Over at Notes from Spain, Ben has posted a comment – more in sorrow than in anger – about the infamous inefficiency of the Spanish postal service. It’s not hard to become aware of this and the non-arrival of some important papers this week has reminded me of it. But I hadn’t put two and two together and realised this is a major factor behind the low take-up of internet buying here. Specifically, we have no Amazon.es, though it certainly is possible to get stuff delivered from the UK, French and US companies. My suspicion has long been that internet buying here - in what someone has labelled a ‘low trust society’- suffered from a fear of fraud. But it seems I was off beam.

Incidentally, one of the consequences of an unreliable postal system is that you can make your tax return via either the 18^th century option of personal delivery or the 21^st century option of an internet declaration. But no one risks a 19^th/20^th century letter.

Talking of inefficiency – the Spanish judicial system is currently taking a lot of flak over two cases which would have rendered a true tabloid press apoplectic. The first centres on a paedophile who, despite previous convictions, was free to kill a young girl. And the second is of a mentally disturbed young man who despatched his mother, despite her having made it clear over the years – including on TV – that this was a serious risk. In fact, he not only killed her but, having cut her head off, walked round the town talking to it. As someone else has already pointed out, the real surprise is that we haven’t seen photos of this in the Spanish media. But the really important point is that a truly tabloid press might just have had the effect of forcing the judiciary and/or the police to sharpen up their act. It pains me to say.

The challenge of becoming more ecologically minded seems to me to fall more heavily on males than females. As I was gazing in my mirror this morning, the question arose of whether it would be best to buy a single metal/plastic razor and then use the 15-edged blades that go with these, or whether I should stick to cheap, plastic disposable razors and continue to use them at least 20 times longer than recommended. And then I took to wondering whether I should try to connect my battery-powered nasal-hair-cutter to one of the massive wind turbines I can see from my window on the hills above Pontevedra. Or possibly just try standing so close to one of these that the blades do the job for me. Tough choices, I think you’ll agree.

Spanglish: I fear I may have asked this before but does anyone know what El pressing-catch is? I know it comes from the world of wrestling but that’s it.

Galicia Facts

The property bubble may well have burst but, of course, not all construction projects have come to an end overnight. Or even decelerated. Yes, the volume of sales and approvals may well have plummeted but those constructors flush with cash have logic on their side when they initiate building projects which will take the standard 3-4 years to complete and so will come on the market just as the next boom begins. In the meantime, the off-plan take-up may be low but, as I say, this hardly matters if you’re sitting on a mountain of cash and have not, for example, bought an expensive airport which was crap before you acquired it and is even worse now that you’ve tried to increase your margins to help reduce your debt mountain.

The last paragraph is very much a personal bleat as my house in the hills above Pontevedra is surrounded by building schemes that are either well under way or only just starting. And I am heartily sick of the consequences, including the movement of tons of soil and granite and the depositing of these on any bit of green conveniently close to the building site. Not so much fly tipping as bluebottle tipping.

So you can imagine my feelings when I read yesterday that Pontevedra was one of the few places in Spain where property sales actually rose in 2007. And that the same is expected of this year. I might just cut off my own head and parade it round town.

Hey ho.