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

Property taxes . . .

• Expert Mark Stücklin of Spanish Property Insight writes here that: The (socialist) PSOE government doubles down on housing taxation despite an already high fiscal burden, and
• A Spanish tax lawyer writes amusingly here about a tax so daft not even the Ministry of Silly Walks would introduce it.

Following on from forecasts of chaos resulting from a shortage of air-traffic controllers, here – from reader David W – is a report I missed yesterday – on appalling chaos at Tenerife airport due to insufficient passport control officials.

Cosas de Galicia

Appropriately for his place of birth, we have a Pazo de Colón (Colombus) in my barrio of Poio across the river from Pv city. Not far from the museum dedicated to our most famous son. Which is sometime open.

Seen in Pv city’s flea market this morning:-

It’s quite hard to imagine who’d buy it and why. Perhaps the owner of a farm-themed restaurant.

Portugal

The country that Americans want to leave the US for the most . . . Or is that really Spain?

TACO Man

• Tangentiality* –Trump’s ‘brilliant weave that they don’t understand’ – is a symptom of dementia. *Speaking about topics unrelated to the main one.
• We are acquiring new airplanes, stunningly beautiful planes, redesigned aircraft, brand new planes, completely stealthy planes . . . I hope they’re stealth. I’m not certain; this whole stealth concept has me questioning. We shape a wing this way, and they don’t see it. But if it’s angled differently, they can see it? I’m not entirely convinced, but that’s what I’ve been told! [“A narcissist believes every thought he or she has is valid and worthy of pronouncement”].

Trumpworld/LA LA Land

As expected, Trump has shovelled shit onto the 3 judges (one appointed by him) who knocked back his tariffs. Details and implications here: Trump’s tariff drama shows he doesn’t understand what America stands for: Thriving on chaos, he is attempting to distract attention from his ludicrous domestic agenda.

Trump claimed ‘Tariffs are easy’ – he’s learning the hard way that’s not the case.

Steve Witkoff’s real job: To make the world safer or make the Trumps richer? The real estate tycoon is the president’s envoy to the Kremlin and the Gulf, while their families build a crypto empire together.

Quotes of the Day

When it comes to violations of the emoluments clause in the US Constitution, Trump abides by a simple rule: Go big or go home.

The Way of the World

Globalisation has shattered. What next?. . . Serious thoughts here on how to make the global trading system more stable and balanced, preventing a world war.

Spanish

• Estar de Rodriguez: To be ‘foot loose and fancy free’. Partner absent. Refers to someone – traditionally a man – who is left alone at home while his spouse and children go on vacation.
• Mancillar: To sully, besmirch, tarnish

Did You Know?

This is how the brain works in Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

You Have to Laugh

“We were out on an errand at 4pm”, the Rescue Services chief told reporters in Gothenburg, “when we noticed a parrot in trouble. It was sitting 7m up a tree and was clearly in distress. It’s not really part of our mission to retrieve animals that are stuck but if we can help, we will. But, as my colleagues ascended the ladder, the parrot kept screaming “Fuck you!” at them and refused to come down. We were still trying to retrieve it at 10pm when the owner arrived. He told us the parrot was afraid of the dark, then suggested we should try to lure it down with cigarettes, as the parrot liked them. Eventually, we lured it down but it seemed angry with the owner and bit him several times. However, apart from the profanity and a few bites, nobody was harmed. And it’s actually the sort of experience that brightens up your everyday life.

Finally . . .

A few more lists from the Japanese author of the 11th century The Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon, Some repeats . . .

Annoying Things

• One has sent someone a poem (or a reply to a poem) and, after the messenger has left, thinks of a couple of words that ought to be changed.
• One has sewn something in a hurry. The task seems finished, but on pulling out the needle one discovers that one forgot to knot the end of the thread.
• It is also very annoying to find that one has sewn something back to front.

Surprising and Distressing Things

• While one is cleaning a decorative comb, something catches in the teeth and the comb breaks.
• A carriage overturns. One would have imagined that such a solid, bulky object would remain forever on its wheels. It all seems like a dream – astonishing and senseless.
• A child or grown-up blurts out something that is bound to make people uncomfortable.
• All night long one has been waiting for a man who one thought was sure to arrive. At dawn, just when one has forgotten about him for a moment and dozed off, a crow caws loudly. One wakes up with a start and sees that it is daytime— most astonishing.
• One of the bowmen in an archery contest stands trembling for a long time before shooting; when finally he does release his arrow, it goes in the wrong direction.

Embarrassing Things

• While entertaining a visitor, one hears some servants chatting without any restraint in one of the back rooms. It is embarrassing to know that one’s visitor can overhear. But how to stop them?
• A man whom one loves gets drunk and keeps repeating himself.
• To have spoken about someone not knowing that he could overhear. This is embarrassing even if it be a servant or some other completely insignificant person.
• To hear one’s servants making merry. This is equally annoying if one is on a journey and staying in cramped quarters or at home and hears the servants in a neighbouring room.
• Parents, convinced that their ugly child is adorable, pet him and repeat the things he has said, imitating his voice.
• An ignoramus who in the presence of some learned person puts on a knowing air and converses about men of old.
• A man recites his own poems (not especially good ones) and tells one about the praise they have received— most embarrassing.

Lying awake at night, one says something to one’s companion, who simply goes on sleeping.In the presence of a skilled musician, someone plays a zither just for his own pleasure and without tuning it.A son-in-law who has long since stopped visiting his wife runs into his father-in-law in a public place.

Things That Look Worse in Paintings

• Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses.
• Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.

Things That Look Better in Paintings

• Pines.
• Autumn fields.
• Mountain villages and paths.
• Cranes and deer.
• A very cold winter scene; an unspeakably hot summer scene.

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

Finally, Finally . . . .

As it’s the start of the month . . .  Some readers, I hope, will know that the verse I cite at the top of my posts is the opening quatrain of Fitzgerald’s wonderful – but very ‘free’ – translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which you can read about here. Some verses are well known, of course, eg:-

The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

My favourite:-

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
doctor and saint, and heard great argument
about it and about: but evermore
came out by the same door as in I went.

If you enjoyed any or all of that, here’s an article on the Persian poetic tradition.

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:–

• Here’s a personal guide to moving to Spain – to work, not to retire
• 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.