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
The VdG comments today on that perennial rumour: Drought at 40 degrees: If anyone still thinks that it rains day in, day out in Galicia, they are either very unlucky or they are still watching NODO. The river basins in the north of the region have entered a prolonged drought. Since July 14, the pre-alert for water shortage has affected 14 towns. And things are not looking good for the reservoirs at the time of peak tourist arrivals. Not much rain is expected to fall in August and in some parts of the region it will reach 40 degrees today for the first time.
How things have changed. Reading about the maelstrom of Spanish politics in the early 19th century, I came across this gem: All the members of the Strike Committee were sentenced to life imprisonment, except Virginia González, as the military court refused to believe that a woman was on the Committee.
A newish – but, of course, authentic – camino entirely in Galicia.
And a revived one in the UK. . . The Camino’s growing popularity has encouraged the revival of pilgrimage routes across Europe in recent years, the latest of which is in south-east England. I was walking the newly way-markedSt James Way, a 68.5 mile trail from Reading – the seat of St James in medieval England – to Southampton, where medieval English pilgrims would have set sail for Spain to begin the so-called the Camino Inglés from Ferrol or La Coruña to Santiago de Compostela.
The UK
An always-controversial columnist of the DT claims that: Britain isn’t in ‘managed’ decline. The country is not so much slumping along a downward slope as hurtling towards a cliff edge. And she has an idea bout reversing this. See here.
Italy
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the report of a cheesemaker who was killed when his stock of hard cheese – grana padano – fell on him. But I tended towards the latter . . .
(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero
Something on heat pumps from the FT . . . The humble heat pump blows a green wave across Europe. Says someone from the UK’s Heat Pump Association: “There’s a clear correlation between low electricity prices and high heat pump uptake. It’s much easier to take a leap of faith if the decision makes financial sense.” Which it doesn’t seem to do in the UK at least.
Reader Perry advises that pumps are typically positioned outside homes, emitting a constant hum of 40 to 60 decibels, comparable to the noise generated by a refrigerator or dishwasher. So, there are, he adds, apprehensions about the cumulative effect of a large number of heat pumps in a concentrated area, which could result in excessive noise levels for communities.
Spanish
Un monosabio: Una persona que realiza diversas tareas auxiliares durante la lidia, como ayudar al picador. Literally, a wise-monkey. One or two of whom got hit in our bullring on Sunday evening, while trying to raise a fallen horse.
Finally . . .
I mentioned my accent yesterday . . . A neighbour tells me that my Madrid-accented grandson, aged 4, has – thanks to spending 4 weeks attending a summer camp here with her son – not only learnt to use Galician swear words but also to say them in a Galician accent. Which should amuse his friends back in Madrid.
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.
Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain 
England has a Pilgrim’s Way of its own- to Canterbury, to visit St Thomas Becket. Perhaps they would do better to revisit Chaucer; the Way of St James is crowded enough already.
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I saw an excellent travel docu of Rick Steves on La 2, a week ago.
Started in Canterbury, visited Dover Castle, Hastings, Beach Head, Brighton and eventually Portsmouth.
I also realised (barring Dover ferry port), that I had never been to any of these places. I feel a plan developing.
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Decibels are a complex one. Two machines at 60 decibels would not be 120 decibels. It would be 63. Easiest way to explain it, is to quote the dB Exchange rate. The same safe noise exposure for 85dBA over 8 hours is halved for every 3dBA increase. So at 88dBA, 4 hours exposure is the equivalent of 85dBA afor 8 hours. At a 100dBA after just 15 minutes of exposure, your hearing should avoid further exposure. Don’t quote me, I was in this industry over 15 yrs ago, and I am a bit fuzzy. All I would say, if you take kids to a concert or Verbena, a nice pair of ear muffs is well worth the investment, as there underdeveloped hearing probably should not be exposed to over 75dBA.
3dBA increase to our ears is a perceived doubling of the sound intesity. F1 cars hit over 110 decibels, hence everyone in the pits is well protected with ear muffs and noise cancelling comms systems.
I wont go in to how far the sound travels, it is another calculation. But 60dBA doesn’t go far, as in a only a few metres, could be up to 15M, again my memory is not so good on that.
My vague recollection on all of this, and it may be out of date comes from a chapter in my life when I was in H&S at 3M.
In a country like Spain with lots of flats packed together, it is hard to say if it would be an issue. You can reduce noise using insulation, maybe for flats heat pump systema can sit on a roof. Or if they are all spread out on the rear facade it may help. But now we are getting in to complex territory, as the variables are tremenedous. This is stuff for engineers, which is way above my paygrade. However, I think between doing surveys, getting quotes and then getting an entire comunidad de vecinos (neighbours commitee) to agree, probably means it would take decades.
I have some friends in the mountains north of Madrid. Using a heat pump, and they are delighted. others use pellet systems, but the price of a sack of pellets more than doubled in the last 18 months.
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What the article in the FT shows is that the UK is at the bottom of the list in Europe when it comes to heat pumps. Why are europeans not worrying about noise? And countries with a weather similar to the UK like Belgium and France are well ahead. So weather is not an excuse. Old homes? Another cheap excuse. Noise? Just the latest excuse. Excuses, excuses, excuses…..Unfortunately the DT article, although a bit on the dramatic side of things, is more right than wrong. Ask the homeless army swarming the streets of Southampton (there has been a huge increase in numbers this year for some reason?). At least they would be sure to welcome the camino pilgrims and some spare change from them. Is there anything this country does right? Trains? a disaster. The NHS? Another disaster. The Economist carried an article this week about Britain’s rotten/rotting public building. But surely Brexit will sort all that.
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If you live in the UK, I feel rather sorry for you. If you don’t, I wonder why the country’s incompetence/decline bother you so much?
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