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/Galicia

The latest round in the Locals v. Tourists fight.

Sad to read that Spain’s traditional food markets are fading away – and with them, a whole way of life.

The 2nd encierro in Pamplona this morning was the usual 2 minutes plus a few seconds. As ever, there was applause in the ring once all the bulls had followed the cows down the tunnel to their holding pen. Quite why this merits clapping is beyond me. Relief?

My daughter and her son arrived from Madrid by train midday today, an hour late. Not so long ago, this would have entitled her to a significant rebate but Renfe recently doubled the qualifying delay period, so she won’t get any of the (expensive) fare back. Given the frequent delays between Ourense and Santiago de Compostela and the coastal cities – because of construction of the (very much delayed) AVE high-speed – one can’t help feeling this is a cynical move, facilitated by the lack of competition up here in the North West. One day things will changed. I hope to live to see it.

Here’s María on an interesting local legend.

The UK

The new government plans to ‘get closer’ to the EU, without applying to rejoin it. But I doubt that respective negotiating strengths have changed. So, this could take some time.

A few more comments on the elections results, from the right-of-centre Daily Telegraph:-

• Britain is fast becoming France. Well, maybe not today’s France, but last week’s.
• The spectre of Liz Truss will hang over this government.
• Sir Keir Starmer will oversee a doubling down on quangos and regulations.

Doubtless there’ll be those who’ll disagree with these fearful views, or even welcome the developments.

France

What a mess. As I understand it, an ‘unholy coalition’ between the PS, the LE-EELV, the PCF and LFI to form the NFP party which has kept the RN party out of power but now the victorious former are refusing to work together, because the leader of one of them is a ‘racist and anti-Semitic’ far-leftist. So, the country now has a president hated more than ever and a coalition government that’s unworkable. In a word, chaos. And they thought the Brits were mad! Perhaps the French should re-think their Constitution. Or revert to an absolute monarchy. A solution that would certainly appeal to one man.

Meanwhile, it might prove expensive

The Guardian here explains what the New Popular Front is.

The USA

Biden is still impersonating a limpet.

Quote of the Day

We in the UK must look to our neighbours in Europe for how they run their health systems and at what works. True but it ain’t going to happen.

AI

Laurence Olivier, Judy Garland and James Dean – all of whom share one key characteristic – are to narrate audiobooks.

Spanish

Montaña rusa: Roller coaster. Ironically, these are called ‘American hills’ in Russia.

Did you know?

The foods to avoid if you want to keep your gut healthy.

Possibly one of the latest scams . . . Your bank sends you a message that money has been taken from your account and, when you respond to it, an employee from its Fraud department then sucks you into a fatal conversation. Details here. The bottom-line advice: Impersonation scams are becoming more sophisticated. If you receive an unexpected request from an organisation to download new software or transfer funds we advise you to end the call immediately and verify the caller. You can do this by using a different phone to call the company and check the request is genuine

Finally . .

To amuse . . .

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.