Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret In a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable

– Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’ 

Cosas de España/Galiza

The ex-lover of the disgraced ex-king has claimed in a London court that he was in a WhatsApp group called “The Pride”, along with her ex-husbands and her 2 children. Which you might think was hardly something a monarch should be doing. Even if many millions of his ill-gained fortune was at stake – because she’d refused to return a ‘gift’ he’d made to her. Possibly after an exceptionally good night.

Well, the Spanish players inevitably got low marks again for their match against Morocco, with a max of 5 for one or two of them. Inevitably, the team manager has opted to spend more time with his family. The next one will have to do something about Spain’s record of achieving 70-80% possession while only getting a handful of shots on their opponent’s goal. Even the smallest of the latter have learnt how to counter Spain’s tiki-taka game. Now universally seen as producing very boring matches. Until the – almost inevitable – penalty shootout.

I understand PV city’s Xmas lights won’t be on until the 16th. Meanwhile here are 2 (poor) fotos taken last night of the mayor’s competing attraction – O Burgo bridge. In one case, with an adjacent bridge that occasionally also lights up. Seems I failed to get the red version:-

One should be blue and the other green . . .

Apart from the ubiquitous graffiti, we don’t have much vandalism in Pv city, though occasionally some fool knocks the head off one of the statues of kids in the centre. Or breaks the walking stick of the statue of Valle Inclán. But, on Sunday night, a cretin burst one of the large bubbles forming part of an Xmas display outside the market:-

Happily, the idiot and his mates were caught on at least 3 cameras,.

The UK 

This will long be remembered in British politics as the year of the 3 prime ministers, but the level of churn at home can obscure how much the world has changed. Inflation, war, lockdown’s aftershock: these have upended our assumptions about everything from security to supply chains. As one influential figure put it to me: “This is the year the post-Cold War world came to an end.”  More here.

Here’s the estimable Kathleen Stock on the decline of The Guardian, Britain’s main left-of-centre newspaper. I suspect something similar has happened in the USA. I blame the internet, which has been of both massive benefit and disbenefit to mankind.

Hilary Rose writes very amusingly here on the woeful saga of Harry and Meghan. Who don’t want to be royalty but do want the tiles, both for themselves and their kids. Probably helps to get you a restaurant booking in California. And into a kindergarten.

Quote of the Day

Death is a natural part of life: The CEO of the Qatar World Cup on the death of a migrant worker during the tournament at a training base used by the Saudi Arabia team. Possibly ‘quoted out of context’ . . .

The USA

Click here for an insight – from a right-of-centre British columnist – into what Trump is doing to the prospects of the Republican party, conceivably for many years to come. It begins with F in English and J in Spanish.

The World Cup

FIFA’s performance metrics in the corner of the screen seem very random. I’ll say! None of them interests me and some of them are beyond my understanding. Hopefully, this initiative will die an early death. It ain’t baseball.

Spanish

Tris:
1. Leve sonido que hace una cosa delicada al quebrarse. [Cosa is the subject of hacer here]
2. Golpe ligero que produce un sonido leve.
3. Coloq: Porción muy pequeña de tiempo o de lugar, causa u ocasión levísima; poca cosa, casi nada.

Tris, tras: Coloq. Usada para manifestar repetición enfadosa y porfiada de quien está siempre diciendo lo mismo.

En un tris: Coloq: En peligro inminente.

Same origin as ‘trice’? Which a Spanish friend has just told me is un santiamén in Castellano/Cristiano.

Did You Know

Total football was not – as it’s usually said to be – the invention of the Dutch. The first foundations for Total Football were laid by Jimmy Hogan, a Brit who worked with the Austrian national team’s coach in the early 1930s, The Austrian team (the “Wunderteam”) became possibly the first side to play Total Football.

Finally . . .

To amuse . . .

There’s an old joke about a chap who goes to Confession and tells the priest he’s made love to 3 married women just that morning. When the priest asks him “My son, are you not ashamed?’, he replies:”Ashamed? I’m not even a bloody Catholic but someone’s got to know!” Well, I feel the same about this . . .For 2 weeks I’ve struggled to get posts written on my 12 year old Mac, with its – through necessity – separate screen and keyboard. But yesterday it worked perfectly, reducing my frustration and stress levels to zero. Maybe because this is because I’ve worked out how to counter its tendency to be temperamental but what’s more important is that the world has to know of my victory. However temporary it might turn out to be.

I might mention that a parallel frustration has been getting re-used to Windows on my new PC laptop, where – for one thing – merely breathing on the touchpad seems to cause a deluge of menus I don’t want. Per ardua ad astra! Vincerò!

For new readers:-

1. If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.

2. Should you want to, the easiest way to to get my post routinely is to sign up for email subscription. As opposed to using a Bookmark or entering the URL in your browser.