I read this morning that car sales in May in Spain were well down on last year. Which left me even more surprised that no one in any of the showrooms I’ve managed to find open so far seemed particularly keen to sell me a new car. If any of them has had any sales training, the investment appears to have been wasted. But, anyway, it put me in good spirits as I set out to talk face-to-face to the Ford salesman who’d promised to call me yesterday to let me know whether the June price would be even better than the May price he gave me last Friday. Alas, no. It had actually increased 500 euros. And the rationale? Firstly, it’s June and, secondly, I don’t have a 10 year old car to exchange under the Spanish government’s just-introduced swap scheme. This, it seems, has boosted both the trade and the spirits of the car dealers and led them to reduce the discounts they were previously offering to those of us with, say, a 5 year old car with a useless engine.

But I had a bit of good luck last night when I bumped into my old piano teacher and he told me the Suzuki dealership was now housed in the Opel showrooms. So I went there after visiting the Ford place, only to discover that it isn’t.

So another productive morning. But the good news is that the car wreckers down in Poio will give me 200 euros for the car and arrange for it to be officially taken off the road. Or rather “About 200”. I wonder what on earth it depends on. Me getting the car there and finding I have no other option but to leave it with them, I imagine. I’m guessing 100-150 in practice.

But the really good news is that I didn’t pay the garage 245 euros for the wing mirror knocked off in a January storm but got one for 70 euros via the net when I was in the UK in April. And nor did I pay them 50 euros to put it on. So, anyone want to buy a green RHS wing mirror for a Rover 45? If not, I guess there’s always e-bay.

There was a rather odd supplement in the Diario de Pontevedra last week. Essentially, it was a celebration of all the public works which make the city even more of a mess than it’s been for the last 10 years. And I guess it was paid for by the local council. Or, in other words, the taxpayers. But I was delighted to read that between Monday and Friday between 5 and 7 of the evening, you can go up onto the balcony of the town hall and have a guided gaze at the excavations going on in what used to be Plaza de España around an underground car park that should be with us some time in the next ten years. I may not be able to resist.

Which reminds me . . . Another breezeblock or two were added to the bus-stop-in-process yesterday and then faced with granite. But my suspicions are growing that some architectural genius who is either ignorant of or oblivious to our weather has designed a facility that not only has wood in the roof but which is also open to the elements. I do hope I’m wrong and that plate glass is going to installed at the back and around the sides. Vamos a ver.

For what it’s worth, the latest forecast for Thursday’s European elections give the right-of-centre PP party 43% of the vote, against 39% for the ruling socialist PSOE party. The predicted turnout is 45% but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were rather less than this.

Finally, if you’re fed up of reading about expenses abuse by British MPs, you might like to raise your sights and read Henry Kamen’s article in yesterday’s El Mundo about corruption among the members of the European Parliament. Who’ve banned any publication of their own expenses, I believe. One wonders why. Or, rather, one doesn’t.

Postscript: As I finished this, the Ford salesman called to ask me to go back again tomorrow to discuss an improved offer. Which is a lot more sensible than his stance this morning. Things are finally looking up. Sort of.

Post postscript: The internet provider Ya.com who threatened to sue me last year and against whom I’ve lodged an official complaint with the Consumer Bureau has just called to invite me to subscribe to ADSL through them. I needed a laugh.

I leave you with the thought that the call from the Ford guy endorses my long-held suspicion that no business in Spain treats an enquiry as serious until the potential client follows up with a second face-to-face meeting. Which makes it either very logical or illogical that they usually, in the case of cars, won't give you a price on the phone.