Colin Davies

28 December 2025

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

A local council seems to have sold more parts of a lottery wining ticket than they actually possessed. Which has led to a degree of disappointment and unhappiness . . .

So many Caminoers have forsaken the over-busy French Camino for the Portuguese Camino that the numbers are now almost equal. Both are now effectively human conveyor belts. And the experience is nothing like it was 15 years ago. Though many will still enjoy it, of course.

NY’s Eve in Spain is a celebration of superstitions, it says here.

Th Diario de Pv says that NY’s Eve drinking [and dancing] habits have changed in recent years . . . New Year’s Eve is changing its rhythm in Pontevedra: more afternoon drinks and fewer ‘barras libres’*. Nightlife is increasingly focusing on a real and affordable drinks offers. With 3 days left until the end of the year, Pontevedra is already in celebration mode, but the festivities seem to have changed. The pulse picks up from mid-afternoon and fades earlier than usual, in a New Year’s Eve increasingly less associated with dancing until dawn. The afternoon gathering is taking center stage and redefining a timetable that for decades had the [late] night as its prime time. See the complete article in English below. *A barra libre is an ‘open bar’ where drinks are included in a fixed price and you can keep ordering without paying per drink. They often have limits, eg only certain drinks, time window, or house brands.

The USA

To amuse . . . .

Quote of the Day

I wonder what Zelensky thought when he heard about the US missiles raining down upon north-west Nigeria. Probably that Trump is a flat-track bully, happy to dispense retributive justice via high ordnance only when the target cannot strike back at the USA. So, Venezuela, and then some jihadists holed up in Syria. And now against unnamed pro-Islamic State forces in Nigeria. Meanwhile, Putin continues his illegal and murderous war against Ukraine with the number of dead on both sides believed to be not far short of a million — and yet relations between the Russian dictator and the White House remain cordial, verging on syrupy. I don’t think Maduro will be given the red carpet treatment by Trump any time soon, still less the savages who lead Boko Haram or Islamic State. The greatest crime in Trump’s eyes is to be weak, which is why he has no time for Ukraine and very little for Europe. There is no morality in this reckoning, of course. He just chooses easy targets with no chance of a comeback.

The Way of the World/Social media

I was going to write about the proliferation of false AI claims about the US in my FB feed and then I saw this: More than 20% of videos shown to YouTube users are ‘AI slop’. Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media – and generating about $117m a year. The findings are a snapshot of a rapidly expanding industry that is saturating big social media platforms – from X to Meta to YouTube – and defining a new era of content: decontextualised, addictive and international. Examples from YouTube yesterday:-

  • Laurence O’Donnell claiming that Trump had called Susie Wiles a slut.
  • Reports that the Caroline Leavitt had taken temporary leave because of pregnancy.
  • A claim from Jasmine Crockett that she had DNA proof of a Trump love-child.

Possible solution: Ensure you only view your preferred genuine news site(s). Ignore all the rest. Even then, check on validity via, say, Perplexity. Which should tell you, for example, if Hegseth really has been sacked. [No, Hegseth has not been sacked. He remains in the role as of late December 2025, despite ongoing controversies and calls for his dismissal.]

Spanish

  • Barra libre: Also used figuratively to mean there are no limits or controls in a situation, roughly like saying “free rein” in English.
  • Planchas de padur: Plasterboard
  • Ganar el pulso: To win an arm-wrestling match or, figuratively, to earn something through great effort and struggle.

Did you know?

How to do the 21 card trick.

Finally . . .

The origins of Santa Claus. Quite a story . . .

Episode 1: The original Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, was a real bishop from Myra in modern-day Turkey. What myth about St Nicolas first associated him with gift-giving? How did his story get merged with the Greek god of the seas, Poseidon? How were the tombs in his hometown connected with Ancient India?

Episode 2: Who were the Italian sailors who stole the bones of St Nicolas from his church in Turkey in 1087? How was the mythology of St Nicolas combined with Germanic pagan stories of Odin riding a white horse accompanied by ravens? How did polar-mania and Coca Cola advertising transform Dutch traditions around St Nicolas into the Santa Claus we know today?

Finally . . . Finally . . .

