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

I think the ‘real’ president of Venezuela has been in Madrid for some time. So, it’s no great surprise that the Spanish PM has offered to mediate between whomsoever and whomsoever. Given what Trump has said about Spain, the chances of this happening must surely be slim.

Mark Stücklin says here that [well-intentioned] politicians have effectively outlawed mid-term rentals in Cataluña. Which is probably not a good thing, even if they think it is.

This is a chart on youth unemployment in the EU. I couldn’t find it when I wrote about this yesterday or the day before.

Of course, it was hiding in plain sight, on my desktop . . .

There was quite a police presence in Pv city’s old quarter midday yesterday. I guessed this was to prevent spats between supporters of 2 local football teams – possibly Pv FC and Vigo’s Celta B team. In fact, it was Pv against Ferrol. There were no reports of trouble this morning, possibly because Pv FC won.

My salón looks out not only over several gardens but also over the entire city of Pontevedra. So, I’m used to seeing all sorts of birds flying back and forth. And many greenfinches on my bird feeder, now they’ve driven off the sparrows. So, it was a shock early this morning to suddenly realise there wasn’t a single bird visible. Not the recently-arrived robin, nor the blackbirds and the greenfinches. Not even a bloody magpie, wood pigeon or seagull. And this was the situation all morning. Perplexity pointed the finger at the weather as a factor, suggesting they’d all taken shelter because of a change. Especially if it was cloudy and damp, as Galicia can be. But it wasn’t; it was sunny, That said, the North wind had caused a significant drop in the temperature and was blowing quite strongly. So, maybe they were all just relaxing in the trees, as there were no insects abroad to feed on. That or there’s been a very active cat or two. Or an avian plague. Time will tell, I guess.

The USA and Venezuela.

See the 3 posts I’ve already published today and the one I’ll be publishing quite soon.

Spanish

I see that Spanish options for ‘therefore’ include entonces, desde luego, en consecuencia, consecuentemente, consiguientemente, por tanto/lo tanto/ello/esto/eso/todo ello/ende/todo eso/comsguiente/esta razón/este motivo, así pues and asi que. None of these devolve from the Latin word ‘igitur’ which appears in the (drinking) song I cited yesterday. In fact: No modern language has a word derived from “igitur”. This has been traced to Indo-European roots but it didn’t evolve into a word in any Romance language, such as Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or Romanian. Which is a tad surprising.

English

Most native English speakers use ‘may’ and ‘might’ interchangeably, as if they had an identical meaning. But this is wrong. The first denotes permission and the second denotes possibility.
As in:-

• You may leave now.
• He might come tomorrow.

That said, only pedants know the rule. And even they make mistakes. Me included. So, I guess it doesn’t matter. And my daughters would scoff at me for even mentioning this .

You Have to Laugh

Finally . . .

Over a thousand years ago, in 9th century Baghdad, some chap described the ideal woman thus: Most people who know about women agree in preferring the ‘majdula’, that is to say the type of woman intermediate between fat and thin. Her figure must be elegant and shapely, her shoulders symmetrical and her back straight; her bones must be well covered, and she must be neither too plump nor too skinny. The word ‘majdula’ conveys the notion of tautness, of firm flesh without superfluous fat. A graceful walk is the most beautiful thing about a woman, and she cannot walk gracefully if she is portly, fat and overburdened with flesh. Indeed, a ‘majdula’ is more often slim, and her slenderness is her best-known feature; this is considered preferable both to a fat, corpulent woman and to a thin, skinny woman … A ‘majdula’ is described in prose by the words: the upper part of her body is a stem and the lower part a sand-dune. I can’t say I understand the last sentence.

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The Usual Links . . .

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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.