Up early again this morning – not because of exercise (Monday being a ‘day off’) but because (a) I didn’t sleep well again (must have been all of the excitement about today!) and (b) I had booked a hire car for our use from first thing this morning, now that we are OUT, and in the end it wasn’t available for collection until 12.00, That gave me time to at least get myself looking vaguely presentable (first time in 65 days!) since I would be out in ‘public’, and then to do my usual social media and news monitoring before heading off!
Twitter, which I do love and which gives such an interesting perspective on pretty much everything that is going on (politically), and is a lot more balanced than any one newspaper or the biased English TV, was, as usual, full of a lot of outrage about the situation in the UK… which shows no sign of slowing down. But in amongst all of that was a video that I thought was just about the best explanation of why we need to lockdown/social distance/wear masks (and even stay ‘alert”). I know that it might be a bit late for some of us (let’s hope), but still, worth a watch and circulation:
So back to today. I set out just before 11.00 to go to the Enterprise car rental in Marbella, which is about a 7k walk, past the Spanish supermarket and then through the whole old town to the end, just before the famous ‘Marbella arch’ landmark. I am always amazed when I talk to people about counting steps and they say ‘oh I am sure I walk more than 10,000 a day’ as unless you really do count them (i.e. with a watch, phone or pedometer) you just don’t realise how much this actually is – as you know, we do loads of walking and running pretty much every day, but even then we don’t always hit the 10,000 mark (well 
we do, because we usually end up walking around the sitting room or up and down the garden until we have!) – the walk today, which seemed to go on forever, was actually only 7,500 steps (very disappointingly), but what a walk it was!
First, as I headed towards the hill, a car honked me and it was my tennis partner and her husband, who I have only seen once in the last nine weeks – lovely – although no hugging, of course! Then I walked past yet another building site and got a few ‘Holas’ from the guys working (they obviously didn’t realise how much I hate them all), and then onto the main road. Lots more cars whistling past, people out walking (mostly with masks) and then once I got near to the shops, the first real sign of change – lots of people sitting outside Burger King (???!!), then the nice Artisan café, lots of the boutiques and other small shops that line the main street open, as well as loads of flowers, trees full of lavender and a general ‘fiesta’-type feel (and lots of hayfever for me!).
We love Enterprise – I even have a ‘platinum’ card as I use them so much – normally we pick up a car at the airport (where we are usually served by a really nice girl that we call ‘red knickers’ – she is the one that asked us, when we arrived in Spain just before New Year one year, whether we had our red knickers with us (which was a little bit alarming as we were only there to collect a car) – apparently, a bit like the Czechs who have the Easter tradition of spanking their wives’/girlfriends’ with their ‘whipping sticks’, the Spanish all wear red knickers and eat grapes on New Year’s Day (God only knows what happens then.. we didn’t dare ask)), but sometimes it is easier in the town, and that office is manned by a lovely elderly Spanish guy called Sergio, who loves me – so when I suggested to Jan that he walks with me this morning (now allowed) he preferred to leave me to Sergio and lay by the pool instead. However, when I got there, instead of Sergio there was a very stressed, but very beautiful, senorita (which amused me no end) who apologised for the fact that it was her first day (their offices having been closed for the last nine weeks), that there had been a sudden rush of customers, and that unfortunately all she could give me was a white van. Which, in the circumstances, I couldn’t really complain about.
So me and the white van hurtled back home, as was only fitting (you know what they say about white van drivers…). Actually it was good fun, and I enjoyed cutting people up and hooting at them as a reward for all the near misses and hoots that I have had over the 
last nine weeks. I may yet buy myself a pair of overalls and hang ‘Jo’ and ‘Jan’ stickers in the windows. And by then it was time to join Jan by the pool for a couple of hours ‘recovery’.
Talking of companies that I love, my friend Adam asked me last night why I was stressing about chasing all the airlines for refunds, and why not just wait until they cough up, which they are legally bound to do. The thing is that at the moment most of them don’t want to give refunds (and I do understand why, but….) and they make it nearly impossible to get them or even change existing bookings. The only one that is easy, and that is our absolute favourite (and this 
might surprise you!) is Ryanair. I love them. First they put on regular direct flights from Prague to Malaga after we spent years lobbying various airlines to do it, then they always go on time, the crew is always nice, and they refund everything immediately – one email, click on it, and the money comes back. Amazing. Unlike the big guys, who we are now getting into a good old battle with – look out Iberia…. JG is on your tail…. (and be warned if you are planning on booking a flight any time soon!).
The afternoon, then, took on a fairly normal pattern (news-watching, social media, calls, a bit of work, etc), except that instead of one or other of us having to head to a supermarket to do a big stock up, I went with my van (although Jan, in the end, couldn’t resists a walk to Aldi). And then the plan for the evening is drinks with our paella friends (drinks!!! together!!!!). And then dinner at home and yet another walk. Exhausting!
