Our first week under the new restrictions here has gone well, helped by the decision of the Balearic regional government to move the curfew time from 11pm to midnight. Spain has so far avoided a national second lockdown, devolving such decisions to the autonomous regions. They, in turn, have for the most part locked their borders with only essential travel between the regions allowed. There are a couple of exceptions on the mainland but as they are surrounded by other 'locked' areas, it's sort of a done deal! The Balearics have not locked their regional border but again, with most of the rest of Spain having done so and as islands anyway the effect is much the same. Either way, this will have prevented people travelling this bank holiday weekend (All Souls Day is 1 Nov, therefore in true Spanish fashion the Monday is considered fair game as a bank holiday).
It has been sobering to see the UK announcement yesterday about a second lockdown starting on Thursday. Mind you, it's rather different to the previous one and world's away from the one we had here earlier in the year. Is that progress? Damned if I know 😳 Nevertheless, these are challenging times to say the least and those of us lucky enough to live here are still concerned for for the well-being of family members and friends in the UK. Let's hope things are improved enough to allow for a modest degree of Christmas festivities.......
Here in the Port, Cheftable Thai restaurant and Patio de Frida have just closed for the season although many businesses have always closed at the end of October. Last night's full moon (and a blue one ie. the second full moon in the same month) on Halloween was lovely:
Although trick or treating was a non-event here this year, it didn't prevent quite a number of local bars decorating themselves to stunning effect and quite a lot of people out enjoying their Saturday night food/drink but just dressed as a wide range of spooky beings 👻 This included us and here we are in all our 'glory' 😂
We went out on our bikes so mask wearing was kept to a minimum with all that face paint! Mind you, two zombie school students pedalling away along the sea front did raise quite a few smiles 😁 And it was pretty chilly on the way home in that short skirt let me tell you 😱 But I've jumped ahead so.... first we went to Meraki in the square which was stunningly decorated and really well attended (although everyone was at well spaced tables etc) which was good to see.
The picture makes it look more crowded than it actually was by the way. Mika and Cato - the two sisters who run the bar - were both dressed as Wednesday Addams and you can just see both of them standing facing the bar on the left collecting the orders. I can highly recommend their sangria - tasted purely in the interests of research you understand 😳
We then headed on our bikes off to Palms Bar (near the Pollensa Park Hotel) to meet friends and had a great evening, helped along by one of the music TV channels playing the Top 60 Halloween songs - sadly no dancing allowed of course, but nevertheless a spooktastically good time was had by all. We left about 11.45pm and pedalled like fury along the sea front to beat the curfew at midnight - a bit like two ghoulish Cinderellas 😂 We made it with a few minutes to spare.....
In other local news, there has been yet another possible poisoning incident at the dog beach in Llenaire 😡 police are investigating and the area is currently closed although I understand the dog affected is making good progress at Moixica vets thank goodness! This is not the first time it has happened; feral cat colonies also get poisoned from time to time, most recently at least one colony in Cala san Vicente. It is such a cruel thing to do, many of the feral cats have been castrated and are fed by local volunteers so there really is no reason to do this. And as for putting poison on a dog beach - well there really are no words! 😡😢
We've done a number of dog walks during the past week including round La Gola nature reserve which is looking very autumnally pretty right now. Here are a few views we've enjoyed whilst doing so:
On Friday we took a cheeky trip to Fan shopping centre (near to Palma Airport) for a small spot of Christmas shopping and to get a few things in Carrefour. We didn't want to leave it until later in case commercial centres get closed or if not, they get busy as Christmas approaches. Anyway, it's an open air centre so we felt it would be safe and it was - everyone wearing a mask, social distancing etc and it wasn't over busy either so just perfect. I needed to shall we say, use the'facilities' 😳 the ladies had an attendant to allow only a certain number of people in; this meant there was a small queue outside but everyone socially distanced automatically there. Predictably there was no queue for the gents - there never is, is there?! - but Ian told me they'd taped off every other toilet and urinal so people stayed separate. All very organised and we felt perfectly safe 👌
We are now well and truly into autumn here but the weather is still glorious with temperatures in the early 20's and lots of azure blue skies and sunshine. By contrast the weather in the UK seems to be.....well....not quite so glorious. But if you want a reminder of what blue skies look like, here's a final picture taken behind Siller during today's dog walk - you're welcome! 😎
Stay safe and hasta el próximo domingo!
lovey Sarah and thank you xxx
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! x
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