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/Galizat
The Diario de Pontevedra today agreed with yesterday’s The Corner that the general strike didn’t paralyse the country, but added that the Naval of Galicia was closed down. By which I think they mean the shipbuilding sector. There’s a left-of centre commentary from the USA here, where little stress is put on the failure of all governments to ensure supply kept up with highly increased supply. Which is the sensationalist way the media treats the issue, finding other guilty parties. Partly but not totally validly.
A propos . . . Down in Valencia: Desperate real estate agents are offering to pay hundreds of euros for tip-offs about homes to sell amid a worsening housing shortage there. Agents have contacted dozens of ex-clients, offering up to €1,000 for help in finding homes to put on the market. Agencies have traditionally paid caretakers and property managers for leads but payments are now spreading to private individuals. It comes as Valencia grapples with a severe shortage of homes for sale, with estate agents struggling to find enough properties to keep their businesses going. My daughter’s response to that comment: Yes, there was very little when I was looking. That’s why I made an offer on day 2
Fotos of the Plaza Mayor and a couple of Mudéjar-style buildings in Ocaña, near Toledo. Couldn’t post them via my phone on the day.
And this is one of the nicer buildings in the Cabanyal zone I mentioned. BTW . . . A friend of mine has written this excellent article about the zone/barrio.
And this is a view from my daughter’s flat on the edge of this zone. The one-storey little place on the right is called a tornería, which comes from the word for a screw and might mean something like tool-shop. Or (wood) turnery.
This is a foto of the Pv street I wrote about the other day, where most Caminoers insist on walking on the road on the right, ignoring the specially built pedestrian path on the left. Which now has to be modified. Albeit because of complaints from residents, not Caminoers.
After my car’s battery died at the toll booth yesterday, I spent a very frustrating 45 minutes or more trying to get roadside assistance from my insurance company. Inevitably, this meant calling a central number, ‘talking’ to a bot, entering numerous security codes, downloading an app and then vainly trying to get a tow-truck via said app, where I could find my healthcare policy but not my car policy. I was reminded of the challenge of dealing with Renfe. Modern life.
The Middle East/West Asia War
Who knows?
Trump USA
President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hard working man. This is what the short-tenured White House spokeswoman said of him after she’d been summarily chucked under a bus. Imagine how much of a fan she was before that happened. Which is why she got the job, I guess.
Spanish
- Banalizar: To trivialise, To vulgarise.
- Taller: Workshop of any sort
- Trazado: Stretch (of a road)
Did you know?/You Have to Laugh
Finally . . .
I’ve reported more than once on my atrocious luck with 4 laptops over the last 5 or 6 years, the latest problem being 3 or 4 non-performing keys, which used to be intermittent but is now permanent. Today, I resorted to buying a Bluetooth keyboard and can now type without immense frustration or without resorting to my phone. Which is possibly even more frustrating.
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.
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.
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 . . .
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.
