Well at least the year ended with some good weather (if a little chilly). Now all say "aahhh poor things"
I went out to brush the top patio, and it was so clear and beautiful, I felt moved to take a photo and post it. Temperature about15ª in the shade, so very pleasant in the sun.
The reason for my burst of activity was to prepare for tonight´s festivities (not) whereby if I am still awake / sober (delete as required) we will probably go out and let the new year in there. In a normal year, there would be firework displays from side to side of the costa, but this year I doubt it.
That is except for the fact that, despite mega-lockdowns being in place since March, and, much like the UK, the powers-that-be have relaxed travel rules and extended the opening hours for bars from 2000 as before to 0100 tonight - and people just have to be home by 0130. Why do they pander to the stupid end of society so much? I will guarantee that the local squares will be full of drunks at midnight, trying to eat a grape with each bonk / bong*. God help us all.
As appears to be the case in most of the world, there is quiet majority trying to conform to the rules, but an inconsiderate minority causing most of the problems.
The following is a (slightly updated version of) the email I sent out to most people, but, what the hell. If you are here, you have found me anyway!
I can tell you that I have given up on the old WordPress site as the guy who hosted and managed it failed to fix some problems he himself created after he fixed an attack on the server that hosted my site. I gave up waiting for him to get it sorted and have now started this new site (it has the same password, but note the “-“ in the middle ). I have moved over some of the content, but pretty much started afresh. Well, that will give me a chance to repeat some of my favourite stories as if I was in a bar! One issue with WiX is that you have to sort out a main (PC) site and another set-up for mobiles. The mobile one has been giving me a headache, but I think it is about 80% right now
We all have been living in a strange situation since the advent of Covid early in the year. Spain is much as we read about in other countries - government indecision and U-turns, a health system working under constant strain and no one really understanding exactly what is permitted as restrictions change from week to week. There have been a variety of different severities of lockdown, with the financial ramifications causing them to be lifted every so often, before another lockdown is brought in. Luckily everything is still available in the shops - and most of the parcel delivery companies now have our address firmly embedded in their systems!
Despite my predilection for my blog (which I justify by making it inaccessible to “Google” and behind a privacy “wall”), I hate the whole “social-media” circus and believe you can probably lay a large amount of the world´s woes at the door of that technology as it gives the small minority of weirdos and nutters a loud voice - which gets amplified by the printed and/or tv media ( and whoever would have thought that “influencer” would become a “career”). By the way, has anyone else noticed how lazy the press have become, basically reporting on what they see on social media, not real life?. One thing that President Trump definitely got spot-on was the impact of “fake” news. These days you have to check with 3 or 4 sources to get the truth on any story.
Brexit ceased to be a major issue as its significance faded against the pandemic. Interestingly the “buggeration” anticipated from the Spanish side has actually mostly come from British financial institutions, but 2021 might bring as yet unforeseen issues. We had read the signs over the last couple of years and made sure we had all our documentation up-to-date (and in Spain, there is a lot of documentation). Typically the final piece was just dropping into place with an appointment to collect our new “extranjero” identification cards, when the police station was summarily closed half an hour our before our slot due to a covid alert (10 day quarantine for their staff, and back to the tedious online booking system again for us). Anyway, at 2300 UK time tonight (our 2400) the UK will finally be out of Europe, so, one way or another, we will be out tonight
The hospice stopped accepting day-care patients in early March, almost before the crisis really took hold, and thus made both of us redundant (and pretty much made one of our cars redundant too, which was a bit of a bummer as we had replaced one with a new one in January). G has still ended up supporting a variety of people who needed some sort of assistance, but she really misses the regular interaction with the day-care patients. The hospice still managed to bring her out of “furlough” to put up their Christmas decorations, but they were a bit muted compared to normal years, so she has been had a bit more time to prepare Casa D (Grizzwalds, eat your heart out). In the true spirit of the festivities, G has told me the lights can stay up "into the New Year", so I guess I may be taking them down at 0100 tomorrow morning.
We have obviously had a lot more time for the the house and garden and, after almost a year of waiting, we finally managed to get the balcony rails and posts replaced (shown in photo, but probably unnoticeable to averyone in the world but us), which is a major improvement and provides us with a “new” place on the top patio to sit in the sun and watch the world go by. The pool became my responsibility as the reliability of the cleaner became a “bit problematic” at the end of last year - and I have to say I actually enjoy doing it (that and the fact that the wind and leaves usually happened the night after it had been cleaned, so I would have to do it again myself the following day anyway). G maintains the garden in great shape (with me on cutting, pruning and shifting duty). My work should be ameliorated slightly next month though, as we are having the “small” back lawn patio´d-over (now I have found a good little builder, I might as well make use of him!) Actually it makes us realise how long we have been here when our original “set” of tradesmen have mostly retired and we are having to go through the process of finding reliable people for a second time. One really good find was a local company making curtains and blinds, so early in the year, and before the pandemic, we managed to get most of the curtains and blinds in the house replaced. The blinds are quite strange, as we can see out through them, but even with the lights on, it is difficult to see in. Perfect in my opinion.
On that note, I spoke to the new gardener at the house above and he showed great acumen in offering to come down and see whether he could be of use to us. He has been once already and cut the grass and edges and even understood what weeds were (a first for spanish gardeners I have met) and started on G´s beds (I was told to keep him away though, as the beds and planst are "hers" = where she goes to avoid me)
There were some family and friends who were scheduled to come over here during the year, but that all went by the board and socialising with friends has become an “online” event using Whatsapp, e-mail, or the plain old telephone. G has used Zoom a couple of times, either for the family or hospice presentations - not for me (and Skype even suspended my accountant due to lack of use). Eating out pretty much stopped as most restaurants and bars were closed for months - and that sort of socialising has never recovered (although we do know some people who still get out every week). Entertainment now comprises watching any old series that takes our fancy on iptv - that is for the evening, but we have also been purging and painting the basement, with the golf gear being the first casualty (amazing how much space that freed up!). Despite the lockdown, we managed to meet a couple in Iceland café for tea and toasted tea-cakes this morning. They (Iceland) seem to operate a good cleaning regime for the furniture - and the tea-cakes are good too. Shame it was too early for a chupito really. Other than that tea-party, and socialising in restaurants may have stopped, but we are still eating and drinking (too) well. I managed to put back on all the weight I lost on my mega-diet over the last two years. Luckily the wine warehouse has stayed open. That and the almost impossibility to access medical services means that my doctor cannot give me a dressing-down! It is my intention to reimplement my Dry-January (coupled with a diet) - something I started back in the 70s during previous periods of over-indulgence.
Notwithstanding all the world´s problems, we are very lucky in so many ways - and we do appreciate that.
Let us hope that 2021 brings us all a change for the better.
Have a good New Year
* as you can see. this WiX site does not allow me the "luxury" of using strike-through for the odd joke. I am working to improve it
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