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

Pre-election Politics . . .

• All you need to know about the imminent general election.
• Victorious Vox?: The victory of an ex matador in Valencia leaves the radical right feeling bullish about a Spanish poll.

In the bizarre world of Spanish fiestas, one or two stand out as truly weird. Here’s one such. Needless to say, the Catholic Church is involved. Well, it wouldn’t be a show without Punch, would it?

I’m a great admirer of the Galician writer and artist, Castelao, who drew himself thus:-

He was right on many things but wrong when he predicted Galician and Portuguese would again be the same language, Galaico-Portuguese. But, many years after he passed away, we now have Galicia being referred to as his favoured Galiza. Much to the delight, I guess, of my ‘nationalist’ friend, Fran. En passant, Castelao hated priests and always depicted them as fat. You can see some of them if you stick castelao curas gordas in Google Images. Or even just castelao dibujos. You’ll also see this harrowing sketch of his. One of many:-

I’ve mentioned a bar down in Pv city’s booze barrio, which has changed its name 3 times in the last few years. It now sports a sign saying it’s called Sapoc – or Copas spelled backwards. Actually, the sign outside has both this word and a wine glass upside down, which is presumably not a mistake. Google Maps is no help on what the place is now called, and neither is an internet search.

I don’t know whether this is an international trend or if it’s confined to Pv city but it’s difficult not to notice that an awful lot of women are going without bras this summer. But not, of course, in the case of those who actually wear a bra instead of the ubiquitous ‘boob-tube’. Is this what the 5th/6th/7th wave of feminism has come to?

Things look very serious down on the main road in O Vao/Bao. Not only has the land been cleared for the 3rd or 4th time in 20 years but a temporary road has been installed. Most tellingly, not just one but two signs have gone up, telling us who’s going to be doing the work there. It might yet happen.

The UK

In case you’re interested in following up my comments about the BBC, here’s How the huge and unwieldy BBC has become unmanageable. As I said, Big and Bloated. Some nice metaphors.

And here’s the comment of a British journalist who thinks that the uproar over the BBC’s top newsreader was a low point for us as a nation. Some nice phrases there, too. Like: oxygen thieves on the internet. And: great hot bin fires of sickness and recrimination. Not to mention:  the insidious, drip-drip of trash American culture into our lives.

By the by . . . A rhetorical question . . . In the age of free internet porn, why pay GBP35,000 for sex videos? TBH, I feel sorry for everyone involved. Some more than others, of course-

The USA

Why the USA said to be ‘light years ‘ away from the UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway on the approach towards gender care for children.

The Way of the World

I cited a survey of the favourite countries of Brits/DT readers, at least to visit, and confessed to to being surprised that South Africa came out best. Well, here’s the view of, I think, of a resident on what it’s like to actually live there.

English

The official simple past of To Strive is strove and the pp is striven. As with To Drive. (But perhaps not To Thrive). But today a British columnist – on The Times, no less – writes ‘I strived’. But what I think is officially correct is immaterial. Without a British Academy of English, if today’s kids all use ‘strived’, then this is what will become the correct past tense. To be followed by ‘drived’?

Relevantly, ‘strived’ is not seen as an error in the WordPress (American?) spellcheck but drived is . . .

Did you know?

Here’s all you need to know re leaving your country for somewhere else. To which I’d add: Put a lot of effort into identifying what you take for granted where you are than then determine which of these you’ll miss, if any. And, of course, whether you can live with this, thanks to compensatory factors.

Finally . . .

A moan you can ignore . . . My daughters are going to a beach in nearby Marín today. We believe that the Monbus bus leaves Pv city at 30m past each hour but can we get confirmation from the company’s site? No, we can’t. Firstly, you get nothing if you put in Playa instead of Praia and, secondly, whatever you put in by way of all the beaches also gives Sin resultados.. Not by any means unusual with this company’s site.

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.