Spain in lockdown - Day 18

Happy April Fools Day!  I wondered today if any April Fools pranks would be played in the press or whether they would give it a miss in this rather difficult year.  It seems that the vast majority have decided it would not be appropriate and I think that's a good decision.  But I thought it would be fun to look at a few classic April Fools pranks from yesteryear:

• in 1998 Burger King took out a full page ad in USA Today announcing a solution for the 1.4 million left-handed customers who visited their restaurants every day: the left-handed Whopper.  The announced that the condiments would be rotated 180 degrees to suit the left-handers.  Apparently there were long queues of not only excited left-handers, but right-handed people who were anxious to make sure they got the correct burger.  The fact that a burger is....well....round didn't seem to occur to them 😂
• in 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore made an early morning announcement on Radio 2 that at 9:47am precisely, Pluto would pass behind Jupiter and that this would briefly lessen the Earth's gravity.  So viewers were told that if, at 9.47am they jumped into the air, they would be able to float for a very short period of time.  Many listeners fell for this and rang in to say they had indeed felt this floating sensation.  The power of suggestion is indeed mighty!
• in 1957 was probably the most famous of the classic April Fools pranks.  On BBC's Panorama, presenter Richard Dimbleby announced that due to a mild winter and elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper crop of spaghetti.  Viewers watched footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and huge numbers of people believed this, ringing in to find out how they could grow their own tree.  The BBC's response was that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best". Brilliant! 😂

Aside from this, today is also Day 18 of lockdown in Spain.  I know of one or two people who are starting to struggle with positivity right now and that's understandable as 18 days is a long time to go without any face to face social interaction whatsoever.  It's hard to know what to say but something I saw on UK TV today resonated.  Simon Weston, veteran of the Falklands War, spoke about patience being an invaluable quality right now.  The patience to accept that this is the situation, the patience to see this thing through, the patience to accept that things will take some considerable time to return to normal.  Perhaps nowadays we've become too used to instant gratification and need to seek out patience again.  Just a thought.

This morning was my online gym class and afterwards I put the running machine to good use again and went for a 3km brisk walk/jog.  I think I'm doing more exercise than I even was before the lockdown!  People around us seem to have turned a lot of roof terraces into gyms and also playgrounds for children.  A couple of days ago I watched fascinated as a woman walked round and round and round a very modest sized roof terrace, chatting on her phone all the while.  But all these roof terraces are not being used due to the current weather we've been having in Mallorca lately, it really has been rubbish.  Chilly, grey, breezy, wet and miserable about sums it up and really isn't helping people's frame of mind.  Not only does it coop people up indoors, there's nothing to gladden the eye when you look or venture out so it's little wonder that people are less buoyant.  But if you live in Mallorca, be patient because at the weekend and into next week things start to perk up and we could soon all be making great use of our outside spaces - yay! 🌞🎉

Having nothing better to do this afternoon, I decided to renew my domestic goddess credentials by dusting our apartment, and then hoovering it for good measure.  So I'm back in the game and continuing to confuse my husband who is still wondering where his wife is and what has happened to her.......

This evening during the last dog walk a watery (lol) but warm spot of sunshine came out and everything around me was sparkling and clean.  It reminded me of what a lovely place we're lucky enough to live in.  And that this will be over.  If we're patient.

Hasta luego!