Before I go, though, something that I pondered on my walk this morning – we have all been ‘clapping’ the health workers (this, as I have said before, is not just a British tradition, it was started in Italy and then Spain), and I hope, and believe, that there are many people supporting the police (my friends in Prague with their Frontliners’ feeding station for example), but there are so many other ‘heros’ at the moment – the ladies manning the supermarkets, the Amazon drivers and so on, it all makes me quite emotional. When this is all over, I am sure that we will be doing many things to thank them all. And, as Jan pointed out this morning, let’s not forget the many people living in tiny apartments for endless weeks without going outside, etc….. so today I couldn’t help but want to post one of my all time favourite videos today:
More tomorrow!
easy and just do some relaxed (ish) biking – I’m trying to save my legs a bit now for my big day on Tuesday!
solution (??!!!) – there was a lot of controversy on that one which the Commissioner of Facebook got very involved in later on, of course – as well as whether we can go out any time or just in our usual time-slots (apparently we can now go out to restaurants/cafes/bars/shops at any time, but we can’t just ‘go out’ – ie. meandering about is not allowed, but meandering off to a bar is…..) and one person asking whether, since we are allowed out, but have to stay in our own Province, they could go, for example, to Malaga from Mijas (a reasonably long way) to go to a specific shop or restaurant, and that provoked a very useful video being posted by someone who appears to be a British ‘town councillor’ in the town, the gist of which was, I thought, quite useful.
or misinterpret the rules, as if everyone starts doing that then there is a good chance that things will tighten up again (especially if the numbers go up). And, whilst there is no rule against heading off to another part of the Province for shopping, etc, he stressed that it was really important that everyone should try to support their local communities, most of which are suffering horribly, and not be thinking about going further afield just because they can. So if they want to go to a bar, restaurant or shop, then go to a local bar, restaurant or shop (at least for now) to help them to get back on their feet, as no-one wants to live in a ghost town, which is what 
could soon happen. I liked that, and think it is probably relevant to all of us, irrespective of where we live just now.
peaceable and not much different. I suspect that for us in this part of Marbella it won’t be a lot different, since there really don’t seem to be so many people around (except on the beach early in the morning!) but in other areas it may be different. We shall see.
cycling, and today I was passed by a professional team in time-trial mode (and blimey, they do go!) and then a group of young guys going the other way, waving a Spanish flag and singing ‘Viva Espana’, shortly followed by three, what looked like body builders (I only noticed as they had their shirts off, and honestly, it shouldn’t be allowed…), and then I headed off down to the beach, by which time I was in a very good mood!
day until today!), or from walking along chatting rather than exercising properly…. what a pity they hadn’t done it before, but maybe now the rules are easing we are going to see a lot more police about…. but, anyway, how nice to be able to run without worrying about being knocked over by a bike or tripped up by a dog.
shops will actually want to open (unless they think that they will get an influx of old-aged pensioners and kids…..)?
answered, there are no direct email addresses to write to, and the online systems don’t really work with the situation that is happening now. So today, I was chasing Iberia around on email, website, Facebook and Facebook Messenger for a flight that I had booked for last week (I know, I kept it quiet as something told me it might not go!) and that was cancelled some time ago, so far with no result, and calling and emailing Lufthansa regarding last night’s cancellation of our flight on 29th May. So many bookings, but so few planes flying!!
the battering he had yesterday (and now some lovely new teeth) and running this morning, he was still game-on to go food shopping, which meant that I felt a little bit honour-bound to do some ‘housework’ in return – actually I just read a comment on social media asking if ‘one’s private maid coming to clean one’s house a couple of days a week is now allowed’ – something that Jan has been asking about … but instead I have been doing it myself. Nothing like a bit of ironing and cleaning to cheer one up!
ripples had been felt in Malaga. Thankfully it seems that it was only mild, but still! (And that reminds me, just after we arrived here (March 11th) one of my friends mentioned that his wife’s family, who are in Zagreb, had also suffered an earthquake (quite a lot worse than the one here)…. but in view of everything else that was going on at that time, I am not sure that anyone actually picked up on it). Presumably all of this strange weather is due to climate change (and that then reminds me of a TV programme that we watched when we bought our first house here, which talked about what might happen to the world if human beings don’t change their ways, and said, amongst other things, that in 20 years’ time (which would be about now) English people will no longer move to the Costa del Sol as the UK will be warmer than Spain (so that wasn’t great, we thought!), that there would be no more snow, and that new diseases would be coming at us thick and fast (and how we laughed and mocked all that at the time!).
end of June, so it could, potentially, mean the UK dropping out of the EU without a deal (I have put a link to a petition to extend the timeframe below), and BJ coming under daily attack in the House of Commons from Sir Keir, the Leader of the Opposition, to the point that he is urging that the rest of Parliament get back to work again as soon as possible, in order to help him out….
already been told that that is not going to happen for them, at least not yet. We can’t help but feel that a lot of this is political rather than based on the numbers… plus it seems that this Government want to see all the figures down to zero before they are ready to properly get going again – which is not, of course, going to happen. Hey ho.
