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

Politics: Not exactly a surprise – Spain’s opposition leader fails to form a government. The caretaker premier Pedro Sánchez takes over the baton of coalition talks after inconclusive elections. I’m still betting on another general election late this year or early next year, in which, as ever, I won’t be allowed to participate despite paying quite some income tax.

Talking of taxes . . . This is a recent report of inheritance and gift tax reductions/abolitions in several of Spain’s ‘autonomous’ regions. I believe that dying in Asturias remains the most expensive for your heirs.

Galician retirees are reported to get the lowest average pension in Spain – €1,217 a month. Assuming only 12 payments – when it might be 14 – this is €14,604 a year. Say £12,810. This compares with a UK basic state pension of £10,600 a year. That said, the UK has a raft of additional benefits that can be applied for and I doubt this is the case here.

María gives us her views from a small Galician village – on the internet – here and here

With the exception of its ‘golden mile’, Pv city’s retail sector seems to be in irrevocable decline. The latest closures seen are of a photography shop and a yoghurt bar. Though it’s possible the latter will pop-up again next spring/summer. But nothing seems to stop the opening of new tapas bars, to service the foreigners who now flock here in September and, of course, the pilgrims who are 40 times more in number than only 10 years ago. It’s all these guiris who’ve made September the new August. And will surely – together with (A)GW – make October the new September within 10 years. BTW: Today’s temperature of 27 is said to be at least 10 above the average. And tomorrow it’ll be 31, when I might have to participate in a 7-a-side football match. Hopefully in goal.

Meanwhile, another quote from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago, written long before the recent massive increase in numbers cited above: The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is one of the arias of madness of European opera, a gigantic migratory flow, a movement of millions of extras, an unceasing stream of scallop-bearing pilgrims from all corners of Christendom, who found shelter and sustenance at Mon Saint Michel, Tours, Vézelay, Le Puis and Arles on their way to the Pyrenees and beyond until they reached the ‘camino’ to Santiago. What that massive adventure signified in terms of religious zeal, political, social, economic and artistic influence is almost impossible to imagine. For centuries a whole army was permanently on the move across Europe, where the foot was the unit of measurement. Everyone who joined, whether voluntarily or as imposed penitence, abandoned hearth and home to the vagaries of circumstance, the dream of every romantic soul, not in those uncertain times, but in later ones. Thus the pilgrimage became a myth in its own right, and as the links between northwestern Spain and the European North continued to strengthen, the desire for reunification with the Arab-occupied parts of Spain deepened.

The UK

It’s an interesting observation on Liz Truss that – 12 months ago – she got the economic diagnosis right but the prescription wrong. Or at least very confusing for the markets. That said, there is a view that: Truss was partially right in her proposed solutions, namely supply side reform to grow our way average out of economic and even social problems. Even her critics agree with that. Her failure was arrogance and delivery, pouring petrol on the fire of jittery markets and ignoring the fundamental importance of sound money. She, of course, seems not to have accepted that she got aught wrong.

I guess it’s unlikely that the incoming Labour government will pick up on what she got right. The country’s decline will continue and the value of my pension against the euro will continue to fall.

English

Two acronyms new to me – one or both of which might well be very recent neologisms:-

• ROM: A rough order of magnitude
• WAG: A wild-arsed guess.

Spanish/Gallego

To say the least, the Spanish verb Echar has multiple uses – 48 per the RAE. Basically it means – I think – ‘To throw’ and the usage I like most is echar una siesta. My Pilates class has introduced me to the Gallego equivalent – Botar. As in botar aire – to breathe out. It appears in the RAE dictionary with a mere 15 meanings but the Galician equivalent – the RAG – comes up with an extra 6.

A question

Does sentimentality increase with age? And with the joy of not only children but grandchildren? I ask because so many things these days bring tears to my eyes – like the report this morning of a terrible accident yesterday on a motorway in The Wirral that I know extremely well.

Finally . . .

Faced with a €700 estimate for work on the water pipe in my garden – moving it from under-ground to above-ground because of yet another leak – me eché into digging under the wisteria to find out where the leak was. This turned out to be in an easily repairable vertical pipe to a tap on the wall. Meaning considerably less cost. A satisfactory outcome, even – especially – if my insurance company declines to cough up for the repairs. As I regard myself as ‘not good’ at DIY, I feel very good about this. For the moment.

Finally, finally . . .

Some readers, I hope, will know that the verse I cite at the top of my posts is the opening quatrain of Fitzgerald’s wonderful – but very ‘free’ – translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which you can read about here. Some verses are well known, of course, eg:-

The moving finger writes; and,

having writ,moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit

shall lure it back to cancel half a line.

Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

My favourite:-

Myself when young did eagerly frequent

doctor and saint, and heard great argument

about it and about: but evermore

came out by the same door as in I went.

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.