Hairdressers.

The other day we went to the hairdresser's, both of us. I went out in the morning, had my hair done and caught up on the scandal magazines. These are full of cute photos of the christening of the UK's Princess Charlotte. Amazingly the Duchess of Cambridge, her sister and her mother all managed to coordinate their outfits, tasteful retro pale cream affairs! If I were Kate, I might feel that my female relatives were trying to upstage me. 

There were also pictures of the king and queen of Spain visiting Mexico. The wife of the president of Mexico, I now know, is exactly the same height at Queen Letizia. (Do we really need to know such random facts?) Queen Letizia is one of the president's wife's role models in fashion matters, as is our very own Kate Middleton, in fact. The article declared that she is very much influenced by "los royals y los celebs". There you go, the ubiquitous use of English!!! The pale cream outfit that Kate Middleton wore was described as "un coat dress". Surely the Spanish and French and Italians have their own terms for such things. So it goes. 

Something odd is happening to the Spanish press in its way of referring to the UK royal family. Usually all the names are hispanified but this is slowly altering. Prince William remains Guillermo but Kate, who is usually Catalina, is now Kate, just like that. And the children are not Jorge and Carlota, as tradition would demand but very Englishly George and Charlotte. Do you think someone has complained? 

After the hairdresser's I went to the library, looking for something in Spanish for Phil to read. I have not been there since last summer, or maybe the summer before. No problem. My card still works. The library is as frustrating as ever. The computer system, the only way of locating books because of their crazy filing system, seemed to have no way of returning to the previous page looked at. You had to go back to the start whereupon the screen went blank and then you followed the instructions in Gallego on a piece of card in front of the computer. Then you had to hunt the shelves to find the number of the book you seek. Browsing the shelves is impossible as all the authors are jumbled up. How reassuring that some things do not change! 

Phil and I met for lunch - chipirones encebollados at the Rosalia Castro down near the port - and then coffee at the Maracaibo on the alameda. Since we were last here the Maracaibo has acquired wifi but the ladies loo still does not have a functioning lock on the door! 

And after lunch Phil went for haircut. Two visits to hairdressing emporia in one day: is this a record?