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

Towards the end of Spain’s phoney 2002-2007 cheap-money-constriction-driven boom, there were more houses being built here each year than in Germany, France and the UK put together. Fifteen years later, the Bank of Spain claims here that: There is still a stock of around 450,000 unsold new homes and since 2018 this has practically not reduced. The bank says this is because the properties aren’t suited to the preferences of current buyers, due to their location, or because they don’t meet the requirements of greater size, open spaces and energy efficiency that are demanded today. I’m not convinced anyone really knows how any housing market operates in any country but the article says a bit more about Spain’s market, in which there are probably more than 450,000 folk looking for a home to buy.

Comments on El Movimiento Sumar(Sumar as was)

• Lenox
• Jacobin – A left-of-centre site, I guess from the name. Good explanation of developments

A nice tale of a walk on (much of) the Camino del Invierno. But the things called ‘henhouses mounted on stilts’ are actually grain/corn stores. That said, the writer might well have passed one being used for that purpose. Though it’s a sacrilege in Galicia.

And a flamboyant bit of Gaudi in Barcelona. Are there any other types of Gaudi?

My daughter is dealing with the sequelae of the sudden death of her partner from meningitis in April. She’s moving between lawyer, gestor and notary and is frustrated by 3 things in particular:-

1, Conflicting advice about theoretical rules

2. The slowness of most follow-up, and

3. The regular refrain that she shouldn’t worry as rules aren’t always applied. In effect, ‘everything will be alright on the night’. [She knows that, in practice, she can’t sue anyone, if not]

I would say ‘Welcome to Spain’ but she’s lived here more than 15 years now . . .

I read the advice that: To save money on eating expensive oysters, drink seawater from an ash-tray. I was put in mind of my own regular comment that eating (expensive) percebes is like chomping on a bit of rubber that’s been dipped in salt water. Two examples of great marketing success.

A couple more of those old-style 2 storey houses one sometimes comes upon, either standing alone or between 2 blocks of flats. In Carabanchel Alto.

The UK

A nice theory, possibly valid . . . It is striking that, while Boris’s career lies in tatters over lockdown parties, Trump’s popularity is unaffected by his indictment for squirrelling away secret documents. But it is ultimately unsurprising, given the uniquely “upstanding” nature of British liberalism, bound up in Enlightenment ideals of politeness and rule of law (in contrast to American freedom, which despises central authority and is mesmerised by the romantic mythos of the Wild West).

The USA

Inside the mind of Donald Trump: To understand the former president, look at what he does on his social media. Click here, assuming you have the heart for it.

The Way of the World

A view on the impact of Critical Race Theory.

English

Plum: I had to check. A slang meaning – A person who does a stupid action or says something stupid.

Not much dates as quickly as slang. I’m reading James Joyce’s Dubliners and, as it was written in 1914, you can imagine how hard going this is at times. Even my Irish friends are stumped. And one sentence surely wouldn’t get past the sensitivity censors these days: Mr. Alleyne flushed to the hue of a wild rose and his mouth twitched with a dwarf’s passion. I don’t even know what it means.

Finally . . .

An amusing comment . . . A man who was caught watching porn by his wife quickly switched to the fishing channel. “You should keep it on the sex one,” she said. “You know how to fish.”

Welcome to new subscriber: Dave Martin. a fan of wolves?

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.