And the award goes to...And the award goes to...

I'm not a great fan of awards, as I'm never sure quite how independently they're chosen (especially here in Andalucia, where more than anywhere else, it's not what you know, it's who you know), if you catch my drift, but this week there were some I thought worth mentioning. This is partly because I happened to see the chef who won speaking at a press conference last week, and partly because I know the hotel which picked up the award for "Excelencia en la Gestion".

August highs

Doom and gloom, that's all the papers here in Spain seem to show these days. Unemployment, businesses folding, debt. So how nice to read something really positive.

Last week, tourist figures for August were released. They showed that the number of tourists visiting Spain last month hit an all-time high: 7.64 million, beating the previous record of 7.63 million for July 2007.

The flavour of Andalucia

Yesterday I went to a food fair at the Palacio de Congresos in Seville. I've been to quite a few trade fairs there, on various subjects such as travel and tourism, weddings (yikes) and art. Over the years, they've turned from dusty places with grim, inhospitable stands peopled by terrifying - and terrified - looking besuited men and women, to imaginatively designed, open-plan stands with friendly, smiling staff. And the biggest change is that everyone speaks English now. Not necessarily all that well, but enough to make an effort.

GUEST POST BY EMMA SPENCER

On Friday night I was lucky enough to attend ‘The Global Party’, at the beautiful Suite del Mar at the Hotel Puente Romano, on the seafront in Marbella, with my colleague Meena.

Drawing on urban life

We all take photos endlessly these days, using a wide variety of hardware, from the simplest mobile phone, via ipads, to digital cameras - from tough, chunky children's models to high-tech professional ones, like photographer

On the cards

In Spain, everyone needs an identity card. And children need theirs before their fifth birthday. As my son turns five next week, we took him to the comisaria (police station, for it is there where DNIs and passports are issued - on the spot). He is now the proud owner of an electronic DNI card with his photo, which he signed himself.

The Dictator comes to Sevilla

He recently rode a camel down a New York street, and carried around a baby goat, while making his new film. He wrestled naked with another man, and chased Pamela Anderson around a car park while shouting a marriage proposal at her in a previous movie, Borat.