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

Politics, for those truly interested . . .

• From the (right-wing?) VdG: Sánchez and Feijoo measured their strenghts Monday in a tense face-to-face that left a challenge from the PP leader on the table: let the most voted candidacy govern. Sánchez did not take up the gauntlet. Feijoo prevailed in a debate in which the shadow of Vox and Bildu was very long.
• From the certainly right wing The Corner: A disastrous night for Sanchez.
• From the London Times: The PM’s gamble on a TV debate falls flat.
• From The (hopeful?) Guardian: Polls find that the Spaniards are worried about the PP party sharing power with Vox.

Today’s 6th and penultimate bull-run in Pamplona was again very short and ‘clean’, when the ‘brave’ bulls managed not to gore – or even tread/trample – on anyone. Given the almost limitless number of reckless fools offering themselves for this – some of them quite overweight – I imagine this is deliberate on the part of the bulls. Indeed, they have to go out of their way to avoid injuring anyone. Though near-misses and painful falls are frequent, of course. Overall, not quite as dangerous as it looks. Might give it a go next year. Ha ha.

Reader Perry has reminded me of Vengo. This is a majestic ode to the artistry and magic of flamenco dancing, set against the compelling drama of 2 gypsy families locked in an age-old struggle for power. It can be seen on YouTube here.

From my salón window – above the river Lérez and Pv city – I can see a long (and ugly) horizontal gash in the hills. This is the future Pv city by-pass, the A-57. Work started on the first stage of this 8 years ago and is yet to be finished. I imagine the whole road will take decades yet, as is the way of these things. Meanwhile, the residents of one village in its path – A Cascada – are upset that 7 of their houses will be knocked down and their village cut in half by this ‘dinosaur’ road, creating what they call their Berlin wall. The VdG reports that 16,800 protests have yet to result in the appearance in the place of someone one from the Ministry of Development. Which looks a tad dismissive to me. I wonder if the villagers, like me, fail to see why the road is necessary.

The UK

Brits – well, DT readers at least – have voted these the Top 10 countries in the world. I’m lucky enough to have been to 7 of the first 8:-

• 10. Botswana
• 9. Costa Rica
• 8. India
• 7. Kenya
• 6. Italy
• 5. Australia
• 4. Japan
• 3. Maldives
• 2. Japan
• 1. South Africa.

Details here. I confess to being surprised at the ranking of South Africa.

Germany

A Hamburg statue that’s too big to topple, whatever the woke want.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

Net-zero: a battery of woes: Richard North avers here that the recycling of lithium-ion batteries is an issue which is likely to have a massive influence on future transport and energy plans, not only for the UK but globally, impacting heavily on the net-zero timetable.

Will anyone be confident enough to rely on China for an uninterrupted supply of essential materials? Meanwhile, RN’s bottom line is: The reality is that the combined effect of market forces and costly regulation will kill off any notion of making EVs more affordable, even where there is enough raw material to produce the batteries, which looks increasingly unlikely.

Some tough decisions ahead. For Western states, at least. China, I fear, will go on doing its own thing, without too much consideration for Gaia. Autocracies can do that sort of thing.

BTW . . . Trawling, as I do daily, through the main UK newspapers, I agree with RN’s assessment of the British media.

The Way of the World

A challenging FT article . . . The West must recognise its hypocrisy

Spanish

Possibly because I’d been reading about the new A-57 road, this headline threw me at first: 70 carreras ya están cerradas. I wondered why so many roads would be closed. Then I read this: Los futuros universitarios ya conocen las primeras notas de corte de los grados gallegos. Dos de cada tres carreras[courses] bajan algo el listón y unas 70 titulaciones ya están cerradas[fully subscribed], no admiten más alumnos. La novedad del año, Deseño, en Pontevedra, ha comenzado su andadura con un 8,566. Medicina, que siempre genera expectación, convoca a 800 estudiantes para 403 plazas.

Finally . . .

This article says magpies are pretty and, so, popular with most Brits. Not me. I hate the noisy bastards, for the reasons stated therein. But I do like to see their cousins, the Jays. Much more timid and quieter. And, I hope, less vicious.

Welcome to new subscriber: greenshemalefuta, who might or might not have started a blog

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 – updated a bit in early July 2023.