Kar Kissing Konsequence; Daughter Debris; Aspirant Afghans; Lurking Lusitanian Lawmen; Evermore Expensive Energy; A Saxon Surprise; Spanglish, Manglish; Sherlock on Selluloid; Great Galician Grape; and the Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

One of Spain's favourite sports is Kar Kissing, which takes place on any and every street in the country every day. So it was never going to be long before a corner of my new car got scratched. Just seven days, in fact. Bastards.

My elder daughter is leaving Madrid for a year and is renting out her flat. I've just taken delivery of the stuff she doesn't want to leave in it. Which was valuable, as it answered two long-standing questions:- Where the Hell are my walking shoes? and How come I've got DVDs 2 and 3 of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but not the first? Now I just need to find out who lent me all three of them.

I first heard the heart-warming tale of war-torn Afghans trying to form a cricket team a year or so before the last World Cup. I then had the pleasure of watching a documentary of their progress – including a victory! - in that tournament. Now they're playing in the Twenty20 competition in Sri Lanka. There's hope for that benighted country yet!

Incidentally, there's a nice comparison between prices being charged in Colombo – 14 pence a day – and those being charged during the last Test match in England. A mere 25 pounds a day. Which is a factor of 179:1, of course.

News arrives from Portugal that – in search of easy revenue – the police have been ordered to fleece foreigners for offences which range from serious to beyond trivial. Mis-parking in a supermarket car-park, for example. This didn't matter when it was confined to the Algarve but things have moved north and this means that those of us travelling with Spanish plates are now going to be targeted. Which makes an upcoming trip to Lisbon rather less enticing. More here for those affected.

We've been told by several people now that our electricity bills are going to rise this autumn.Possibly in two or three ways. One thing's for sure, there won't be any explanatory note in our envelopes and the bills themselves will remain indecipherable. That's the way of things here, even if (theoretically at least) there's more competition than there was ten years ago.

So, the Anglo Saxons took their name from Saxony, yes? Well, no. The Saxon bit relates to the invaders' killing knife – the Seax/Sax. It was only much later that these were melted down and turned, first, into ploughshares and then, later, into musical instruments.

Talking of words . . . Another not-so-new bit of Spanglish – Un tuit. If this means nothing to you, think about it. In the context of messages.

Here's a review of the film about Sherlock Holme's time in Madrid.

Finally . . . I go on about Galicia's excellent but unknown wines but here's another favourable article, this time on the region's best reds. Enjoy.