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/Galicia

Politics:

• The latest overview from the FT: The Spanish amnesty gives the fugitive Catalan leader a chance to return. Incidentally, the FT says he’s mop haired’. This might well be a euphemisms for ‘bewigged’.
• Not unusually, high-ranking military men are involving themselves in what the see as a constitutional crisis which demands action by the Spanish army – Ex-commanders in Spain call for a coup to eject Pedro Sánchez: Fifty senior officers criticise the prime minister’s amnesty deal with Catalan separatists. More here. It won’t happen, of course. But will they be disciplined, despite being heroes to the Vox party?
• This is an interesting Político article on the ‘wily gambler’, Pedro Sánchez – El Perro Sanxe.

Following my recommendation of a podcast on the Persian empire, I’m now doing the same – again? – for a series from ‘The Rest is History’ – on The Fall of the Aztecs. There’s also a good BBC series on this subject – The Conquistadors. First part – also on the Aztecs – here. I see it was released in late 2000, just as I was arriving to live here. Missed it back then.

Good news . . . In 10 years, the ‘juvenile’(16-29) unemployment rate in Pontevedra has fallen from 39 to 20%,

A regular warning . . . Spanish tyre talleres always over-pressurise your tyres. This morning – having had a puncture fixed – I had to stop the mechanic doing this – by 25% – to all my tyres.

An unusual headline: Detained for kidnapping a plumber who gave him an abusive estimate.

In yesterday’s welcome sun, I left out on my lawn a bar of soap that had become too soft. This is what it looked like a couple hours later:-

Next door’s cat? Rats?

Portugal

I’m off on a trip there this morning, with an old friend from uni and my cousin. In advance, we got some nice food recommendations last night from the owner of Pv city’s recently opened Portuguese restaurant – Impar. I wasn’t at all surprised to hear from him that he’s struggling to overcome the conservatism of the Pontevedrans. And is rather jealous of a new place that was immediately very popular, despite offering exactly the same menu as every other tapas bar in the city.

The UK

Richard North takes a hard (´right-wing’?) look here at British society – and its deterioration, as he sees it.

Russia v Ukraine

It’s like pulling someone from a sect.

Spanish/English

Llevar is one of those multi-meaning verbs whose meaning is determined by the context, not as with English phrasal verbs, by a following particle. Three common meanings are: 1. To bring/take. 2. To be/live in (as in ‘Cuantos añitos llevas aquí)’, and 3. To wear. The last one explains why yesterday I got this question in English, ahead of a trip starting today, “Will you be wearing your computer with you?” . . . Very few native English speakers know what ‘phrasal verb’ means. In my case, I was 52 before I heard it said, here in Spain. I pity foreigners having to learn just some of the ‘thousands’ of them. Whereas my 2 year old grandson is already using some of them.

Finally . . .

Another odd headline, this time from the UK: Chef tried to strangle colleague in a row over potato croquettes.

The Usual Links . . .

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.