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

Writes Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas . . The Government is keen to sign the  Ley de Nietos, where grandchildren of émigrés, particularly those who escaped Spain after the Civil War, should be given Spanish nationality and voting rights.  Once again I say: there are 7 million foreign residents living and paying taxes in Spain who have no representation.  

Annie Bennett says this is how Spaniards behave on the beach. As I don’t do beaches, I don’t know if it’s accurate or not but my daughter says it ‘pretty much’ is. Click here for other nationalities, by different writers . . . It starts early in the morning, before the heat sets in. A steady procession of people, weighed down with umbrellas, windbreaks,  cool boxes, formica tables and canvas chairs, plods along the sand to their chosen spot to set up camp. The extended family is crammed into an apartment or villa nearby, the same one every year. It sounds like a lot of faff, but when you are doing it every day for at least a month, it becomes a slick routine. A fire gets lit to make a big pot of coffee and Tupperware boxes full of croissants and slabs of cake come out. About an hour later, it’s bocadillo time, with hefty baguettes stuffed with jamón, tortilla or chorizo. You don’t want to risk anyone fainting before lunch. In dribs and drabs, the rest of the family party arrives, often comprising 5 generations with in-laws, cousins and others who aren’t actually relatives. Bronzed teenagers shriek as they play with bats and balls by the shore, then collapse giggling on to sunloungers, squinting to see their phone screens in the glare. Aunties and grandmas stand thigh-deep in the water, floppy hats on, fans fluttering and muttering: “Qué calor por favor”. The fathers get far too competitive building complicated sandcastles with the smaller children. Uncles and grandpas, often sporting magnificent paunches, tanned over the years to a deep mahogany, preside over the huge paella pan that has been set over the fire. There’s a bucket full of ice jammed with bottles of beer. Someone – no one knows who invited them – has made a big jug of tinto de verano. The afternoon slips into evening between swims, siestas and dashes across the hot sand to the beach bar for ice creams. No one thinks of moving until the sun is going down and talk turns to where they’re going for dinner.

After a winter of terrible rains and a spring with quite a few days of the stuff, it’s a bit galling to be told that reservoir levels are rapidly reducing and that pre-draught measures are now in place. Maybe we need bigger reservoirs. Or more of them.

There’s a roundabout at a T junction I negotiate twice a day at the moment, when taking my grandson to his football ‘camp’ and picking him up. The approach to it is 2-lane, with a right turn arrow and a straight-ahead arrow for those of us actually turning left. Yesterday, the guy in the right-turn lane ignored the arrow and turned left, in front of me. I wouldn’t mention this (honest!) except the driver was a driving school instructor. Which explains a lot. Of course, I was prepared for him to do what he did and so didn’t crash into him.

We’re still without water in the house, as we wait for a toilet wall to be knocked through and the leak behind it repaired. Still, I’m not looking at the €14,000 my neighbour has just had to pay because neither the council nor her insurance company was prepared to finance repair of the terrace damaged by a leak in her main water pipe just outside her main gate.

The World Cup

VAR has stolen the show, says this NT Post writer. Many will agree.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. A desperate Trump lashes himself to the Strait of Hormuz mast. [Maybe that sentence should end on ‘himself’ ].

The United States of Trump America

Quotes

Trump

• We will control the Strait of Hormuz and charge a 20% toll. [Another fever dream]

Others

• The original Narcissus came to his end in a reflecting pool. So . . .

The FT looks at Trump’s self-enrichment.

David Rothkopf gives here his (not-very-nuanced) view of the recently deceased Lindsay Graham.

And Paul Krugman here talks about Trump’s unnerving mental breakdown.

Kurt Anderson: (US)America is now a nation where every individual is gloriously free to construct any version of reality he or she devoutly believes to be true. (US)American Christianity in the 21st century resembles the version of one of the 17th century’s extreme Puritans. The century of God-crazed Puritans and gold-crazed Virginians. Forerunners, obviously.

Spanish

• Hacer el ridículo: To be/look ridiculous. To make a fool of.
• Poner el broche: To top it all off/put the finishing touch/put the cherry on it.
• Poner el broche de oro: To round off. To put the finishing touch(es).

English

The origin of some everyday phrases.

Did you know?

How to stay cool without Air/Con. 20 practical ideas.

You Have to Laugh

A very tatty stuffed badger on sale at Sunday’s flea market in Pv city.

Finally . . .

I attended an usual concert in Pv city last night, given by a group of 5 hurdy-gurdy players, one of them very young. I took a video for you but I don’t pay enough to WordPress to be able to upload it here. So, here’s the first example of Spanish hurdy-gurdy playing that came up on You Tube. The title is in Spanish but the lady is more likely French, albeit with a Spanish mother. Her 2nd one is more appealing.

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 there.

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