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

Despite the Spanish economy going great guns, the challenge of finding affordable accommodation continues to get harder for young folk. The Corner provides relevant stats here. One is that the average salary of €1,048 compares with an an average rent cost of €1,072. Another is that almost 3 out of 4 young people with jobs continued to live with their families.

Advice, in Spanish, for those contemplating a Camino de Santiago in 2025.

It’s a weird inconsistency but one I’ve mentioned several times over the years . . . While appearing to have no ‘duty of care’ towards strangers, the Spanish make the best Samaritans in the world when it comes to folk in trouble. For example, someone who stumbles and falls in the street. So it is that last year was the 33rd in succession that Spain was the global leader in organ donations. Double the EU average and triple the German rate. All very admirable. But I’d be happier if they didn’t constantly invade my personal space, as if I;m not there.

Cousas de Galicia

Do you think that, given the opportunity to play hardball, Ryanair would let the opportunity pass? Well, of course not. And so it is that they’re again playing Galicia’s 3 small airports off against each other, threatening to cancel domestic summer flights unless ‘excessive’ fees are lowered. My bet is on Ryanair.

Talking of travel . . . Training down to Madrid today, I was less than pleased to hear that a couple of Pv city friends would be doing this soon at a price a quarter of what I paid. This is because next week Renfe starts a new round of heavy discounts across the country.

Renfe’s station in Pv city has been refurbished, meaning that prices are higher than ever and there’s no table service and no newspapers to read. I bought a Snickers bar to keep me going until lunch with my daughter and grandson in Madrid. This was expensive, of course, but what struck me was how small it was, I recall that both this and a Mars bar used to weigh 51g a few years ago but, tellingly, there was no number on the wrapper. An AI search couldn’t give me info on Spain but did throw up that a bar in the UK weighed 62.5g before 2009, then 58g and is now 48g. I imagine something very similar has taken place here. Scandalous,

The UK

Nancy Mitford was a 1930s English socialite and a huge fan of Adolf Hitler. The discovery of a diary of hers reveals that she was even more rabidly anti-Semitic than was thought and that she found him – whom she literally stalked in Germany – to be ‘sweet and very gay’. She shot herself in her dumb head when was was declared between England and Germany but got that wrong too. Died at 33, no great loss to humanity.

The USA

Trump has picked one of his bodyguards to lead the Secret Service. For whom, of course, the words ‘totally unqualified’ are inadequate. Quote: The appointment follows the pattern of Trump promoting people he knows personally because he trusts them, rather than career executives who have climbed the ladder.

Russia

Whereas American diplomats are reminded daily of the benefits of trade and cooperation, Putin — trained as a KGB operative — thinks in zero-sum terms. There’s an old Russian joke that illustrates this mindset perfectly: A peasant lives between two houses that each have a cow, and he complains to God that he doesn’t have his own. When God offers to provide him with one, the peasant replies, “No, I’d prefer that you just kill my neighbours’ cows.” 

The Way of the World/Social Media

A player for Manchester City FC has just been given a contract at a salary one million pounds a week. And a 25 year old woman in the UK has made 6 million pounds as an influencer on social media. I am surely not alone in having to suppress feelings of anger about this. But I almost smiled to read that, although the young lady is said to have expensive tastes when it comes to fashion – a Birkin bag, a Patek Phillippe watch – she would struggle to move into getting luxury brands to collaborate with her because she doesn’t have that ‘mystery’, being simply too transparent. Poor things. Presumably you can’t buy this.

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

A thought-experiment on the train, which might explain why Spain – unlike the UK – seems not to have a major problem with immigrants . . .

The extremes . . .

1. The Perfect Immigrant

• Legal
• Well-educated
• Skilled
• Speaks the native language as a mother tongue
• Fits with employer needs
• Able to work and pay taxes
• Single
• Doesn’t claim benefits for self, spouse or kids
• Spends surplus income in the adopted country
• Significantly shares the culture of the adopted country
• Of the same religion as the majority native population
• Of a non-proselytising religion
• Of a religion without extreme elements
• Lives among the native population, not in a ghettto
• Readily assimilates
• Isn’t a draw on the exchequer
• Makes a positive contribution to the exchequer

2. The Not Perfect Immigrant

• Well, the opposite of each of these, of course.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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.