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 . .

This is the latest article on the imminent EU’s EES. Probably more reliable than all those UK tabloid stories about being challenged on funds and accommodation on arrival in Spain.

And here’s the latest UK government advice on travelling to Spain. Hopefully, it’s consistent with the previous article.

Talking about travelling . . . That tunnel to Morocco could be in place by 2030. Coincidentally, when the UK government will cede sovereignty over Gibraltar to Spain. During a pig-flying ceremony.

And talking of Morocco . . . Here’s a useful CNN article on Ceuta

The UK & Ireland

• Possibly a widely-held view in the UK.
• And a touch of schadenfreude?

The USA

The estimable Caitlin Moran . . . It’s sometimes easy to believe that we already know everything about our more confident relatives across the Pond. After all, they kind of tell you everything! They’re not shy! That US cultural supremacy means we are already very familiar with proms, hickies, pastrami, groundhogs and Abraham Lincoln’s beard, the last being very modish in east London right now. However, sometimes it takes a Brit abroad to draw attention to some of the finer details of American life. And so it was when Adele went on a date night with her new husband to a netball game. In the States they call this basketball, and they’ve “tweaked” it by breeding players who are a minimum of nineteen and a half feet[5.9m] high. However, there was one aspect to this story that did seem rather … discussable. For the match was the LA Lakers versus the … Denver Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets? Of course in the modern world we all know that corporate sponsorship is a necessary evil. But if the Americans now have sports teams called the Nuggets, we know Britain can’t be far behind in also having teams named after fast food snacks. Are we looking forward to a decade in which the Newcastle Foot Long Subs play the Liverpool Greggs Sausage Rolls? Or Pret a Manchester United draw 0-0 with Big Macclesfield and Fries?

Quote of the Day

The Guardian’s equally estimable – if a tad acerbic – John Crace: There’s none so blind as politicians. Listen to them talk and you’d be forgiven for thinking they had been blessed with a surfeit of human kindness. They were driven into politics by a compulsion to serve the little people. They had just too much love to give. Overwhelmed by a sense of duty. It must be exhausting being that perfect. Only that’s not even half the story. A veneer to make themselves feel good. Because what really drives them is an overweening vanity. Scratch the surface and you will invariably find a massive ego. An entitlement to rule. A belief that they alone have all the answers. That they can sort out the problems everyone else can’t. Truly they are uniquely blessed. A self-fulfilling conceit that only gets worse the more powerful you become. Because then you have any number of toadies brown-nosing you everywhere you go. Flunkies hoping to profit from your reflected glory. So once in government you never stop to wonder if you might be wrong. That would be a category error. Click here if you want to know who Crace thinks is the vainest politician in the UK parliament. Btw . . . I think I have explained why his choice wears his hat indoors, including – especially – in a TV studio,

English

• Enclave: A portion of territory surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct:
• Exclave: An exclave is a portion of a state or district geographically separated from the main part, by some surrounding alien territory (of one or more states, districts, etc.). Many exclaves are also enclaves, but not all. An exclave surrounded by the territory of more than one state, is not an enclave.

Got it? So, is Ceuta both an enclave and an exclave? While not, of course being a ‘colony’ like Gibraltar.

Do You Know?

Why is it now obligatory to insert the world ‘lived’  between ‘my’ and ‘experience’?

Did You know

When you type AUTHENTICITY, the left and right hands alternate. Unless you use only I finger/thumb, of course.

Finally . . .

I really can’t let this one go . . . Page 1 of the Telegraph: I used to live on takeaways. Now I’m a 51-year-old bodybuilder. W.T.F.C.?

My younger daughter was diagnosed bipolar last year and we thought it’d be a good idea to get Stephen Fry’s 2nd (Teen-Uni-and Early-TV) autobiography to learn of his struggle with the condition. Having found nothing relevant in the Index, I flicked laboriously through the book page by page, hoping to find something on the subject. And I duly did – on p. 234. A single sentence saying he wasn’t going to write anything more about the Cyclothymia – a milder form of BP – that he’d suffered from when young. So, I guessed this had been covered in his 1st – (Early-Years) autobiography. But, as Fry wasn’t actually diagnosed BP until he was 37, I was not only disappointed but also surprised. Now I wonder if he covered this in his 3rd (The-Middle-Years) autobiography. For completion:-
Autibiog 1: Moab Is My Washpot:
Autobiog 2: The Fry Chronicles
Autobiog 3: More Fool Me: A Memoir

To come?

• Autobiog 4: The-Declining-Years
• Autobiog 5: The-Laugh-a-Minute-Dying-Years

To be positive . . . More productive was watching this documentary of Fry’s on BP. Some surprising names.

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. F

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