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

[Correction: It was, of course, the English and Dutch fleets which destroyed Spanish and French ships in San Simón Bay in 1702. The French fleet didn’t, in fact, destroy its own ships.]

Hmm . . . Spain’s deadliest train crash in more than a decade has prompted scrutiny of allegations that Transport ministry funds were spent on prostitution and corruption.

Worryingly, it’s reported that there are 15 more sections of the relevant train track where there are soldered joints like the one that sundered recently, causing a derailment and 45 deaths.

It’s very good news that Spain’s unemployment rate has fallen from 14 to 10% in the last 17 years, though this is still high by EU standards. I wondered if many of the new jobs were going to extra Tax Office staff needed to investigate the numerous corruption cases but employee numbers have, in fact, stayed static at 25-26,000.

The not-so-good news is that the WHO no longer regards Spain as a country in which measles has been eradicated. You can surely guess why.

Nor is it good news – except for the bastards in the business – that the Atlantic ocean, says Interpol, has seen un crecimiento sin precedentes del narcotráfico.

On a lighter note . . . . Pontevedra’s adopted flower – The Japanese camellia.

As I put a foot on O Burgo bridge this morning, I was hit by an almost-gale-force wind and sheeting rain. As I put a foot off the bridge 2 minutes later, they both stopped dead. I felt targetted by a god I don´t believe in. . .

The UK

Unusual optimism from AEP: Britain is on the cusp of an economic boom.

The USA

See today’s earlier post – Trumplandia.

Quote of the Day

Re journalism . . . The cost of AI swill is almost nothing. That of writers, prohibitive.

Spanish

• Invernadero: Greenhouse.
• Sarampión: Measles.
• Cetárea/Cetaria: Shellfish pond/farm for keeping live shellfish like lobsters, oysters, or mussels.
• Cetaría: The ‘base Spanish’ form of cetárea.
• Epopeya: Epic, saga

English

Hefty bag. US English for ‘bin bag’. I think.

Did you know?

Alexander Pope made use of every scrap of paper that offered a clean surface — nearly the entire first draft of his translation of the ‘Iliad‘ was written on the backs of envelopes, bills, miscellaneous letters, and stray bits of paper. Jonathan Swift suggested that other writers might turn this to their advantage: They could print their own works in editions with wide margins, lend these to “paper-sparing Pope,” wait for him to fill in the spaces with poetry — and then sell this as their own.

You Have to Laugh

I wonder how many men over 50 get – every time they use YouTube – a video in which a lovely young woman shows how her overweight and much older husband has become – thanks to just 7 minutes a day of tai chi – a veritable Adonis. You’d have to be really stupid to believe it. Or desperate.

Finally . . .

After a long lay-off, reader and fellow blogger Noèmi has posted this, on Barcelona’s hidden gems. Noémi is a regular reader. Well, really a periodic binge-reader. Though I’m not sure all 5-7 posts are actually read, as they’re timed very close together. Either way, I much appreciate her interest and am very happy to cite her well-written posts.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

I must now have received over 200 email notifications about the closure of a non-existent Cloud account. Has my address been sold 200+ times to one person, or to 200+ separate would-be fraudsters?

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.

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 there.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.