What power. One little bleat from me and the truncheon-wielding Spanish riot police decided to wade into the illegal pickets blocking the county’s main arteries. Which is not exactly what I had in mind.

I see Pontevedra fashions have reached Argentina, where the President was recently photographed with a Palestina around her neck. En passant, she was referred to as Cristina Fernández but didn’t she used to be Cristina Kirchner before she followed her husband into the job? Here, for example.

Writing about Italian gypsies, a Spanish commentator refers to su carácter irreductible. So there you have the hierarchy:-
Common or garden Spanish individualismo
El individualismo de los calés, and
El carácter irreductible.
You have been warned.

This morning I visited some friends who have a photography business about 12km along the coast road from Pontevedra. According to Telefonica, this is a ‘rural’ area and so the maximum ADSL they can give them is 0.5 megabytes. This is half of what I get nearer the town. But the price to them – at €40 a month – is double what I pay. Or four times as much per byte. Asked whether this atrocious service really would be improving in July – as promised by Telefonica - the engineer said he rather thought not. Thus endorsing the scepticism of 96% of Voz de Galicia readers I cited recently. But hardly a shock to any Telefonica customer, of course.

Talking of prices – I guess David Villa’s hat-trick performance for Spain the other night has at least doubled the tag on his head. How wonderful it would be if Everton could use their Rooney millions to snap him up. Then we’d have two Spanish demi-gods playing in Liverpool.

That said, the unlucky colour this year appears to be blue. As sported by France and Italy. And Everton.

Over the years, I’ve had the great pleasure of reading the English used by Indian newspapers. For one thing, it is crystally clear and, for another, it uses lovely words such as ‘cad’ which have passed out of British usage. On a BBC podcast this morning, I heard this referred to wonderfully as ‘The Empire Writes Back.’

Finally - You’ll all be wanting to know what my deteriorating daily tapas menu is now looking like. So:-
Monday: Lentils with a smidgeon of jamón
Tuesday: Tuna-potato salad
Wednesday: Garlic chicken legs
Thursday: Garlic mushrooms
Friday: Garlic ribs
Saturday: Tortilla
Sunday: Closed
Being a carnivore, I might just start taking my copa elsewhere except on Wednesdays and Fridays. Especially as the sun has finally arrived and other places have tables outside. And chairs.