Bulls; Bears; Puppies; Drugs: Hateful Spain; & Facebook.

24 steps forward and 24 backwards: 3 or 4 years ago, the Basque city of San Sebastian banned bullfighting but the new council says they'll be bringing it back. Elsewhere, though, new left-of-centre councils say they'll be taking measure to ban it or at least reduce the cash that goes to it. So, is this the beginning of the end of the institution? I very much doubt it. Come back in 50 years. Meanwhile, more on this here at The Telegraph.

More animals . . . Driving through the night in Galicia, a chap suddenly found a brown bear running along in front of his car. Naturally, he filmed it on his camera. For which he now should be fined, of course. For taking one hand off the wheel. Like the chap who was recently done for biting his nails. And some future victim who twiddles a radio knob. Or taps his satnav. Or eats a sandwich. Etc., etc.

Even more animals . . . The police have arrested a vet for trafficking drugs (liquid heroin) by 'implanting' them in puppies. The vet is Venezuelan but I won't tell you which region he lives in.

Which reminds me . . . When I mentioned to some recent visitors that part of Pontevedra's wealth came from the drug smuggling rife along our coast, they expressed some surprise. But, then, money-laundering isn't very visible and not many visitors get to see the multi-engined launches arriving in our numerous coves. 

Whether you love or hate a place is always a reflection of your personal net balance. You might not believe it but I'm very much at the Love end of the spectrum. But here's an essay from a chap at the Hate end. I recognise all he cites and there are more than a few grains of truth. That said, I wonder how much Spanish he speaks and I believe his view displays the significant difference between coming here to work and moving here to retire. HT to Lenox at Business Over Tapas for this.

Finally . . . Someone has opined that Facebook is "a ridiculous site, populated with cretinous, exhibitionist, superficial pretenders." As someone who uses it quite a lot, I'd say that's about right.