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
I’m not impressed by that cad talking again about his affair with the delectable Queen Letizia. And am increasingly worried about news of my own dalliance with her getting out . . .
My own thoughts too, when I read the article questioned . . . Spain’s migration policy is no shining example. As it minimises the militarisation of Spain’s Mediterranean borders.
Did you know that there’s a Spanish Stonehenge? Apparently not well treated.
The New Year in Spain . . .
María gives us her views from a small Galician village here or here.
The UK
I have to confess that, when I saw the headline Groom stabbed in melee at wedding where a Good Samaritan died, I wondered if the warring familes were Spanish gypsies or two Galician drug clans. But it turns out the fatal fight was in a mosque in Luton. Among ‘British Pakistanis’. Not a lot of these in Spain. As a good lapsed Catholic, I’ve been to Confession this morning and received absolution, from an understanding Spanish priest.
I know this handsome place well, having been taken to North Wales most summers as a kid. Along with my irritating 3 siblings in a 3 hour drive involving, back then, a terrible bottleneck at Queensferry on Deeside, the frontier between England and Cymru.
Ireland
Surprisingly, despite being very green, this fine country is bottom of the class when it comes to the use of renewables in Europe. I guess things will change when rain – and/or grass – can be converted into energy.
The EU
As the above-cited Guardian article says, the holier-than-thou EU has for years trained and funded Libyan militias-cum-border-guards who violently push back, detain and torture migrants on the central Mediterranean route. Which – as with Spain’s measures in Ceuta and Melilla – doesn’t get reported much. Not a coincidence. I’d guess. Out of sight etc.
Russia v Ukraine
Putin, it’s reported, expects his ‘special operation’ to last for another 5 years. Hopefully he’ll shuffle off this mortal coil during that period. Very painfully. A la Franco.
AI
The Guardian says that AI machines find being human elusive. Hardly a huge surprise. But maybe human enough to hate and start a war.
(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero
Richard North here takes on both ‘a climate zealot’ and The Guardian. These folk, he says, are sustaining a campaign the breadth of which even Goebbels would not have dared tackle, filling the public discourse with lies and distortions, all driven by an obsession which, economically, could prove a disaster bigger than the one they are trying to prevent.
Did you know? . . .
There are several reasons to be cheerful in 2024, it says here. . .
As for the future, the big question is whether 2024 will be the year this finally happens. If it does, there’ll be around 9 billion toasted spuds, not just the 3 billion Lehrer sang about 65 years ago
Finally . . .
I heard this morning that, years ago, the fans at a football match in the UK stopped hurling (very likely obscene) chants at each other and sang this (unobscene) song in unison when it came on the PA. Must have been quite an experience . . .
As the first comment says: Judith Durham had a uniquely beautiful voice. I believe she passed away recently, having still been performing in her 70s. And after a brain operation.
To amuse
What you travel with, if you are Beyonce. . .
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.
Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain 