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

Following María, The Guardian writes here on the excessively rose-tinted view of the Franco regime.

Good to know that Spain plans to reform its residency and immigration system.

Lots of complaints this year about price increase and shrinkflation(reduflación) around Xmas goodies. There’s an average increase of 15% over last year, but some bombones and turrones are up by an almighty 65%. I’ve been musing on the price of my daily glass of wine and feel sure there’ve been 2 increases this year – from 2.80 via 3.00 to 3.20 (14%). Almost in concert. And the special Xmas dinners seem to me to have increased a lot.

Possible reasons for Spain being the first in the word to introduce the wifi-connected emergency light:-

• Increased safety
• Easier contact when you have an emergency
• Faster response from the police and medical services
• Yet another reason to stop cars and to issue one or more fines – i. e. revenue collection

The bad news is that a drunken passenger forced the diversion of a Ryanair flight. The good news is that he’s paying a high price. And that he wasn’t British. It seems.

There are plans to move my barrio’s health centre to the edge of the forest behind my house. This would make things easier for me, but on the other hand, would surely increase road traffic up and down the hill. Still, it might never happen. It’s already been delayed 5 years, it’s reported.

The mad, bad world of MAGA

At last . . . The Trump presidency is collapsing like the Berlin wall.

Spanish

• Hechos consumados: Faits accomplis
• A todas luces: Clearly, obviously. By all accounts.
• Jugar al cartón de la suerte: To lay the lucky card.

After being criticised for wrongly pronouncing the word Godello, I’ve been ‘debating’ this with friends. Conclusions . . .  

• In Spanish of 70 years ago: GodeLYo.
• In most of modern Spain: GodeYo
• In Colombia and other South American countries, and even in parts of Galicia and elsewhere in Spain: GodeJo ( English J, not the harsh Spanish Jota)
• Argentina and maybe other South American countries GodeSHo.
• In Galician: As in Argentina.

English

In crypto slang, “jeet” stands for “Just Exit Early Trader.” It describes someone who quickly sells their crypto or meme coin holdings for small gains without patience, causing market dips and panic among other investors. This term originated in meme coin chats and is often used derogatorily to call out traders who sell too soon and miss out on bigger profits.

Finally . . .

Asked if he could summarize the lessons of history in a short book, Columbia historian Charles Beard said he could do it in four sentences:

1. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power.
2. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.
3. The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
4. When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

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 ave 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.