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

Spain, it says here, is the EU country that’s most vulnerable to climate change.

Hence, I guess . . . The beginning of the end of the med holiday??

25 years ago Spanish banks inhabited a murky world, especially the now-disappeared regional savings banks in the thrall of (corrupt) politicians. Much house-cleaning has taken place but there’s still work to do, it seems.

Right-of-centre governments – supported by property experts – believe that legislating around property is usually counterproductive. An expert on the Spanish market – Mark Stücklin – writes here of what he terms a world-class example of this – in Barcelona. [On topic, here’s a just-seen British example of a ‘masterpiece of the law of unintended consequences’.]

The British and Spanish PMs are discussing freedom of travel for young folk between the UK and Spain. I confess to wondering why. Possibly to allow all the English-speaking South American waiters and waitresses with Spanish nationality to move to the UK to earn more money for a better working day. Though I can’t see how this helps Spain, other than to vacate jobs that young Spaniards don’t really want. But there must be an explanation.

As you’ll know, restaurants have devised various ways to recoup income lost because of Covid. One is to increase the price of bread that Spaniards must have with their meals. I recall this being €0.50 a head not so long ago, effectively a flexible ‘cover charge’. Last week I saw that a place in Pv city that’s recently opened has a fixed charge of €2.50 for a small basket of bread, even if there’s just one of you. But I’m told that in a fashionable new churrasquería it’s €7.50.

The Camino de Santiago . . . Below, there’s some advice for pilgrims leaving Pv city across O Burgo bridge.

France

That opening ceremony . . .

The USA

Another British (female) columnist goes to town on Kamala Harris and the Democrats: Even Putin wouldn’t trot out anything so fake as The Kamala Show. This, of course, is being put on by the folk who gave us all the lies about Biden’s compos mensa-ness. It all rather raises the question of whether all US presidents are mere frontpersons for those who really wield the power. And drive the PR.

And here’s another hatchet job from a sister . . . Kamala Harris is the Meghan Markle of American politics

Russia

Patriotism and paranoia: what ordinary Russians think about the war. Allegedly.

The Way of the World

The WHO says that alcohol is responsible for almost 10% of deaths in Europe. The champion imbibers are the Romanians, who down on average 1,365 pints a year. The UK comes a pathetic 18th, at only 850 pints. Or none in my case, when I was living there.

Quote of the Day

Politics is an odd business. This year in [North] America, perhaps the oddest business ever: Justin Webb in The Times.

Net Zero

Not really about climate any more?? At least, not in the UK, where – thanks to being a self-imposed global green leader – the price for electricity has gone from being the cheapest in Europe to 75% higher than the Continental average. Which, naturally, is unpopular with the populace.

English

There’s a book called A Description of England, written during the Elizabethan era by one William Harrison. Fortunately, it’s been transcribed into modern English, albeit by chap writing in the 19th century. One huge surprise has been to see that the custom of giving wines very odd names is not remotely modern. For here are some the names under which beers and ales were sold back in the 16th century:- Huffcap, The mad dog, Father Whoreson, Angels’ food, Dragon’s milk, Go-by-the-wall, Stride wide and Lift leg. Says Harrison of the drinkers of these brews: It is incredible to say how our maltbugs lug at this liquor, even as pigs should lie in a row lugging at their dame’s teats, till they lie still again and be not able to wag. Neither Romulus and Remus did suck their she-wolf or shepherd’s wife Lupa with such eager and sharp devotion as these men hale at “Huffcap,” till they be red as cocks and little wiser than their combs. Mr Harrison telling it as it is and writing his truth back in 1577.

Spanish

• Proa: Prow
• Con el viento en la proa: Lit. Wind on the prow. Upwind. Against a headwind.
• Popa: Stern.
• Con el viento en popa: Lit. Wind on the stern[poop deck] Downwind. The equivalent of English’s ‘wind in the sails’, I believe. On the surface, the latter seems more accurate. Which might explain the failure of the Armada in the English Channel in 1588. As witnessed by Mr Harrison . . .

Did you know?

Alzheimer’s can be prevented, it’s said. Here’s how.

Finally . . .

I’ve just finished An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2,000 years of Upper C;ass Idiots in Charge) by John O’Farrell, which is both accurate and highly amusing. I’ll be posting bits which made me laugh out loud and but, first, here’s his early chapter headings to give you some idea of his approach:-

• 55 BC Julius Caesar takes his chariots to Britain on specially built cross-channel ferry. Fails to get four nice seats together for the crossing.
• AD 45 British chieftains agree to pay Roman taxes, but claim large expenses for employing their wives as ‘secretarial assistants’.
• CE 60 Boudicca burns down Colchester, St Albans and London. Roman Governor regrets asking her if it’s her ‘funny week’.
• 122 Emperor Hadrian commissions defensive wall. Builders repeatedly call him ‘Adrian’ just to wind him up.
• 410 Goths overrun Western Roman Empire. Romans forced to wear black and listen to Marilyn Manson.
• 450s Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade south-east. Londoners invent second homes in Cornwall and Welsh countryside.

Finally, Finally . . .

My fellow-blogger, Lenox Nappier, kindly sent me this, which made me laugh. But only after I’d read it a couple of times and realised why it was funny . . .

As I’ve said before, when you’re editing your own stuff, the brain often sees what it wants to see.

Advice for pilgrims leaving Pv city via O Burgo bridge.

At the moment, the main route up through the barrio of Lérez is closed and you’re advised to turn left and take the first right, just after the petrol/gas station. My advice is not to do this but to keep walking a minute or two until you arrive at a zebra crossing, where you’ll see a path to your right, alongside a tributary of the main river. This is flat and far more shaded. After a few hundred metres, you’ll arrive at a tarmac road, with a small, narrow bridge to your left. Here you can either carry straight on across the road or turn right onto the road and then join the main route after 200m. If you take the first option – my recommendation – you’ll follow a path as it bends to the right and comes out on the main route, further along than with the 2nd option.

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. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.