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

Reader David has kindly sent me this list of the 10 cheapest places to live here in Spain, but adds that he and his wife lived outside no. 10 and it wasn’t cheap.

NarcoNews from Netflix’s Cocaine Coast:-

• The poor buggers working in what’s said to be the largest cocaine lab/factory ever established – or at least found – in Europe were essentially slaves, working around the clock, 24/7. Tough folk these narcos. The factory was, of course, the one I’ve cited as being not far outside Pv city
• The Spanish and Portuguese police have found a place just across the Miño in Portugal, where there were 3 speedboats already built for Galician narcos, with another 8 under construction. Each has three 330hp outboard motors, making them pretty nippy. People of various nationalities were arrested. Boats like this can’t be made in Spain without a permit these days, hence the transfer of the business to a town across the river in Portugal. The boats are thought to have been destined for the Straits of Gibraltar and the hash trade.

Apart for drug-runners, we have a lot of wild boars here in Galicia. I was surprised to read, this morning, that the damage they do is estimated at €17-18m a year. Mainly to crops, I guess.

The young chap arrested for publishing state secrets in the USA has the surname Texeira. As I suspected, this has Galaico-Portugués origins. So it can also be found in Brazil. But I can’t find any evidence of a Galician connection with the man himself.

For several years, there’ve been 3 abandoned cars in the plot of land I park on every morning and evening. These were set fire to a couple of years ago but, this last week, somebody came along with an acetylene torch, cut them up and carted off the bits of metal. Which is great because it now means we have 3 more parking places. My grandson, on each of his visits, has been fascinated by the wrecks, so I wonder if he will now realise that they’ve gone.

The UK

Net Zero meets reality, again: Plans to force every household to put out 7 rubbish bins have been delayed after a backlash from the public. The strategy – designed to boost recycling levels – has been pushed back beyond local elections over fears Tory voters are unhappy.

Nice headline to an article on Boris Johnson in Private Eye: ‘Yes, I lied but I did not lie intentionally or recklessly’, says liar.

The USA

More caustic comment – from an Irishman – on Biden’s play-acting in Ireland, with an observation on today’s Ireland in the US-dominated Anglo-Saxon world.

Incidentally, an English cousin of the president – also called Biden – claims he’s as much English as he is Irish but this is clearly something much regretted by him. Helps with the votes to downplay/disown it, of course.

The Way of the World

I recommend this BBC podcast – A very British Cult. Ironically set up by a low-life from South Africa, though he was born in . . . Liverpool.

Where today there’ll be ‘

the world’s greatest steeplechase’ – The Grand National. Animal rights protesters have promised to disrupt it. Which won’t go down at all well.

Spanish

Un gag: Sketch; skit

Possibly not for the first time, Fascinating Spain bring us advice on how to curse and swear in Spain. Which is not necessarily good advice if you’re living in one of her ex colonies.

Right on cue . . . Down in Córdoba on Thursday, a woman shouted to Queen Letizia: “I love you and your husband and your children very much! The rest of them can go fuck themselves!”. It was not immediately clear if the lady was referring to the rest of the royals, such as disgraced former king Juan Carlos I, or the critics of the royal family.   

Which reminds me, I find it amusing that said disgraced ex-king has the title Emeritus.

Did you know?

Wahhabism is an extremely severe form of Islam, which demands that believers live as the Prophet did, back in the 6th century. Theoretically, this means without any techonology not available back then. However, its most famous adherent – the creator of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud – somehow managed to acquire quite a few cars and planes. Not to mention 22 wives and many more concubines. But, as the Koran dictates only 4 wives, he made sure that his divorces enabled him to keep to this max at any one point in time. Needless to say, he had aorund 100 kidsm including 45 sons.

Finally . . .

After I’d become independent from my parents, I asked my mother how many onion skins she removed before frying them. With a laugh which struck me as excessively disdainful, she replied:’ ‘As few as possible, of course’. I think of her every time I make a curry. I wonder what I’ll be remembered for by the fruit of my loins.

For new readers:- 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.