Saturday, May 23, 2020

23 May 2020 – Lockdown Day 75





After ten weeks of lockdown anything else seems very strange.

Every day is pretty much the same, and it has become very difficult to remember which day of the week it is.   Gone are our weekly U3A group walks on Monday and Thursday.   Plus our weekly visit to Calpe for our “people fix” of walking along the promenade, coffee and bacon boccie and ending with the weeks shopping.   The only things that remains is our regular house clean each Sunday.  

At least the weather has improved, as we approach the end of May the temperature rises and working or walking outside the house becomes quite difficult.   This is why group walking on the Costa Blanca stops at the end of May for the summer break until start of October.

Jan hurt her back on Thursday, which put a stop to our daily walks.   We did manage a very pleasant three hour walk on Monday (see photo above) and our shorter daily hour walks.   But we had to cancel our second recce for this week.   She is getting better and we managed our daily walk today.

On Thursday it became a legal requirement to wear a face mask in all public places, whenever it was not possible to maintain the two metre distance form another person.  This was also the first day that we drove to Benissa for our weekly shop, both of us can travel together in the car now.   But we were surprised to see so many people walking in Jalon and Benissa without any sign of a facemask, let alone wearing one.   We didn’t have to wear them in the car, but Jan did to go into the shop.  

It would be easy to think that everything is returning to normal again, particularly in our sleepy little village.   It has never been very busy, and is no different now.   Except when you go in the shop of course.  And it is now possible to visit bars and get takeaways from most restaurants.   It is also possible to meet in groups of up to 10.  

But the virus is still out there, and it is still doing an immense amount of damage.   The daily stats are improving, but yesterday here were 344 new infections and 48 deaths in Spain.   These figures are low compared with even a week ago, but they are still frightening.   Particularly if you are in one of the “at risk” groups, which we both are.

So we have not visited a bar, and have no intention of doing so at present.   It would be lovely to feel confident and comfortable enough to be able to return to our old routine.   But I suspect I am not alone in feeling that it will be some considerable time yet before that actually happens.

This week’s Lockdown Video features two walks from January.   I have mixed feelings about the project.  It is a lovely reminder of happy times, but it also makes us realise how much we miss our many friends and our weekly walks.   Hopefully it will not be too long before we can meet again to make more happy memories.   You can find the video here

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