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

Spain is one of the Southern EU members whose economic growth is outpacing that of ‘stagnating’ Germany – in a new version of ‘2-speed Europe’.

But .. . Southern Europe’s growth spurt needs to be built upon. Further reforms are vital for sustained progress in the eurozone’s core and periphery. Including in Spain, of course

Possibly a minority view, albeit from a female columnist? . . . Prison for a kiss? #MeToo has lost the plot. The persecution of Luis Rubiales for the infamous Women’s World Cup kiss is a new low for feminism.

Not really surprising to read that Spain is now an EU leader in rooftop solar panels.

The UK

When Belgium feels cooler than the UK, it’s a soft power Armageddon, says the estimable Caitlin Moran here.

It’s come to this in Scotland . . . The Free Speech Union is launching a hotline for anyone arrested or contacted by the police under Scotland’s hate crime law. Not a happy country. Probably didn’t have a city on the global list I cited yesterday.

I imagine everyone in the UK has a hard-to-believe NHS tale of woe to tell. My son-in-law has several, after being referred to an NHS hospital for an open-heart operation back in December. The first is to have to wait 12 hours in a wheel chair in A&E before he was found a bed. The 2nd is that he was advised to leave hospital and be treated as an emergency outpatient, if he really wanted an early op. The 3rd was to have an op scheduled for 28 December and then cancelled a day later, sine die. The 4th was just this week when he was asked to go back into the NHS hospital to be prepared for an operation he’d already had, privately, on 20 January, after he’d given up on the NHS. The 5th was just yesterday, when both the NHS hospital and the private hospital insisted it was the other one which was now responsible for his aftercare. Oh, I forgot . . He was also told in the NHS hospital that he’d had pneumonia back in December. Which was news to him. Can healthcare in the UK ever be rescued from what it is now? Or, as I’ve postulated despairingly, is the only feasible/practical option – after a litany of failed attempts at others – to continue to throw more money at it and pray that this does some good?

Germany

Germany has ‘robotic stores’. They employ no workers. But, under a ‘centuries-old law’ they must close on Sundays. Which seems to be taking German-ness to extremes.

Spanish

There’s nothing like reading an article laced with Spanish idioms and slang to make you realise your level is not at high as you thought it was. From this article I cited yesterday:-

• Parranda: Revelry
• Escote: Parte del busto que queda descubierto por estar escotado el vestido.
• A escote: Pagando cada uno la parte que le corresponde en un gasto común.
• Zurrón: bag
• Ahuyentar: To frighten off
• Gorrón: Sponger, freeloader cadger
• Panoja: Corn or millet. Small amount?
• Garito: Dive or gambling den
• A dividir con la caraja: ?? Anyone?
• Leche de pantera: Panther milk. A drink invented for Franco’s forces in Madrid.
• Letrina: Latrine or dum
• Apoquinar: To pony/cough up
• Destilados: Distilled things. Alcoholic drinks, I guess.
• Jeta: Face, snout. mug, inter alia. Plus: An insolent person; cheeky bastard. As in: Eres un jeta viniendo a cenar si sabes que no traes suficiente dinero.
• Desmoronar: To cause to crumble/collapse
• Etc, etc. . .

Did you know? . . .

Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian. She spoke several languages but her maternal tongue was Greek. She was, in fact, a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. I wonder if Elizabeth Taylor knew that.

Snakes – a coming foodstuff? A superfood even.

Finally . . .

There a Chelsea FC player called Malo Gusto . . . A tad ironically, he’s French.

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.