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

• The government has failed to get its tax reforms approved by parliament. Here’s The Corner on the subject.
• Another politico who refuses to resign.
• Here’s the New York Times on the (exceptional) Spanish approach to immigrants, not all of whom, by any means, will come from South America.
• Changing Spain . . . Opening an account in the 1980s, the 1990, the 2020s and now. Tan cual, say all my Spanish friends.
• Given how noisy Spain is and how loud conversation is during a communal meal, I can’t help wondering if Spaniards go through life not understanding more than 50% of what is said to them. Just nodding and smiling. As I do . . .

Cousas de Galicia

• Sergas is the Galician portal for appointments with doctors and nurses in the public health system. I used to be very impressed by what you could do on line but, this week, I found I could do nothing. I’ve been told that the entire system is suspended because there just aren’t enough doctors to meet demand. Can this really be true?
• One of those Spanish lunches today, albeit it a relatively short one – from 2.20 until 6.30. At which a Korean friend of mine found herself sitting next to possibly the only man in Spain learning her language. What were the chances of that, I wonder?

France

Gallic travails. Seem quite serious. But is it true that we’re all heading in the same direction. Certainly not the USA, one assumes. For now.

The USA

• The Guardian says that neither Ukraine nor Russia quite knows what Trump will do when he takes office in January. The escalation now taking place, it says, will set a new status quo for the day Trump becomes president, at which point his options will range from hard-nosed horse-trading to simply throwing Ukraine under the bus.
• This is some expert advice for unhappy Democrat celebrities thinking of quitting the US for the UK

Quotes of the Day

• From a right-of-centre US comedienne: Trump’s become kinda cool. Even Gen Z women went for him. That’s how we Americans are, very shallow.
• Hungary’s Viktor Orban: Russia’s threat of more strikes with its new missile should be taken seriously. Russia bases its policy and its place in the world on military force and it cherishes its status as one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with some of the most modern and destructive weapons.

Net Zero

The rest of the world is sniggering at the UK’s energy policy of high prices and self-sacrifice.

English

Dark empath: A highly dangerous personality type. Someone who appears to be caring and sensitive, but who is actually using those skills to further their own agenda.

Spanish

For the first time in history the number of Spanish speakers in the world has exceeded 600 million. When I mentioned this to Spanish friends at dinner last night, they pointed out that they were in the minority when it came to pronunciation. And I recalled how I’d had trouble explaining torreznos to a Colombian friend earlier this week. Because, whereas I pronounced the Z as TH, she pronounced it as S. Plus, she’d never heard of them . . .

Finally . . .

Director David Tedeschi – with Beatles ’64  – has achieved the feat of finding something new to say about a band about which one thought everything has been said, several times over.

Finally, Finally . . .

Big day for me . . . My 5 year old grandson in Madrid told his first joke, about the Pink Panther standing on an ant. Most importantly, he told it well.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts, either after reading them 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.