I finally got to Vodafone this morning, to ask them about their new low-cost XS6 service. This has a cuota of 6 euros a month and a minimum cost of 9 euros. This smells to me like a minimum monthly bill of 15 euros, even if i have the phone switched off. But the lady there assured me of two things - Firstly, they don't yet offer this service, even though it's cited in current press articles; and, secondly, I would only be charged 9 euros a month, if I neither made nor received any calls. So, what function does the cuota serve, then? Does it exist as  base line for calls and messages? So that, if you  run up a call/SMS cost of only 2 euros, you pay a total of 9 (6 + 2 being lower than 9) but, if you run up a cost of 4 euros, you pay 10 (6 plus 4). Does anyone know?

The Pontevedra Indignantes are still in situ, as are others around Galicia. But the main Madrid camp has been struck and here's IberoSphere's timely retrospective on their achievements. By the way, when I passed the camp at midday today and asked about a pan being heated with solar energy, I was invited to take a coffee there tomorrow morning. Awfully nice people. And very good with dogs.

I see that speed bumps may have reached the end of the road in the UK, for one reason and another. Would that this were the case here, where the city and its environs are plagued with the bloody things. Some of them at least 6 inches (15cm) high. Almost necessitating oxygen.

I've mentioned that shops are closing with fearsome regularity down in the city of Pontevedra, justifying my very long-standing surprise there could be so many of them selling the same things. But this isn't the entire story as some new shops are opening, in at least partial compensation. So far, I've determined three categories:- 1. Sweet shops (candy stores); 2. Gold buying kiosks; and 3. Upmarket outlets aimed at rich women ("Ellas" being one of these). In addition, at least two shops have been converted into meeting places for Evangelical Protestants. But no synagogues or mosques as  yet.

Which reminds me . . . Zapping through the news channels this morning, I came upon a new one - Press TV. This, would you believe, comes out of Tehran, in English. And it naturally betrays the obsessions of the government there - The Syrian government's discovery of a mass grave of its soldiers; Israeli spies in Egypt; paedophile rabbis in Israel; nuclear weapons in Zionist Israel; and globally destabilising US nuclear weapons all over the place. But it became almost surrealistic when it featured an Englishman (called Shakespeare, no less) spitting blood about the violent repression of citizen revolt by the corrupt Bahraini government and its "scum" friends around the world (the USA, Zionist Israel and the UK, of course). I can't imagine repression happening in Tehran, can you? I wonder who on earth this channel can be aimed at. George Galloway? Anyway, the female news reporter was so swaddled in scarf, coat and overcoat(?) she looked as if she was talking from an industrial freezer, rather than a news office.

On a paint tin I've just used, it says the contents provide excellent "hiding properties". Not knowing what this meant, I checked the Spanish text, to find the word "cubrición". This seems to come from the verb "cubrir" (to cover, etc.) but it doesn't appear in any of my dictionaries. Anyone know of it? Anyway, I don't agree that the paint provides excellent hiding properties; every time I look at the wall I can see it quite clearly.

You'll all be aware that Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) was born in Poio and not in any of the other vainglorious claimants to this honour. What you might not know is that this event is being celebrated here in Poio this week. So, if you're anywhere near, do come and participate. And check out his restored birthplace and the new museum attached to it. I certainly will, one day.

Finally . . . For those interested in Spanish wines, here's info on a free magazine, called Mi Vino. You can download it from the web or pick up a copy from outlets around Spain. If you register, they'll tell you where you can find it in your neck of the woods. Unless you live in Quinto Pino.