Today was a good day for the household, as G was given her first jab.
I have mentioned before how the obfuscacion had made it impossible to find out when you were likely to get the vaccine, but I had been checking the online system on a twice-daily basis, hoping to catch the moment when they decide to "do" her age-group (which seemed to be at the very back of the queue).
A couple of days ago, I went online and they actually offered her an appointment for a jab - in La Cala de Mijas - which is 15km away on the coast, but, no matter, a jab is a jab wherever it is given (and my experience in the pueblo was not a recommendation for their organisational skills).
Checked the health centre down there in La Cala was where I thought (a newish place, but I had taken a friend there a couple of times a couple of years ago). The road name tallied, so all OK, but also "spoke" on whatsapp to another pal who had gone down there to get himself sorted, and he even told me which queue we should be in.
Anyway, we got there in plenty of time and the people in the first queue pointed to the further queue (we had expected) for vaccines. Mainly Brits, and a lot with papers to register, but hey-ho.
After about 15 or so minutes with only a few feet of forward movement, G spotted that there was actually someone doing some control inside and occasionally coming out of the door, so I wondered over and asked him when we could expect to get the 10:59 jab, as it was 10:55. He looked at the appointment and said"not here": "What! - it says there La Cala - even Avenida Sierra de las Nieves in bold". No, you must go to Las Lagunas" (essentially Fuengirola).
Jesus.
Back in car and down to the place where we knew they had been doing jabs in Las Lagunas. G checked the appointment paper and agreed with my reasoning for La Cala, but also spotted a smaller-type sentence with "Cortiijo de Elias" - and she thought that might be the "dancing centre" near the Seur wagon-circle car park (We know it as that because the Seur delivery vans meet there at lunchtime, park in a circle with rear-doors inwards, then "pass the parcel" to reschedule the afternoon drop-offs).
We were less than 5 minutes late, but no real issue, as there was a queue of at least 60 people in front of us. Looonnnnnng wait and shuffling forward. After 20 minutes, asked the marshal if we were in the right queue (and right place) and he said yes. There seemed to be a parallel queue which was racing through people and eventually we understood what was happening. There were two lines, one fast one for Las Lagunas people and the other (very long and slow one) for La Cala and Mijas Pueblo bunnies. God knows why or what they were thinking. Nothing anywhere as you get to the place to tell you where to go, but when you have been in the queue for 25 minutes you come to this small hand-written sign telling you.
It basically tells the people in the queue that they are in the La Cala / Mijas (pueblo) queue. Thanks for that.
At least my chat with the marshal
meant that I was allowed to take G in as her interpreter!
30 minutes later we actually got into the hall and were immediately ushered into a booth where a girl behind a computer checked G´s details (more than happened in the pueblo), then a nurse gave her a Pfizer jab while the clerical one printed a paper for the second appointment - and told her to sit outside for 15 minutes in case of any after-effects.
Very efficient and very quick, so why such a long and slow queue was strange.
I gave G two minutes (consideration incarnate), then assisted her to the car, reckoning that I was with her as nurse and guide should there be an woozy fits.
Home in high glee, to find the jab is already recorded on her digital file.
Not long to go now for us to be able to go out and enjoy ourselves (although I think I might prolong the lock-in beyond all normal limits, I actually prefer it).
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