I'm not joking, I've been wandering the city camera in pocket for the last week and I haven't come across even one Partido Popular poster. The best I can do is this poster of the even further right-wing Ciutadans candidate. He's got Ciutadans=Partido Popular=Nazis graffitied on his forehead - bloody vandals!

Trias has got a bit of Clint Eastwood about him - I'm not sure whether he's the good, the bad or the ugly, though. Fer Punyetes=A Fistful of Dollars!!

Left wing and ecological - not such a bad point of view.

I'm Jordi Portabella and you can tell that I'm 'molt català' because you can see a Catalan beach in the background - cor, baby, you're really free!

Local Sagrera boy, Jordi Hereu - despite his humble beginning's he's done well to become Mayor of the most kick-ass city in Europe. Nou Alcalde, Noves Idees - new Mayor, New Ideas. A great deal remains to be seen, but it's worth giving him a chance to build on the work of his socialist predecessors, Narcís Serra, Pasqual Maragall and Joan Clos.

As tomorrow (May 27th) is voting day in the Spanish Municipal Elections, I thought it might be a good idea to give you an overview of how things are shaping up here in Barcelona.

Murchas ia a quiet village located in the lower section of the pretty Lecrin Valley. Tucked away it is a collection of traditional Andalucian houses centred around an impressive and recently renovated church. From Murchas there are splendid walks through the Orange and Olive groves to places such as Restabal and Melegis. The village does not have a bar or shop but does have a good panaderia and local deliveries take place each day. The bars, banks and shops of Talara and Lecrin are a short distance away.

Martos has become a sprawling town, edging further away from its hill la peña to the modern outskirts. This is the world’s olive oil producing capital, surrounded as far as the eye can see  by olive groves.

Mondujar has to be the most overlooked village in the Lecrin Valley - other than by those who live there, of course. 

There are some destinations on the Costa del Sol which, despite the onslaught of popular tourism, have managed to retain their Spanish identity. Such towns should give advice to other resorts on how to keep the best of what they have and avoid the dangers of being overrun by modern development and practices. Nerja is one such place.

Spain's wildflowers are incredible but this year after our wet April, they're the best I've seen (in 11 years)

Attractive watering system.

This week was the first time we'd actually had chance to stop by in Cartagena.

Being the second largest city in Murcia you would think Cartagena would still have the big metroplitan feel of Murcia, but it's a refreshingly wide open and low place with a beautiful and busy port area. We had ice cream on the Port (which is full of bars, restaurants and the like) and looked at the City's air raid shelter (it was a key strategic town during Spain's civial war) and museum - which was fascinating.

This is my mate, Edu, in his taxi. He went to London to buy it, and then the Ajuntament painted it yellow and black. He tells me he makes a decent living out of tourists, but what he really likes doing is ferrying around DJs and 2nd Division rock stars - generally without adequate remuneration!

I've been trying to get to grips with the new look and feel of the page. It's all a bit disorienting at first, but in general, I like it.

First impressions: It would be nice to have some visuals on the front page - perhaps an enlarged Random Image.

I like the the idea of My Site - potentially more flexible than a diary - NativeSpain goes MySpace!!