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

Spain’s train services and track providers are – understandably – being examined under a microscope. It’s pointed out that budgets have been significantly increased but even before the recently crashes we were experiencing speed limitations and delays between Galicia and Madrid. Sackings are being called for but are unlikely to happen,

Locally, there’s beeen total chaos, with all trains to and from Vigo being cancelled both yesterday and today, possibly because of the risk of falling rocks.

Today we’ve had a bit of a respite from rain – even some sun – but a new storm – called Marta – arrives tomorrow and will hang around until next Wednesday. The cause of this exceptional rain is said to be the Azores High deviating from its usual position. Which is naughty of it. And let’s hope it doesn’t do it again.

There’s been a bit of scandal at the EU offices in Brussels. The canteen there offered what it was said was Octopus Galician Style. But it clearly wasn’t in said style – i.e. drenched in olive oil and paprika. Worse, it wasn’t even octopus but squid! The Galician armed forces have had to be retrained from marching into Belgium.

Talking of food . . . This is how cocido is made in Madrid, with a base of chickpeas. These don’t feature in Galicia’s (more famous) cocido, which feature kilos of our fine potatoes.

Moving on to drink . . . Nice to see a Galician bodega appears in this list of the 5 best Spanish wineries to visit. It wouldn’t be my choice, though.

The new commercial centre in O Vao that I pass 4 times a day . . . The forecast for the opening is still ‘next summer’. Which these days could mean September, as it’s now included in the ‘high season’ category. With appropriate prices. Anyway, yesterday I saw that a crane was lowering massive slabs, as side panels for one of the buildings. One of these had a diagonal crack in it and I wondered if it would be replaced. But not so far. Which is a tad worrying.

The UK

The UK PM is not as inviolate as Trump . . . The Epstein scandal has shaken the British government to its core. Anger at the former US ambassador’s relations with Epstein threatens to topple the prime minister. . . Internal Labour party critics accuse him of lacking a political and intellectual core, enabling others to manipulate him to their own ends. As with Trump, I guess. But, in Starmer’s case, on borrowed time. Trump, on the other hand, can continue to damage the USA and, indeed, the world despite very low approval ratings. Which says a lot about US democracy.

Quite a lot of folk find the winner in this list to be rather odd . . . Click bait?

Europe

The Epstein files shed light on Steve Bannon’s efforts to influence European politics.

The USA

See my earlier Trumplandia post.

Some interesting observations on the difference between US and UK humour here.

The Way of the World

Another dumb influencer kills himself.

Spanish

• Monopatín: Skateboard
• Perfil: Profile
• Ponerse de perfil: To stand side on. To turn a blind eye.
• Mojado: Wet, soaking wet.
• Llueve sobre mojado: It never rains but it pours.

English

Civ-nat: Short for civic nationalist. Someone who subscribes to the ideology of civic nationalism, which emphasizes national identity based on shared citizenship and political values rather than ethnicity or culture. This form of nationalism promotes freedom, tolerance, and equality among all citizens, regardless of their backgrounds. Some say this can be taken too far, to the detriment of the previous national culture.

Did you know?

You can be killed by an alarm clock.

Which reminds me . . . I was woken last night by the loudest thunder clap I’ve ever heard. But I got back to sleep and achieved a total of 7 hours, which is 1 to 2 hours more than I usually get. What on earth can I conclude from that? That I need to be woken at 4am every night? Worth a try, I guess.

Finally . . .

Overnight visits to my blog were 30+ times more than usual, with most of these coming from the USA. As ever. I have no idea why, especially as there was nothing to do with sex in yesterday’s post. If only I were making money from the hits!

Finally . . . Finally .

In recent weeks, a typo not in my draft text has appeared several times after I’ve put it into WordPress text – the absence of a space between words. I detect most of these but sometimes miss one or two. Perplexity advises: Users report that spaces between words disappear when copying text into WordPress. So, not my fault. But I crave indulgence for my missing some of the typos.

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.