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/Galicia

As I’ve said, life isn’t easy for Spain’s self-employed folk.

You shouldn’t believe everything you read. Especially about nearby Vigo. That said, this isn’t bad and the writer is spot on about the façade of the hotel she was paid to stay in. Assuming she was ever in the city.

My daughter and grandson went back to Madrid today, after 12 days of cool temperatures and endless rain. Naturally, we’ve had another revolution in the weather. It’s again shirt-sleeve time here in Pv city. Pullovers back in the drawer. Again.

Perhaps it’s the fluctuations in the weather which have caused my jasmine to be early this year but my wisteria to be late.

Which reminds me . . . We watched the first episode of El Jardinero (The Gardener), Netflix’s latest big hit. It was nice to see places in Pv city but, truth to tell, we weren’t impressed enough to watch another episode. Crime series demand implausibility but perhaps not so much.

The UK

Unhinged trans activists have shown their true colours. Misinformation, vandalism and abuse after the Supreme Court ruling have exposed misogyny wrapped in a rainbow flag.

The tide has not turned against woke. . . . The most virulent strains of wokery evolved in state-run or state-funded bodies – local councils, universities, quangoes. And these bodies show little sign of changing direction. . . . A tactical withdrawal from an indefensible position does not mean that the whole DEI movement is in flight. . . .To the extent that there is an anti-woke backlash, it shows every sign of being as intolerant, unthinking and collectivist as what it dislikes – ‘the woke Right’: still obsessed with identity, but with the goodies and baddies labels switched.

LA LA Land

More on Sunday’s YCMIU moment from Trump, demanding that folk oppose ‘evil’.

The meat-eating Maga diet leaving nutritionists at a loss. Robert F Kennedy Jnr’s bid to ‘make America healthy again’ is triggering a wave of food trends backed by dubious claims. Nice bottom line: 75% of American adults are overweight or obese. To make American healthy again, means eating less. And eating less is very bad for business.

Couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy . . . Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon descends into fear, loathing and lie detectors. Even trusted officials fear a purge as the defence secretary is himself investigated over Signal group chats.

From peppercorns to plastic forks: US businesses that rely on Chinese products reel from Trump tariffs. Price hikes worry restaurants and online markets, as uncertainty stymies their ability to plan for the future. Who’d have guessed it?

The Way of the World/Social Media

If you sometimes feel that the internet isn’t the same vibrant place it used to be, you’re not alone. New research suggests that most of the traffic traversing the network isn’t human at all. . . Bots (software programs that interact with web sites) have been ubiquitous for years. But in its 2025 for the first time traffic from bots became more prevalent than human traffic. The rise in bots is down to generative artificial intelligence (AI). But, while some bots are benign, not all have your best interests at heart. Read about bad bots here.

AI & China

The progress that’s been made in AI thus far is built on profound globe-spanning cooperation. The Nvidia chips the US government has been keeping from China are designed primarily in the US, but manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Making Company, the world’s leading chipmaker. Manufacturing those chips requires a panoply of raw materials sourced from around the world, including China, which manufactures much of the germanium and gallium needed for chip production. As much as Donald Trump may hope to take the world back to the late 1800s, when early automobiles could be built within a single city, AI -like most advanced technologies – requires a global supply chain. . . . It requires one level of ignorance and arrogance to believe that a nation can go it alone in an era of globalised advanced manufacturing. But it requires a truly Trumpian level of stupidity to blow up the US university system and the economic benefits connected to it. DeepSeek, following on the heels of the consumer-friendly AI embedded within TikTok, is an unmistakeable sign that the US does not have a monopoly on technical creativity, and that Chinese AI is profoundly on the rise.

Quote of the Day

The golden age of free speech and free association looks increasingly like an interregnum between two kinds of authoritarianism – the religious and the woke

Spanish

• Resarcir: Compensate, reimburse, make amends, indemnify repay, make good.
• Careo: Confrontation: Cross-examination.
• Poliqueto: Polychete, eg a lung worm, or a sand worm. Useful as bait. Farmed in Galicia, it seems.

English

Two phrases I would ban:-

• Going forward: Totally superfluous, as English – unlike some languages* – has a future tense.
• To reach out: Meaning To contact.

* Mandarin, Malay, and Indonesian, for example. In addition, some languages, such as Arabic, Japanese, and Persian, have a “non-past” tense – a single verb form for both present and future, distinct from the past. The specific time is usually determined by context or additional words.

Did You Know?

A reader has told me about the rather odd Republic of Cows, in the islands off Alaska.

Yesterday Through the Ages

Courtesy of the Autodidact Professor.

Finally . . .

I’m a tad worried about what the UK Supreme Court has decided on the definition of ‘woman’. Apparently, it’s not enough just to have the feeling that you’re a woman. Or, I suppose – as in my case – a vampire. Will this curtail my nocturnal activities, I wonder.

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.