unpleasant way, for which she has been pretty well lambasted. But… you know…. I used to deal with lots of different politicians in my old ‘serious’ PR life, and the majority of them didn’t speak English either (although a bit silly of her to claim that she did, since it is pretty easy to prove!)…… is it really such a huge thing? Or is it because she is the Prime Minister’s ‘person’, or that things are different now…. or, dare I say it, because she is a woman?? And, sadly, the CR is still not very good about women in senior positions….
late night walk) so he had no enthusiasm at all for heading back out again this morning.
since it is home to some of the top women players in the world and they need to train irrespective of the weather (I remember once saying to the guy that I play with here that we still play on clay in the winter as we have ‘bubbles’ over the courts, and he looked at me blankly and said ‘what’s a ”bubble’…) but here, normally, it is very rare to be ‘rained off’.
be any of those in the foreseeable future, I don’t really feel the need (other than to enjoy it, which is a good thing, especially here at the Manolo Santana Club, which is completely beautiful – see my photo on the grass court where the man himself still plays every day!). Which leads me to a few other thoughts re tennis and sport.
try to time it around Wimbledon or Roland Garros or the Tour de France, so that we could skive off work each afternoon to watch it (which we were less able to do in Prague). I wonder how long it will be until (or even if) we get back to that (and will our favourites look like this by that time?).
women that worked for him were his ‘chickens’ – so Irena and I were two of them… I guess that would be politically incorrect nowadays but, then, we thought it was fun). She has similar views to me on the situation in the UK, so I felt that she would enjoy Twitter… as would C, who is as apoplectic as we are about it all,
never really happened. But I suspect it has now, and I wonder just how often we will all be getting on planes for 1-2 day work trips in the future.
continually during the whole nine weeks, I saw a group of builders, all sitting together on the pavement outside, none wearing masks, and sharing a load of food amongst themselves. Meantime, a police car passed by taking not the blindest piece of notice, preferring, presumably, to fine people that are still out after the 10.00 am deadline (we heard of someone being out five minutes late the other day and getting done). Without wishing to sound like one of the famous Alicante Ladies (or the 
new group of ‘Dad’s Army’ that I will come to later), it is really annoying to know that here we are, behaving impeccably (even though we don’t really think that two white, middle-aged adults, that are very fit, not obese, and with no underlying health conditions, have that much chance of getting the virus, even if it was running as rampantly around here as some people think (which it’s not)), whilst others completely ignore the rules and continue as normal.
had to ‘earn its keep’, I had the immense displeasure of listing it for holiday rental on some of sites (I will say Airbnb, but, actually, there are lots of websites that do holiday rentals and Airbnb is just one of them – unfortunately for them, they all get lumped together under its umbrella).
their own huge percentage before you even see it (not a lot of renters know that!), plus the costs of the aircon that people leave on 24 hours a day, and the regular repairs that are required after they wreck your furniture, steal your china, scratch your floors, burn your curtains, etc and then blackmail you by saying that they will write a bad review if you don’t do x, y and z).
mission is to ensure that all the other expats in their areas behave correctly as things start to open up.. and if they wont, they will ‘name and shame’ them. I think they are going to provide some interesting reading as we go along.
exercise slot) – Jan running up and down the path (which, he said, he quite enjoyed – mad) and me on Bollywood, 7 app and bike – with lots of loud 80s disco music to liven things up.
indoors most of the time and not seeing many people (other than on a computer screen), doesn’t feel that comfortable going out and about yet (at least not in the way he used to), and is depressed that business is very tough and his work day is so different (he is used to flying here there and everywhere on a regular basis, but now spends his time on the phone or computer, mainly fire-fighting).
we have had to stop thinking about it too much as we have known for weeks that it just wasn’t possible. I have, though, had lots of messages recently asking why we are still here, so I am going to lay down a challenge. I realise that there is not much reason for anyone to monitor the flights in the way we do, or ponder other routes, so I understand why you might think that we are just staying put because we want to, but have a look – if anyone can find us a route from Malaga that actually works (and bear in mind that (a) just because a flight shows on an airline’s website, it doesn’t mean it will go (we need to see that it has on a regular basis before we will try it), (b) we are not allowed to move between provinces, so we have to start our journey in Malaga, (c) there are no hotels open in the usual transfer airports (and we are way too old (and I am too much of a princess) to consider sleeping on an airport bench over night, even if 
we were allowed, which we doubt!), and (d) we cannot go outside an airport or drive through any other country without going into 14 days’ quarantine there, nor can we return to Spain if we get stuck somewhere (once we leave, no return at the moment!). So… based on all of that… if someone finds something that works, let me know and we will agree a suitable reward!!
went for a run on the beach and was caught coming out of the sea – there is a bit of a bonkers rule at the moment that says that you can go into the sea to do proper sport (i.e. if you take a surf or paddle board) but rumour has it that he will be training here daily once we are ALL allowed to start playing – Jan is ecstatic.