Loving Spain; Perfect women? Sustituido por; Cies beaches; Firework madness; Sexy torera; Sex; Cilla; & Neo-Nazis on the run.

Very high on all lists of What I Love about Spain is The Spanish people. What I think this means is the attitudes of the Spanish. To what exactly?, you might ask. Well, to everything. Except perhaps towards risk. And (a minority of them) towards bull fighting/goading. And possibly one or two more that I can't think of right now. So unaggressive are they, for example - as opposed to loud and argumentative - that it's almost impossible to imagine them viciously slaughtering each other only 80 years ago.

Err. . . This purports to be how the perfect woman shape is envisaged in (some of ) 18 countries around the world. I find the Spain one hard to believe. Unless only grandmothers voted. All 18 can be seen here.

This is reader Maria's comment on the dog/cat:por question - The translation of "El perro fue sustituido por una gata" is correct with either by or for. The clarification would come from the context. In other words, you'd have to know what they were talking about. You could go into veritable flights of fancy of dogs subsitituted by cats on a whim of the kitty if you'd only heard that snatch of a conversation. 

I see the "best beach in Europe" - on Cies Island here in Galicia - has now morphed into "the best beach in the world". Or so says this article about new Air Nostrum flights from lovely Luton to nearby Vigo. The beaches on Cies are described as "Caribbean". Well, perhaps. But, if you venture into the very un-Caribbean water, you're likely to be relieved of your manhood. Maybe even your womanhood.

Closer to home . . . I mentioned we had fireworks on Saturday the 8th, at the start of our Fiesta week. We also had some this Saturday night. And then again last night, to mark the end of the festivities. (Crisis? What crisis?) Anyway, my house is an almost perfect vantage point for these. Though not when the Atlantic Blanket is covering the city below. But 1 out of 3 in one week isn't all that bad. And this week the weather will be great. They say. Even though the blanket is still with us right now.

Here's a nice poster advertising cheap post-bullfight drinks at one of our 100+ bars in the old quarter. Possibly a little sexist:-

Finally . . . Last night, I read the comments below Peggy Lee's rendition of Is That All There Is? which I'd posted earlier. I particularly liked this one from, I'm guessing, a disappointed female: What most women say after their first sexual experience.

Finally, finally . . . What a wonderful collection of Cilla performances on BBC4 last night. An immersion in nostalgia. And terrific duets with Marc Bolan, Phil Everly and David Essex I'd never seen before. Thank-you, Beeb.

Finally, finally, finally . . . Here's another Liverpool item. Commemorating the failure of a neo-Nazi group to even begin a march yesterday through the city streets, thanks to local resistance. The language is a tad ripe at times.