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

An unusual map, which Lenox Napier points out will certainly be useful to cowboy towing companies. Question arising: Now that I have an emergency light, can I uninstall the AlertCops app?

There are only 30 women in Spain called Tareixa [Ta-rei-sha], which is Gallego for Teresa. Need I say that 70% of these are here in Galicia. Teresa is derived from the Greek ‘Theresia’, meaning “harvest” or related to summer.

I’ve mentioned that there is only a very low percentage of social housing here in Pv city, despite having a mayor of the Left for 25 years. In fact, there are now twice as many tourist residences as there are social properties. Which perhaps takes a bit of the shine off a city now famous – see numerous laudatory articles – as a model for the entire world.

Three Camino pilgrims seen on O Burgo bridge this cold, wet morning, well togged-up ahead of storm Goretti. Possibly from Siberia. The pilgrims I mean, not Goretti. Which is coming from the bloody Atlantic.

You’re marvelling at the efficiency of the prescription renewal service at your health centre – “The doctor will call you around 11.10 on 7 January” – when the doctor doesn’t call and the nice lady at the medical centre you now have to go back to says “Perhaps the doctor was away. Or Maybe she renewed it without calling you. You should go to a pharmacy and check. And come back for another phone appointment, if she hasn’t”. Fortunately, she had. So, not quite so efficient.

Which reminds me . . . Holiday time in Spain. I got my latest Private Eye mag today, c. 19 days after it had been mailed. Of course, there might well have been delays in the UK as well.

Venezuela

Amidst the plethora of reports and prognostications, some comments that have the ring of truth about them, from this article:-

• Maduro is gone, but his regime is intact. What happened behind the scenes?
• information available suggests that, after over a decade of tight cohesion around Maduro, his inner circle calculated they were better off without him and struck a deal with the Trump administration: Maduro in exchange for staying in power.
• María Corina Machado, in a bid to placate the US president, had earlier dedicated her peace prize to Trump. It didn’t work: “She doesn’t have the respect” of the country, Trump said.
• More likely, for Trump, Machado didn’t have the respect of the people who matter in a transition: military, police, institutions. 

The USA

Not much to laugh at today.

Assuming anything from Trump can shock you, you might just have this reaction to the blatant mendacity of his post re the killing by an ICE agent of a woman driver in Minnesota. Trump’s entire government appears to be a non-stop generator of lies. Swallowed whole, it seems, by more than 80 million US voters. These might well deserve a Trump administration but the remaining 150 million surely don’t. Can the latter bring this madness to an end? Will they in November?

I guess that ‘base’ is apt description of those who support Trump no matter what.

Here and here are podcast episodes giving insights into the Trump-Epstein relationship and their activities together in New York and elsewhere. Hard not to conclude that Trump will stop at nothing to prevent full publication of the files.

Spawn of the Devil . . . In an unhinged rant, Miller says the USA has the right to take over any country for its resources. Especially Greenland. See also here.

Enough is enough. See some US-boycotting suggestions at the end of this post. There must be more. Avoiding Amazon is a good start.

Spanish

• Albarán; Delivery nte. Packing slip. Receipt.
• Puré de guisantes: Mushy peas. The}y come with fish and chips in The North].
• Guisanes blandos: Ditto.

English

• I read this sentence in The Guardian, in an article doubtless from a US columnist: The board also dinged Trump for talking excessively about US interest in Venezuelan oil, “which sends a message that the US purpose is largely mercenary. I had to look up ‘dinge’; Merriam-Webster: To dinge’ exists as a rare English verb. It primarily means to make a dent or impression in something, or to make dingy. Dictionaires list it with senses such as denting an object or causing discoloration, though it’s uncommon in modern speech. I can’t see it meaning quite that in the Guardian’s sentence.
• ‘An act of domestic terrorism’: In the USA, appears to be any act on US soil disliked by Trump.
• ‘Traitor’: In the USA, appears to be any US citizen who says anything disliked by Trump.
• ‘Treason’: Guess.

Welcome to the 12th century.

Finally . . .

BOYCOTTING THE USA

I asked Perplexity if there was a list of non-US products and services as alternatives to US ones.

Yes, curated exist online compiling non-US products and services as alternatives to popular American ones. These focus on European, Canadian, or global options across tech, consumer goods, and more.

Key Resources

• GitHub repositories like “anitwek/alternatives-to-us” and “happysegfault/boycottusa” provide structured tables of non-US options.
• Tuta.com and dev.to articles highlight European alternatives to US tech giants.​

Tech Services

• Non-US messaging includes Threema (Switzerland), Wire (Germany), and Element (EU)
• Search engines like Qwant (France)
• Cloud storage such as Nextcloud (Germany) or Proton Drive (Switzerland).
• Video platforms feature PeerTube (France) and Dailymotion (France) as YouTube.​

Substitute Consumer Goods

• Household items like Colgate have Aquafresh or Zendium.
• Gillette alternatives include Bic (France) or Philips.
• Ketchup options beyond Heinz are Primo or Kagome (Japan).
• Coffee chains suggest Tchibo (Germany) or Espresso House (Sweden) over Starbucks.​

E-Commerce & Finance

• Platforms like Zalando (Germany), Bol.com (Netherlands), or Rakuten (Japan) rival Amazon.
• Payments use Wise (UK) or Klarna (Sweden).
• Delivery apps feature Bolt or Cabify in Europe instead of Uber

Specific enquiries:

• Several popular e-readers come from companies headquartered outside the US, offering alternatives to Amazon Kindle. These include options from Canada/Japan, China, Ukraine/Switzerland, and Russia, with strong availability in Europe including Spain. Models like Kobo and PocketBook integrate well with local libraries and support multiple languages, aligning with interests in non-US tech.
• Proton Mail stands out as the leading non-US alternative to Gmail, thanks to its strong privacy features and Swiss base.
• Tuta offers a compelling free option with end-to-end encryption from Germany.

Both suit users seeking ad-free experiences and EU data protections, aligning with preferences for non-US tech.

And I’ve just recalled that Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas told us about this site last week. Xataca has‘61 European alternatives to Google, X, Gmail,  Chrome, Maps, Dropbox, Google Drive, WhatsApp, and other popular services. We bring you the best European alternatives to the leading technology platforms and services for end users.’ 

Get changing!

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

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.