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 Train Crash

• This seems like a good review of current information.
• As is usual. the finger of blame is immediately being pointed at someone way down the line from the head honchos responsible for safety. Though not a driver this time. Hence the audio leaks.
• Given what I’ve said about Renfe’s web page over the years, it wasn’t surprising to see this comment from a Spanish user of the Renfe app: I’m buying an AVE ticket on the Renfe app. It’s still so bad that it’s hard not to suspect corruption. If they can’t even develop a simple mobile app, how are they supposed to manage critical systems for train traffic? Both sister companies (Adif/Renfe) are in need of radical changes.

Trivia

• From Mark Stücklin: Five way to make your garden look more appealing to Spanish prospective buyers.

Local News

• The Diario de Pv says Nearly a thousand tourists will arrive in Marín [a nearby suburb] tomorrow aboard a British ocean liner. The is only the 2nd cruise ship to call there in the last decade—the previous one being in 2024. Possibly because I was in the UK for 6 months, I don’t recall that first visit of a cruise ship and I’m hoping that everyone who gets off stays in Marín or goes to either Santiago de Compostela or the quaint nearby port of Combarro.

The Middle East/West Asia War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. ‘Insane’ post election plans.

The United States of Trump America

A British view of Trump, from writer Nate White. It’s possibly shared by many (US) Americans. You can hear it spoken – in a British accent – here:-

Trump lacks certain qualities that the British have traditionally valued. He has no class, no charm, no composure, no authority, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no modesty, no honour, and no dignity.

Although Trump may look ridiculous, he has never said anything ironic, funny, or even remotely witty. Not once. And I mean that literally. To the British, a complete absence of humor is almost a form of inhumanity. But in Trump’s case, it is a fact. He doesn’t even understand what a joke is. To him, a joke is a crude attack, an illiterate insult, or an act of casual cruelty. Just look at his endless obsession with someone’s backside.

Trump resembles a troll. He never laughs sincerely; he merely squeals with delight or mockery. And what is even more frightening is that he doesn’t just deliver crude and stupid insults — he actually believes this is perfectly normal. His mind is a primitive algorithm of petty prejudices and instinctive malice. There is no irony, complexity, nuance, or depth in him. Everything is superficial. We can see that he has no inner world, no soul. He is soulless.

In Britain, we have traditionally sided with David rather than Goliath. Our heroes have always been courageous underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither courageous nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite. He isn’t even merely a spoiled rich boy or a greedy fat cat. He is more like a giant white slug, a privileged Jabba the Hutt.

And worse still, he is a bully. Yet when surrounded by other bullies, he instantly transforms into a grovelling servant. He always punches down — something a gentleman would never do. And he takes particular pleasure in attacking those who are most vulnerable, defenceless, and already lying on the ground.

That is why the fact that a substantial minority of Americans — perhaps a third — look at him, listen to him, and think, ‘Yes, he’s my kind of guy!’ is a source of enormous astonishment and alarm to the British. Because it is impossible to read even one of his tweets or listen to more than a few sentences without feeling the ground open beneath your feet.

He has turned mediocrity into an art form. He is the Picasso of pettiness, the Shakespeare of shit. His flaws are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on to infinity. There have always been plenty of stupid people in the world, and no shortage of wicked ones. But for stupidity to be so wicked, and wickedness so stupid — that is something truly rare.

Compared with him, Nixon looks trustworthy, and George W. Bush looks intelligent. If Frankenstein decided to create a monster made entirely of human flaws, he would create Trump. And then the horrified Dr. Frankenstein would scream in despair: ‘My God, what have I done?!’

And if idiocy were a television series, Trump would be its entire set.

Spanish

• Maniatar; To tie the hands of. To handcuff
• Manjar: Delicacy. Treat.
• Tieso: Stiff, rigid, hard. Lenox Napier tells me it’s also slang for ‘skint/penniless’. Perplexity adds ‘shocked/stunned’, ‘frozen stiff’, and ‘formal/uptight’.

Finally . . . ‘English‘ names

• Another South American/Caribbean forename – Onedollar.
• And this is an an article on this practice in The Canary Islands

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.