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’

Erratum: My first winter here in Galicia was 2000-1, not 2020-21. . . .

Cosas de España/Galicia

An interesting anti-alcohol measure, per the VdG this morning: Alcohol sin publicidad: La ley que prepara el Gobierno sobre el consumo de alcohol pone especial atención en los menores y la publicidad. Los locales hosteleros que estén a menos de 200 metros de centros educativos o espacios infantiles deberán retirar los carteles, toldos o mobiliario con marcas de bebidas alcohólicas, que estarán prohibidas en la calle y en medios de transporte. La norma incluye a los productos 0,0[!].

I suspect quite a few folk in Spain would agree with this UK comment: You don’t have to be a sadist to work in the civil service, but it might help. Especially in respect of those who dish out motoring fines . . .

As it happens, I wrote that brief critical para before this one  . . . So, today I made my 3rd attempt to pay the parking fine I got last week. This involved a long, hot walk, with my grandson trailing behind me. But at least it resulted in success. As if! . . . The clerk at the ORAL office sent me on a 4th trip, to another office around the corner. Where the clerk there spent 10 minutes, with the help of a colleague, putting details into her computer. Only to then tell me I couldn’t pay the fine there, either by card or by cash. Only by a phone app with one of the Xunta’s accredited banks. Absent this, she printed off a payment form to take to one of said banks. Which will be my 5th visit. I look back fondly to the days when I could pay everything in cash, even 10,000 euros as the transfer tax on a property purchase. Indeed, I was obliged to do this, as I didn’t have a card from the only [Galician savings] bank that the Xunta then dealt with. I guess this progress means fewer employees for the municipality and a lower level of corruption. But bugger the taxpaying citizens! As when the Correos introduced a computerised system for every transaction several years ago.

But the bad day hadn’t ended . . . When I got home, it was to find that a packet sent to me by my sister from the UK 4 weeks ago had finally arrived, albeit already open and without 2/3 of its contents – a book and a card. The postman told me I can make a claim at Correos but I’m not sure for what. Perhaps just the postage of £8.55. My sister’s comment, when I gave her the bad news: Worse than the Far East. Sad to say, this is not the first time things have gone missing between the UK and here. But maybe I’m just unlucky and it’s a question of (regular) carelessness, either in the UK or here in Spain . . .

To continue my moaning . . . This is a roundabout I approach with with extreme caution at least twice a day:

This is because it comes just after turning off a main road and drivers often fail to switch off the signal they’ve made when doing this, and then proceed to drive in conflict with their signal. Meaning they can cut across me even when signalling they’re going straight on, up the hill. Of course, there are also the many drivers who don’t signal at all. In short, it’s always wise to wait to see if the car is going uphill or turning left to go to BrikoKing, whether there’s a signal or not.

The UK

The sensible viewpoint? I deplore those who whip up hatred, but there are undeniable problems with migration

Germany

The evidence shows that the myth of German efficiency lies in ruins. But does it? Or does it really just show that governments can’t run a national rail service efficiently? Even a German one.

The USA

• The source of many bad ideas that reach the UK?
• [North] Americans who moved abroad say the big expense isn’t worth it.

The Way of the World

• The wine scam that proves that no one really knows what they’re talking about.
• Having – again – gone from being initially impressed to finally being irritated by the customer service of a major company, I found it easy to be agree with this headline: No ‘ifs’ about it; bots are deadening the internet.

Social Media/Quote of the day

It is a moot point whether or not social media encourages paranoia and hatred but it certainly facilitates their organisation. . . . The banality of reality – that humdrum state of modest contentment — is too much for the online world to bear.

Spanish

‘Xfa’: Una abreviatura informal y muy común de “por favor”, especialmente utilizada en mensajes de texto y comunicación en línea. Es una forma rápida y coloquial de pedir algo educadamente.

Did you know?

In 1975 British biologist Peter Scott proposed dubbing the Loch Ness Monster Nessiteras rhombopteryx after a blurry underwater photograph seemed to show one of the creature’s fins. He’d intended the name to mean “monster of Ness with diamond-shaped fin,” but it was pointed out that its letters could be rearranged to spell “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S.”

Finally . .

A fossil discovery on the isolated Indonesian island of Flores has revealed the smallest adult of any human species in history.

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.