Now that the schools have broken up, the wi-fi café I use was packed out this morning with teenagers. I’m a great fan of the café society but teenagers buying their breakfast of coffee and croissants? Is it just age that makes me see this is an extravagance? And one which must be financed by their parents. In the midst of a recession.

Having scoffed at the Spanish obsession for their lotteries, I now have to admit I’m the owner of a 6 euro ticket, given to me as a gift last night. I haven’t yet checked the numbers but believe the most I can get on this participación(?) is around 30 euros. All of which reminds me that several readers have said how much they enjoyed Peter Missler’s article cited in yesterday’s post. So if you didn’t read it, you might want to reconsider. On the other hand, reader Alberto very much didn't appreciate it.

There was an interesting article in El Pais this week about a competition organised by The Guardian to calculate Tony Blair’s annual income. There were a few snide comments about TB - possibly all deserved - but the real question came in the last sentence – “Why are there no such competitions here?”.

And then there was the story about the wine made in Australia which they thought had been produced from the Albariño grape but which hadn’t. The bottles no longer say “Albariño” it seems. Instead, the wine is labelled “A tribute to Galicia”.

Checking my tyres tonight before a long journey tomorrow, I was surprised to find my two front tyres over-inflated by 20%. Then I realised the mechanic must have put too much pressure in these as well as in the two at the back that were replaced a couple of days ago. How kind and considerate. And I have the gall to complain about poor customer service here.

I see there’s been a huge cocaine haul “off the Spanish coast”. Guess which one. By the way, from his pronunciation, I’d say the Sky News reporter had never previously heard of Vigo.

I leave you for at least a day or two with yet another gloomy report on the Spanish economy by Edward Hugh. It’s a long read and not a particularly easy one but it’s packed with facts as well as opinion. I would take issue with Edward on one thing: he says that “The 30,000 or so infrastructure contracts created under what is known as Plan E will be completed by the end of the year”. Well, if the rate of progress of the work being done in our Alameda is anything to go by, I very much doubt that all these projects will be completed by “the end of the year”. Unless, of course, Edward means the end of 2010. Even then . . .

A very happy festive season to absolutely everyone. Even my reintegracionista reader(s).