December 31 in Pv City

New Year’s Eve is changing its rhythm in Pontevedra: more afternoon drinks and fewer barras libres.

Nightlife is increasingly focusing on a real and affordable drinks offers.

With 3 days left until the end of the year, Pontevedra is already in celebration mode, but the festivities seem to have changed. The pulse picks up from mid-afternoon and fades earlier than usual, in a New Year’s Eve increasingly less associated with dancing until dawn. The afternoon gathering is taking center stage and redefining a calendar that for decades had its prime time at night.

When dawn arrives, the scene narrows. Sala Zennet, Ítaca, Pub Moncloa, La Pomada, La Luna, and Tropicana are some of the venues keeping the nightlife alive, albeit with different formats than in previous years. Open bars, once almost essential, are now few and far between; entrance fees are based on actual consumption, and venues are fine-tuning their offerings for a crowd that goes out, yes, but drinks less. New Year’s Eve still exists, but it’s no longer celebrated as it once was.

This is how Rafael Rúa, president of Hoempo, explains it, pointing to a structural transformation of the sector: “It’s true that there are fewer and fewer New Year’s Eve parties, but not because people don’t want them, but because there are fewer nightclubs.” Even so, the outlook for the venues that are opening is positive. “Advance sales are going quite well; some are already fully booked,” he notes, with prices ranging from 40 to 50 euros with an open bar and 14 to 20 euros with a drink included.

Despite the general rise in costs, the sector has barely increased prices. “We can’t raise them much more because people don’t have more money and consumption has decreased,” Rúa explains. The party continues, but people drink less and spread it out more throughout the day, with the New Year’s Eve afternoon celebrations gaining popularity year after year.

Among the venues still committed to late nights, Sala Zennet and Ítaca are facing the end of the year with “sold out” signs up for days. This is confirmed by Javier Mori, one of the managers of both spaces, who explains that advance sales are closed and both venues are at capacity. “Zennet has been sold out for weeks, and Ítaca closed just recently,” he notes.

Tickets include party favors and drinks, with prices tiered according to the number of drinks: at Zennet, from €30 with one drink to €60 with six, and at Ítaca, between €20 and €48. These prices, he emphasizes, remain the same as last year. “We didn’t want to raise prices,” he points out, despite the general increase in costs in the sector.

The complete sell-out necessitates meticulous organization. There will be no tickets at the door, and both security personnel and access control will be reinforced to expedite entry and avoid queues. “We want people to get in quickly and comfortably,” explains Javier, who acknowledges the added difficulties Ítaca faces due to its location in the old town.

Even so, he speaks of pride in continuing to be a landmark of Pontevedra’s nightlife and in maintaining two venues with their own distinct identities. “Each place has its own clientele and atmosphere. Our goal is to offer the best possible experience so that people start the year off right and want to come back,” he summarizes. Interestingly, at Sala Zennet, there’s still one last option: a VIP area next to the DJ booth, with a capacity for 15 people and a price of 1,000 euros, the only way to get into the club on New Year’s Eve.

Tonete Fernández, of Pub Moncloa, takes a slightly different approach, where adapting to new consumption habits has shaped this year’s strategy. “I had planned to offer an open bar, which is what was popular, but many people asked me for cheaper tickets because they didn’t want to drink so much,” he explains.

The result has been a ticket price of €14 with one drink, €20 for two drinks, €30 for four, and €40 for six. “People are buying the €30 ticket a lot,” he acknowledges, after sales have been boosted in recent days mainly through social media, with no distinction between advance and door tickets. “Last year we had tickets for €10, but we’ve had to raise the price to €14,” Fernández adds.

Tonete agrees that open bars and pub crawls are a thing of the past and points directly to the rise of afternoon drinks as the biggest change in recent years. “On Christmas Eve, the afternoon was packed, but the atmosphere died down at night,” he recalls. Last year, he even made more money on New Year’s Eve afternoon, a trend he hopes to repeat this year.

At Pub La Pomada, the situation is similar to Pub Moncloa, although in their case, there are no advance sales. According to its manager, entry is purchased at the door for 15 euros and includes one drink, while prices remain the same as every weekend.

One thing that seems clear, and on which many bar owners agree, is that classic sights like open bars or the morning-after churros with hot chocolate are no longer possible.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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