Cataluña; The EU; C words; Wolves; Famous Gallegos; & A much improved foto.

The Catalans have been talking about seceding from Spain for at least of couple of centuries. They may get closer to actually doing so when their September regional elections are used by the current nationalist administration as a proxy for a Scottish-type referendum. Which Madrid will steadfastly oppose as illegal, resorting to court judgments and injunctions. But will the Rajoy government send in the troops if the Catalans ignore everyone and go their own sweet way? Time will tell. As it will on the issues of whether an independent Cataluña would be allowed to join the EU and the eurozone. Exciting times. My own prediction is it'll never happen.

As for said EU . . . In the UK, David Cameron is nipping and tucking, ducking and diving to get off the hook of a commitment to a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. This was so even before plans to establish a 2-tier EU were recently resurrected by France, with German support. This, of course, would be one way to get rid of Greece and to solve the British problem with one stone. Give 'em Associate status, and keep 'em outside the eurozone. This show will run for at least 2 years. But probably 10. Or even my daughters' lifetimes.

To avoid confusion:-

Coño - C**t

Estar de coña - To be joking; piss taking; Esto es la coña - This is a f***ing joke

Coñazo - Pain in the arse

Coñero - Joker, jokester.

Not a lot of people know this but wolves were re-introduced into Galicia a while back. And now there's quite a lot of them. And they're getting closer and closer to Tiffintown. A couple of foals were attacked recently in Amil, only 20km away. As an admirer of these clever, social animals, I hope they soon replace the rapacious pigeons and seagulls in our main square.

Even fewer people know that, not only was Christopher Columbus born in my barrio across the river from Tiffintown, but Australia was also discovered by a Gallego, Luis Váez de Torres. Hence the Torres Strait. More on him here.

Finally . . . My friend Eamon in La Coruña has kindly doctored my foto of cove X to remove my local friend, Fran. Indubitably an improvement, as you'll surely agree. But I should have asked him to include droves of topless sunbathers as well. Maybe tomorrow.