Cataluña is much in the Spanish news these days. Firstly, a number of cities there have banned the burkha in public places and, secondly, Spain’s highest constitutional court has finally ruled on the region’s proposed new Statute of self government, after four years of politically-charged deliberation. The headline decisions are that Cataluña is free to call itself a nation - even though this term will not have juridical validity – and the Catalan language will not be given primacy over the Spanish language. Despite having most of their demands accepted, leading Catalan politicians are affronted by this outcome and have called for public demonstrations of anger. How it will all settle down is anyone’s guess. Near term, it looks like a defeat for the Spanish right wing.

For us here in Galicia, it will be interesting to see how much wind this puts into the sails of our own nationalists, currently out of power.

Two different sides of Islam on BBC podcasts listened to today. Firstly, a discussion of those two brilliant but long-dead Persians, Al-Biruni and Avicenna. But then an account of the modern-day persecution of members of the Ahmadi sect in Pakistan. On the face of it, things seem to be going backwards in the Islamic world. And have been for some time.

Here's a nice paragraph on Spain’s performance last night from Prospect Magazine:- "As a spectacle and sporting performance, the evening was a pleasure. Spain scored only once but it’s a treat to watch a team that can keep possession of the ball, that always seems to have passing options, that makes shapes and movements that are easy on the eye and occasionally breathtaking in the execution."  Amen to that. I fear I won't live long enough to see it from the English team. Nor my children.

Finally . . . Here’s a foto of a junction halfway down the hill from my house.

As you can see, the rubbish bins are placed directly opposite a side-street from which school buses already had difficulty exiting even before this was done. Then there’s the new holding lane for traffic turning left, where the word STOP is written. A recent visitor driving my car down to town was understandably confused when she got to this point and so obeyed the instruction right in front of her to stop, even though she wasn’t turning left. As the location of the bins left no space for the guy behind to pass, you can imagine his reaction to this. I guess the problem could easily be solved by moving the bins. But I bet they won’t be.

Which reminds me . . . As Spain beat Portugal last night, my tip must have made someone some money, even if it wasn’t me. I certainly hope so. But, if they're euros, make sure they're not Greek or Spanish.