This is the time of year – around the Feast of All Souls – when Spanish thoughts turn to death. As I result, I now know that the average cost of a burial in Spain is 2,500 euros. However, this ranges from only 1,000 in Badajoz in poor old Estremadura to 3,000 in Alicante or Palma, Majorca. I’ve also learned that only 10% of bodies are cremated here but that the ashes of a good 20% of these are fashionably buried in biocombustible pots.

There was a lot of gloom at the English Speaking Society of Pontevedra this week, where all the talk was of belt-tightening and the reducing spend on weekend jollies. Allegedly, the city is now dead of a Friday night and restaurants and discos are suffering from appreciably lower numbers even on Saturdays. I wonder, firstly, if this is really true and, secondly, whether it will be reflected in the weekend road mortality figures. It’s an ill wind . . .

I’ve said often that a major cultural difference between Spain and Britain is the weekend binge drinking here rarely involves violence. Friends claim things are changing and I was reminded of this when reading that a youth had lost his eye in a fight during last weekend’s botellón down in Pontevedra. So it seems a strange time for the Galician Nationalist Party [the BNG] to issue an appeal that the authorities don’t take measures against the growing problem of binge drinking among 12 to 18 year olds that would criminalise them for merely engaging in social activities. Maybe they’re after the youth vote.

The threat of having displaced gypsies in your backyard has now led several local villages to protest against the likelihood. A few hundred metres from my house – and despite the lack of any evidence - residents of a block of council flats are up in arms against the possibility the local council has evicted some absentee residents merely as a prelude to moving in a gypsy family. And now the [BNG] mayor of Pontevedra has got in on the act and issued assurances that the problems of Poio [across the river] won’t be allowed to impact on his constituents. The reaction of the [BNG] mayor of Poio has been to suspend the court-ordered demolition of illegal shacks as – understandably – he can see no clear way to re-housing the displaced residents. A few years back, there was talk of a new block of flats being built by the Poio council specifically to house all the gypsies from our two permanent settlements. But this never figures in the news reports these days. Perhaps the mayor shares the very widespread view that the gypsies would strip the building of everything sellable and then return to their camp.

A British columnist claims that the Scottish Prime Minister – or should I say the Prime Minister of Scotland, as this label also fits Gordon Brown? – knows full well he’ll never be able to convince the cautious Scots to vote for independence as they’re far too canny [clever] to risk it and know their economic and political future would be blighted if they were cut adrift. So, his strategy is to annoy the English at every turn so that, finally fed up, they unilaterally throw Scotland out of the Union. He may well succeed but this week’s interesting and ironic background is that less than 25% of Scots now want independence, which is the lowest number for 10 years. My own impression is that things are similar in Galicia as regards independence from Spain. And not until there is a Nationalist president here will the Xunta pick fights with the centre as regularly as Mr Salmond is now doing from Edinburgh. The same, of course, cannot be said of Cataluña, where Madrid-baiting is the national sport. In a word, our Nationalists are divisive but not as divisive as they could - and would probably like to - be.

Another UK columnist started her article this morning with this comment - The concept of hospitality lies at the very heart of Arab culture. Based on my own experience, I’d change Arab to Middle Eastern. Pondering on this, my conclusion was it can also be said of all southern European countries but that it becomes less true as you move northwards. I leave it to others to speculate as to why. Assuming they agree with me.

Notes

1. If you think this blog is too negative, click here for my list of Spain’s Positives.

2. If you want to send a comment or insult me but don’t want to register with Google, you can send your views directly to me, in any language you like, at this address. I may even reply to you.