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’

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Sorry about the typos and the missing/wrong links in yesterday’s post. I had to rush to finish and publish my final draft. Ignoring the age-old advice to festina lente.

Cosas de España/Galicia

The PM has appointed one of his Minister to head the central bank. This has been characterised as ‘partisan’ move which overrides the convention of the government and the opposition striking a deal on new governor. This is attributed to an increasing enmity between the 2 main parties – spanning issues from immigration to an amnesty for separatists – which has prevented any accord. Here’s The Corner on this.

In contrast, the 2 parties – after 5 or more years of wrangling – have finally agreed on the composition of the body which oversees the country’s judlges. All of whom, it seems, are political appointees.

As part of its mission to tell us absolutely everything good about the country, Fascinating Spain brings us 11 here nudist beaches. For the one in Galicia – where the temperature can drop 10+ degrees from one day to the next – you might to bring 2 rugs, not just one.

Missing link from yesterday . . . A consequence of olive oil being more valuable than printer ink..

What to make of this? Maybe quite a few Brits were turned off Spain by the tabloid media campaign. Though not those who never mixed with the locals anyway.

Here’s why Spain, thank the Fates, has seen far few forest fires this year.

Something which ain’t far fewer this year is the number of Camino ‘pilgrims’ passing through Pv city this summer, with far more to come, en route to a total of more than 150,000 by the year end. En endless stream. Per the DdP today: 1,300 a day this summer. A total I expect to be exceeded in September.

What is far lower is the number of Galician kids returning to school this week: it’s 13,000 down compared with 4 years ago. Reflecting the declining birth rate, of course.

On the increase, however, is the number of orcas along our coast. This week, 3 from a large pod out in the Atlantic were cheeky enough to enter the Ría Arousa and ‘interact’ with 3 yachts.

The UK

My 10 brilliant ideas to save the Tories. If the Conservative Party wants people to sit up and notice it again, it needs to tackle the issues in life that really matter

Says this columnist – very probably to majority approval elsewhere in the UK – It’s time for England to cut Scotland loose. The country should fix its own black hole. It’s time for fiscal independence.

France

All is not well in Nuclearland, with dire consequences for the UK. Interesting to see that Spain ranks higher than the UK as regards nuclear power. And just how far down Germany ranks.

The USA

• This is the link you should have got yesterday with A bad week for Trump.
• Depressing reading . . . Why Trump is suddenly talking about cocaine. And some of us had thought things really couldn’t get any worse . . . I like to think that even in my 20s and 30s I would have found Trump utterly repulsive.

Russia

Putin . . . At least he’s good at choosing flexible, pretty women. Who are presumably less than choosy.

Technology

Egregious Alexa political bias​?

English

• Beach read: Says a British (female) columnist: It’s a derogatory term for contemporary fiction written by women, featuring women and mostly consumed by women.
• Bratz sauce : What Gmail put at the end of a message from a friend, instead of ‘abrazo’.

Did you know?

La Casa del Califa in Vejer de la Frontera, near Cádiz is acclaimed as one of the best hotels in the world. Catch a glimpse of the Costa de la Luz’s beaches or dine under the garden palms in the its fabulous restaurant, and you’ll instantly feel why this boutique beauty has grown into one of Spain’s loveliest hotels. Possibly true.

You Have to Laugh

“In 1979 Auberon Waugh was working as a columnist at Private Eye when his editor offered him a trip to Senegal to help celebrate the anniversary of the magazine’s sister publication. “All I would have to give in exchange was a short discourse in the French language on the subject of breast feeding.” The assignment struck Waugh as strange but not unaccountable — he’d been writing a regular column in a medical magazine that had touched on that topic. “So I composed a speech on this subject in French, with considerable labour, only to find when I landed in Dakar that the subject chosen was not breast-feeding but press freedom.” He’d misheard the editor. Said Waugh: “There was no way even to describe the misunderstanding [to the locals], since “La liberté de la Presse” bears no resemblance to “Le nourrisson naturel des bébés”.

Finally . . .

This takes some believing. Especially the second sentence. Sinners, all . . .

Finally, Finally . .

You can hardly go to web site now without being asked to say you’re not a bot. Which is OK, until the follow-up is a series of fotos of cars or motorbikes from Captcha, which seems to have a different view of things from me. The most irritating example of the last week is my preferred AI search – perplexity.com – which asked me to click the ‘I am human’ box 7 times before taking me to their text box. Enough to force a change, if it continues.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts, either after reading on line or in my FB group Thoughts from Galicia.

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.