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

It had to happen . . . A sex offender is seeking a pardon after a gender change under Spain’s (very liberal) self-ID trans law. ‘I am a different person’, says the (ex)man. I doubt there’s anyone in Spain who really believes him, including his lawyer.

Spain bangs the drum for EU investment in Latin America, says the FT. Spain’s finance minister is using this week’s meeting of finance ministers to talk about Latin America (and her career aspirations), 

Lenox Napier writes in his Spanish Shilling blog on his ‘short break in foreign parts’.

Wild boars are now such a threat to crops and people around here that we are now free in 85% of Galicia to shoot them. But it’s wise to ensure your shot is accurate. Or you are standing near a tree you can quickly climb.

More evidence this morning that wifi is disappearing from cafés and bars. The excuse given this morning suggests that this reflects – somehow – a crackdown on illegal streaming of sports events . . .

Pv city will again host an international triathlon event next weekend. Work has already begun on erecting stands and on closing roads. Which explains the heavy traffic on the other side of the river from the city this morning. And this comes only a month after the last time this was done, during our mid-Agust fiesta. Not everyone will be happy about this.

The UK

Well, some folk – going against the grain/tide – think the UK is a great country. The best in the world, in fact.

On the other hand, some folk think the UK – or London, at least – is ‘barbaric‘ . . .

Germany

Is the country really set to return to the status of the ‘sick man of Europe’? And to perform worse economically than even post-Brexit UK? . . . Inside the implosion of Olaf Scholz’s Germany: A complex mixture of factors led to the malaise exposed in the chancellor’s speech last week.

The EU

It’s reported that chaos is gripping the EU’s migration polies . . . The EU is working on a new returns agreement that would mean each member state take a minimum annual quota of 30,000 migrants, or pay €20,000 for each person they do not accept. BUT . . .This landmark proposal by the EU Commission to introduce a “burden-sharing” scheme that would require all member states to accept a quota has stalled due to opposition from central and eastern European countries. The document setting out the proposals says bigger and richer member states would have to accept up to 120,000 migrants per year.

With impeccable timing, the leader of the UK’s Labour Party – and the next PM – is seeking an EU-wide returns agreement for asylum seekers who come to Britain. He says that the “quid prob quo” of any deal, such as accepting quotas of migrants from the EU, would be for future negotiations with Brussels. Reports from Brussels suggests that this is being laughed out of court, as “delusional”. There is absolutely no question of helping the UK until the bloc had resolved its own internal efforts to reform its “broken” asylum-sharing system. More on this imbroglio here and here.

Italy

After a record number of arrivals – 6,700 – on the island of Lampedusa, the Deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, has accused countries of intentionally sending migrants to Italy in “an act of war”. This coincides with with Germany announcing the suspension of its voluntary deal to take migrants from Italy, accusing Rome of failing to live up to its EU obligations on asylum.

The Way of the World

In earlier times, the autumn Apple event was the subject of genuine excitement. In 2007, Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, the product that would change the world. Three years later it was the iPad. In 2015, after Jobs’s death, Cook paraded the Apple Watch. These days the show has a forced quality to it. There is little to disguise that it is mainly an opportunity to persuade tens of millions of people to buy a new version of the bestselling smartphone, with a few more bells and whistles, at a markedly higher price. [In contrast, I am looking at the cheapest Samsung phone to replace the one that was on the floor when I over-filled the bath in Llanes and which now treats me to a kaleidoscope of colours when I first open it.]

At the same time . . . Lawyers for the US government are trying to convince a judge that Google, that other giant of the internet age, is a fundamental threat to the prosperity and freedoms of ordinary Americans. The justice department — along with 38 states and territories of the US —is suing Google for violations of federal antitrust law. They claim, inter alia, that by bundling its search and other software on smartphones, the company unfairly manipulates the near monopoly position it enjoys to crush competition and cement its dominance.

Spanish

• Calaña: Ilk; Sort
• Esperpento: Grotesque; Monstrous; Eyesore: Sight.

Did you know? . . .

Our recent road trip around North Eastern Spain covered 3,400km in 9 days. I made a few mistakes but my 10 year old Honda Civic didn’t put a wheel wrong. I’ve probably put a jinx on it now . . .

Here’s the correct quote from Cees Noteboom*. As it happens, this thought occurred to him in Albarracín, one of our first ports of call. And which now needs several large carparks, so much have things changed in 30 years: A reckless thought: If you took hold of Spain by the edges and dragged it with a giant’s strength over the Pyrenees to lay it on top of France, much of what now remains hidden from most people would be suddenly part of the treasure house that is the European cultural heritage. The curse of Spain (or the blessing, if you prefer) is that inexhaustible, sun-drenched coastline upon which all attention is focused. If Albarracín had been situated on the Côte d’Azur, it would be swamped by tourism by now, like Saint Paul de Vence. So, I suppose I should be grateful. But, on the other hand, I find it infuriating that just 440km from Barcelona there should be a completely unknown world which millions of sun-worshippers race past (or fly over) each year.

* In his 1992 book Roads to Santiago.

Finally . . .

This is the length I have to go to to achieve a working connection for charging my Kindle:-

Time for a new one?

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.

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. Which is possibly why, I’ve just belatedly realised, his nom-de-plume is Johnnie Walker . . . And I’d thought he was a big whisky fan.*

*On this, it seems I was right . . .