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

Good news about the economy, at the macro level.

Farmers in Spain have joined their European counterparts in staging protests across the country. Like farmers elsewhere, they demand more flexibility from the EU, tighter controls on the produce of non-EU countries and more help from their government. In several regions, they blocked roads and caused severe disruption to motorists. A large demonstration in central Madrid is planned for later this month.

A French court seems to have dashed hopes that the 90/180 rule for non-residents with property here will be abandoned by Brussels. Even though Spanish estate agents claim it’s costing the country millions,

It usually helps to be shocking if you’re in the Eurovision final. The Spanish number described here and here certainly fits the bill. I’ve heard the word zorra used to mean all the examples given but it’s also one of the many female animal words used to mean prostitute. Views on the song – as with the Sevilla JC for Semana Santa – clearly differ. My own view is that, whatever else it might be, it could never be described as ‘tastefully sung’. By the way, it’s true that the male version of zorra means something like ‘rascal’ but it would be zorro, not zorra/zora. You can see the song on YouTube, of course.

A Galician paradise. Described in that strange lingo which a machine thinks is English.

Portugal

The expensive trip down the West of Iberia from La Coruña that I mentioned yesterday was to Lisbon. Apologies for the error in the first publication.

China

The West hasn’t grasped the scale of the disaster facing China. Our treasured illusions about how Xi will react to his country sinking are about to unravel. Rationale here.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

NZ is creaking at the seams, it seems. To RN at least. He goes so far as to suggest that the EU Commission must have a death wish.

The Way of the World

I’m not sure it classifies as a zombie stock but the e-van company Arrival was valued on its 2021 IPO in the States at $10 billion but has just gone into Administration/Chapter 11, having not sold a single vehicle.

Too much information risks a new dark age, says this columnist. Falling IQs, sliding literacy and a rising disregard for the arts show that progress isn’t inevitable.

Quote of the Day

When we look back at the great civilisations of the past, we don’t judge them on their ability to launch a certain percentage of graduates into careers at top-flight management consultancy firms but rather on their art, their literature and their architecture.

English

Haberdashery . . . A lovely word seen this morning on a sign in a department store

Spanish

Una tienda de ropa de caballeros/los articulos de mercería: A haberdashery

Did you know? . . .

An interesting table posted in FB by Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas:-

Quite some mis-perceptions. Good to see that re-cycling is exposed for what it is(n’t).

Finally . . .

When checking my Farsi recollections yesterday. I came across this article on taarof – an excessive form of politeness that you need to know about if you’re going to be among Iranians. It reminded me of the word/instruction Befarmayid, which means, inter alia, Please go ahead or After you. You can get a sense of what it means from the Iranian joke about 2 Tehran twins who emerged from the womb aged 25, because each had been saying Befarmayid to the other for that long.

The Usual Links . . .

You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .

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.