Fiddling Princess; Mayoral corruption; Bastards on Bikes; Narcofincas; TV sets; and Hot Brits.

Well, it seems things have taken a bad turn for the younger of the King's daughters. The judge looking at the alleged corruption of her husband has returned to the stance that, despite the disapproval of the State Prosecutor, she has questions to answer. Essentially, she's been funding personal expenses via a sham company which was draining public funds meant for charity. Which obviously began at home in this case. Here's some examples of where taxpayer money ended up.

And talking of corruption . . . Here's a case - Arcos - that I think is new to me, though it may not be. As I said, it's impossible to stay on top of them all. I guess it represents the basic model of Spanish corruption over the last 12 years - the town mayor and just about everyone else who worked in the council or who knew him making a fortune from corrupt property development. Hard to avoid the conclusion that - here and elsewhere - they brazenly assumed they'd all get away with it. So, kudos for the Spanish state for ensuring they didn't. But, given the vast choice which must face them, I wonder what their criteria are for deciding which cases to take forward. Incidentally, the prison sentence demanded of 226 years is not unusual in Spain. Sometimes it's more than 1,000 years.

I'm so pleased to be able to report that someone agrees with me on this. A letter from yesterday's El País:-

Bikes on the sidewalk

The pavements have always been for pedestrians but now, with all the danger this brings, we find bikes are invading our space. Imagine a road where suddenly appear pedestrians, animals or other things; this would be a disaster. Well that's what's going on sidewalks, a potential disaster and a danger to the elderly. Francisco Martinez Pascual.

Good on you, Francisco. Of course, we all have a bit of sympathy for cyclists taking on what are said to be very inconsiderate and even dangerously antagonistic drivers here. And I suppose we could live with cyclists on the pavements moving at pedestrian speed. It's the bastards - not all men - who ride at speed and weave (swerve) in and out of both adults and kids who are the problem. And the risk. But I suspect it'll take a serious injury or two before they're stopped.

Came across the lovely word narcofinca yesterday. Turns out to mean the plot of land down in O Vao/Bao where cocaine and other drugs are sold, finca meaning 'plot' and narco meaning what it seems to mean. And here it is, lodged between a gym for pijas and one of the two gypsy permanent encampments down the hill from me:-

Incidentally, my first attempt to take this photo resulted in a bit of psychedelia from my camera:-

After which it would only give me purple images. So I did what any sensible person would and banged it on my steering column. Which did the trick.

I went into a café yesterday which had 8 TV screens, 6 of them on one wall. I naturally wondered whether I could switch them all off in one fell use of my TV-be-Gone or whether I'd have to do it one by one. I will report.

Finally . . . Here's someone's list of the 25 'hottest' British actresses of all time. For me, it's a tough choice between Keira Knightly and Rachel Weisz. Though there was a time in my life when Julie Christie had no competition. Keep your eye on the Comments if you want to see truculent reader Moscow's view of these ladies, some of whom he doesn't regard as British. Which is lucky for them as he believes the entire world shares his view that British women are, in his words, ugly. A Gent, if ever there were one.