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’

Am using my daughter’s Mac today trying to remember how to . . . Stymied by different keys and keyboard language . . .

Cosas de España

Someone certainly loves Malaga.

Nice to know that, thanks to it being election year in the USA, the use of Spanish online is ‘soaring’.

Dining with old friends on Saturday night, we enjoyed a couple of bottles of Albariño wine. From bottles with screw tops. These are now the norm in the UK, where a Galician producer must comply. But it could well be decades before this is so in Spain.  Possibly even longer in cork-producing Portugal.

The UK

Shock news from a think tank . . Extremists cry ‘Islamophobia’ to stifle free speech. Pretty effectively so far. And the strategy also worked well with the issues of race and transgenderism. Until recently at least..

Quotes of the Day

The leader of a national movement may begin to feel untouchable and that the normal rules of conduct do not apply to someone charged with the destiny of a country.

Unlike a jail sentence, says Richard North, there’s no time off for good behaviour when writing a blog.Tell me about it . . .

The Way of the World

I heard little theology in the House of Commons debate on a smoking ban, and hardly any philosophy. But, then, I never do. Why? We no longer teach thinking in schools. The Age of Reason has given away to the Age of Emotion. Arguments are couched in terms of anecdote and empathy. Which are hard to counter. The hyper-emotionalism of modern life casts the smallest issue as a catastrophe which the state must fix right now. . . Thus the welfare state has evolved into the therapeutic state. Yet it is possible to be kind to the point of cruelty. Take the trans issue, where adults thought destroying children’s bodies was ‘a nice thing to do’. To a reasonable person this is objectively mad but it conforms to the hysteric’s demand that the state reduce all suffering to zero.

Net Zero

The vast overproduction of electric cars at a time of stalling consumer demand is likely to result in millions of zero-emission vehicles being left unsold over the next 2 years and hasten price wars. So, maybe hang on for a bit longer. Or even more.

In the UK, right now, 80% of e-cars are being sold at a discount.

Did You Know?

One of Britain’s most successful WW2 spies was code-named Nicosoff –  a corruption of Knickers Off. Here’s why.

Finally . . . 

Local rumour has it that the council is going to un-clog the drain below the large pool of water in the road in front of this house. I guess it’s possible that it was the – now filched – red cone I put in the middle of that which shamed them into this. Nothing else has worked.

Typos . . . Missed by me more than usual because there’s no automatic spell check in WordPress on my phone. Extra vigilance is required. En passant, if you’re a touch-typist and you move to a different size keyboard with a different keyboard configuration, typing accurately can be an absolute calvario, Just sayin’ . .

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.

If  you’re thinking of moving to Spain, go to one of my recent posts to see a link to an excellent guide on this.