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

A questionable way to fund pension payments?

I’m not sure how I feel about being monitored to this extent. Will the police eventually get real-time access to the information, I wonder?

Back in 1979, the government told the Catholic Church that state-financing of it would come to an end quite soon, with government funds ceasing to flow in its direction, as the Church became self-financing. But funds still do flow. The mechanism is via the ticking of a box on your tax return, allowing a small percentage of your contribution to be diverted to the Church. Nine million taxpayers ticked this last year, resulting in quite a tidy sum.

A turn-up for the books? . . . A bullring boss has been placed under investigation after a retired matador was fatally gored while working behind the scenes on Good Friday.

Hmm. Just when I thought summer was approaching . . . A polar blast of Icelandic air is set to bring a snowy cold snap to Spain, as temperatures plummet by 10 degrees this weekend

Did I tell you I am no fan of notaries? These were invented, as civil servants, in 1803 by Napoleon and brought to Spain when the French effectively took over the country not long after. Yesterday, I met with one to sign a Power of Attorney for my older daughter. Naturally, it involved the notary indulging in the 19th – if not 18th – century practice of reading the escritura out loud. I did think I’d get away with just one visit to the notary’s office – involving a 40 minute wait for his appearance – but, no, I had to go back today to get the escritura, after he’d added his stamp and signature to the one I appended yesterday. And to pay his extortionate bill, of course.

BTW 1. . . I gave my daughter an UK PoA a few years ago. Compared with the Spanish process, it was unbelievably easy. And cost almost nothing. I’m a tad biased but – as I might have said – I’d keep all the lawyers and kill all the notaries.

BTW 2: Before signing the escritura, I’d told 2 Spanish friends I’d be doing this. They both vehemently told me not do so, as they both knew of kids using a PoA to throw a parent into the street. The Galician friend quoted – 3 or 4 times – the saying: No pongas a tus hijos por poderes; el tocino no se le quita al cerdo hasta que se muere. They clearly thought I was being extremely foolish.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism.

The United States of Trump America

Quote by Marco Rubio: Iran’s leaders are insane in the brain. Well, he – of all people – would surely recognise someone with this problem, if he came across one.

Trump, say these folk, has thrown Rubio into the wood-chipper and will chuck Vance into it soon. Podcast Video

Anyone who’s followed Trump’s career for 10 years or more won’t be surprised at anything he says or does, even though if he were a character in a dystopian novel he’d be impossible to regard as credible. So, what does that say about the USA and its electorate? This article – The Vanity President – provides some very apt descriptions of the deranged man-child.

Other Commentaries

Self-dealing and self-deluding are 2 sides of Trump and his ilk.

The degradation of the politicised Department of Justice.

Does anyone recall that the ballroom that the beleaguered president is obsessed with was going to cost $2-300m and be paid by billionaire friends of his? And that this then became $400m? But is now 1 billion dollars, to be provided by taxpayers. And does anyone know what happened to the contributions made towards the initial cost? A relevant podcast . . . Trump’s ballroom saga takes a brutal turn for the Republicans.

See below under The Usual Links for commentators I follow via podcasts or YouTube videos

The Way of the World

Today’s reality on YouTube . .. . An ad being delivered by podcast presenters was interrupted by a machine-delivered ad for a tai chi program – one of 100 I’m currently getting every day.

Spanish

• Le cayó encima algo: Something fell on top of him/her
• Haptic: Relating to the sense of touch
• Caber: To fit. BUT: The simple past: Ayer cupimos todos en el coche. Yesterday we all fitted in the car.

English

A failed 1786 attempt ar spelling reform.

Did you know about?

The Gong Show . . .

You Have to Laugh

During a chat about birth control . . . The priest extracted a small flask from his pocket, and poured a generous measure into the cup. ‘Seriously,’ he said, ‘this venial sin—mortal sin business is old hat. All sins are mortal sins. Or, to put it another way, all sins are venial sins. What matters is love. The more love, the less sin. I was preaching at a men’s retreat the other day, and I told them, better sleep with a prostitute with some kind of love than with your wife out of habit. Seems some of them took me at my word, and the bishop is rather cross.

Finally . . .

I rise every day at 6am. At 7, two things happen:-

• 1. On weekdays. the lights come on in the large Xunta building in the Campo Longo barrio of Pv city, and
• 2. The web page of Venice Classic Radio turns from dark to light. (If you want background classic music, this is a good site. Better than the one from Switzerland. And you avoid being bothered by ads, as on, say, Spotify.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

Quite some time ago, I used to enjoy using the table in the snooker room in my grandparents’ pub (Spanish paf*) near the entrance to the road tunnel under the river Mersey. Since then, snooker has become a TV favourite, especially in China, which now supplies many of the world’s best players. Including the one who’s just one the World Championship. An AI answer: In China, for the final, Wu Yize’s win exceeded 40m views on line. This plus TV numbers might have topped 100m at key moments. Impossible to have imagined all those years ago.

* Your guess is as good as mine . . .

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

The Usual Links . . .

The US commentators I follow, all on Podbean and/or YouTube for free:-

• The Daily Beast Podcast/Video
• Inside Trump’s Head Podcast/Video
• The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent Podcast
• The Rest is Politics US Podcast/Video
• The DSR Network Podcast
• The Politics Girl Video. Amusing
• The Daily Show Video. Very amusing

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 X at Thoughts from Galicia. I no longer post 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.