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

The estimable Mac75 tells us here about Spain’s ‘famous round cake for the epiphany’

Well, at least there won’t be rain on our Reyes parades . . . But it will be pretty cold.

I didn’t realise until this week that PV city has several low emission zones – ZBEs -and that these are very different from those I’m come up against recently – in Madrid, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia. It seems that here I don’t really need the windscreen sticker I got last week, and that the council is not fining anyone except ‘extreme offenders’. It’s approach is said to eschew bans and to allow access to any vehicle meeting “essential use” criteria, such as public transport, taxis, and emergency services. This leaves me confused about what risks, if any, I’m running by very occasionally entering the city out of necessity. Merely being stopped by the police and having my wrist slapped?? Given how officious the police normally are here, that sounds very un-Spanish. Vamos a ver.

Iran

Something huge is happening, says this young Persian woman. (Thanks, Perry). See also Richard North here and here. As he says: At the moment, the situation is far too volatile to make any predictions but if that opportunity is real, then there is a chance the world could soon become a better place

BTW . . . The king in exile is the son of the deposed ex-Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Worth remembering that the latter was an absolute – US supported – tyrant, with possibly the most vicious secret police – the Savak – in the world. At least until the Ayatollah’s force was put in place. Poor Iranians. Centuries of repression in a great country of wonderful people. Whose amazing history and culture the West is very largely ignorant of. I hope to return there one day, en route to Samarkand. After I’ve polished up my Farsi . . . And provided trump hasn’t nuked it out of existence.

AI

Lenox Napier asked Meta’s AI engine – available via FB – about himself and got a profile that at least had some accurate bits in it. I asked Meta about myself and got: I couldn’t find much info on a Colin Davies living in Spain. Having changed Spain to Galicia, I then got this nonsense: Galicia, España, eh? That’s a beautiful region! I still might need a bit more to go on, though. Colin Davies is a pretty common name, and there are lots of folks living in Galicia. What’s Colin up to? Is he a friend, family member, or someone you’ve seen around? Any specific interests or profession I could search for.? This rot compares with a long and accurate profile from Perplexity.

Spanish

• Subidón: High, rush, buzz, boost, burst, lift, uplift, etc.
• Gincana: Gymkhana, Treasure hunt.
• Tira y afloja: Back and forth. Tug of war. Give and take. Cut and thrust. Push and pull

Galician v Spanish.

The Diario de Pv tells us that: The Galician insult that’s among the most searched words of the last month is ‘papahostias’, which doesn’t exist in Spanish. It’s a very Galician word, full of nuances, that again demonstrates why Galician is such a rich language. The Royal Galician Academy gives 2 meanings:-

• 1. A person who exaggerates their religious acts or who has a hypocritical devotion.
• 2. A person who low intelligence and little malice, and is easy to deceive. Someone naive, unintelligent, easy to fool.

As with many Galician words, its meaning moves in an intermediate terrain that is difficult to transfer without losing nuances. The first meaning comes close to the Spanish words ‘meapilas’ (Holy Joe, prig, sanctimonious) or ‘santurrón’ (sanctimonious, gooddy-goody, creeping Jesus). But neither of these manages to condense all the senses, the tone and the cultural charge that ‘papahostias’ has in Galician. In its second meaning, it could approach the terms ‘papanatas’ (simpleton, goofball, sucker, clot) or ‘papamoscas’ (flycatcher).

Needless to say, I have no idea how true all this is.

Did you know?

• A sleep specialist says that spooning with your partner is the worst thing you can do when aiming for a good night’s rest. I suspect I could think of worse.
• More seriously . . . The Islamic schism between Sunnis and Shiites goes back to the 7th century. When, in 850, the Umayyads of the 3rd Caliphate were replaced by the Abbasids, the leader of the latter ordered Umayyad tombs to be dug up and destroyed; exhumed corpses were ‘scourged with whips and then crucified’; skulls were used as target practice until smashed into pieces before the remaining Umayyad family body parts were gathered together and burnt to ashes. Only one Umayyad survived – Abd al-Rahman I. He fled to Spain where he established in Córdoba an independent caliphate, which thrived until 1031, fostering a golden age of culture, science, and tolerance in al-Andalus.

Finally . . . The USA

So, Trump has initiated a special operation to invade a country under false pretences to gain control of its resources. . . Not at all like Adolf Hitler or Vladimir Putin, then . . .

Nice to learn from the his ‘presser’ ramble that, at the dead of night, it was dark.

And that the USA is now respected more than it has ever been before.

One wonders how many dollars were spent on bribes to Venezuelan insiders.

And how well the USA will ‘now run the country’ – for the good of the Venezuelans..

Honest of him to tell us that great US oil companies will be very involved in this task.

Best of all, we now know that the Monroe Doctrine has been replaced by the much better Donroe Doctrine. Geddit?

And nice to see Trump’s ramble end with the humongous lie that tariffs have made the US rich. By robbing Peter to pay Paul . . .

I had to switch off Hegseth after a few seconds of his warmongering madness, as I could taste bile rising. But I bet Putin, Xi and Kim Jon Un didn’t.

You couldn’t make it up. And no one would believe it as the plot of a novel.

As another coward put it . . . There are bad times are just around the corner.

Tempus fugit. Gaudeamus igitur.

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

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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.

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