@benbarclay
Translator and textbook writer. Post on climate, energy, health, Spain, Brexit and other stuff. Produce VoiceMap audio tours of Andalucía: https://voicemap.me/publisher/ben-barclay#tours https://andalucia-bound.com @andalucia-bound.bsky.social
Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies.
www.ft.com/content/ac77...
He's still got it.
Screenshot of a CNN post on X. Text: The US economy lost 92,000 jobs last month, far worse than expected. Photo of a construction site.
Trump’s economy is failing.
Strangely enough, there was one done in the style of a Neapolitan nativity scene in the cathedral in Jerez.
Time series plot depicting predicted Nino 3.4 region ocean temperature anomalies from the latest (Mar 2026) ECMWF ensemble. It depicts an extremely rapid rise in such temperatures, from modest negative anomalies to strong positive anomalies, by mid-summer 2026--indicative of a transition from weak-moderate La Nina conditions to moderate-strong El Nino conditions over just a few months.
Whew.
All signs are increasingly pointing to a significant, if not strong to very strong, El Niño event. I'll have more to say in coming weeks & months, but for now I'll just say that this is increasingly likely to become a major regional-to-global climate driver in 2026-2027.
After the Lola Flores flamenco centre, which tells the story of one of the great show-women of her age - singer, dancer, actress, TV personality, astute businesswoman and celeb - and a quick lunch, the cathedral. An unusual mix of Gothic, Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classical.
🚨🚨 Absolutely revolting and disgusting. The cesspit and moral corruptness of the current #trump regime and his #maga supporters seem bottomless. There are no words left to describe it. 👇
Thanks for the recommendations. They’ll have to wait for our next visit, which I hope will be quite soon. We’ll definitely be doing some more visits to Cadiz province over the coming year.
Other interesting pieces include a medieval alabaster relief made in England, and a ceramic dish featuring a unicorn and a choir stall from the early modern period.
It can be hard to find traces of the Visigoths, but these bronze funerary brooches show fine workmanship, and there’s also a stone sarcophagus from the same period.
Lots of lovely pieces from Classical Antiquity, including a Greek helmet and a Roman bronze inscription.
If you have a classical education, you can practice your Latin.
Another day, and more sights to see. These 2-3rd millennium BC idols at the archaeological museum are amazing.
I have to specify even further:
The Israelis are even telling people which roads to take. That’s why there are two colours.
There is mass panic
If the UK starts developing North Sea oil and gas now, it will add a minuscule amount compared with what has been lost - in several years’ time.
I agree CCS and hydrogen is mainly a distraction, but so is North Sea O&G.
Disappointing from Jackson. As he himself says, prices are set globally. The only way to decouple is to reduce the number of hours that gas sets electricity prices, and transition heating away from gas and transport away from oil.
On the one hand, a clearly deranged lunatic in the White House starting a dangerous illegal war on Iran with already-serious repercussions for the region and world...
Or having a pop at Keir Starmer.
You just knew which side the Right would come down on.
*day*
One other thing we did was Clive Muir’s great VoiceMap tour of Jerez, which took us on an interesting route through town and gave us a bit more insight into its history and culture, including flamenco and sherry.
Tipping it down as I write, accompanied by thunder and (presumably) lightning.
But after all the storms, we had 2 or 3 weeks of beautiful winter weather until a few days ago.
Looks fascinating! San Sebastian is still on our to do list, but when we make it that far we’ll definitely go to San Telmo.
You should! We feel like we’re finally getting our heads around it as a drink and what it pairs well with.
Really beautiful, and with a great audio tour which helped you to understand how it had evolved over the thousand years of its history.
And a steal at 5€.
😂😂
Not compared with Granada 🥵
But great, yes. We’re really enjoying Jerez, which we haven’t been to in donkeys, and Sanlucar we’re going back to on this trip. El Puerto de Santa María we’ve somehow managed to miss out (been to Cadiz quite a few times), but will be one of our next trips.
No, unfortunately that will have to wait for another trip. We’re going to a flamenco performance tomorrow night as part of the annual flamenco festival and have quite a few things on our programme before that.
Have you been? If so, thoughts?
A few more photos from a great dat in Jerez.
Trump to Rubio: "Your next one is gonna be Cuba. He's waiting but he says, 'Let's get this one finished first.' We could do them all at the same time, but bad things happen."
Great people.
As an added curiosity, he had done a Voicemap tour in Spain somewhere, although not one of ours.
Will listen to their music when we get back home.
Went out for some wine and tapas and were asked to watch someone’s bag while they went to the loo. Ended up chatting and it turned out she and her friend were fado singers from Portugal.
We’re now invited to authentic fado in Lisbon and they’re invited to the flamenco festival in Granada.
Final tourist sight of the day was the gorgeous cloister of the former Santo Domingo convent.
