Spain's economy; Franco; Tipping in Spain; Maxing out on kids; La Ultramar; UK trip; & Typos.

Is Spain at the head (cabeza) of the eurozone's economic progress league or is it at the tail (cola)? As El País says, it depends on how you look at things and which criteria you use. Spain manages to achieve both. But that's Economics for you. Guess what the government says.

Chilling . . . Franco continued to sign execution warrants - "without blinking" - until he died. In fact, the repulsive dictator spent his last month or so in agony, believing that this was God's will. It was the only decent thing he ever did.

One thing I tell my visitors is not to over-tip. Here in Spain, 5% is usually enough and 10% is really generous. If you tip Anglo style, you're ruining things for the locals. The latter may go up to 5% but often it's just whatever loose change they have in their pockets and haven't yet given to the multifarious beggars. Like the people in the next table to me, who've left 50c on a @16 drinks session. Or 3%. Of course, this doesn't apply in the tourist ghettoes of the south, where waiting staff have got used to much more.

If you were asked how many kids you think a woman could give birth to during her lifetime, you'd probably come up with 15, which is the average guess. In fact, thanks to multiple births, a Russian woman holds the record of 69. The male record is 867, some Moroccan emperor. Against that, we're all said to be descended from Ghengis Khan. Or was it Tamerlane(Timur)?

This, finally, is my review of La Ultramar restaurant in Tiffintown. They took a while to approve it. Interestingly, if you tot up the Excellent and VG reviews, it's 41. And the Average-Terrible: 34. Pick the eat out of that. I suspect the positive reviewers are more influenced by the single Michelin star than by the eating experience but perhaps I'm too cynical.

For my up-coming trip to the UK, I'm giving the car-sharing operation, BlaBla, a go but am not too optimistic, especially as my dates and route(!) aren't yet clear. Or even my mode of transport. But we're very spontaneous here in Spain. We need to be; we don't like planning or committing.

Finally . . . . Other words I always mis-type:

Girls - Grils

Interesting - Intersting

Birth - Brith

Antidisestablishmentarianism