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

A salutary tale re a pension shortfall. The lesson – If you’re being paid for work here, make sure your employer isn’t making false declarations to the Social Security about your hours

Not a huge surprise, given my decision never to visit the city again . . . Pilgrims turn Spain’s Santiago de Compostela into the world’s latest overtourism flashpoint.

It occurred to me at midday today that there are now far more old, badly dressed and/or slow- walking Caminoers than there used to be in Pv city. Maybe this is merely a function of numbers. Or of new categories. Or, as these are wealthier than younger, backpacking pilgrims, maybe it’s simply because they can afford to come onto the terraces of the old quarter to eat, whereas the younger, poorer, fitter, faster-walking pilgrims can’t. Or, being in more of a hurry, chose not to. If so, it’s really an illusion that the mix has changed for the worse. There’s just a helluva lot more of both categories.

Cousas de Galiza

‘Tis the season of fluorescent armbands once again, to avoid being hit on the 2 zebra crossings I use every night on the way home. Last evening, in the daylight of 6.45pm, the car coming at the crossing in the lane I was halfway into didn’t stop but swerved around me at maybe 30kph. Apart from making the obvious gesture at the driver, I wondered if he’d have been fined by a watching traffic cop. Doubtful, I suspect. Unless, say, he’d been listening to a podcast through earphones.

Which reminds me . . . Yesterday’s list of fineable traffic offences didn’t include the last one I was done for – parking with the car facing the wrong direction. Something which several neighbours in the cul-de-sac off my street clearly get away with daily.

Still on the driving theme . . . When my daughter came from Madrid in June for 2 months in cooler Galicia, I warned her that many drivers take the sharp bend near my house way over the central white line, so she should stay as close to the kerb as possible to avoid being hit. A few days ago – after she’d left – there was the 2nd crash of the summer there. Each of which resulted in a car hitting a wall, very probably after swerving to avoid an oncoming car.

And still on that theme . . . . As I left my house this morning and drove towards said bend, a car came round it and immediately – and stupidly – crossed my path to turn left, causing me to slam on my brakes. And I didn’t even get the customary wave of semi-apology. Hard to know what was going through the driver’s head. If anything.

The UK

The joke set in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms in Liverpool . . . The scene is 2 ‘merry’ Scousers leaning on the bar:-

Scouser A: You know, I loves you, George.

Scouser B: Do yer?

A: Yea, I really, really do.

B: How much do youse love me?

A: Well, if I ‘ad 2 cars, I’d give yer one?

B: Would yer

A: Yea. In fact, if ‘ad 2 ‘ouses, I’d give yer one.

B: Would yer?

A: Yea, I really, really would.

B; What if yer ‘ad 2 bikes?

A: Yer bastard. Yer know I’ve got 2 bikes!

Mores seriously . . . Impressive but very unlikely to change anything?  ¨Just a morale boosting street party¨?? Or the (relative) calm before the impending storm??

Quote of the Day

I don’t think there’s any other city where you can be so confident of having a good time. Liverpool’s culture is a blend of English, Irish and Welsh, and you can feel that in the pubs. The best of them have a touch of each.

THE USA

After the murder of Charlie Kirk, both Trump and the execrable Stephen Miller have got the closest yet to the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. Don’t take my word for it. Check them out on YouTube. Trump, for example, has told Fox News that he hasn’t got the slightest interest in healing the divisions in the country but, like Miller, only wants to eradicate the ‘domestic terrorists’ of the ‘lunatic radical Left’, using whatever instruments – legal or illegal – available to them. Actually, others are even closer to the Nazis. That video on Miller shows commentators on Fox News calling for throwing the homeless into insane asylums or – would you believe – giving them an ‘involuntary lethal injection’, while claiming that it’s the Left which is inciting violence. The stuff of dystopian novels.

US citizens need to be aware that things are going to get worse before they get better. Especially if the mid-term elections are rigged or cancelled on ‘security’ grounds, under some sort of Hitler-esque ‘Emergency Decree’.

By the way, I guess it’s a good thing I’m not typing this in the USA, where free speech is said to be sacrosanct but where I might well be arrested and deported for publicising my views on Trump and his sycophantic lackeys. Though, not having a dark skin or writing in Spanish, not carted off to a concentration camp in the Florida Everglades.

But the 2 clinical psychologists on Shrinking Trump – although white – are clearly taking this risk. Latest episode here.

Russia v Ukraine

Still waiting for some tough action on Trump’s part. Or even some very strong words. Into which category don’t fall ¨I’m not happy with that.¨ Though they might, if he really were the almighty god he seems to think he is

Spanish

• Al grano: To the point. Down to business . .
• Jurél: Horse mackerel, jack, scad.

Galician

I asked an AI engine about a theory of mine about Welsh and Galician . . . There is some scholarly and anecdotal support for the idea that older Celtic languages shared a “lilt”— ie. a musical or rhythmic prosody – with modern Welsh and Galician (Gallego). Many Celtic languages show noticeable musical intonation, often described as sing-song. This “lilt” is due in part to features like: Strong consonant/vowel alternations; stress patterns affecting syllable pitch; and rhythmic VSO (verb–subject–object) word order giving a unique cadence. These characteristics are widely observable in both the Brittonic branch (Welsh, Breton, Cornish) and the Goidelic branch (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx), although the specific sound and rhythm vary between languages.

English

Gallowglass (also galloglass, gallowglas or galloglas): Comes from the Irish word gallóglaigh meaning “foreign Gaels”. These were elite mercenary warriors, mainly members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland and Scotland between the mid 13th century and the late 16th century. It originally applied to Scots, who shared a common background and language with the Irish. As they were descendants of 10th-century Norse settlers who had intermarried with locals in Western Scotland, the Irish regarded them as ‘foreign’. 

You Have to Laugh

The famous British stiff upper lip . . .

Finally . . .

You might have noticed that the 2 major frauds cited yesterday were both based on products that didn’t actually exist – soy oil in the US case and flax in the Spanish case. And that both centred on trust in the veracity of paperwork. But one important difference is that the Spanish case involved not only many fraudulent farmers but also employees of the Department of Agriculture and members of the family of the relevant Minister. None of whom were prosecuted. Only the farmers. An AI comment: When asked about the affair, the Minister, Loyola de Palacio stated, “Let justice run its course.” but no prosecution of family members or department officials has been documented. As I said yesterday, she herself was promoted to a senior EU position in Brussels. In the modern phrase – 2 tier justice. Still operates, I believe.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

A big day for me . . . I got my 100th Final Warning by email that all my fotos and videos were about to be deleted, unless I clicked on a link.

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.

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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.