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The obfuscation in relation to the covid jabs has pretty much peaked with the latest I have heard. Someone I know, who is a resident but never quite got around to completing the registration for the medical system, decided to go down and fill in the form that I recently heard they were touting for the over-80s - that being for elderly people who had private medical insurance, but had all the other qualifications. Anyway, he and his wife went down and did all the paperwork after waiting in a queue for an hour, then he was told to come back that evening to get his first jab! Surprising in that he is only in his early 60s, Surprising in that he had covid a few weeks ago and was told he already had the antibodies, and Surprising that they just ignored his wife who is in her mid-to-late 60s. Actually doubly Surprising on that one, as they have now apparently extended the AZ jab to anyone up to 69 (that was previously only essential workers up to that age) and that was what he was given, but not her. Oh, and another change in that he has been given the date for the second dose in 11 weeks time - so they have changed the gap period from the previously specified 3 weeks. I think you can safely say that they have achieved their objective now, as it it is pretty much impossible to predict who might get called, when it might be and what they can expect to get. I guess their next trick will be to start mixing the vaccines.

I have occasionally mentioned how Shell were always ahead of the curve when it came to political correctness, what with the active promotion of women, ethnic minorities, disabled, etc., etc. - largely to the detriment of the average working guy. What I may not have mentioned was how I was approached by Shell about 15 years ago when they were starting to apply this sort of approach to their recruitment and how they wanted to be able to prove that there was absolutely no discrimination in their selection. What they were trying to do was outsource the initial vetting of applications to people who would check out the basics and not be influenced by any external factors - effectively a cover-my-a** attitude which would ensure no one could come back and say the interview was slanted against them. There were many no-go areas for the interviews, which basically stopped you from forming any sort of opinion about the applicant - even their ability! Age, race, sex, family status, education, qualifications(!) were not to be discussed, so it was more a case of finding out if they understood the terminology of the role they were aiming for than anything else - with successful "applicant" being passed on for technical approval in the line. This was all to be conducted on the telephone, so had the major drawback of the interviewer having a voice to use as a sub-conscious way of discriminating (who said the english class system was such that one person speaking will automatically cause another to despise them?). As you might guess, the training was wasted on me - mainly as my key point in recruitment was trying to get a fully rounded view in order to understand whether the person could add to the team dynamic or not. Anyway, back to the course. It ignored the voice issue - but now of course technology could be employed to disguise that and even allow the applicant to be heard as if they were the race / age / sex / nationality they wanted to choose, just to ensure no bias. BUT, I suddenly thought, they couldn´t use zoom, as that would give away too much, so would have to have an talking avatar - also of their choice. Well - I went on the web and looked to see what was available, and discounting the zombie-killers and super-powered cartoons, I can honestly say that you would struggle to find a gender / racial neutral one. So of course I had to make one. As you will see, there is no hair to give the game away, no shape to the body, no basic colour to any part of it. Basically it is a two-part "thing" that is grey on white and grey on black. Theoretically it should be perfect for gender-neutral toilets, but as I write that, I get the feeling that it is undeniably masculine -probably due to the square shoulders (unless you are a 70s tv "Dallas" tv fan, in which case it would probably appear feminine). I think it may be a bit too gender-obvious and I may have to revise it to neutralise it a bit more.

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.

