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 Galicia/España

Spain’s Golden goose is looking a tad tarnished . . . And it’s only early summer.

• A tourism surge on Ibiza is forcing some locals to live in car parks.
• Coffee and cake prices in Sevilla are irritating locals there
• Valencia plans to ban holiday apartments in some parts of the city
• Barcelona’s council plans to crack down on cruise ships

The UK

Merseyside news . . .

• Liverpool has transformed itself for Taylor Swift’s visit. The Beatles’ home city is pulling out all the stops for the arrival of the US megastar’s world tour in the UK
• I confess to surprise at seeing New Brighton included in this list of ‘classic British seaside holiday beach towns.  I know it well from attending a scout troop there, performing in Gang Shows in the Floral Pavillion and, more recently, visiting old school friends there. Certainly it was the pits not so long ago but does seem to have rebounded. Even ignoring the writer’s poetic licence.

The USA

The 2024 Presidential election is, above all else, a battle of the bullshit artists. The leading candidates are vain old geezers whose primary mode of communication is telling rambling, incoherent stories with extremely variable degrees of relevance and accuracy.

‘Maga communism’ – A deranged fringe movement, platformed by Tucker Carlson.

AI

More on the deficiencies of AI searches. This time the new, improved version.
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Did you know?

Melodic Puns:-

• In Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, in which the phrase “me and my soul” is sung repeatedly, the words me and soul are sung to the notes mi and sol.
• In the song “Sodomy” in the 1967 rock musical Hair, the word sodomy is sung to the notes so, do, and mi.

Finally . . .

I can think of worse accents to wake up speaking with. Manc, for instance.

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.

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.