This is today’s dawn. I fear I might have missed the – ever-moving – sun rising directly above the river . . .

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 EU has yet again postponed the introduction of the ETIAS scheme from mid 2024 to some time in 2025. Inter alia, this will identify how many days Brits – and other non-EU visitors – have been in Spain. As I recall, it was originally going to be operating from this year.

The ‘final’ court case against members of our biggest narco clan is about to start, a mere 15 years after the process began.

It’s said that wolves kill 2,300 farm animals in Galicia every year, costing c.€0.7m in reparations to farmers. On the other hand, we’d have a lot more of the increasingly-troublesome wild boars without them. The wolves, I mean. Not the farmers.

There’s a bit of chaos around train and bus travel here in the Rías Baixas. There just aren’t enough trains or buses for would-be passengers, with bus-travellers being left at bus-stops. One probable factor in this is the availability of (post-Covid) free local and mid-distance train travel. For which Renfe has compensated by significantly increasing prices for trains between here and Madrid, as I well know. It’s reported that the current rail passes – due to expire on 31 December – might be continued. If not, will the long-distance prices fall??

Thanks to this weekend’s international triathlon, the streets of Pv’s old quarter have been full of lithe young people training for it. A tad disturbing.

Good to see some Brits – or some impostors – have made it do the triathlon event.

More quotes from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago:

• This evening we are in Almagro, one of those Spanish wonders the sun-seekers of Benidorm have never heard of: white, still, enigmatic, a memory of lost greatness.
• A bit of history . . . 1661: Again Spain awaited the birth of a king. Without a king the great heritage with all its lands and populations would fall apart among rival heirs. This time all the necessary precautions had been taken. When the queen felt the first birth pangs she hastened to the tower chamber. She had supped alone, because the cruel etiquette of the court forbade the king from eating in the company of his wife. In the tower everything was ready: three thorns from the crown of the Saviour, one of the nails with which he had been hung from the cross, a splinter of wood from the Holy Cross itself, a snippet of the Virgin Mary’s cloak, the walking stick of the Holy Abbott of Silos and the girdle of St Juan de Ortega. It helped: the child was born and lived. He was to lead a life of misery and misfortune as Charles II (Carlos III, El Hechizado, Charles the Hexed), a sickly and faint-hearted pawn in the hands of rival factions.

Russia

I’m not sure yesterday’s link worked for early readers, so here‘s one that does. I hope.

AI

Very depressing – but inevitable – news: Police in a Spanish town are investigating the report of dozens of schoolgirls that AI-generated videos showing them posing naked were being shared around schools, courtesy of their 14 year old male classmates.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

Scotland’s (non)contribution to the achievement of NZ by 2050. One or two truths stressed therein.

A propos . . .

• Net-zero: the lies they tell
• We’re no nearer the truth of net zero’s costs

Quote of the Day

We live in a neurotic, irrational world.

Has it ever been more mockable?

The Way of the World

According to the chap hosting this relatively new podcast, we currently inhabit a ‘perpetually disordered’ world in which many leaders display all of the elements of the ‘dark triad’ – a personality type that encompasses 3 notably offensive, but non-pathological personality types: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. [Think Messrs Johnson and Trump, I guess. Not to mention Mr Putin.] Gone are the days of coherent international coordination. Rather than working together to solve pressing crises, many of the world’s most powerful states are actively making those crises worse. The result? We’re living through a novel historical era: The Global Enduring Disorder. 

First episodes here:-

• 1. Welcome to the global enduring disorder.
• 2. Who referees cyberspace?
• 3. The rise of the neo-populists

Not a lot of optimism on show, so far. When will the pendulum swing back? Assuming it can. If not, will we all go together? [BTW: 3 billion is now 7 billion, of course]

Social Media

See the 2nd episode of the Disorder podcast.

English

Harbingers of failure: The folk who keep buying products that fail in the market – coffee-flavoured Coca Cola, or Crystal Pepsi, for example. If you identify one, it’s best to eschew the things they go for.

Did you know? . . .

Someone once said that the best way to test the meaningfulness of a claim – or of an ad – is to reverse it and see if that looks stupid. If it does, the claim is empty. I thought of this when seeing this on Zara’s marquee in Pv city yesterday:-

I mean, would any company every promote the slogan Designed for low performance?

Finally . . .

To amuse . . .

Those who’ve read my moans over the years will realise how I empathised with this UK columnist: A car has been parked outside my house for more than a week now, taking up 2 spaces. Some context: I live on a road where parking is at a premium [virtually every road in Spain]. Actually, and most infuriatingly, there is just enough room in front and behind the car to think you can get in there before you realise you can’t, give up in a fury and eventually park six streets away.

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.