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’

NOTE: Distracted by family, I quite forgot to post today’s effort. Ironically, I wrote it earlier than usual . .

Cosas de España

Plus ça change . . . The term ‘fascist’ was widely abused in the 1930s. Socialist usage of the term was not only indiscriminate – the [right-wing] Falangists and monarchists were ‘fascists’ but so, too, were the [centrist] Radicals, the Liberal-Democrats and the Progressives – but also a smear, designed to delegitimise opponents.

So, the Spanish beat the English women 1-0 in the final of their World Cup today. As I’m half English, half Irish, and half Spanish. I didn’t mind who won. I didn’t watch the match but there seems to be a universal opinion that, when they played football, the Spanish women outclassed the English, though there was disenchantment with their old Spanish habit of falling over when breathed on.

So, it’s not only on the streets of Pv city . . .

My younger daughter’s husband arrived last week. Four days later, we finally got a letter he’d posted more than a month previously. Mail from the UK usually takes – used to take? – 2 or 3 days. I’ve no idea why it was so delayed but I guess I could blame Brexit. Or just put it down to normality during July and August in Spain.

France

A vineyard in Champagne has been accused of adding CO2 to cheap white wine and passing it off – in opaque green bottles – as real bubbly. Even worse, they’d got the base wine from Spain. Que cara! Tumbrils should roll.

The UK

Now I believe that Britain is on the road to perdition. The art of queueing is dying.

The EU

The myths that underpin European identity.

Russia

Russia’s first mission to the Moon for nearly 50 years has crashed into the surface, destroying the Kremlin’s plans to win a new “space race”. Now the Kremlin will have to watch as India beats it to the Moon. The failure of Luna-25 is a major blow to the prestige of the Russian space programme and also to the Kremlin, which wanted to use it in its propaganda campaigns. Shame.

The Way of the World

The new religious persecution:  It took us 300 years to get from witch hunts to freedom, only to lose it again in 3 decades.

English

To chaffer:

• 1. To talk socially without exchanging too much information. Synonyms: chat, chatter, chew the fat, chit-chat, claver[?], confab, confabulate.
• 2. [US?]: To bargain.

Did you know?

I read recently that the Vatican is one of only 2 places in the world where women can’t vote. I guess that even there – especially there? – you can vote if you’re a gay male. But as a transman?? Or a transpriest???

Finally . . . 

To amuse . . . No polish is the nail look of the summer. The new manicure trend is about going as bare as you dare. Thank god fashion has finally caught up with me . .

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.