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

As of 1 January, most city councils around Spain should have introduced various traffic restriction measures in their baileywicks. As regards Galicia, the VdG tells us that only Pv city will be compliant with the law, while the other 5 cities won’t be. Probably with impunity. In the latest issue of Business Over Tapas, Lenox Napier suggests a similar approach to tthese urban obligations is visible in Almería. As he implies, this is a traditional Spanish response to laws which cause inconvenience. Not to mention loss of income to retailers.

Talking of which . . . I’ve just seen a guy remove a No Entry barrier in my daughter’s street in Malasaña and then – ignoring the protestations of one of the construction men working a large crane – drive up to the top of the street, leaving the No Entry sign at the side of the road.

HT to Lenox for this article, in English, on said new city centre restrictions.

It’s a common view that there’s a bar every 50m or so in Spain. This is generally true. But not, I find, when you’re in an unfamiliar barrio and actually looking for one.

This is a shop in a barrio where I’m staying this week:-

At least it’s honest, given that it surely majors on crisps and sweets/chips and candies.

For those who, like me, are wondering how to make their house warmer, reader David has kindly provided a great deal of advice. See the Comments for this. The 3 most important things, he says, are insulation, insulation and insulation. But I’m reluctant to take out the large plate glass window which gives me a spectacular cityscape over Pontevedra. But an additional glazing layer might be possible, I guess.

The UK 

There’s at least one person who thinks there are reasons to be optimistic about the economy in 2023. Five of them, in fact. But I suspect this is a minority view.

As for this year . . . It’s possible there have been worse years for the British economy but you would have to spend a lot of time looking through the history books to find them.  

The Way of the World

This is the intro to Caitlin Moran’s Celebrity Watch awards 2022: The results are in — who were the winners and losers of a busy and baffling year? It’s the conceit of any end-of-year round-up to begin proceedings by going, “Phew — well, that was a mad one! Blimey, we haven’t had a year this bananas since, eg, the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536!” In reality, of course, most years are actually quite dull. However, 2022 — this genuinely has been bananas. The year of 3 prime ministers, a former comedian leading Ukraine into war against a seemingly deranged Russian president, the hottest summer on record, women being better than men at football, Platty Joobs, the death of the Queen, the Queue, Kanye West becoming a white supremacist, the Oscars slap, the Wagatha Christie trial, Jeff Bezos going into space, Elon Musk buying the most controversial space in existence (Twitter), Liz Truss v a lettuce . . . and the lettuce winning. The rest is here.

Spanish

Spanish is said to be a phonetic language. This is very largely true but this is how a 7 year old wrote cabeza yesterday – caveca. A good try. Good job it wasn’t habeza, in which case, if would have been aveca. So, 3 mistakes instead of just 2.s

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.