Saturday morning is probably not the best time to announce this to a slumbering world but I’d like to introduce you to a new word – clizzle. This describes the fine, clothes-soaking rain that falls relentlessly when you’re enveloped in a cloud. There is, apparently, a similar word - crizzel – which is a ‘kind of roughness on the surface of glass, which clouds its transparency’. Remarkably, the word cloud appears in both definitions and there is, of course, a connection in reduced visibility. But, anyway, I think it’s very apt that a Brit living in Galicia should coin a new word for rain. By the way, it is el clízel in Spanish and o clíxel in Gallego. But I fear the respective Royal Academies will take some time to catch up with this.

The x in Gallego is pronounced sh in English [and in Gallego!] and is usually substituted for the harsh j of Spanish. So, for example, our local town of Sanjenjo [‘The Marbella of Galicia’] is a lot easier to say for Brits in Gallego than in throat-ripping Spanish. As is the title of Cervantes’ famous novel. This advice is relevant not only for the previous paragraph but also for the news that Galicia is home to a thriving animation industry and that the latest feature film being prepared here is all about a donkey. It’s entitled Donkey Xote, which I think is a stroke of genius. Though Spanish friends are not so sure.

Finally - The EU and Telefonica are still engaged in a war of words over the former’s claim that broadband here is expensive and of a quality inferior to that promised. Defending Telefonica – which, if I had one, would lose it my vote - the Spanish government claims the speed obtained by users is very close to that purchased. Well, I know a market research sample of one is useless but I pay for 1000 something-or-others but never get more than 650. Personally, I don’t rate two thirds of what I’m entitled to as fidelity to the service offered. Others may differ. Especially if they’re employed by either the government or Telefonica. Neither of whom would win a popularity contest.