The wife of the judge who presided over the trial of those responsible for the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 has written a book about the process. The judge claims he didn’t know his journalist wife was doing this until towards the end of the trial, which rather stretches credulity. And she – in response to criticisms from all quarters – has basically said she’ll write whatever she bloodywell feels like writing. Personally, I rather agree with the view that ‘Of all the journalists in Spain, none had more reason not to write this book than her’. No doubt she will make herself a small fortune. Though her husband’s career may well have reached its high point. Too bad for him, then, that their marital assets arrangement is based on a separación de bienes. Unless, of course, they have a codicil specific to her masterpiece.

I guess it must say something about the size of the problem being addressed that both El Mundo and the Spanish Automobile Association feel that, if the new penalties for reckless driving really are imposed, the country will need a lot of new prisons. Neither of them say outright they think it’s OK to drive at 200kmph [125mph] but you rather get they impression they do. Provided, of course, no third party is injured or killed as a result of someone just having fun.

It’s hard to convey how bad Spanish TV is but, if you want a commentary in Spanish, try here. The heavy press frequently weighs in against what is always called telebasura [telly-rubbish] but everything has been brought into stark relief by the throat-cutting of a woman who was surprised on daytime TV last week by an ex-partner who proposed marriage but was summarily rejected. The production company has naturally said it bears no responsibility for the ensuing murder – by a guy with a record of violence – and that they see no reason to change their egregious practices. Is it too much to hope the public will revolt against this human degradation? Yes, of course it is. So it probably won’t be the last incident of this sort. Perhaps the next one will be live on our screens.

There’s a variety of reactions on the part of drivers who narrowly miss me on zebra crossings. At one end are those who clearly regard it as outrageous I’m in their way and, at the other, there are those who apologise. Between these are those who just look rather sheepish and those – the majority – who simply avert their gaze towards something in the opposite direction from me. So . . . I’ve decided that the local version of the Gallic Shrug is the Great Spanish Look-Away. And my impression is it’s the same in both Gallego and Castellano.

Finally, the Voz de Galicia tells us that 300 estate agents have gone out of business in the last few months in the region, reflecting a 50% drop in sales. There are apparently only 5,000 of these fine folk now, compared with a peak of 7,800 a couple of years ago. They’ll be back.