Spain is a culture of superlatives. Hyperbole, even. It's something one has to attune to and I had thought that the use of 'super' was enough to produce the acme of anything. As in super guapo, for example. But today I heard super mega pijo [snob], in the context of the girls who 'came out' at Pontevedra's Peregrina ball last Saturday night.

And still on language - Spanish has at least one advantage over English in that it's possible to refer to male or female relatives in just one word. Primo and prima for cousin, for example. It turns out, though, that - unless he was using something unique to him - old Sam Pepys shows us how we Brits used to do things almost 400 years ago. In his entry for today 1665, he refers to his she-cozen. Which is effective but not very elegant. Perhaps this is why it died out.

If you're interested in knowing how many people depend on the EU for their income, click here. It turns out to be quite a lot. And since the EU is not yet a state and doesn't yet have a government, they're all part of a mammoth bureaucracy. Which seems only right in the Age of the Bureaucrat. One's tempted to think it's a major argument for the creation of the European superstate - un super mega estado? - that these folk should be called what they really are, viz. funcionarios.

Talking of the EU, it'll be interesting to see how the one-size-fits-all Euro copes with the recession that's certainly hitting Ireland, Denmark and Spain. And which - contrary to the belief of only a month or two ago - now looks like affecting even Germany as well. I suspect I may be getting a better rate for my pounds quite soon. Quite possibly from Banco Pastor, which seems to be the only bank charging commission of less than 2.5 to 3.0%. Only 1.0%, in fact.

Galicia Facts

A really depressing headline from one of today's local papers - Galicia's wind turbine parks withstand the crisis and grow by 78% in a year. I put it down to subsidies and massive profits at the expense of duped taxpayers. But I could be wrong, of course.

Back to the [harmonious] bilingualism of people here . . . I can't find the official statistics but Galician friends at dinner on Friday night felt the percentage is between 80 and 98%. So, no one would have any difficulty here speaking only Spanish [Castellano]. It's ironic, then, that reader Lenox cites a post from a British blogger fluent in Spanish who's decided not to come here as the Xunta's tourism information is only in Gallego. I've written to tell him that, contrary to appearances, he'd have absolutely no problems here. That said, as I passed a Ruas pechadas sign last night, I wondered how many Spanish tourists would know this meant Roads closed.

The latest demand from the Galician Nationalist Block - I was reminded last night it has so many factions it can't really be called a 'party' - is that anyone working in the health field must have a formal qualification in Gallego. I think I'm right in saying there's a shortage of doctors here, compensated for by practitioners from Portugal and South America. On the face of it, compelling them to study Gallego doesn't seem a smart move but Nationalists would be nothing if they didn't have higher ideals than the rest of us. For them, absent secession, the language is everything. And it has to be admitted their attitude is narrowly logical. If everyone has the freedom and the ability to speak both languages but the majority opt to use Spanish, then they have to be coerced into using Gallego. Just as Franco - for his own nationalistic reasons - compelled everyone to speak Spanish.

Finally, I didn't actually see it but have heard enough to know that those in London responsible for planning something to match the opening of the Peking Games must be, as they say, defecating bricks. For those who know Britain well, here's one columnist's answers to the quandary.