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

Two articles from Mark Stücklin of Spanish Property Insight:-

• A growing number of Spanish sun-and-beach destinations are waking up to the reality that booming tourist rentals are fuelling a housing crisis for locals—but many still aren’t doing much about it.
• The Kafkaesque world around the challenge of ‘okupas’.

Cousas de Galicia

Galicia is said to lack more than 8,000 nurses, as a lot of them leave each year for better opportunities elsewhere. And it’s possible that getting replacements from other regions might come up against a requirement to speak Galician.

The last few races of the International Duathlon and Triathon event have taken place in unseasonal heat. At 6.30 last night, the temperature was 30, or 33 if humidity was taken into account. I felt sorry for the Elite competitors doing their stuff in a midday heat of 35 or more today.

The Rías Baixas – the Lower Galicia area – have doubled their annual tourists total in the last 10 years. Which must have delighted some folk. If not everybody. The Camino and the enormous cruise ships to La Coruña and Vigo must have helped.

The USA

After watching Trump’s Cabinet members in action, I’ve divided them into 2 categories, both comprising abject sycophants:-

Those who are very good at being evil (basically lying).

• White House Publicity Officer, Karoline Leavitt. Can’t bring herself to tell the truth at any time.
• The Attorney General, Pam Bondi: A better dissembler and liar than Trump himself.
• The Acting Director of ICE, Tom Harman: Clearly loves his job and would have been at home in the Einsatzgruppen of the SS.

Those who are very bad at being evil

• Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. Better at cosplaying just about anything than at being evil. Totally out of her depth.
• Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick: Either very stupid or a great impressionist.
• Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent: Just too honest. Must hate working for Trump. Probably writing a book.
• Secretary of Defense/War: Pete Hesgeth: Transparently useless except as a theatrical arse-licker. Very probably couldn’t do the job well even when sober. Possibly not long for the chop. Unless his tongue saves him. By which I don’t, of course, mean his articulacy.

Here’s the latest video from the Shrinking Trump psychiatrists. If you want to avoid the ads every few minutes, one way is to use DuckDuckGo browser’s. You can also get it on podcast platforms.

A couple of quotes from the chapter on the Weimar Republic in Germany after 1918, from “The Coming of the Third Reich: How the Nazis Destroyed Democracy and Seized Power in Germany” by Richard J. Evans. The rang a bell for me . . .

• The President used Article 48 of the Constitution not just for emergencies but also in non-emergency situations where steering legislation through the Reichstag would have been too difficult. In the end, his excessive use, and occasional misuse, of the Article widened its application to a point where it became a potential threat to democratic institutions.
• By 1930 at the latest, it had become clear that Presidential power was in the hands of a man who had no faith in democratic institutions and no intention of defending them from their enemies.

Trumpisms

• The EU was formed to damage the USA [The exact opposite of the truth].
• The EU is nasty. [Projection again].
• But I have a good relationship with Ursula.[Typical Trump fantasy].
• Mine is the most transparent administration in history [As he denies Democrats access to security reports].
• CNN is scum. The New York Times is scum. MNSBC is scum. They really are sick people.[Simply because they ask questions]
• The Department of War became the Department of Defense because of politically correct thinking. [Back in 1870!]

Can you believe this? Of course you can.

Quote of the Day

• In Trump’s America, it’s a crime to tell the truth.

Spanish

• Peloteo: Flattery, Knock up.
• Mercadear: To market, to trade.
• Florero: Vase, flowrr-pot

You Have to Laugh

The Sniffle: Ogden Nash

In spite of her sniffle
Isabel’s chiffle.
Some girls with a sniffle
Would be weepy and tiffle;
They would look awful,
Like a rained-on waffle,
But Isabel’s chiffle
In spite of her sniffle.
Her nose is more red
With a cold in her head,
But then, to be sure,
Her eyes are bluer.
Some girls with a snuffle,
Their tempers are uffle.
But when Isabel’s snivelly
She’s snivelly civilly,
And when she’s snuffly
She’s perfectly luffly.

I’m reminded of another bit of Nash: Girls who are bespectacled never get their necks tickled. Which is nice but surely untrue. And of an extremely funny ‘shaggy dog story – involving Nash and Longfellow – which is far too long to cite here. Maybe one day I’ll find a way to record it and then post that..

Finally . . .

Reader Noemi tells us how to cook chorizo in white wine . . .

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.
• A comparison of UK and Spanish living costs.
• And here’s a personal guide to moving to Spain – to work, not to retire.
• What to do if your visa application is rejected
• Finally, from a tax lawyer: Everything you need to know about taxes and healthcare when retiring to Spain.