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.

NOTE: Por si acaso . . . Yesterday, WordPress failed to publish a post written early morning and scheduled for evening publication. I feared it was lost in the ether but late at night recalled I had the text, in the bin. So, I retrieved it and published it.

Cosas de España/Galiza

Spain’s housing crisis will continue for years because ‘house building is just not profitable’ in the country, according to a housing consultant and mortgage expert.

As predicted, Spain’s new ESS is causing serious delays, at some airports at least. Allegedly, some passenger at Tenerife airport were forced to stand in line for hours as they waited to complete the new biometric passport process. It’s not yet operating in Madrid, I understand. British holiday-makers are the guinea pigs, it seems.

What it costs to have fun (and sin a little) in Spain.

The mad, bad world of MAGA

How did the post-WWII trade system boost Western prosperity, and why did it later unravel? Why did 1990s globalisation hit working-class communities so hard? And, how did these economic shocks help drive modern populism and Trump’s rise?

Why a Trump supporter tried to kill Trump.

Spanish

• Poner en tela juicio – To call into question, To doubt/cast doubt on. To challenge.
• Mover ficha – To make a move. To play ball.
• Dar la lata – To nag.

English

Phrases come into use, become popular, are then over-used before they disappear from public discourse. I suspect this will happen to ‘rolling the pitch’. This alludes to the practice, in cricket, of using a heavy roller to prepare the strip between the 2 wickets before a match. The phrase has been used a lot in the British media ahead of the new Budget, meaning that the Chancellor has been preparing the public for tax increases. The irony is that this amounts to ‘softening up’, whereas the objective of rolling a cricket pitch is to harden it . . . Anyway, as today was Budget Day, we might never hear the phrase again.

You Have to Laugh/Cry

We stayed in a magnificent ex-monastery last night, out in the wilds of Teruel province. Having left it and driven 44km to have a coffee in the Maestrazgo town of Mas de Matas, my old friend realised the hotel hadn’t given us our ID documents back. Or, to put it another way, we’d forgotten to ask for them on checking out. So, we did the lovely scenic trip again, backwards as it were. But then decided to take a major road to the larger town of Alcañiz, en route to Morella – rather than doing the same route a third time. And we were rewarded with delicious lunch dishes which one would never get in Galicia. And an extremely pleasant white wine comprised of the Garnacha and Macabeo grapes – Crial-LLedo.

Finally . . .

Early this morning, my laptop suddenly started showing a time one hour later. In Settings, the time zone had re-set itself to UCT+2, or the time in Pretoria and Harare. I had no idea why but found the explanation in the Settings. When Microsoft can’t locate you (eg in the wilds of Teruel), it reverts to a default location. In this case, somewhere in South East Africa. But why?

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 and on X.

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.