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/Galiza

Another political party pushes for barriers on foreign home buyers.

If I thought a major increase in tourists had changed life in Pv city, it’s nothing compared to the impact on Ibiza . . . Overtourism is driving Ibiza to the point of collapse as British holidaymakers drive up housing prices and strain natural resources like water.

To be honest . . . most of the increase in tourists coming to Pv city is down to the huge growth in Caminoer numbers but the fact is that the majority of these spend little time in the city, as they walk in the morning from their albergues, flats or hotels down Rúa Real to the O Burgo bridge and then northwards to Santiago de Compostela. The ‘damage’ is minimal and manageable.

THE USA

What a wonderfully Trumpish performance by the president at the UN. A mixture of arrogance, defiance, dishonesty, exaggeration and downright stupidity. Cringe-worthy, if you’re a US citizen, I guess And it lasted 4 times longer than the time he was allotted. Naturally; rules are not for him. Two quotes:

• Zero fucks given by Trump
• More like a raucous rally address to the red-hatted faithful than an address to leaders of the world

The bottom line: Trump made it clear: the world can no longer look to the US for strong leadership.

No surprise to read that the bully-boy head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, is a promoter of and key contributor to Project 2025 – a conservative blueprint aimed at restructuring the federal government along conservative lines. He has has been publicly associated with pushing forward the agenda set out in it and he has become a prominent figure in advancing its priorities. One of which is an all-powerful Executive.

A good question from a columnist of the Left: Charlie Kirk was a bigoted, divisive far-right podcaster. Why is he being rebranded as a national hero? The nub of her answer: The lionizing is an official effort to coalesce the state into his movement – a brazen proclamation that his consistently hostile white, nationalist, homophobic and misogynistic convictions represent the federal government’s interests, and thus, what the presidency believes should be the national priority. . . . The valorization of Kirk by his far-right defenders is an insult to millions of the most marginalized Americans who lived every day in the crosshairs of his rhetoric. Kirk’s memorialization by his supporters and apologists is but a new opportunity to announce an old message about whose country this is and whose it isn’t.

Quote of the Day

Trump has predictably been a complete and utter failure, because history tells us that this is all he has ever been. He was a rotten kid, a rotten businessman, a rotten husband, a rotten father, and is a poor damn excuse of a man. [From this coruscating article on Trump, the loser.]

The Way of the World

The US president’s claim to have ended seven “unendable wars”, all without any help from the UN, is absurd, but it is true that the UN security council is no longer capable of bringing conflicts to an end. 

Spanish

• Hálago: Compliment, flattery, praise
• Puñalada: Stabbing, stab woun
• Empleomanía: 1. The objective of getting a public sector job. 2. Workforce (possibly South American).

English

• Arseropes: An age-old term – featured in the Bible – for intestines.
• Copemate: Another sadly obsolete term: Someone who helps you in bad times.
• To dox (invented in the 1990s): To publicly identify or publish private information about someone, especially as a form of punishment or revenge.
• Presented by = Sponsored by = Financed by.

Did you know?

Booking.com is said here to be rather different from when it started. Due diligence might now be necessary: Once seen as a revolutionary way to find quality accommodation anywhere in the world, this outdated website has morphed into a lazy, customer-service-lacking, profit machine with little to no regard for its customers. Holidaymakers are far better off booking directly with reputable hotels and B&Bs, where they won’t face paying additional commissions, potential fraud, and can avoid ridiculous issues such as “overbooking” and extra layers of customer service failures.

Personally, I usually check the negative reviews first, at least for tourist flats and B&Bs.

Finally . . .

I said the other day that accommodation supply had not kept pace with the growth in population of Pv city. Nor has the number of hotels. We still lack a 5-star place, in fact. Things that have clearly increased, not in any special order:-

• Underground car parks – well, one new one.
• Private dental surgeries
• Bars and restaurants
• Michelin star restaurants
• Kebab places
• Sushi restaurants
• Laundrettes
• Flat blocks, in place of 2-story houses. Or fields.
• Spice shops
• Roundabouts
• Beggars
• Homeless folk
• Music festivals
• Parking restrictions
• Speed bumps
• One-way streets
• Guided tours
• E-bikes and e-scooters
• Art galleries
• Health food shops
• Vape shops
• Tattoo parlours
• AirBnb flats
• Fiestas
• Pedestrianised areas
• Bar terraces
• Palm trees
• Prices!

I’ll probably think of a few more for tomorrow . . . And will then list the things that have decreased.

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 . . .

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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.