Well, here’s a novelty – today’s Thoughts from Galicia will be all about Galicia . . .

It’s been a while since I last acted as your window onto the demimonde at the back of our local newspapers. So here’s a random collection of words and phrases from a large box ad in yesterday’s Faro de Vigo which suggests a couple of organisations in that fair city [DyN and PdS for the cognoscenti] have come together. If that’s the right expression:-
Luxury. TV hostesses. Top models. Executives. Sex symbols. Barbies. Unlimited hours for 40 euros. No tricks [which seems rather unlikely in a brothel]. Pure pleasure. No hurry. Convenient parking. Genuine 150cm chests. Pure vice. As affectionate as a angel. Innocent. Not professionals. Very young and beautiful waitresses. Air conditioned.
OK, I made up the bit about the car parking but that’s because it’s a major feature of a competitive ad.

Relatedly, both the Faro de Vigo and the Diario de Pontevedra yesterday reported an assault on one of the city’s street-walkers by some ne’er-do-well from up in Lugo. Each of the papers advised us – as if we didn’t know - that the ladies of the night [and day] congregate at the entrance to the underground parking at the end of the Alameda. And each accompanied its report with a photo not of the poor victim or the alleged miscreant but – would you believe – of the entrance to the car park. Very illustrative.

Tearing my gaze away from both the above ad and others, I guess it was inevitable I’d immediately clock this headline on the next page – Channel 4 to bring us ‘Breasts size XXL’. I guess it’s their response to the hugely successful Without tits there’s no Heaven. Never mind the quality, feel the width. Or breadth, perhaps.

Looking back at this week and following up a recent comment, I feel I should report it hasn’t rained on average once every two days. No such bloody luck. But at least it's stopped me mowing the lawns.

The needs-must deterioration in tapas offerings in my regular bar-café continues apace. After mushrooms in garlic, we’re now being expected to thrill to a small dish of lentils at which a strand of jamon Serrano has been waved. Time to review my options. Even if the lovely waitresses seem to be ignoring the instruction they’ve clearly been given to reduce the amount of wine they put in your copa. Or as one said last night – ‘Drink this quick; I’ll get killed if the boss sees what I’ve poured’. Wonderful. I might just stay.

Up in the hills, the residents of Caritel have bigger problems. They’re – literally – up in arms at the decision of the Pontevedra and Poio councils to solve the still-raging issue of the moment by decanting displaced gypsies into their village. Apart from painting messages of unwelcome on the roads and buildings, the incandescent villagers have begun to sell plots of land to finance a war-chest ahead of a long battle with the authorities. Not attractive but it’s easy to sympathise with their perception that drug-dealers are being dumped in their rustic idyll by two councils who can’t sort out the problem down on the coast.

Finally, a turf battle of another sort appears to be raging in the des. res. in the bougainvillea outside my bedroom window. Although it was a pair of collared doves which was checking out the remains of the last nest two days ago, there’s now a couple of wood pigeons in situ. About which I am ambivalent as I regard these birds as flying rats and am in the process of buying a plastic owl to put on my table down in Vegetables Square of a Sunday. This needs thought. And perhaps a rifle. Meanwhile, I leave you with the ornithological observation that wood pigeons make an even scraggier nest than collared doves. Though slightly less flimsy.

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.