A Portuguese airline company has sent me a letter, dated 15 December, telling me that, if I don’t use my air-miles by November 30, I will forfeit them. Which was nice of them. Except the month in question is last November. I hope they’re capable of greater scheduling efficiency when it comes to aircraft maintenance.

The government kicked off its pro-EU Constitution campaign by distributing a laudatory leaflet at yesterday’s Madrid derby football match. Most of the fans apparently thought it was something to do with the proposed Basque referendum on secession from Spain.

On this, the President of the Galician Autonomous Community has put forward what we might call the Northern Ireland solution to the problem, viz. that the government suspends the autonomy of the Basque region. This description would make more sense, I suppose, if we had actually seen anything approaching a solution to the Northern Ireland problem. Meanwhile, a cartoon in one of the national papers has pointed up the irony of the fact that the oldest nation in Europe is still not a single entity. Spain, that is. Not Ireland.

The banner headline of one of yesterday’s local papers was that the Asian tsunami had hardly affected the coast of Galicia. With Africa in between, this shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to its readers. I don’t suppose it did much damage to New York or Greenland either.

Nice to read that Spain has the highest rate or organ donation in the world. So, not irredeemably individualistic, then. Though I suspect family loyalty plays a part.