Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.
And, lo, the hunter of the east 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

The president of the Valencian region hasn’t resigned but he has sacked one of his underlings, for refusing to allow residents into a morgue to see their relatives. Which some might regard as a lesser offence than effectively allowing the floods to happen.

There might well be quite some resistance in Spain to immigration of a large scale but, if there is, I confess I’m not aware of it. And I guess there won’t be much adverse reaction to the government’s claim that, thanks to a very low birth rate, at least 300,000 immigrants a year are needed to fill jobs in the important construction and hostelry sectors. Of course, it helps that Spain can benefit from an apparently endless stream of folk from South America, all of whom share culture, religion and language with mainland Spaniards. Anyway, the government plans to make it easier for them to come and work here. A rather different scene from the UK. Or even other EU members.

The squatter menace . . . A beneficial cock-up? And the pizza ploy.

There’s a lot of police corruption down south, it says here. Particularly around Cádiz.

Talking of the Guardia . . . You’ll might know that El Tráfico regularly advises in newspapers on the right way to go round a roundabout and exit from it. Well, this morning – not by any means for the first time – I was behind a Guardia Civil driver who executed el modelo español, by staying in the outside lane and not signalling on exiting. So, I blew my horn at him. As if . . .

Cousas de Galicia

And talking of corruption . . . Our region is not only relatively poor but also relatively backward. Up in Ourense we’ve long had a ruling PP dynasty regarded as a cacique family par excellence. About whom a book has now been published. Probably little in it will surprise most Galicians. All tolerated by the leadership of the PP party throughout the decades.

Portugal

Portugal is rapidly losing its young people. Will this new scheme convince them to stay?

The EU

Bad news re the battery race, says AEP here. Europe has already lost it. But nice final line: Brussels can at least take pride in something. The EU has “the most advanced battery regulation in the world”. Commendable. All that is missing are the batteries.

The USA

The Guardian’s most acerbic columnist goes to town here on the USA’s First Nepo Baby.

Russia v. Ukraine

Is anyone wondering if Trump plans to ‘end the Ukraine war on day one’ by offering Putin a US exit from NATO if Russia quits Ukraine. Or just stays where it is in East Ukraine and keeps both the Crimea and the bits of Ukraine it then occupies? Would anyone really be surprised if he did?​

The Way of the World

Everything is racist nowadays . . . and here’s an A-Z to prove it. From astrophysics to zombies: a list of the many, many unlikely things that have been accused of promoting white supremacy.

Quote of the Day

That most joyless of utterances: ‘My pronouns are…’ 

Spanish

Lobi: Nothing to do with wolves. It’s Spanglish for ‘lobby’.

This self-explanatory cartoon featuring the PP president – I think – shows that Spanish and English share at least one idiom.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

I’ve wasted quite some time trying to find out how to pay the parking fine I got in Almansa on November 2, including sending 3 (unanswered) emails to the town hall there and going to their collaborating bank. I finally got the advice from a parking app that the town hall will send me a letter in due course. So, now I’m waiting for 2 notifications, the other being in respect of my momentary lapse of attention to my speedometer on the AP6 on 26 October. I trust it won’t be as long as the 9 months it took for my very first such letter to be arrive, back in 2001.

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.