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 comments perceptively here on PP party missteps. As Lenox stresses, to combat the sort of thing the PP and Vox get up to, democracies must be able to solve people’s problems. Otherwise, you get Farage or, even worse, Trump. And their equivalents in France and Germany and elsewhere.

Cousas de Galicia

The VdG has this editorial comment this morning on the imminent university entrance exams: 12 Questions About the Selectividad: There are 3 weeks left until more than 10,000 Galician students take the selectividad exams.. As every year, there are many questions about these – grades, the calculations of these, and university and vocational training admissions. La Voz has compiled a dozen of these questions and asked experts for the answers. Among the questions that most concern students and their parents are whether a 4 is enough to pass the exams, how to know the weight of each subject, whether you can apply to several universities or regions at the same time, and whether the exam and admissions system is the same throughout Spain. I will publish the 12 questions tomorrow and look forward to reporting on the answers.

Talking of exams . . . Those which qualify you for a civil service job – las oposiciones – are a key aspect of Spanish society. When I came here in 2000, I was assured – with details – that the system was profoundly corrupt – being manipulable by those in power, for the benefit of their relatives. But I have no idea if this is still the case, assuming it was ever true. I certainly hope not. It clearly hasn’t stopped an awful lot of Spaniards paying a lot for tuition, in the hope of landing an allegedly cushy job for life. Not to mention the pension.

Last night I read of a 2012 documentary on the old road – the N-VI or Radial 6 – between Madrid and La Coruña in Galicia. It’s called, would you believe, N-VI and gets only a 6.1 rating here. I took a look at the trailer for the documentary but it didn’t really inspire me to get the ‘passport’ featured here. But I was amused to see 3 ladies talking about the brothel(puti club) – called Zorra – at the side of the road outside their village. Very Spanish.

Details of how to get the passport can be found here. And here’s where to buy the full documentary, should you be more interested in buying it than I am. Which I rather doubt . . .

Ireland

Trump has a ‘really nasty’ shock in store for Ireland. ‘America first’ plans for tech and pharma jobs will hit the republic’s economy hard.

The UK and Ireland

An interesting map of when the British Isles were a Scandinavian colony, explaining why I am a Viking, because of my Norwegian chromosome . . .

Europe

The annual Eurovision Song Contest is almost upon us – a festival of spandex, sequins, screeching and sky-high camp. Last night saw the first semi-final. The favourite for Saturday’s final is a Swedish group called Kaj who will ‘perform’ a rollicking ode to the sauna which is as daft, as melody-less and as unmemorable as you’d expect. A million miles away from even the least impressive Beatles song. You can see it here on YouTube. Allegedly, the title – Bara Bada Bastu – means ‘Just Bathe Sauna’. Sadly, it features no nudity. O tempora, o mores!

The Latest Mad Pronouncements of the Jester

On that plane gift from Qatar . . I could be stupid [equals ‘honest’] and say No or I could say Thank-you very much.

Trumpworld/LA LA Land

Jeanine Pirro is the 23rd Fox News employee to be given a senior level appointment in the Trump administration.

Quotes of the Day

• It’s impossible to know what’s in Trump’s mind, other than an insatiable thirst for money and power.
• Trump is too stupid to keep his story straight on Qatar’s gift of a $400M plane. [Some very nice phrases in that video, including this one:-
• No one contradicts Trump better than Trump himself.
• Poor Trump: you can’t even accept a luxury jet from Qatar without being called corrupt these days; Marina Hyde at her waspish best. More here. I was pleased to see that she agrees with me (and with Trump, who said it) that the deal is ‘very transparent’.
• Are the Trumps today’s Borgias? [Who were Spanish is origin but profited in Italy]
• Western leaders are morons. They are tipping the world into recession just to spite us: Vladimir Putin.

Spanish

• Hurraca: Magpie
• Cateto: Hick, bumpkin. hill billy, etc.
• Veleta: Weather vane. Flip-flopper.
• Zorra: Vixen. But also one of the many alternatives for ‘prostitute’, mainly (if not always) a female animal. Even perra (bitch).

Did You Know?

Wattpad is a global online platform and social network for reading and publishing original stories. It connects millions of readers and writers, allowing users to share, discover, and interact with stories across a wide range of genres and languages

You Have to Laugh

Who’d have guessed that Rand Paul cuts his own hair?

Finally . . .

Another extract from The Pillow Book, this time another (short) list of Depressing Things and a longer list of Hateful Things. Bear in mind these were written by a lady of the Japanese court – in the early 11^th century:-

Depressing things

• A white under-robe in the 8th month
• A wet nurse who has run out of milk

Hateful things

• One is a hurry to go out but one’s visitor keeps chattering away.
• One cannot find the exorcist when needed.
• A man who has nothing in particular to recommend himself discusses all sorts of subjects at random as if he knew everything.
• An elderly person warms the palms of his hands over a brazier and stretches out the wrinkles. Old people can really be quite shameless.
• People who, when visiting you, use their fan to wipe away the dust from the mat they are going to sit on.
• Men in their cups who shout, poke their fingers in their mouths, stroke their beards and pass on the wine to their neighbours with great cries of ‘Have some more!’ ‘Drink up! They tremble, shake their heads, twist their faces and gesticulate like children who are singing ‘We’re off to see the governor.’ I have seen even well-bred people behave like this and I find it most distasteful.
• To envy others and to complain about one’s own lot
• To speak badly about people
• To be inquisitive about the most trivial matters and to resent and abuse people for not telling one, or if one does manage to worm out some facts, to inform everyone in the most detailed fashion as if one had known all from the beginning.
• One is about to be told some interesting piece of news and a baby starts crying.

More anon.

Finally, Finally . . . .

For the first time in many years, a couple of collared doves are building a nest in my bougainvillea. But at least one magpie – despite being birdbrained – appears to have realised this and is regularly approaching the bougainvillea, presumably anticipating an egg or 2. or even a chick. Which are called squabs, I believe.

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.
• This post of mine contains several relevant articles from ThinkSpain.
• 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.