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 reader has stressed that one very big positive about the Spanish economy is the reduction of the trade gap because of the growth in the export of Goods such as pigs and pork meat, and stuff like that, but also pharmaceuticals, cars, cosmetic products and automotive components. I mis-remembered the comment as one on Services. And I wondered what these might be, so asked an AI engine. And then another. For the record, then, . . . Services make up a significant and growing portion of Spain’s total exports, accounting for over a third in recent years. The top categories are:-

1. Travel
2. Transportation services
3. Business services such as professional and technical services, information and communication services, and financial services
4. Telecommunications, computer programming, and information services
5. Others such as construction, insurance, and personal, cultural, and recreational services

Pretty astonishing . . . Wines grown in volcanic ash

Not good to hear that, after a winter even wetter than the one we’ve had here in NW England, the weather back in Pv city is ‘fantastic’. Still, it’s the Atlantic coast, so the Blanket could descend at any time. Which is comforting. A comfort blanket, then.

Which reminds me . . . Someone has stolen/removed the cone I put in the huge puddle caused by a permanently blocked drain in the road in front of the gate of this house. Maybe the police. Or the local council as they are about to clear the drain. Under a cloud of flying pigs.

Germany

According to this FT columnist, Germany’s China strategy is doomed.

The USA

Why are American roads so dangerous? Bad driving is probably playing a bigger role in the fatality rate than larger cars and longer journeys.

Russia v Ukraine

Off the front pages. Not good for Ukraine

Iran v Israel.

One wonders what escalation Round 4 will bring. And what the consequences will be for the thousands of Battalions of Innocent Bystanders around the Middle East and, possibly beyond.

AI

I tend not to rely on just one AI search engine but cross-check with at least another one. Why? Because this morning the first one, when asked for a list of Spain’s services exports, ignored the word ‘services’ and gave me a list headed by vehicles, mineral fuels and pharmaceuticals

Quote of the Day/Social Media

Intellectual uniformity might be endorsed by the top but it’s typically policed from the bottom.

Spanish

No hay de qué: Don’t mention it. Alternative to De nada.

English

It’s claimed that man’s first aggressive noises that were full of G’s and K’s and P’s and H’s and harsh sibilants. Such noises had the effect of a blow; they needed no dictionary to prove they were primed with all the bad magic of an evil wish. But, if so, why not make words out of them and consider them your own private property. Try ‘Bodkogh!’ for instance. Or ‘Hagbadek!’ ‘Khigbod!’ ‘Dakadigbeg!’ or ‘Godbekho!’ – Burges Johnson, The Lost Art of Profanity, 1948

His suggestions sound like Persian or Arabic to me.

Did you know? . .

What good companies have long known . . . The impact of good and bad customer experiences is neither linear nor symmetrical. On the positive side, it is only beyond a certain threshold of satisfaction that behaviours such as loyalty, increased spending and brand advocacy are materially enhanced. Companies know that they have to delight their customers to shift the dial. On the negative side, however, even small levels of dissatisfaction can have a significant impact on customer behaviour. The asymmetry arises because of a psychological phenomenon that’s familiar to investors – loss aversion. An objective amount of negative stimulus triggers a disproportionate reduction in perceived value compared to an equal amount of positive stimulus. We hate losing much more than we like winning. And this really matters because when we have a good experience we tell, on average, a handful of people. Give us a bad experience, though, and we will bang on at length about it to a dozen of our friends and colleagues. Bad news is halfway round the world before good news has got its boots on.

Some airlines, it seems, have yet to learn this. Although, as with Ryanair, it might not matter if the prices is cheap enough. Or seems to be.

Finally . . .

I’m used, in this North Cheshire barrio, to hearing the languages of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but it was an unexpected pleasure to hear Persian in a general store and to exchange a word or two with the surprised/delighted shopkeeper.

I see that WhatsApp is using a capital T for typing, so wonder if it as fake news that they’d succumbed to moaners who demanded that they didn’t. Oh, just saw that this was on my laptop; on my phone it’s lower case. Duplicitous bastards . . .

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.