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

It’s an ill wind . . . The VdG this morning: The world of commercial aviation is in the hands of 2 large consortia: Boeing and Airbus. They are in constant competition to win the market and the American company is not going through its best moment, after the problems detected in several of its models. So the European firm os getting more and more orders and those contracts represent an overdemand for its suppliers. Among them is the Galician aeronautical cluster, which is working “at full capacity”. Which is good news.

An overview of a new childcare law in Spain.

For nearly 300 years the most important still life in Spanish painting remained unknown. Its discovery about a century ago changed the history of the country’s art. Francisco de Zurbarán’s ‘Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose’ was found in a private French collection in the 1920s, demolishing the presumption that the country did not have a great tradition of the genre in its ‘golden age’. For the first time since then, the work, painted in 1633, is to be exhibited in a major Spanish museum, the Prado. See it here.

A nice Spanish recipe involving hake(merluza) – a fish which is not exactly hard to find in Spanish supermarkets. In contrast with many others. Especially smoked varieties.

The UK

The Land Rover company used to be British. Then it was successively German, American and, most recently, Indian. It ain’t – by a long stretch – the vehicle it began as. Details here.

Quote of the Day

The trouble with ideological politics is that it cannot respond pragmatically to new events. Then, as age ossifies and disinhibits the dogmatic mind, it spits out prejudice and conspiracies. Food for thought . . .

The Way of the World

Lloyds Bank has issued an inclusive language guide which essentially invites us to imagine a cowardly new world without pain, hardship or loss. See here for some details. It takes some believing and we older folk can laugh but the serious aspect is this: The woke generation it’s presumably aimed at and pandering to are statistically the least happy in history. Even in their blinkered states and vacuum-sealed bliss bubbles, they are more anxious, depressed, work-shy and dysfunction-prone than any other. So this negativity-washing isn’t just failing but is proving itself to be overwhelmingly counter-productive. It turns out that we need the bad – the discomfort, the personal suffering and the awareness of others’ suffering – to be able to revel in the good. That there are no highs without lows. I would ask “who knew?”, but of course the answer to that is a deadpan: “Everyone.”

Social Media

Rather more seriously, here’s the damage being done to pre-teen girls by TikTok and the like. Truly shocking. But how to stop it?

Spanish

• No hay mal que por bien no venga: ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ or ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’.
• Mondar: To fleece; to shave; to prune; to lop
• Mondarse: To pick one’s teeth; to die laughing

Did you know? . . .

Sharks have existed for longer than trees and the rings of Saturn.

Finally . . .

An English woman who woke up with Welsh accent wants her old voice back. But a neurologist has told here there’s nothing they can do about Foreign Accent Syndrome. It could have been worse; she could have woken up speaking Brummie. Or Manc. Though ‘posh Scouse’ would have been nice for her, of course.

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. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here.