Heigh ho,heigh ho............

Which one is jacky then ?

Not HAPPY I suppose.

Genetics and diet make sense to me and I'm still able to observe things around me without going to specsavers. I've watched young people of British stock going to Spanish schools around here, lots and lots of them, and saw them years later, going out with their Spanish friends.

If I hadn't known that they had come over from the UK 10 to 20 years earlier, I would have said that they I couldn't tell them apart from their Spanish mates. They look about the same height too.

And I believe that old people shrink, not just in Spain but everywhere. I'm not looking forward to that.

Not just shrink exactly, much more a case of changing shape, as far as I'm concerned.

As I've lost height I seem to have expanded around the middle for some strange reason.

Only a personal observation, but it seems to me that Spanish people must be getting taller and bigger if available shoe sizes are anything to go by - I take a size 40 in shoes and at one time found it very difficult to buy shoes here except in the "tallas grandes" section of El Corte Ingles with a very limited selection. Now they are available everywhere. The narrower fitting they mostly come in is ideal for me.

Thanks Lynn, you made me realise how big my feet are!

I'm 2 inches shorter than you and still use one shoe size bigger!!! But for me the shoes are still too wide as my feet are long and thin, I have to try several models in order to get a pair that hold them properly... otherwise it is easy for me to leave my shoes behind when walking, and you should see me wearing high heels... I also have the Greek feet, not the Egyptian one, so one size is too big and the other too small.

Thanks, mum, I didn't get your eyes and hair colour, but at least I got your feet!

Seriously, I think that only the 15% of the population have Greek feet, and it used to be a thing to be proud of, it comes from the Greek statues of gods and heroes! They are supposed to distribute the weight better... but it's difficult to find comfortable and nice dressing shoes.

My eldest son (nearly 15) is about 6' tall (in old numbers) yet is by no means the tallest in his class where all the others are Spanish.

I suspect that, as a bold generalization, the Spanish are a lot shorter and, perhaps, a lot rounder . But this is certainly changing.

Keeping in mind that the average ladies size in the UK is a 16... No, I see more slim older ladies in the UK than in Spain, so the rounder bit is true

As many of you said, in the last 2 generations we seem to have grown a lot , but you can also see a lot of fat kids and young adults, which is very worrying as this was not the rule before

Spaniards normally explode at around 50 but are thin before that. Brits (if they are going to be fat) normally get fatter much earlier.

Most 25-40 year old Spaniards are thin, but as we've said the latest generations seem to be fatter.

However, last week there was a group of young British 20-somethings on holiday in our block, sunbathing by the swimming pool every day all week. My MIL who is visiting said she'd never seen such fat young people, although she wasnt suprised as the girls had eaten 2 big packs of crisps before lunch

Sorry! At least you can wear high heels if you can find some to fit, I never do as they make me so tall I think I'd look like a drag queen.

I note your careful wording here.

What the statistics actually show is that there is very little difference in height between UK adults and Spanish 21 year-olds. They also show that on average 21 year old Spaniards are very slightly taller than 21 to 25 year old Spanish and that British 25 to 34 year olds are slightly taller on average than British adults.

All of this is consistent with a gradual increase in average height in both countries with Britain slightly in front.

There are various figures I could find that compare like with like, these are a couple...

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman...ht-chart.shtml

Spain 170cm, UK 176.8cm (males, 1988)

http://www.interbasket.net/news/4385...ales-20-years/

Spain 172cm, UK 175.4cm (males >20yo)

So why oh why do they sell such long trousers here?

You can always chop a bit off, but not so easy to add a bit on.

Apart from that the younger generation seem to prefer them long enough to sweep the streets with.

Yeah, but, we're not talking a few cm here and there, we're talking 20-30cm at a time, and I'm not particularly short.

And unless absolutely straight legged, they're not the same taken up. I confess that trousers are one thing I still look for when I'm back in the UK.

Its always been the same since I moved here 10 years ago with all the shops big or small offering to hem them to suit the individual. Some charge but most dont.

It saves having to stock up with differing leg lengths.