Colin Davies

13 October 2026

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’

NB: If there’s a RV in brackets after a (paywalled) link, you might be able to read it via a Reader View extension to your browser, avoiding the paywall. If there is no RV, it will mean that the article is free to view or listen to. If there’s RV2, it means a second click on RV might let you see the article though the first RV click didn’t work.

Cosas de España/Galiza

The Supreme Court has ruled against the Grandkids Law that would add almost 200,000 to the electorate. On to the Constitutional Court? BTW: If such a law were enacted in Ireland, I could vote there but not here in Spain where I live. . . .

Spain is generally regarded as one of the world’s safest country. Yet, it’s reported to have 3 times as many home alarms installed than Italy and Germany. And 50% more than the UK. One wonders why. The figure is 20% of homes here. Norway, Denmark, Ireland and Sweden head the list, ranking above Spain.

There’s a lovely mansion for sale in Pv province, where . . . One of the most notable filming projects took place in 1999, when it was used as one of the locations for the miniseries Camino de Santiago, directed by Robert Young. The production featured a cast that included Anthony Quinn and Charlton Heston. Going for a song -‘Less than a million euros’.

After 26 years, I finally got my foto on the local press, when attending lunch with the Porcos Bravos and the Sheffield Stags. The latter are, of course, known here as Los Esheffield Estags. I actually tried to avoid it but the photographer’s lens was wider than I thought and caught me at the edge.

Europe/The EU

Allegedly . . . Unrest across Europe is the result of the collapse of the social contract.

The United States of Trump America

Trump’s genius might lie in realising that a substantial proportion of the US populace is as scummy as he is. Hence his boast about shooting someone in 5th Avenue.

No surprise that Karoline Levitt’s successor is a mad conspiracy theorist.

Kurt Andersen is wrong to think no one is doing satire in the US these days. This chap’s posts are so close to the bone that I have difficulty believing they they aren’t genuine reports of the activities of Trump et al. I particularly liked the one about Hesgeth introducing anal hymen tests.

Relevant Books

  • Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest
  • To be published in October. Can be pre-ordered now: Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy. On Amazon or here. This is not simply a book about Trump. He is the vessel, not the disease – the product of a system decades in the making, fueled by powerful interests, weakened democratic institutions, and a media ecosystem that too often chose access and complicity over accountability. The book confronts the defining questions of our time: How did we get here? Why did so many institutions fail when they were needed most? And what must we do now to defend democracy before it is too late?
  • The final pages of Kurt Andersen’s fascinating run through the USA’s history – Fantasyland: How America went haywire. A 500 year history.
  • Profiles in Cowardice, by Jacob Weisberg. Cited in this podcast.

Russia

Spanish

  • Concurso: Insolvency proceedings
  • A raiz de: As a result of
  • Alzamiento: Uprising. rebellion, revolt, insurrection.

English

Newfangled: Used to mean, back in the 15th century, obsessed with new things, fickle, changeable.

Did you know?

The oddness of the first telephone directory.

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

Probably not this winter’s fashion . . .

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

The Usual Links

This – from veteran blogger Lenox Napier – is an excellent weekly newsletter (Business Over Tapas) on all matters Spanish. Indispensable for those who needs insights on how and why things happen here.

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. And on Substack here. 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. And this, on the annual costs of owning property here.

Leave a Reply