El Mundo tells us today that a survey reveals 87% of Spaniards recognise that corruption is a problem in the public sector. And that a sizeable percentage [27] think it's worse than ever. It's no great surprise that large percentages of folk believe that town halls and the construction industry are heavily implicated. So, with the property bubble now burst, perhaps it's all behind us. How long Spain's international reputation will take to recover is a tougher question.

El Mundo has also told us this week - as part of its campaign in favour of the Spanish language - that there's a grassy spot in the old quarter of Pontevedra which used to be the Jewish cemetery and which is regularly defiled by children running on it. The paper suggests this might be because the inscription on the commemorative slab is only in Gallego. I have to say I find this unconvincing as the inference is that, if the text were in Spanish, parents would exercise some control over their kids.

Woody Allen's latest movie is reported here to be su filme más español - his most Spanish film. Ironic, then, that filme is used instead of pelicula. or even peli. Must be more arty.

It's increasingly clear how hard times currently are. Walking past a bike shop this morning, I saw that a carbon frame had been reduced by 33% - from 3,000 euros to a mere 1,999. As I was trying to comprehend a bike frame costing this much, my eyes rested on an even better bargain. There was an entire bike reduced from 6,999 euros to a must-have 4,199. Boy, are these people serious. And I thought they were all clowns in their Day-Glo Lycra.

Galicia Facts

I had wondered why the Galician Nationalist Party was so up in arms against its PSOE coalition partner's proposal to make it easy for Galician emigrés to vote via the internet. Turns out that they are the only party with no agents overseas and no budget to spend on, say, a Galician Social Centre in Buenos Aires. Can the PSOE really be trying to reduce the leverage gained in the last election by the nationalist parties around Spain?

Regular readers will be as relieved as I am to know that the eyesore café featured a lot recently [The Savoy] is said to be close to getting planning permission for restoration. Though I don't know whether this is a private or public project. One local politician has said it's important enough to justify the relevant municipal committee having an extraordinary meeting to give it the green light. But the Pontevedra council has said that - like everything else in Spain unconnected to a fiesta - this will have to wait until September. Illness and death, in the worst case.

There's a driver in Vigo for whom the word reckless hardly does justice. He goes by the nickname 'Makalele' and his latest arrest came after he drove through the city at 135kph [84mph]. On a quad bike. People ask why he's not in gaol but I have no answer to this question.

Finally, is there an expert out there who knows something about the grass known here [I think] as gramón and in the USA as Florida grass, St Augustine's grass or Charleston grass? More importantly, does anyone know how to get rid of the bloody stuff? It has invaded my lawn, producing a hard, vertical seed pod which is painful to walk on in bare feet. Here's what this looks like . . .


By the way, perhaps I don't need to say this but I'd like to get shut of this grass without killing the finer grasses. So a flame-thrower, for example, would not be appropriate.