I'm training up to Pontevedra today, the first time I've done this in daylight. Checking with the national carrier, Renfe, yesterday, I noticed that the discount for buying on line is 40 centimos, a tiny fraction of the total cost. But, as my daughter pointed out, this is not as bad as when they actually charged you more for booking on line. The other thing I noticed is that Renfe don't/won't give me a price for the journey to Redondela, where the train stops (to my certain knowledge) an hour before it gets to Pontevedra. In fact, the station doesn't even figure in their listings. All very odd. And, of course, irritating.

Anyway, here's definitely the last word on Los clásicos

As for the US's handling of their recent achievement in Pakistan, these are my sentiments exactly . . . "The White House’s handling of the media in the aftermath of Sunday’s events has been breathtakingly amateurish, planting seeds of doubt about the legality of the operation and about Osama bin Laden’s death that would not otherwise be there."

Some fascinating early observations on yesterday's regional/local elections in the UK. Firstly, the Liberal Democratic party has suffered a resounding whipping and may end up with only 15% of the vote, about the same as the Galician nationalist party in Galicia. The ruling Tory party doesn't seem to have suffered much, if at all. And the opposition Labour party has made a few gains but not as many as they expected. As for the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, the Scottish Nationalist party has made tremendous gains and may even have an absolute majority for the first time. In contrast, the Welsh Nationalist party has lost ground. So, all is now set for a referendum on independence in Scotland. Which I predict will result in a No. But vamos a ver.

Finally . . . Here's the site of an organisation which caters for expats in North Portugal and South Galicia. And here's a recent announcement of theirs.

P. S. This is an early post on Friday. So, if you haven't seen last night's, scroll down for it.