A Tougher Life for Spanish Crooks?: Spain is backing a EU proposal to end the €500 note. This is hardly surprising as the only people who use them are those engaged in some sort of skullduggery and need to pack their suitcases and briefcases with as little paper as possible. It's taken a while for this measure to be even proposed, never mind implemented. But that's the EU for you.

Great Spanish Beaches: The Ses Illetes beach, on the island of Formentera, in the Balearics, has been voted Europe's best by TripAdvisor folk. So, not last year's favourite, that of Cies Island off our coast. Worse, the latter doesn't even figure in someone's view of the 50 best beaches in the world. The only consolation, for me at least, is that I've had the pleasure of being on the beach voted No. 1. Totally alone. Except for the vicious sand flies which I guess we can assume no longer inhabit it.

Syria: You'd have to be a true optimist – or a cretin – to say things are going well here. Russia seems to be achieving its objectives of either saving the Assad regime and or taking us all to the brink of war,  or at least to NATO impotence in the country. And indeed elsewhere. One can only hope it's helping to bankrupt Putin's Russia. Meanwhile, one has to laugh – and almost admire – the quantity and quality of the propaganda spewing from Moscow's RT News channel. Such is the obsession with Western lies and Turkey's turpitude, my guess is that Putin is trying to provoke the latter into some sort of armed action in Syria. Which now looks perilously close. Russia will be obliged to react, of course. Just as it was in Ukraine. Hey, ho.

Which reminds me . . .

The Pregnant Widow Syndrome: This is what you leave behind when you repress rebellions without too much of a thought to the longer term consequences. Think Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and – of course – Syria. On the latter, a commentator in The Times has said that it was fear of this syndrome which led Obama to stay out of the country and leave the field to the locals and to Russia. And look where that's got us.

Modern English: Has the old word 'audition' now been replaced by 'casting'? I assume this is an Americanism. It's certainly been incorporated into Spanish, as el casting. I've always associated it with couches.

The Internet: This has come in for some critical comment lately. A piqued Stephen Fry has said that social media has become: A stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous. And someone else has noted about the internet that: Too often it’s a hate-filled echo chamber for the like-minded. Indeed.

Finally . . . A joke?: RT News describes itself as Russia’s flagship, award-winning English-language channel. One wonders who exactly was giving out the goodies.