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

A HT to Lenox Napier of of Business Over Tapas for the news that the Spanish cricket team – after beating that other well-known cricketing nation, France – has made it through to the European Championships to be held in Malaga later this month. But cue xenophobic and racist comments from Spanish trolls.

The power of this blog . . . No sooner do I write that Pv city’s ‘Tapas Street’ is full of unlicensed tables than the mayor announces that the ‘laxity of the post-Covid years’ is to come to an end. So, owners are effectively being given the winter to get their compliance act together. Among the things that won’t now be tolerated, says the mayor, are slates/boards displaying the menu. I’ guess this means the (‘obstructive’) ones on the ground, not those on a wall. The mayor has insisted: Estou convencido de que vai colaborar todo o mundo. But, TBH, I have little confidence there’ll be 100% compliance with the rules. Will large fines really be imposed next year? We will see.

Last night’s supermoon, which was a lot more orange than it appears here, over the city from O Burgo bridge and from my eyrie:-

Another (long) quote from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago, following up yesterday’s on the camino: The fiery resplendence of Santiago and all it inspired came about because people believed they had found the grave of the apostle James in that town, events therefore that were set in motion by something that perhaps never took place at all. On that shadowy conviction and on the obstinate independence of the Asturian kings since the semi-mythical Palayo, hinged a momentous European mass migration which gave successive generations of Spaniards the motivation and the means to resist Arab domination, to reconquer the rest of Spain from Islam, and thus to turn a tide that could have swept all over Europe. Seen thus, it is no exaggeration to say that the course of European history, and hence of the history of the world, was changed in the valleys and passes of Asturias. But I must retract the ‘changed’ because there can of course be only one history; the history of what happened. One can speak of change only vis-a-vis an imaginary history, a history which might be: a non-Christian Europe, a Europe engulfed by the wave of conquests like other large parts of the known world at the time. The Spanish historian Claudio Sánchez Albornoz takes this a step further: it is thanks to the Spaniards, he says, that Europe was not overrun.

Portugal

Some financial reasons for retiring there.

The UK

It had to happen . . . Britain’s biggest motorway service station provider has brought in marshals to police “charge rage” among electric vehicle drivers battling for access to plug-in points. Allegedly, there’s growing “public disorder” due to a lack of grid connections, preventing the installation of enough chargers to meet the surge in demand. Meaning that many motorists are facing long waits, with angry drivers confronting staff and each other over the lack of facilities.

The EU

It’s claimed here that there’s looming a EU-wide drama of escalating strife, schism and rupture. And that It’s not a pretty sight. All the fault of pesky East Europeans, it seems.

The USA

In a civil lawsuit in New York last week, the judge ruled that Donald Trump is – and I’m going to use some technical legal terms – a big fat liar. . . . But the schadenfreude is limited. Because, if Trump has been torn apart by his presidency, then so has America. . . Any hope his supporters might turn against him after last week’s judgment is as deluded as their belief that Trump is a brilliant financier. He will almost certainly be the Republican presidential nominee, no matter that a judge has ruled the emperor has no clothes. Trump’s lies have swallowed both him and his country. More here.

But, if not a brilliant businessman, was Trump, in fact, the USA’s first female president? He certainly seems to be banged to rights here.

The Way of the World/Quote of the Day/Social Media

Twenty years ago, cult leaders kept their followers in compounds. Now they whip them up them on social media platforms. Where we can all witness their madness, of course.

A right-wing view of Black Lives Matter ‘hysteria’ that won’t be shared by all but might have grains of truth in it.

English

Life-changing injuries: A phrase pregnant with negative connotations. Especially when used in respect of a child with a long life ahead of him/her.

Spanish

Velador: A night-table. Used to mean the tables outside a bar/restaurant or on a nearby terrace.

Did you know? . . .

Finally . . .

Using voice-to-text, I yesterday wrote up my water leak problem, citing the local supplier ViAQUA. This came out on the page as Viagra. Which deals with an altogether different problem, of course. But still related to ‘waterworks’, I guess.

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.