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

A warning for those who like to indulge . . . Madrid’s Food Safety agency has advised of very bad reactions to 2 products being sold by a Czech company called Weed Nation. The victims suffered severe nausea, vomiting and ‘neurological symptoms’ after eating Cookies HHC and HHC Gummies. So, check the labels for Czechness.

Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas tells us of a well-known ‘Spanish practice’* here: ‘Institutional advertising ’is where the authorities place large adverts in favoured publications (actually, in all of them except the foreign-language ones). This helps remind the publishers where their daily bread comes from. But, the more one supports the regime, the richer the pickings. From ‘El Salto Diario’: ‘The institutional advertising of the Madrid City Council once again shows how public money is directed to media related to the PP, while those who are bothersome are discriminated against’. A similar phenomenon happens in the PP-controlled city hall of Sevilla says Público. The left-wing ‘ctxt’ says that ‘the fake-news industry is reinforced by institutional advertising’ and gives chapter and verse. Madrid alone (Region and City Hall) spent €60m in 2022 and 2023.

* The terms Spanish practices’ is a British expression that refers to irregular or restrictive practices.

New Zealand is said to be the best country in the world for work-life balance but Spain comes in at no. 2 of more than 60 countries. I imagine that Spaniards who work until 10 at night or 2 in the morning would question that accolade.

The places in Spain said to be the most family-friendly. I can vouch for Las Médulas but I can’t recall there being anything particularly family-friendly about them. Other than a large car park and the views. But, then, I wasn’t hiking or horse-riding when I visited them.

For Brit (and other non-EU) visitors, a timely pre-summer reminder of the 97 quid a day rule, which might now be being applied with more vigour than previously.

The UK

How Scotland made a mess of its hate crime law — in a week of chaos, more than 6,000 complaints have been reported. In less than a week. Truly an Orwellian snooper’s charter. Maybe Scotland’s police force is different from every other in the world and is under-stretched. On the other, perhaps this was a humungous mistake. Born of a desire to be not only independent but, meanwhile, more ‘progressive’ than the English.

The Way of the World

Thought-provoking comments from a columnist who clearly agrees with mine of yesterday that over-kindness is cruel. . . . Mere words are now criminal. We are inching towards totalitarianism. Politics has become entangled with subjective experience, yet nobody seems to realise how dangerous this is.

Quote of the Day

From that article Surely the need to address the questions raised by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are so profound and critical that the decadence of the trumped-up “misgendering” farrago should have been obvious.

Spanish

Another HT to Lenox Napier for this item on the GenZ slang in Spain. All Dutch to me, of course.

English

Seen in an American novel:-

• To shirr: 1. To draw (a material, such as cloth) together in a shirring 2. To bake (eggs removed from the shell) until set.
• Shirring: A decorative gathering (as of cloth) made by drawing up the material along 2 or more parallel lines of stitching. As in the flap above the laces of (old-fashioned?) golf shoes.

Did you know? . . .

• The wisdom of the ages . . . Qui bibit, dormit; qui dormit, non peccat; qui non peccat, sanctus est; ergo: qui bibit, sanctus est. He who drinks sleeps; he who sleeps does not sin; he who does not sin is holy; therefore he who drinks is holy.
• The world’s oldest man says one of the secrets to longevity is a weekly helping of fish and chips. He’s English, of course. Scouse, in fact.

Finally but of nil interest . . .

At someone’s suggestion, I’ve put my blog on Substack, though I’m not sure why. And I’m as ignorant of how to do things on Substack as I once was on WordPress, when I moved here from Google’s Blogger. Naturally, I have no followers there but this is my handle should anyone want to get the ball rolling, as a trendsetter in advance of me becoming world-famous. And very, very rich . . .

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.