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’

Note: As I’m training back to Galicia this morning and am short of time, I’ve resorted to plundering The Guardian for articles on Spain over the last couple of weeks, some of which I missed at the time.

Cosas de España/Galicia

Eliminalia/Idata Protection is a Spanish firm dealing in ‘reputation management¡. Not everyone is happy with the way it’s gone about this business. It’s accused of deploying unethical or deceptive methods to scrub unwanted and damaging content from the internet. And for assisting some very dubious clients. Though whether it’s done anything actually illegal is unclear.

A list of the 10 best ‘neglected’ books on the Spanish Civil War. I’ve only read the first 2 volumes of Arturo Barea’s trilogy but will now track down the 3rd.

A bare-knuckle/everything fight . . . In one of those court cases that you can’t imagine happening in the UK, Spain’s supreme tribunal has ruled that a group of naturist property owners at a holiday home development was wrong both to insist communal areas could only be used by naked residents and to hire security guards to police access to the swimming pool. In the end, the naturists were left with nothing to show for their efforts. Except legal bills.

An unusual Spain v. The UK tale from someone who’s returned to the latter, despite the fact Almería was an off-grid paradise. Incidentally, the link to the article uses paraside instead of paradise. But still works.

Bullfighting . . . Because it is a traditional cornerstone of Spanish culture:-

1. It can’t be left out of a cultural voucher scheme, as planned by the government, and
2. It has had to be excluded from the new animal protection law. On which, this country needs a wider debate.

Both my daughter and reader María have told me there is, in fact, a corner of the Madrid rastro which is not a mercadillo but a rastrillo de antiguidades. I just failed to see it.

Which reminds me . . . A Madrid building I missed out yesterday:-

And a sweets/candies shop near my daughter’s flat. At least they’re honest . . .

Germany

Not everyone, it seems, is happy about the praise heaped on the re-make of All Quiet on the Western Front.

Spanish

1. I like the way the word narco is used in Galician newspapers as a descriptive prefix for a wide range of nouns:-

Narcotraficante, Narcobarco, Narcofrutero, Narcopiso, Narcoavioneta, Narcocorrido, Narcodólar, Narcoguerrilla, etc.

2. Confusing . .

Un dado: A die v. Un dardo: A dart

Did you know?

The ChatGPT bot can’t do crosswords, even of the non-cryptic variety

Finally . . .

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. And there’s the Thoughts from Galicia FB group.