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 has not said the Venezuelan elections were a fraud but it has joined 21 other countries in seeking details of local voting. I rather doubt they’re going to get them from Sr Maduro.

Talking of Venezuelans . . . Pontevedra’s population of c. 80,000 increased by 1,089 in the last year, most of whom were immigrants. And the highest number of these were from that benighted country.

Talking of populations . . . Galicia’s now stands at 2.7m. The closest UK administrative units to this are West Midlands, at 2.9m, and Greater Manchester, at 2.7m. Neither of these has 3 ‘international’ airports. Or even 2, for that matter. Galiza is different. Being Celtic, for a start . . .

Every Spanish municipality has to have at least one special fiesta. The local port of Marín has a traditional festival going back all of 13 years. It celebrates ‘pirates’ fighting and beating off invading Brits. But I’m not sure everything about is totally authentic. Would an officer, for example, really be wearing his best wig?

Near my house, in O Vao, a business park is being expanded to include Decathlon and other large stores. There are several large machines on the site but none of them has moved during this month.

Which reminds me . . . O Vao has not one but 2 permanent gypsy encampments. A more acceptable term these days is Roma, with the gender adjectives being Romano and Romani. Some folk take these to mean that they are from Romania but this ain’t true, though there certainly is a large Roma population there. Their origin is India and they migrated westwards through Egypt, giving us ‘gypsy’. Or ‘gitano’ in Spanish. This is a fine documentary on their music, ending in Extremadura with a defiant song entitled: La Káita, El Pájaro Negro, which repeats the question: Why do you spit in my face? This can be seen here with the lyrics in English.

Portugal

Why was it never conquered by Spain. Some interesting pronunciations.

The UK

If I were ever to think of going to the Edinburgh Fringe event, I would be put off by the fact that this was judged to be this year’s best joke: I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship, but I bottled it. And that was a decision I reached before seeing the shortlist of 15, cited below.

Here’s a much better joke:-

Q. Describe yourself in 3 words.

A. Lazy.

The USA

Quite possibly true . . . Kamala’s coronation is a blow for US democracy. Democrats tell us she is the new Lincoln, when only months ago she was ‘inept.’ Both can’t be true at once. More here. Nice final line.

Russia

Twenty-nine months into its wider war on Ukraine, Russia isn’t exactly winning. Every month it’s losing a thousand people and hundreds of armoured vehicles it can’t easily replace – all in order to make gains measured in a few miles if not a few yards. But neither is Russia losing the war overall as the Ukrainians struggle with even greater constraints on their manpower and firepower. There is one battlefield where the Russians are in total collapse, however: Earth’s orbit. One of the under-reported secondary effects of the war has been an accelerating collapse of Russian space power.

The Way of the World

In some countries, tipping is simply not done, for one reason or another. The best of these is that the staff are well paid and don’t depend on tips. In the UK, 10% has been the norm for decades but now it’s said that ‘tipping has become as deranged as in the USA’.

Quotes of the Day

• The wheel turns and the pendulum swings. Sort of . . . Among Gen Z, books have become a symbol not of intelligence but of “hotness”, an accessory to be worn with a good outfit, wedged in the bottom of a designer bag or pretentious tote. Whether you’re actually reading the book is one thing. More important is what the book says about you.
• Outside media and political circles, is there anyone truly sane who uses Twitter?

AI

When faced with my draft posts, both WordPress and Facebook offer to improve them, via AI. Very irritating, even if justifiable . . .

Spanish

When I was teaching in the Seychelles as a young man, I learned that the fishermen’s canoes were called pirogues. Which links to a sport known in Spain as piragüismo, defined by the RAE as:-

• 1. Navegación en piragua.
• 2. Deporte consistente en la competición de velocidad o habilidad en piragua, canoa o kayak propulsados con palas.

Wiki gives this for the English meaning: A pirogue is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from the Spanish piragua  which comes from the Carib piraua.

Did you know?

I was rather taken aback to read this sentence in Tristram Shandy today: If it had not been for those two mettlesome tits, and that madcap of a postillion who drove them from Stilton to Stamford, the thought had never entered my head. But turns out that ‘tits’ was a term for small horses in 18th century England.

Finally . .

I confess I laughed out loud when I saw my football team, Everton, had lost 0-3 at home on Saturday. Why? Because it was the very first match of the season and, surely, things can only get better . . . Blue sky thinking, perhaps.

Finally, Finally . . .

Councils’ growing desire for cash means that drivers are increasingly falling foul of motoring fines. No, not Spain but the UK.

The Top 15 jokes at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

1. “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.”
2. “I’ve been taking salsa lessons for months, but I just don’t feel like I’m progressing. It’s just one step forward, two steps back.” 
3. “Ate horse at a restaurant once — wasn’t great. Starter was all right but the mane was dreadful.” 
4. “I sailed through my driving test. That’s why I failed it.” 
5. “I love the Olympics. My friend and I invented a new type of relay baton: well, he came up with the idea, I ran with it” 
6. “My dad used to say to me “Pints, gallons, litres” — which, I think, speaks volumes” 
7. “British etiquette is confusing. Why is it highbrow to look at boobs in an art gallery but lowbrow when I get them out in ‘Spoons?”
8. “I wanted to know which came first the chicken or the egg so I bought a chicken and then I bought an egg and I think I’ve cracked it.” 
9. “My partner told me that she’d never seen the film Gaslight. I told her that she definitely had” 
10. “The conspiracy theory about the moon being made of cheese was started by the hallouminati.”
11. “I’m an extremely emotionally needy non-binary person: my pronouns are ‘there there’.” 
12. “I’ve got a girlfriend who never stops whining. I wish I’d never bought her that vineyard” 
13. “Gay people are very bad at maths. We don’t naturally multiply.” 
14. “Keir Starmer looks like an AI-generated image of a substitute teacher” 
15. “Growing up rich is a hereditary condition. It affects 1% of people” 

Laugh? I could have cried . . .

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• 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.