Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 8.6.20

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.   

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*

The Bloody Virus

• Oh, dear. Iran has been swamped by a second wave after its lockdown eased to save jobs. And folks were beginning to think this wouldn't happen anywhere.

Life in Spain

• Here's El País, in English, with info on Phase 3 of the de-escalation, which most of us have entered today.
• María's Comeback Chronicle, Market Day.
• HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for the visual treats here, here and here.
• That appointment . . . I got through on the 2nd call this morning and learnt that the smaller residence 'card' that replaces the A4 paper 'certificate' some of us foreigners have is only made of paper too, not plastic. So less useful/durable than the laminated reduced-size document I had a copistería make for me. So, I won't be following up on that. Especially as sometime after the end of this year, we Brits will get a new type of card. Let's hope it's made of plastic.

 UK

• Political observers say a phenomenon - 'the switch' - occurs in the life of every government. Before this, everything goes right for it. After this point, nothing does. This seems to have happened sooner than usual with Boris Johnson's administration. Which has already built an unenviable reputation for incompetence and bad-faith. 

The USA

• Quote of the weekend: America is a tinderbox and Trump is playing with matches. Someone — Joe Biden? — must take them off him.
• Randy Rainbow does his stuff here - The Bunker Boy

The Way of the World

• How things have changed . . . At the Hague Congress in May 1947, each of the 800 or so participants received a souvenir packet of cigarettes bearing the official colours of the event as a gift from the Dutch authorities

Finally . . .

• Said someone recently**: If you have music in your soul, you are Spanish. Or at least Hispanic.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.

** After a spontaneous post-prandial fiesta yesterday in the garden of my neighbours, Amparo and (Nice but Noisy) Toni.