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 drought throughout Spain – even in ‘always raining’ Galicia – is said to have driven up food prices. But, then, just about everything does, apparently.

With Venezuelans heading the list, it’s reported in Galicia than the majority of ‘foreigners’ arriving on tourist visas don’t go home but also don’t seek Spanish residence. So . . . Living ‘under the wire’, like the Brits who recently got fined and deported, desìte owning property in Spain? Indulgence? And posssibly more able to get work in the hostelry sector.

On the latter, I was recently told by a South American waitress that she’d been sacked for complaining about the illegal way her employ was reported her hours, thus reducing thier social security payments and her future benefits. A not uncommon practice. She’d been working more than 50 hours a week over 6 days, not the 40 over 5 days that she was paid for. Meaning that she was also effectiviely receiving less than the statutory minimum wage per hour.

You never know who you’re going to bump into in Lidl in Pontevedra. A leader of a major Colombian narco-gang – Julio Peñaranda, ‘El Loco’ – was arrested in the car park there recently, while transferring 90 kilos of cocaine into a car destined for the AP9, the A53 and the A6 down to Madrid. A route I know very well.

Russia

Quote of The Day

The estimable Caitlin Moran again: There’s nothing quite like the privileged classes for lifting[stealing] everything they can get their hands on once they feel “relaxed”. Look at the Elgin Marbles. Or the East India Company. 

English

Mad balls: Seems to be (British?) slang for ‘rubbish’. There’s a YouTube site dedicated to bringing us everything funny and gross.

Did you know?

Forget supersonic. Hypersonic is coming. Fast. Maybe.

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.