You may or may not have heard that one of the princesses of the Spanish royal family has just got a divorce. And has also had her marriage annulled by the Vatican. Given that the couple have several children, the grounds for the annulment surely weren’t non-consummation. So I wonder what they were. And how much it all cost.

Incidentally, the Vatican has been in the news for a second reason in the last week – its bank is being investigated for money-laundering. Which has to be at least a tad embarrassing. Though perhaps not in Italy.

Talking about banks . . . Taking cash from an ATM this warning, I was rather taken aback to see it was going to cost me 13.50 euros, or 4.5% of the total. It turned out I’d gone into a bank with the wrong network for my card. But at least I was warned and so able to abort the transaction. Which wasn’t the case when I first came to Spain.

Down in Pontevedra, under the government’s keep-‘em-working Plan E, the Duke of York’s men are still taking up and replacing the paving stones on either side of the Alameda. And dismantling and re-mantling the wall that surrounds it. And all at the traditional snail’s pace. Thanks to several days of incessant rain, once you get past the obstacle course of the obras, you then have the quagmire of the Alameda itself to tackle. Lovely.

Finally. . . You’ll all be asking whether I now have a fully-functioning central heating system. Well, yes, the new boiler certainly works. But, sadly, not in accordance with the thermostat. So, can I get the plumber back to fix this? We will see.