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

Goodbye to the Golden Visa. And why.

Did you know . . . Galicia is actively developing its olive oil sector and is emerging as an innovative region for this, committed to producing high-quality, premium oil with unique regional characteristics based on multiple varieties, including an indigenous Galician variety. The company Aceites Abril has plantations in Ourense and Pontevedra provinces, from which it produces Colleita Propia, a premium product with an intense green fruity character, with primary aromas of freshly cut grass, fennel, green banana, mint, and green apple notes. This doesn’t seem to be available from any supermarket, including Galicia’s own Froiz or even the Gourmet Club of El Corte Inglés. But you can buy it on line – 6 units of 500ml at €10.30 each, or a mere €20.60 a litre. Possibly worth every centimo.

We’re going through an unusually warm patch of weather right now, which might just explain . .

• Yesterday’s whorling sunrise

and

• Yesterday’s stripey moon rise

María tells me that that Xmas ad in New York re Vigo’s Xmas lights was genuine, not an AI hoax.

The UK

The Health Secretary has announced that NHS chiefs who fail to deliver will get the chop. It’s a good idea. But it comes to something when, more than 75 years after a public service is set up, it counts as a novel idea to actually sack people within it for not doing their jobs properly. [Query: Has the Valencian President, Sr Mazón, been taking lessons on non-resignation statements from NHS Chief Executives?]

Germany

I’ve been to Hamburg several times and been able to observe this amazing transmogrification first hand.

The USA

I’ve read numerous post mortem articles and listened to several podcasts but still feel the essence of the election result was that Trump won despite what he is and Harris lost because of what the Democrats are. Or, putting that another way, what they have become in the last 15 to 20 years. The need for radical change seems obvious.

Meanwhile, the Republican fantasists are rejoicing at the chaos created in just a few days.

BTW . . . You will know that Trump’s mentor as a young man was a vicious New York lawyer, Roy Cohen. What you might not know about the latter is that: He was a promiscuous homosexual who saw himself as a red-blooded straight American male who just happened to prefer sex with men. We might view both Cohen and Trump as charlatans and shysters but their self delusion was/is absolute. When it comes to bullshit, they both got/get high on their own supplies of it..

The child of Russian immigrants comments illuminatingly here on changed attitudes towards immigrants in a country that used to welcome them in shiploads.

The Way of the World

Quotes of the Day

• Two things change people — power and money. Those are the 2 torches of life which tell you what a person is about.
• Essentially, the shoe is like an orgasmic exhale of the foot: An ex editor or Vogue.

Did you know?

Why olive oil is so expensive. Even the bog standard stuff.

You Have to Laugh

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.