The banner headline in Spain’s biggest-selling newspaper yesterday was – Don’t fuck with me. You’re not taking him. Said to be a comment about Ronaldo aimed at the President of Real Madrid by the CEO of Manchester United. OK, it was the football paper Marca but in how many other countries could this happen? And is it a good, honest thing or simply a true reflection of everyday speech? Or both?

Our resident property expert, Mark Stucklin, reports that After months of resolute denial that property prices might fall, Spain’s developers have done a u-turn and conceded they’re already down by 15%. He adds that When buyers expect lower prices in future they delay their purchase, causing the market to grind to a halt and forcing down prices. So buyer expectations can be self fulfilling, especially in an over-supplied market like Spain. I seem to recall saying something very similar 6 or 9 months ago. But as JC once said - a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country. Twas ever thus. And as Mr Stucklin concludes - If buyers expect prices to continue falling, then fall they will. Whatever the developers say. The fat lady has yet to sing. In fact, she isn’t even in the theatre.

On Saturday night, the words Europe and song will once again be redefined as we subject ourselves to that annual fiesta of tat taste, the Eurovision Song Contest. The big five countries – Britain, Spain, Germany, France and Italy – have all been given advance berths in the final, thus avoiding the humiliation of elimination from this week’s semis. This, of course, is a sop which recognises 1. they magnanimously finance the whole thing, and 2. none of them has even a remote chance of winning. This is because of the infamous block voting which disfigures an event which would in any circumstances be a joke but which thus becomes a semi-compulsive farce. Thankfully, in the UK it’s given the treatment it deserves by the incomparable Sir Terry Wogan. Anyway, I doubt this was terrifically difficult but a researcher/analyst called Dr Gatherer [sic] is said to have identified three blocks:-
The Nordic Block: Eight members; Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
The Eastern Block: Also has eight members: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Poland, Belarus, Moldova and Romania.
The Balkan Block: The most potent block, 11 nations strong. Its heart is the former constituents of Yugoslavia; Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia. Also part of the block are Turkey, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Hungary.
So, my bet is the winner will again be from the last of these. As if anyone outside Balkania cares.

Galicia Facts

I do my best to minimise my water consumption, even going to the lengths of bucketing run-offs so I can chuck it on the plants and trees of my garden. This looked sensible last year, when we were passing through the driest autumn in history. But seems rather pointless when it rains, on average, every second day between January 1 and May 23. But at least this stops me wearing my shorts on the streets of Pontevedra.

This, by the way, is how the keffiyeh is not being worn by the fashionistas of Pontevedra these days.

And this is the nightscape from my window, showing the dominating and disfiguring lights of the ugly granite blockhouse which is our new museum. I mistakenly said these were blue in a previous post. But yellow is bad enough. Anyone selling a bazooka?

The Anglo Galician Association – open to all who speak English – now has a Forum on the web. If you have a query about Galicia, why not register and post it.