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: Says The Times here: Pedro Sánchez eyes a return to power through a Catalan amnesty deal Spain’s caretaker prime minister needs the votes of separatists after July’s inconclusive general election. It’s hard not to agree with the accusation of the Opposition parties that Sánchez is less interested in ‘saving Spain’ than in saving his own skin. But one doesn’t expect any politician to tell the truth. And he might yet fail. At least as regards his job.

The economy: A VdG headline: Spaniards work longer but produce much less than the rest of Europe. So, it seems that it’s not only the UK which has a productivity problem. Though I doubt the underlying factors are the same.

Having been prescribed this myself a few years ago but warned off it by a dentist friend, I was disturbed to read that: A lethal painkiller – Nolotil – is still being given to northern Europeans 5 years after being banned in UK, Ireland and Sweden. Known generically as Metamizole, it’s the most common painkiller in Spain but has been linked to several deaths and serious illnesses among fair-skinned expats and tourists down South. As we have a massively increased number of these in Galicia these days, I’ve suggested to a doctor friend that she tells our health authority – SERGAS – that a general warning is required. Before someone dies. And a doctor is sued, maybe. The good news is that both pharmacists I spoke to this morning already knew of this. Only the doctors who prescribe it are ignorant, i seems . . .

The bad news for Gallegos this week is that they earn, per capita, 49% less than the Germans. While the good news has been that they earn 44% more than their Iberian neighbours, the Portuguese. I imagine both countries must be very cheap for most Germans.

I discovered last night that, while the centuries-old streets of Pv city’s old quarter can efficiently and rapidly deal with storm waters, our flashy ‘reformed’ O Burgo bridge certainly can’t. Perhaps the designers weren’t aware of – or decided to ignore – the fact that it sometimes rains quite heavily here in Galicia. If my suffering socks could speak, they’d give you the details.

María talks about early November customs here or here, adding that: The rain that hasn’t fallen since last winter is now falling all at once. We have been getting week after week of it, with storm system after storm system. It’s still raining as I type this and a friend has just told me that, after Storm Ciaran, more ‘hurricanes’, are on their way. The winter can only get better. Eventually.

Iran

Is it possible to imagine a worse regime? . . . A mother has been jailed for 13 years after denouncing the death of her son, shot at a protest. She was convicted of blasphemy and ‘insulting the supreme leader’ as the regime targets the families of those killed in protests. The poor Persians.

Hang on . . .

North Korea

Has just supplied Russia with a million artillery shells to hurl at Ukraine. But the world might not notice, concentrating as it is now on Gaza.

Spanish

Ciclogénesis: Cyclogenesis: Cyclone formation. The word of the week, as the rain continues to pour from the heavens . . .

Spanglish

Reader David tells me that Spanish companies use the English acronym BAU – business as usual. And he wonders, rightly, if this can be a new animal – a Spanacronym.

Did you know? . . .

In an 1866 Lewis Carroll said he felt his book – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – was untranslatable, abounding as it does in wordplay, rhymes, quotations, nonsense, homophones, logical twists, and Victorian allusions. In fact, it’s been translated into 174 languages. And bcame massively popular in China.

A bit of detail . . . .The names of the Mad Hatter in various translations:-

• the Hatmaker
• the Maker of Hats
• the Hatman
• the Man Who Made Head Protection
• Mr. Tophat
• Owl
• Master Hats
• Marble Mason
• Stockman
• Blockhead
• Baboon
• Fellow With Hats
• Cap-Wearing Person

Finally . . .

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.

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 ever more

came out by the same door as in I went.