Amazingly, I have today had my first jab for coronavirus.
Stunned of Stockport just isn´t in it.
I had a phone call on Friday telling me to be at the local clinic at 1200 today - and there we go. No proof of identity or anything like that, no questions about health or meds, just a jab´n`go.
OK, it wasn´t quite as simple as that, but close.
Digression. Last week there were articles in the local press saying that they have jabbed all the over-80s that they can find, but know there are still some more out there.
Hmm - even I knew of a few.
Then people were calling me asking if I had been "done" as they knew of people around my age who had been called.
Next there was an article in an online-press-facebook for Mijas, wherein they suggested anyone over 80 should call one of a couple of phone numbers if they were still un-jabbed. Being a helpful soul, I contacted the two main miscreants and told them of it - not particulaty because over-80s may not be that "au fait" with the local press releases, but more as they are both in the privately-insured group and don´t have access to the spanish national health service - and that had become a real grey area in the roll-out.
One told me he had asked the administrator of his urbanisation to sort it out(!) and the other said his wife had registered him at the local "clinic" and had received a form saying he was duly registered.
OK. I did my bit.
Then it turns out that the administrator has managed to do something and said friend has a date and time for a jab. I called him yesterday, and he had been, found it all very professional, been jabbed, and was back in situ.
I think the other guy is still waiting.
I was a bit cautious about my call, especially suspicious about it being "on the hour" - and rightly so. G dropped me outside the local clinic at 5 minutes before the appointment. There were two or three people outside and a veritable scrum inside. Despite all the roped off seats and standing markers, there were more than 20 people in the waiting room - which under proper covid rules would probably take 10 at most. No one was in charge, but when I enquired of some of the others, everyone who was there for a jab had been told 12 o´clock..
There was a room with a nurse who came out occasionally with a piece of paper and called a name, also another room off the entrance where the nurse went from time to time. I had naively asked the person who ´phoned me about the appointment as to where / who I should see, but received no response., so it was just a case of checking with the other old lags that I was in the right place - and at the same time gradually edging closer to the nursing station door so that I could actually hear if my name was called.
Pretty unbelievable way of managing it, especially as sister in law Anne had told me how well it was organised in the UK (ok, she was involved, but you know what I mean). This, for me, has actually one of the main problems in spain during the pandemic, as both the local health centre and private clinic we have access to are un-controlled and just breeding grounds for covid and anything worse. You may go in with something simple, but you come out with more than you bargained for.
Finally caught my name being called and went in and had it done - all very slick and actually given a scrap of paper with the second appointment with a specific time to the minute (so that seems to be the "other" room I guess).
G picked me up and we headed home - with her trying not to breathe and threatening to burn all the clothes I had been wearing. I just wanted a cup of tea after blasting-over with a power-hose.
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