfectly.

Talking of languages, the excellent news is that the Xunta of Galicia is going to provide a site giving a Gallego-Spanish-English translation capability. Or at least a three-way dictionary. This will certainly help with my Gallego-only correspondence from the town hall.

And talking of Galicia, more specifically its weather . . . It’s now official that our September has been the sunniest and warmest in 30 years. But we’re all forecast to get some rain tomorrow, starting with the north coast.

And referring back to the beggars I mentioned the other day . . .

1. The note left on my table by a large Rumanian woman yesterday started “Soy extranjero con 2 niños y no tengo casa.” I decided it wasn’t worth it to pedantically change the adjective so that it agreed with her gender. Maybe she really does have bigger problems. And maybe the note is multi-use.

2. The Spanish woman who accosted me twice during the morning later passed me on the bridge into town, having just visited the drug ‘warehouse’ on the other side of the river. Her, I mean. Not me.

But, not for the first time, I wondered whether it wasn’t a better thing to finance drug-taking by giving alms than by encouraging the sort of low-level theft that’s common in the UK. At least you don’t fear for your car radio here.

Finally, the Spanish government has proudly announced the introduction of the most technically advanced ID card in the world. I noticed it will contain the names of one’s parents, which is a very Spanish thing and would, I suspect, be regarded with incredulity elsewhere. Here, you’re even obliged to name them in the preamble to your will. Along with the names of everyone you’ve been married to and divorced from.