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

A couple of things from the estimable Mark Stücklin:

• On Spain’s housing shortage.
• On the end of the Golden Visa scheme.

A Russian ship has docked in one of our Rías without permission and has been told to bugger off. No surprise that it sailed in with its automatic Identification system switched off. Obviously not the biggest crime committed by that country recently . . .

Also not much of a surprise to learn that Galician civil servants earn a thousand euros a month on average more than public sector employees – one of the reasons the jobs are many, many times over-subscribed and thousands of young folk take the compulsory exams – las oposiciones – having first laid out a lot on relevant courses.

Complaints about excess tourism have reached my residential community. A few houses in it are given over to tourist rentals and the occupants of these seem – unlike the residents – to prefer the pool to one of our numerous beaches. So, what used to be an under-used facility has now gone to the other extreme. As I hardly use it, I care rather less about this than the late-night parties on the terrace of the house 3 doors away. Bloody Spanish horario!

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

Venezuela

It doesn’t look as if the country’s wealthy emigrant will be be flooding back from Spain.

Russia

Humour from Moscow . . . Putin’s family values tsar leaves her Orthodox priest husband for a billionaire.

The Way of the World

The West is culturally dying. Scroll down here for the rationale for this claim. Which is not being made by Mr Putin in this case. BTW: L’Hexagone is mainland France – an integral part of how the French perceive their nation, combining geographical, historical, and cultural elements into a single, recognizable term. And going to pot, it seems.

Social Media

• A bit on its dark side
• And a ‘peculiar’ and very irritating strain of sightseer – like those in the Alhambra during my last visit. A function of the ‘plague of virality. Which my daughter told me last year explained the queue of Japanese girls blocking the pavement outside a dress shop in her narrow street in Malasaña in Madrid.

Quote of the Day

Sales of CD sales are growing. How I wish I hadn’t given my beloved collection away. Happily, I didn’t . . .

English

Just a few of the obsolete words that have come up in the book on Elizabethan England, written, I guess, in Early Modern English:-

• Bodger. [Clearly not with the modern meaning of someone who cocks things up.]
• Reachless
• Wot
• Certes
• Chapman. [Origin of ‘chap’?]
• Howbeit
• Retchless
• Carsies
• Mockadoes [‘tufted and plain’’. Carpets?]
• Sith

Spanish

A risky statement now that my totally bilingual friend David is a subscriber . . . I get the impression that softly-pronounced English consonants are simply not heard by Spanish ears. And that you virtually have to spit out at least some Spanish consonants, especially an initial T. My latest example is having ‘dawn’ being heard as ‘door’. It’s instructive for Anglos to watch the lips of a Spanish native when they pronounce a word beginning with D, T or P.

Finally . .

My ex-piano teacher and friend, Alex, has sent me an article – here – on the Shostakovich Walz I recently wrote about. Doesn’t exist, apparently . . .

Finally, Finally . . .

A couple of examples of the humour of John O’Farrell in An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years Of Upper Class Idiots In Charge). There will be funnier ones . .

• Unlike the Romans or the Christian Celts, the new invaders [The Angles, Saxons and Jutes] were not literate, and so the most cataclysmic century in British history went completely unrecorded; no contemporary records were made, or if they were, they were destroyed in the rush for the best hut.
• The Vikings constitute another key strand in our racial make-up. Back in 870, they were all walking round Jorvik[York] in horned helmets, slagging off southern beer and saying, ‘Ee, I think bluddy Danelaw is bluddy marvellous!’

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.