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

Cosas de España

New rules for tourists to various parts of Spain.

Spanish practices . . Earlier this week, I invited 5 Spanish couples and 3 Anglo-Spanish couples to a buffet lunch on Sunday, when my daughter and grandson are here. Here’s the score card, 2 days before the event and 1 day before I buy the food:-

• Spanish couples – 5 x Maybe. Will let you know.
• Anglo-Spanish couples – 2 x Yes, 1 x Probably not.

Not, by any means, a huge surprise. Que será, será.

Cousas de Galicia

Pv city is far more of a tourist venue than it was 25 years ago. The irony is that back then we had, I kid you not, 5 competing tourist offices. Against 3 now, plus a kiosk run by one of these in summer.

Germany

Strikes back

The USA

As good a summary as any . . . We are all trapped in Trump’s bedlam. Some nice lines

• So, Donald Trump has stepped back from the brink. This was, you’ll be pleased to know, part of the “plan” all along, though how Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, can say so with a straight face is a wonder to behold.
• Laughably, we are invited by the US president to believe that the bond market is now as “beautiful” as his tariff wars.
• Second-guessing what Trump might do next has become a mug’s game; there’s no longer any point in trying. Best just to sit on your hands and wait.
• To believe that the worst of the Trump tariff shock is now over is to believe in the miraculous. 
• It’s the lack of predictability which could ultimately do the most damage. 

Just in case you’re wondering what sort of person is holding the fate of all of us in his ((tiny) hands, the latest iteration of my Trump Adjectives table is below, which has a few new ones – Capricious, Revengeful, Vindictive and Vandal. God only knows why they weren’t already there.

And just in case you’re wondering why the USA is now a global laughing stock, take a look here at the nauseating toadies that Trump has in his Cabinet and the woman who’s in charge of Homeland Security. This is her very latest outfit.

In MAGA world, the crazier you are, the more qualified you are.

Quotes of the Day

• “Many of you in the media clearly missed The Art of the Deal,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s spokeswoman, told reporters, invoking the holy scripture of Maga world to explain the entire exercise. But . . .
• Inconveniently, minutes later, Trump himself, who at times displays a guilelessness that is more honest than the men and women he sends out to make things up for him, blew up their claims with a simple admission: it was the violent reaction in financial markets that caused him to re-think. 

Spanish

20 Spanish words that are concise than their English translation:-

• 1. Estrenar: To wear (something) for the first time.
• 2. Entrecejo: The space between one’s eyebrows.
• 3. Sobremesa: The Spanish tradition of prolonged chatting after a meal.
• 4. Cejijunto/a: Having a unibrow.
• 5. Tuerto/a: A one-eyed person.
• 6. Consuegro/a: The father- or mother-in-law of your son or daughter.
• 7. Desvelarse: To wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep.
• 8. Botellón: A mass outdoor drinking session.
• 9. Puente: Long weekend.
• 10. Friolento/a: Sensitive to the cold.
• 11. Caluroso/: Sensitive to the heat.
• 12. Manco/a: Missing a hand or an arm.
• 13. Anteayer: To stay up all night.
• 14. Trasnochar: To stay up all night.
• 15. Veranear: To spend the summer.
• 16. Estadounidense: Being from the United States.
• 17. Resol: The glare of the sun.
• 18. Madrugar: To get up early.
• 19. Receno: Late-night snack.
• 20. Tutear: To address someone using the pronoun “tú” instead of the formal “usted”.

Today Through the Ages

Courtesy of the Autodidact Professor

Finally . . You Have to Laugh

TRUMP, in not so many words

A	Arrogant, Autocratic, Alienating, Anti-intellectual, Angry
B	Bullying, Boastful, Braggart, Belligerent, Bigoted, Blowhard, Bad-tempered
C	Chaos-creating, Clueless, Cheating, Combative, Child-like, Childish, Capricious
D	Disruptive, Dishonest, Deluded, Divisive, Destructive, Disorganised, Devious, Dissing/Disrespectful.
E	Exaggerator, Egotistical, Egocentric
F	Fox News-Obsessed, Follicly challenged, Fraudulent, Fantasist, Fast-food-Guzzler
G	Garrulous, Global-warming-denying, Gaffe-prone
H	Hyperbolic, Hateful, Heartless, Humourless, Hollow
I	Idiotic, Insulting, Insensitive, Irreligious, Incompetent, Inconsistent, Ignorant, Islamophobic, Inattentive, Insecure, Inimical, Incoherent, Illogical, Irrational, Intemperate, Inept, Impatient, Intimidatory, Insane
J	Jealous
K	Kinglike, Kinky, Know-all
L	Liar, Lazy, Low esteemed
M	Misogynistic, Media-obsessed, Menacing, Mad
N	Nauseating, Narcissist
O	Obsessive, Orange-hued, Obnoxious
P	Paranoid, Putin-admiring, Petty, Pussy-grabbing, Populist, Posturing, Pugnacious, Poseur, Philandering, Phony, Politically inexperienced, Psychologically suspect.
Q	Quixotic, Querulous
R	Russia-dependent, Rabble-rousing, Reckless, Racist, Resentful, Revengeful, Ridiculous
S	Short-attention-spanned, Self-centred, Self-obsessed, Stupid, Self-vaunting, Susceptible to flattery, Swaggering, Small-minded, Self-interested
T	Twitter-obsessed, TV-obsessed, Tyrannical, Trade-disrupting, Threatening, Triumphalist, Thin-skinned
U	Unfriendly, Unfaithful, Unintelligible, Unreliable, Unwilling to listen, Unaware, Untrustworthy, Unpredictable, Undisciplined, Un-self-aware,
V	Vocabulary-deficient, Vengeful, Victim, Vain. Vulgar, Vindictive, Vandal
W	Wearisome, Weird, Whoring, Worrying, Wrathful, Wrong-headed, War-mongering
X	Xenophobic
Y	Yankee . . .
Z	Zig-zagging

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 . . .
• I can also be read on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/colin.davies.752861 or on Substack at https://doncolin.substack.com/
• 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. But see here on this. 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.
• Getting a mortgage in Spain: Some advice on this challenge.