As it says on the can – random thoughts on arriving home in Pontevedra, after 3 weeks in the UK . . . .

I was unaware that, if you ask for an extra pillow at the reception desk of any posh hotel in London, your coded message means “I’d like a whore sent up to my room, please”. If you’re not British, you can dispense with the ‘please’.

It’s reported that in the UK it can take up to 15 days to get your broadband switched to another provider, against the 10 days it should be. Unless things have changed recently, either of these would be considered miraculous in Spain. Likewise 4 and 2 days for mobile phones.

I was impressed to see that a local newspaper in an Asturian restaurant this afternoon had the photos shown in the UK press of the bizarre outfits worn by some of the ladies at Liverpool's Grand National race on Saturday. This can’t have done much for the international image of British women. And it would be hard to imagine Mrs Sarkozy in any of them. Or, given the size of the women, two Mrs Sarkozys in most cases.

The paper also reported on the Alonso-Hamilton bump in yesterday’s Formula One race. No prizes for guessing where it laid the blame. A clue – It wasn’t the same person fingered in the UK media, it seems.

But there is a prize for correctly guessing how long it took for me to witness the following after I drove off the ferry at midday today:-
A. A near-miss at a roundabout.
B. A car coming from a slip-road failing to yield and thus forcing another car [mine] to swerve left into oncoming traffic
C. A car shooting past at about 160kph.
D. An accident involving a car upside down in a ditch.
E. A second accident, involving a van which had run into the guard-rail at the bottom of a bendy slope.

Only kidding about the prize. The answers are:- A. 30 seconds; B. 5 minutes; C. 10 minutes; D. About 2 hours, and E. About 3 hours.

I went to see There will be Blood in Liverpool last week and enjoyed it immensely. However, I missed the first 10 minutes as I was getting over the shock of paying ₤5.50 [more than 7 euros] for a glass of wine in the bar beforehand. Perhaps Daniel Day Lewis got most of this. And possibly deserved it.

If you see Designed in Britain on any article purchased in the UK, it means it was made in China. In three weeks, I’m not sure I bought anything that wasn’t. Including the loaves of bread.

It was a great pleasure to leave the British Midlands early yesterday morning to drive down to Plymouth. This was not merely because I was leaving the Midlands but because there was 3 inches [7.5cm] of snow on everything. The countryside was spectacularly beautiful, though the road signs were a tad hard to read. In contrast, the Atlantic Blanket greeted me as I drove into Galicia from Asturias. Now wonder April is known here as The month of a thousand waters. It sounds better in Gallego. And Spanish.