Thank God the interminable US election is finally over and that the result went the way it was expected to. Someone has noted that neither of the candidates seemed very aware we're in the midst of a global financial crisis and I was reminded of a comment I heard 30 years ago in Boston, viz. that the USA has an electoral system which the rest of the world can't afford. Anyway, good luck to the new president with his almost impossible challenges. Will he disappoint as much as Tony Blair? Perhaps even more so but I guess it will matter less, as he'll always be the breakthrough president. Whereas TB is just another busted flush.

The Spanish media seems deliriously happy about the result, whatever the politics of any particular journal or channel. Presumably they see a new chapter in US-Spanish relations opening up, though even if it does I can't see Spain ceasing to be the most anti-American country in Europe merely as a consequence of Obama's election. Even more sceptically, the American columnist Janet Daley asks:- Would anyone like to speculate on how long it will take the British and European left wing media to revert to its default anti-Americanism after the Obama ascendancy? And on how the Left will fill the vacuum in the meantime? After all, America-baiting has been the last bond sustaining the old ideological tie after the collapse of collectivism in eastern Europe. . . Life will soon be back to normal. Anti-Americanism cannot die: too many people need it for their own political purposes. The resumption of it will be problematic and nuanced, but they will get there in the end. I give it six months. I fear she's right but we will see.

Galicia

Both of the houses I own are on the edge of forests. Once the hunting season starts - as it just has - what this means is that Ryan and I regularly encounter dogs that have either wandered off from the pack and got lost or have simply been abandoned because they aren't very good at their job. And so it is we have a new friend, who looks like a cross between a spaniel and a pointer. Or we did have until - having taken him home, de-ticked and fed him - I took him with me on our walk last night and he promptly disappeared. But I guess we'll see him again sometime soon. At which point I'll have to decide whether or not to take him to the pound - where his fate will be uncertain - or to leave him to join the pack of nervous creatures that perpetually wander the forests.

Finally . . . The contruction of 17 houses opposite my front gate continues at its snail's pace and in due course these will be added to the million or so unsold properties on the Spanish market which some now say will take up to 15 years to clear. I'm very friendly with the site supervisor - I'm not sure he qualifies as a project manager - but the truth is the works have long been a bloody nuisance. The worst aspect hasn't been the noise, the dust or the mud on the road but the fact that, for almost 3 years now, the workers have parked their cars and vans outside my house, joining forces with my neighbour who parks in front of my garage to force me and my visitors to drive up to a hundred metres away to find a space. OK, it's really only a pin prick but I feel sure daily jabs can really mount up. I also feel sure you want photographic evidence of this. So here it is:-

First, the workers' vans . . .


And now my neighbour's big Audi . . .


Damn them all!