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

Questions seem to have been raised about whether the (long) restaurant lunch which the (besieged) president of the Valencia region had with a ‘glamorous’ TV personality on Tuesday 29th October was purely business. More anon, no doubt.

If you’re thinking of buying a property in the Canary Islands, you’d better be quick.

Good to see that olive oil prices are expected to drop by half in the coming months, leaving them only c.70% above what they were not so long ago.

Who knew about these?

Still on matters Catholic . . . This the latest stage in a bizarre saga that’s been taking place for some time now. Nuns on the run, I guess you could say. Or is that the Pope?

There was a male fashion show in the Liceo Casino of Pv city on Saturday night. Before it began there were several (rather unprepossessing-looking) women in the bar, all rather gaudily dressed. A Spanish friend has since suggested these might well have been ‘drag queens’, which seems to serve in Spanish for ‘transvestites’. Though the word travestis certainly exists.

The USA

The surprise news of the day . . . To the immense annoyance of the MAGA ‘community’, the outgoing Senate Republican Conference Leader has told Trump that he won’t be able to get his controversial appointments established via the backdoor ‘recess’ option. So, what next?

Russia

The Guardian reports here on the latest prominent Russian to display an affinity with Earth – after going out onto a 5th floor terrace and ‘losing his balance’. As you do. Especially if pushed a bit, when standing on tiptoes.

The Way of the World

We’re all prisoners of political correctness now. Woke madness has infected our society, our processes and our police. But we only have ourselves to blame. . . . One of the great cruelties of any totalitarian thought system is that it generates madness and then, when you refuse to believe in it, calls you insane.

Quote of the Day

Philip Larkin: I don’t think I write particularly well, only better than everyone else.

English

Rabona: In football, the technique of kicking the ball where the kicking leg is crossed behind the standing leg. Also a tango step.

Spanish

Hacer una rabona: To skip school [US: To play hooky]. Possibly derived from rabo, tail.

Did you know?

dollop reads the same upside down.

You Have to Laugh

I saw the execrable Vox party mistyped yesterday as Vov – in a local newspaper in fact. This would make it the Bob party in Spanish pronunciation . . .

Finally . . .

We’re coming to the end of an unseasonably warm spell up here in Galicia. It seems to have confused my bougainvillea, which certainly has a new lease on life outside my bedroom window . . .

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.