Where we are up at 400-odd metres on the south side of the sierra blanca is a little bit breezy. Actually it is more than just a bit windy, best described as frighteningly windy on some occasions (as when large trees in two of my neighbours gardens were blown over one day). There is a tale that the costa del sol was the original costa del viento (windy coast), but someone decided that "sun" was a better advertisement for a tourist destination, with "windy" being co-opted by Tarifa when it decided to be a wind-surfing destination! Anyway, it can be very, very, gusty and the winds are incredibly capricious due to the 2500m mountain behind us and the valley almost alongside us - and about 80 kilometres of nothing in front of us, all the way to the Atlas mountains. Not least because of the damage the wind can cause (tiles, trees, plant pots, garden furniture, etc, etc), I have always had a yen to have an anemometer, if only to see what sort of wind speeds we can get. Long story short, last week I decided to get one - but as with all things, actually upped the specification at purchase time as I thought I might as well get something that showed rainfall (not much), sun (a lot), UV levels (frightening) and humidity (which makes it feel hotter) - and, of course, web connection. Accordingly, I bought a Sainlogic WS3500 device which has all the functionality (and more) and which uses a pretty standard "engine" produced by Ambient (a 2902A) but marketed by any number of brands. Delivered within 24 hours, I was greatly chuffed to get it, but a little annoyed with myself for the amount it cost (150€ just for a toy, I guess). The cost was immediately discounted on the day it arrived, when my spanish lawyer charged me 120€ to tell me we didn´t need to submit changes to our "wealth form" that I had sent to her this year. Literally, thanks for nothing. It was pretty simple to set up, just screw on the anemometer cups and direction arrow, slot in the rain-guage "catcher" and add some batteries (and to the display console). It does actually run on a miniature solar panel, so the batteries are mainly back up. Oh, and I had to connect it to my wi-fi. Now for this (and my security cameras) I use a separate wifi network which spoofs snoopers into thinking I am in Yorkshire (or Estonia, or somewhere I might actually have lived). Loaded the recommended web app onto the pc, and voila! - weather online. Well, sort of. I had hoped to add the station as a page on this website via a link to a mainline weather site such as Wunderground, but I am struggling to get that part working at the moment (possibly due to being on a hidden private wifi), but I will add it to the website as soon as I can. This is the sort of info it shows with all the data also coming up as daily charts, as below - now that is what I really wanted, as the yellow line is the average and the blue peaks give the gust speed. The lower chart shows the wind direction, but as can be seen, the wind is not playing-ball at the moment and is pretty moderate and veering (note tech term) all over the place. Yesterday I installed the device "properly" after an initial "jury rigging" as recommended in the manual (yes, I did glance at it). It is now on a wooden pole, with a brilliant array of purpose designed (ok, bodged) fittings.If the pole warps, there may be a rethink, but I wasn´t particularly keen on having it on a metal pole due to the incidence of thunder storms around here. No chart for them, just a smouldering bit of plastic and a hole blasted in the balcony wall as an indicator of a strike I guess. This morning there was almost some rain. Not enough to trigger the rain meter (which was reasonable as in Manchester it would have been described as "mist" I think). ... and in case you might be wondering, the weird bit of plastic around the cup is a recommended modification to try to stop birds from perching on the device and using the bowl as a toilet (and there is no chart for that either).

Strange things happening down here at the moment, with foreign-plated cars about and obvious tourists ( = holding little maps) appearing in the pueblo, despite there being a lockdown. A friend and I were discussing it (distanced and electronically of course) , also the weird rule that would require people to wear masks on beaches. As I pointed out, I have never been on "our" beach, and have no intention of going there, so I couldn´t really give a toss. I do, however, hear that the government has now realised how crazy it sounds and is reconsidering / rephrasing that specific ruling. I think it was actually "unintended consequences", as what they actually legislated was that it was now required to wear a mask at all times in public spaces - whereas it had previously only required that "when social distancing could not be applied". Guess that now means you have to wear a mask on a packed beach, if only under the previous ruling. The tourist thing, though, is even more stupid. Apparently, and according to the "El Pais" newspaper: "Spain has followed the recommendations of the European Union, for instance keeping borders open for intra-EU trips. Covid-negative proof is required and checks are being conducted at airports and seaports, but not at land borders. ... "in any case, very little traffic in tourism is expected in the coming weeks,” said sources in the Tourism Ministry...and most of the people who will enter Spain during the Easter break, representing around 56% of all trips, will be Spaniards returning home. and it goes on to state that : "While national borders are open, regional borders will remain closed, therefore travelers from Germany and France, two major sources of tourism to Spain, may go to popular destinations such as Mallorca or Benidorm, whereas a resident of Madrid or Cádiz may not. “The Schengen space is open because it is controlled by the EU." This basically sums up the layers of idiocy that prevail here in Europe. International borders must be open as part of the Schengen agreement, but internal borders are closed within Spain as they are the preserve of the regional authorities (as the government refuses to take national action) - and France is in full lockdown. But, it appears a french person can drive into and across any part of spain without having any covid tests undertaken. ... and we are still not sure whether half of Madrid will claim it has it´s origins and in Andalucia and appear here (as it is permitted to return "home"). Whatever, you can lay money that the infection rate will have spiked by whichever day they bother to start crunching the numbers sometime next week. All the Andalucian statisticians are obviously retuning to their "pueblo of origin" for the holiday too. PS and for some reason, they have now decided to extend the use of the AZ vaccine to "essential workers" over the age of 65. Just another layer of the obfuscation to ensure no one has a clue about who is getting jabbed (and didn´t even think anyone over mid-50s worked here anyway, so "essential" and "over 65" is more than a bit confusing)

