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

Lenox Napier has returned to the blogging fray here, demonstrating his inimitable way getting to the nub of the snake pit which is Spanish politics. And voicing a thought that some of us have had about closing down the lawfare maestros of Manos Limpias. As for judicial investigations, Lenox says with justification that While some are agonisingly slow, others move at warp-speed. Odd, that.

Something here on the imminent unusually-cold weather, in both the South and the North, though it might not be quite so bad along the NW coast. Probably the fault of AGW.

Cousas de Galicia

I’ve heard it claimed that rubbish collection and (promised) sorting are controlled by the mafia and that the separation into different bins is pointless. I don’t now if that’s true or not but I do know – because the VdG tells us today – that our bills for this are to rise significantly in January. In what the paper calls a basurazo. Huge rubbish.

I’m thinking of changing my football team. Pontevedra FC are riding a wave of success, heading up their Division – admittedly only the lowly 4th – and last week knocking a far higher team out of the Copa del Rei, the equivalent of the UK’s FA Cup. Which possibly isn’t called that now. Maybe the Saudi Arabia or Qatar Cup.

The UK

The PM has said that he wants civil servants to operate more like entrepreneurs in start-up companies. Does the man have any idea of how bureaucrats think and operate? Essentially to safeguard their skins and to magnify their empires in whatever (counter-efficient) way they can. The very nature of the beast. Spots on a leopard.

One of the said PM’s boasts is that every citizen will be allotted a specific local policeman. Four problems with this:

• Everyone already has a number to call; there’s no need for a nominee
• There’s no point having a named respondent if no one answers your call
• Anyway, it’s not a phone number that’s proposed but an email address
• British bureaucrats aren’t much better than Spanish ones at answering emails*

I wonder how much Sir Keir Starmer realises he’s quickly become something of a joke. Fatal in the UK.

*I’m still waiting for an an answer from the Amansa town hall to an email I sent 3 weeks ago, about paying the parking fine incurred there. Even the folk who administer my Community are better than this. Sometimes

Europe

A strong opinion . . . Old Europe is gripped by a delusion. Get real before it’s too late. The West is living in a fantasy land of free money. Our friends watch in horror, our enemies in delight.

The USA

I finally got a link to the article headed: Trump’s no freak, he’s the ultimate American. And summarised as: Obama and Biden tried to make the US more like Europe but the 47th president is a throwback to national exceptionalism.

There’s a term used in the USA which is very uncommon in the UK – grifter. This is: Someone who tricks people into giving them money or property, often through deceitful schemes or scams. Commonly used to describe con artists or swindlers. I thought of the term when I saw that Trump – a US president, FFS – is selling a perfume in time for Xmas, called Fight. Fight. Fight. Of course, this could be an AI spoof, but very probably isn’t. Just what have the Americans done to themselves?!

Quote of the Day

I don’t want to upset my religiously-inclined friends, relatives and readers* but I rather like this comment by Tim Minchin: I am an atheist as well as a sceptic, and I can’t understand how someone can be a sceptic and still be religious. If you apply doubt to anything, the whole religion thing becomes a fantasy. For me, the chances of there being intelligent alien life are infinitely higher than the chances of there being a creator god.

* I suspect at least most of these have departed by now. Plus all MAGA folk.

English

Countrypeople: The 4-syllable replacement for the 3-syllable ‘countrymen’. Not recognised by my spellcheck. . . A different concept from ‘country(i.e. rural) people’, of course.

Spanish

• Culo: Bottom, Ass, Arse
• Culete: Bum, Tushy(US only). Botty(UK)
• Culito: Ditto, I guess.
• Culiño: Maybe the same, in Gallego.
• Riquiño: I can’t find this in either the Spanish or Galician Academy dictionaries. Might be a diminutive of Rico. And might mean something like ‘wonderful’. It was applied to Pv city’s Xmas thingies in the main square.

My bilingual friend, David, tells me that one better way to say the word you can’t write – Salle – would be Sal le al paso, as ‘Cross his path’ or ‘Intercept him’.

You Have to Laugh

Or cry. . . . I see that Trump says he’ll be the Unity president. Surely enough to justify recourse to Article 25 of the Constitution even before he takes over in January.

Finally . . .

Having lived in 6 cultures, I know things can differ markedly between them. One thing’s for sure . . . You can intellectually understand and accept customs of a culture different from the one in which you were raised but emotionally they can still – illogically – disturb you. So, it is that I can’t get used to Spaniards invading my personal space, or North Americans referring to me as ‘he’ in my presence. In British culture, you avoid the former and you only do the latter, as a sort of insult, if you’re really angry with someone – usually a spouse – and you’re making a (critical) point about them to a third person in his/her presence.

Finally, Finally . . .

I wonder

• 1. How Assad’s British wife will like life in Moscow. Not the biggest question of the moment, of course, and
• 2. Is it possible to use superglue without getting at least a bit of it on your finger(s).

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.