
As we kind of expected, the sun DID stop shining this week and for the last couple of days it has been chucking it down, making it difficult to venture out at all. Not because we are ‘whoozies’ – I mean, come on, I grew up in the UK and we are used to rain – but Marbella is just not cut out for this amount of water to fall, which means, always, that the roads turn into rivers, and driving or walking is more or less impossible. But that’s good (got to keep positive), it means that we have had a chance to catch up with all sorts of exciting things, such as draining the pool and then allowing it to fill up again and repeating, some housework, which Jan always enjoys, and even some regular bits of work and so on.
I have also been spending more time than usual on my social media watch each morning; partly as there is less urgency to get going when it’s raining, and partly, of course, as things in the three countries that I mostly watch, are not exactly improving. In addition to all the depression, though, there are always some interesting and non-Covid or Brexit topics which I like. One that I have been following over the last few days, and which I think in the early days of writing this blog I commented on before, is how many new words have been added to our vocabulary over the last few months, and don’t we all now use these as a matter of course and many times a day: lockdown, Covid, social distancing, ‘curve is flattening’, furlough, ‘take a test’, hand-sanitizer… I am sure there are more (remind me please!), plus I have been keeping hold of a few new ones: optionality, presenteeism, randomness, bloviate and, today, my absolute favourite, snollygoster! Snollygoster!!! It actually means, and you know where I am going with this, ‘a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician!!!!’ Fabulous. The others are obvious or I can’t quite remember, but this one is going into my own ‘library of favourite words’ to add to ‘discombobulated’ (i.e. how most of us feel at the moment) and ‘pantwettingly [awful]’ (same comment!) which I have mentioned before.

So the ‘snollygoster in chief’ in the UK has announced that the country will continue to be in some form of lockdown for a bit longer (at least that is what I think he said, it is not always clear!), but over Christmas everyone will be able to get together (up to a point) and socialise for the five day holiday period before, presumably, going back into another lockdown soon after, when all the numbers are sure to shoot up again. Call me a heartless cow if you like, but I just don’t get this whole Christmas thing …. of course everyone would love it to be normal, but wouldn’t it make sense to just postpone it for a few more months and then make Easter or something into a bigger event? Just saying…. we, ourselves, will be hiding down here in Spain and treating the whole period just the same as every other day (although I do hope to receive a few presents!!).
Maybe I am just in a bad mood today (although I don’t really feel that grumpy) but another thing that I am getting mildly irritated by (or was until I read one thing on Twitter which I will show you next), is Maradona dying. It is, of course, very sad. But in the scheme of things, is it really such a major headline? We Brits do love to celebrate people when they die (and also love to put the boot in when they are alive!), and forget sometimes what they were really like (Princess Diana anyone? I still remember being stunned by all the emotion on her death when, let’s face it, she had been pretty unpopular for many years before that!). Maradona is another one – short (sorry, nothing wrong with being short, but you know what I mean), dumpy, drug-taking, cheating and (in the UK, where all the excitement is) an ‘Argie’ as well. But now he will be turned into a saint. For those of you too young to remember him, he was, supposedly, one of the greatest footballers of all time, but I didn’t really agree…. until I saw this (and even if you don’t like football, it is worth a watch!):

This morning, for the third day in a row, the rain has been sheeting down again and I spent longer than usual on my social media watch, before making myself do some ‘hard training’ without actually setting foot outside the house – having got used to all of our walking and now playing tennis again, I had almost forgotten how to do it, especially as I have slightly gone off my Bollywood app – I think I have gone as far as I can now with it unless I get the chance to put all my routines into proper use (i.e. a film or something equally modest) – so instead I did four rounds of the 7 App that I was using during lockdown – the exciting thing about that (and I am really struggling to find anything to say that is ‘really’ exciting’) is that I can now do lots of ‘star’ jumps and running-on-the- spot sessions without my knee hurting. Another exciting thing is that according to the App, doing four sessions put me into the ‘Olympic athlete category’ which I felt was pretty good for a woman of a certain age (albeit rubbish)! The reason that I am mentioning this, though, is to show that even without any equipment or going outside, it is possible to do a pretty good training in your own living room or wherever!
Talking about dancing and being of a certain age, too, a friend posted on his FB page this morning a fab dance routine which I just had to share since it demonstrates, again, that even us older generation can still strutt-our-stuff (and it’s not Jan, by the way) – just click on ‘Watch on Facebook’ if it doesn’t show up properly:
So apart from looking at social media, videos and messages, and doing the exercise routine above, and Jan running in the pouring rain and coming back completely soaked again, that takes me pretty much up to date – actually the last few days have been a bit like the old ‘lockdown’ of the Spring, without actually being locked down; we have been watching too much news and will walk to the supermarket later (if it ever stops raining) in order to get our steps up, and that will be it. The only other thing that I wanted to mention is that I am a bit intrigued about how ‘well’ we and pretty much everyone else we know have been (all fingers and so on crossed) – I don’t mean Covid, but usually by December, I have had at least two or three colds and a few sore throats – not this year! It could be that we have been here in the fresh air rather than the polluted city… but might it also be due to wearing masks and keeping our distance? I kind of think, at least in my case, that irrespective of whether we ever have a vaccine, mask wearing is going to continue to be a way of life. I will be interested to hear what others think!
More soon!