G called me to the window to check on a "huge bird" she had seen going overhead, then trying to land in a tree in the neighbour´s garden. By the time I got to the window, it had moved to a tree a bit further away, but I took a couple of photos anyway. It was a large grey heron - probably about 4 or 5 feet tall and I would guess weighing a few pounds. How the hell it managed to perch in the tiny fronds at the top of that tree is a mystery. It stayed for a few minutes, then uttered a couple of croaks and naffed off in a westward direction. Whether it had seen another heron or had worked out where Mijas and/or Alhaurin golf ponds (stocked with fish) were I do not know. Well, actually I think I do know, as G reckoned she saw it drop this bit of paper as it flew over. Obviously it was on its way from central Africa to the Doñana nature reserve and had stopped to get its bearings (and a snack).

It was the equinox a few days ago and the clocks changed to BST or whatever they call it in Europe. One hour forward, with alll the associated clock and timer changing, except for the clock in my head, which is still very much on last week´es time. That and the fact that the sun doesn´t seem to have got the message, as we have to get up in the dark and go to bed while it is still light. Seeing as we get this issue twice evry year, for no apparemt purpose, why don´t we just stop changing them - or, and better still, change them by a couple of minutes each day. Not difficult with electronics. Hell - we could even match our clocks to the sun! All this was underscored for me when I caught a programme / film about a variety of scientists of differing disciples being brought together in pairs - and for them to find incredible similarities between their work and the other´s , despite their being totally unrelated. The key one (ones) were a neuro-scientist and a guy working on the atomic clock timer. Atom-man was developing systems which allowed them to split time down into ever more minute parts of a second, whilst the neuro man had found that there was no actual timer in the body or the brain. OK, you have your heartbeat - but we all know that can run at a speed to suit itself. Hunger, thirst and all the bodily functions tend to be reactive. What this guy was testing was how people´s brains reacted to differing time events shown to them - all done while they were inside an MRI scanner. They were shown clips of film, then asked to estimate how long they had lasted - and the answers were invariably quite wrong, but dependent upon the subject matter. When clips showed something happening, the patient tended to get the timescale better, but when the clips were very boring (think watching grass growing) they were well out. This could have been an expensive way of proving something we all no well - time passes quickly when you are having fun, but drags when you are bored, but there was more to it than that. They didn´t mention Advaita, but one of the ideas in that is that things like time are just concepts and have no factual base. As Stanly Sobotka wrote : "The world (the universe) is the collection of objects consisting of the body-mind and all other objects. The world appears to exist in time and space. However, time and space are nothing but concepts. They are not real. Time is the concept of change. Since all objects change, all objects are temporal concepts. Space is the concept of extension (size and shape). Since all objects are extended in space, all objects are spatial concepts." followed by : "We are not a concept or object because We are what is aware of all concepts and objects. Therefore, We are Awareness/Presence. Because the body-mind and the world are objects, they appear in us we do not appear in them". Throw your watch away - it is not real and only showing a concept. Much better to "get into the zone" and stay there for ever (even if it is only a couple of seconds in other people´s interpretation). Now must go and change the outside clock on the patio - forgot it somehow while I was meditating on this

Talking to a pal this morning and Ta-Da! - now we actually know someone who has had the "jab" in spain based on age. A couple that lives on the urbanisation where he lives were called in (individually) with a telephone call from the ayuntamiento asking them to go down to the central complex where they were jabbed with the Moderna vacccine (which I think is a single shot). Just knowing someone who has been jabbed is brilliant! I feel as if I have had a trace of it myself (not just the after-effects of last-night´s wine). He (the reporter of this momentous event), was not a happy bunny, as he is actually 3 years older than either of these people, thus should have been done earlier than them, but, and despite being a fully tax-paid-up resident, he doesn´t us etheir free national health service but pays privateley, thus is not "in the list". There was a letter in the paper this week from a lady in a similar predicament and she related the run-around she had been getting - ayuntamiento - junta - health centre - embassy - insurance company. Perm any sequence and they had managed to refer her to a different one. Apparently the government have agreed that all people should be vaccinated by age, irrespective of health of residency status, but (and as ever) it was up to the local region to make it work - and the Andalucian Junta haven´t resolved how they will address that. This is, of course, the same Junta that said that innoculating dentists would start atthe beginning of March, but still haven´t done the one I use. I related this to the local pharmacist and he said it was exactly the same for him. He had been promised it, but nothing had happened. This is a bloody pharmacists who is about as front-line as you can get without actually tending to the sick. It beggars belief that they can put public sector workers before them. On Friday my builder came for his money and apologised for not turning up the previous day as promised as he had been at a funeral of someone from his wife´s family. An old guy who lived in the centre of the pueblo and whose family own the bar / restaurant about 50 yards down from the pharmacist I use. So now we have the two issues converging - the first "family" death in the pueblo and the first jab for an elderly Brit resident. Not a race you particularly want to be in, especially as the downside is terminal.

OK - you are sitting somewhere catching up on this stuff, but should you be doing something else? (Yes, anything but this they think). I have been reading lots of quotations and the ones that carry most significance for me are those concerning "this moment". Alan Watts wrote "In this moment there is nothing which comes to be. In this moment there is nothing which ceases to be. Thus there is no birth-and-death to be brought to an end. Wherefore the absolute tranquillity (of nirvana) is this present moment. Though it is at this moment, there is no limit to this moment, and herein is eternal delight." also When … you realize that you live in, that indeed you are this moment now, and no other, that apart from this there is no past and no future, you must relax and taste to the full, whether it be pleasure or pain. At once it becomes obvious why this universe exists, why conscious beings have been produced, why sensitive organs, why space, time, and change. The whole problem of justifying nature, of trying to make life mean something in terms of its future, disappears utterly. Obviously, it all exists for this moment. It is a dance, and when you are dancing you are not intent on getting somewhere… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance." (and even those that only know me slightly know that I am definitely someone that does not dance!) William Samuel (in 2+2=reality) wrote "The only thing you know for sure is that you are aware. Stop believing that you are a separate ego that is aware and identify as being (part of) awareness itself - which is". Lao Tzu is quoted as saying "If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present" Eckhart Tolle wrote "You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself.". My problem is actually switching my head on to thinking about it (ok, meditating I guess). I keep looking for something that will bring my mind back to it on a regular basis, rather than stumbling into it from time to time. I guess if I was on it all the time I would be totally Zen - instead of my current Zzzzzzz. (ha! - waking sleep!?) There you are. And you thought you would just check on how we are getting on without the cats, then you find out that YOU are the centre of the conscious universe. And all for free. Enjoy the moment.

Just speaking (ok, whatsapping) with my dentist this morning, as I read that "they" were starting on vaccinating them at the beginning of March. Can´t say I was surprised to hear that he still hasn´t been called for a jab, but is hopeful for the near future. I asked him to let us know when he was done, as we would then go over for an inspection and clean. Then I thought that actually, him having had the jab, might be relatively meaningless - then thought, no, it would help. Indecisive me? The fact that they haven´t done (ok private sector) healthworkers yet is pretty worrying. The fact that they don´t seem to be giving a toss about the citizens-by-agegroup is even more worrying. Reports imply that they are planning to allow the Astra Zeneca jab to be given to people up to the age of 65 now (rather than 55) is an improvement, but it also stated that they were "waiting for approval" for this giant step. Give me strength (please!). This shambles seems to be pretty similar across the EU - with any slight issue relating to supply or efficacy of vaccine taken as a pretext to cover up the incredible inefficiency of the whole caboodle. We read that holiday makers (who can afford the £5k fine per head) will be welcome in Spain "soon". No they will not. Rather than fine them or give them weird medical passports, get them to bring a dose of vaccine with them - then they will be welcome.

Ha! that caught your attention! However the jet is actually the jet-washer (Lidl´s as you didn´t ask) which has now been in use for about 5 days or so and we can really start to see the effect. If nothing else, the new patio areas "blend in" with the jet-washed areas rather well (see below). Little lime bearr was repotted into a larger container this morning as a way of celebrating. I also had yet another go at getting the sahara dust out of the pool - so now up to 2 vacuumings and 2 sweepings. God only knows what the neighbour´s pool will be like now as they haven´t touched it this year - and this stuff seems to set a bit like concrete (which it may well be - maybe it is Dubai dust, as isn´t that supposed to be the largest building site in the world after Casa D?). The building work here is now complete and Jairo the painter left yesterday lunchtime having done the arbour, new patio walls, utility cassita and bits and pieces around the new flower beds. Oh, and he did the "jasmin" wall from top to bottom (which unfortunately necessitated the hacking of the bush at it´s most floral point in the year). And finally, he went up the flagpole (ok, roof) and did a couple of coats on the chimney - which, along with the dodgy tiles, or, more likely, because of the dodgy tiles - has been annoying me for a few years. Repatio´d satellites, retiled and repainted - Google can come and take pictures any time they like (well, don´t they do that anyway?). Or they can just use this triumphant shot.

Despite it not quite being the spring solstice, spring has deffo sprung down here. The weather has changed, the sun is shining, things are starting to bloom and our attention is turning to preparing for summer. During the week I had put a "flocculant" bag in the pool sump - a substance designed to make dust and other rubbish fall out of suspension in the water (I guess it softens the water, but who knows?). Anyway, it takes a few days to work its magic, but the water is definitely starting to clear, so yesterday I got the long brush out and brushed the pool floor towards the drain - It makes it murker for a while, but certainly started to work - to the extent I had to flush the pump filter a couple of times (using my new venting tube - hooray). Now planning to give it a proper vacuum clean in a couple of days. G has been out and cleaned the patios which were knee-deep (only a minor exaggeration) in pollen and dust. We had a misty cloud for a few days and the websites were suggesting people stay indoors (Or wear masks?) as it was that nasty and full of dust. A few rain showers "flocculated" a lot of this dust onto the ground / into the pool / bloody everywhere and combined it with all the mimosa pollen. I am sure you get the picture. In addition, G decided to paint the utility room which had had some minor building attention to the corners - then she decided to clean it out totally, thus I was on shelf disassembly. To fill in my "spare" time, I got out the jet-washer and started on the front path / drive. The weather was bright enough to do it in shorts, tee-shirt and flip-flops - but the increase in area was particularly noticeable as I had 3 sessions at it in order to to clean the whole shebang. It was worth it, as it now looks like a the palaccio de whatsit in Venice (=shiny). Talking to a pal and he was telling me how he had just taken out of storage his front-door curtain - designed to keep the heat off his front door in the summer. He even told me he had diary entries to put it up on March 11 and take it down on October 18th (why not just use the solstices I thought). Funny thing is, it confirmed something G and I had been discussing this week, about how the black redstarts (my favourite bird in the whole world) arrive in the 3rd week of October and leave about now. They obviously arrive and depart on the solstice (though whether to go to sunnier or cooler climes is not clear) - I guess it is actually possible that they time their migration based on said pal´s door-curtain.