25 April 2019 – Alt de Ample (Dead Dog)
Saturday 25 April
Jan did her third shopping
trip since lockdown started. Once again
she drove into Jalon to shop at Masymas.
There has been a lot of
discussion about which supermarket you have to use. The official sites insist you must use the
nearest shop who offers basic necessities, such as break, milk, meat and
fish. And that you are not allowed to go
past the local shop to visit a larger supermarket. In our cast this would mean that we have to
use the village shop. It is not only
small and cramped, but does offer much range and is much more expensive. Hence Jan set off for Jalon at 10am.
We have not used the car for
more than two weeks, so it was a relief that it started first time. One of our neighbours had to call out
breakdown because her car would not start earlier in the week.
You can imagine how Jan felt
when she reached the T junction of Alcalali and Jalon to find that there was a
large Guardia Civil road block of at least six police cars. Every car was stopped and checked. In broken English two policemen asked her
where she was going, why and where she had come from. Strangely they did not check the boot to see
if she really had been shopping, nor ask for a receipt. We had been told this was routine at such
stops. Nor did they ask why she did not
use the shop in Parcent.
It is a relief that it is
apparently OK to use Masymas in Jalon.
She said that the whole experience was quite frightening. However they were not in any way
unpleasant. And no doubt her guilt at
not using the shop in Parcent was the real reason it was so unsettling.
Sunday 26 April
For the first time in six
weeks, children under the age of 14 are allowed to leave their house today to
play or walk, between 0900 and 2100.
Only for one hour, and they must remain within one kilometer of their
home.
It was a lovely sunny morning,
and we were quite surprised that Parcent remained as quiet as ever. We were expecting the sound of children
playing, like we do when it is playtime during normal school hours.
Just after 12 noon I walked
down to the bins to get rid of a week’s rubbish. On the way I passed a mother and her son on
walking down the road. He looked to be
at the upper end of the age allowed, or perhaps even a little older. Much to my surprise he did not look at all
happy to be out in the sun after such a long time confined to the house. Perhaps they were at the end of the hour’s
walk and he was a little tired. But he
did seem to be grumbling and not at all happy.
Or perhaps he is one of those young teenagers who are never happier than
when they are in front of their screen playing one of their games.
My son Stuart has three
children, aged 4, 9 and 13. Unlike
their Spanish counter parts they have been able to exercise outside as much as
they like. But Chloe and Georgia are
both restless and want to be back at school.
Jack, the oldest, is quite happy to be playing computer games by remote
control with his school mates. Guess
who I thought of when I passed this 13 year old Spanish lad this morning.
Monday 27 April
Great
news today.
The
restrictions on exercising outside the house are to be relaxed next Saturday, 2
May. It will allow family members to
leave the house to exercise or walk. No
further details at present, but it seems it will be similar to the
children. That is to say up to one hour
and within 1 kilometer of the house. It
is dependent on how well the children behave, and also the daily stats.
The
first day of the children playing outside seems to have gone well. Obviously reports of some abuse of the
relaxation, but in general most have behaved well and stuck to the
restrictions.
And
the daily stats are also very good.
1831 infections and 331 deaths in the past 24 hours sounds terrible, but
it is the best it has been for three weeks.
It is terrible how quickly you become used to these daily stats, and can
consider so many deaths “good”. But it
is only a few weeks since it was 900 to 1000 deaths a day!
Tuesday 28 April
There was to be an announcement today about easing the
restrictions for adults on Saturday. It
should have been at 2pm, but was delayed all afternoon. It was finally released about 7pm, but did
not give any details about how long, how far, how often
I have posted the sixth Lockdown walking video on
YouTube. It has photographs from two
November 2019 walks. Monday 25th
was Green Horse, and Thursday 28th Lliber Senija Reverse. This week the background music is “The
Wanderer” by Dion.
You will find the video here
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