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

There are more than 24,000 tourist flats in Galicia, with a population of 2.8m. This is 5,000 up on last year, or 26%. But no real protests against tourism here yet, as far as I can tell. Possibly because it’s mostly Spaniards who come to our ‘cool’ region.

In contrast, Barcelona locals who’ve protested about over-tourism and rising house prices for years seem to have achieved a major victory, while Airbnb, Booking.com and others are staring at a ‘crushing blow’. The city’s council has announced it will revoke all licenses for tourist apartments in the urban area by 2028.

You might or might not know that prostitution is a very big thing in Spain. And very public. But perhaps not usually as public as the club de alterne 9up in our hills – beside a main road – called Las Ninfas. The rather well-known owner of this place, and others, is reckoned by a local paper to have ‘captured’ more than 3,500 women in 30 years and has just been arrested for keeping the latest 9, who were imprisoned in the basement.

Another Galician farmer in his 70’s has been crushed under his tractor, when it fell down one of our many, many slopes. You’d think they’d make it compulsory to put cabs on these machines but the law would probably be more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Farmers not being very rich up here.

The UK

The new sectarianism is a menace to democracy, this columnist avers.

Richard North claims that there’s a general impression that the political activism on Gaza comes mostly from the younger generation of Muslims and that there’s a division between younger and older voters. This may have implications for the vote as older Labour loyalists refuse to switch their allegiance.

And now Hindus are in on the act, releasing a manifesto of demands which include the classification of anti-Hindu statements as a hate crime. It is calling for candidates publicly to support its manifesto. This, says, RN, is the new face of British politics, increasingly fought over sectarian issues which have nothing to do with domestic British politics.

To oppose this is not, in my view, racism but, if you need a label, ‘religionism’. Successfully used against Christianity over centuries

The USA

The Washing Post, says this knowledgeable chap, is a reliable mouthpiece for left-wing, woke, progressive ideology. If sanctimonious staff have a veto over its editors, the game’s up this newspaper, which won’t be saved by its glorious history alone.

Quote of the Day

Various tools on your computer try to be helpful, but sometimes they aren’t. . . . There are many ways your computer tries to make your life easier. Sometimes it tries just a little too hard.

Ain’t that the bloody truth!

Did you know?

1. My alma mater – King’s College, London – gave Taylor Swift her first concert, back in 2008, when she was living in London. So proud . . .

2. The reason we know so little about the 6th century in England is that – unlike the departed Romans – the invading/settling Angles and Saxons had no literature and so made no records, as the literate, Christian, Celtic Brits fled west into Wales and SW England. And some of them, eventually, to Brittany. Taking their Brittonic language with them. Where it remains.

4. Said Breton language actually gained a toehold in Galicia. In the 6th century, a monastery was founded by monks from Brittany, in – naturally – Bretoña. Where there’s still a village and an outsized church, but no evidence of the monastery. Or a museum dedicated to its Ancient Britons. . .

3.The Angles and Saxons ‘settled’ in most of England but their invading colleagues – the Jutes from the Danish peninsula – had to be satisfied with just Kent. And are hardly ever mentioned these days, in contrast to the Anglo-Saxons.

Finally, Finally . . .

A new, but temporary, section. Extracts from the Pseuds Corner bit of the, now, 14 copies of Private Eye that I have in a pile on my dining table. . . . . This is from somebody writing in the Financial Times: Nicole Kidman stars, as she often does these days, as an etiolated martyr of anhedonia. And this is from someone reviewing a new pasta sauce in the Daily Mail: This limited-edition release is part of Kraft/Heinz’s larger transformation to bring incite*-driven innovation to consumers faster than ever before and grow their taste elevation platform around the world.

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. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage.