Spain in the new restrictions!

The weather remains glorious here in Mallorca and is a constant reminder of one of the (many!) reasons why we moved here.  And of course at the moment, whilst we have a number of restrictions including a midnight - 6am curfew, compulsory mask wearing and table gatherings of no more than 6 people, we are still lucky enough to be able to go out for a drink or a meal, to do non-essential shopping, go to the gym etc.  Mind you, numbers had gone up certainly in the Pollensa area so we shouldn't - mustn't - become complacent, but the good news is that as of Friday, the number of active cases in the municipality had gone down to 52 and no new cases reported 👌 long may that continue......

On Thursday we got up at silly o'clock to get to Palma for Ian to join the queue at the police office for foreign nationals to collect his new, post-Brexit TIE (ID) card.  I'm not going to roam into the politics of Brexit and anyway it's a done deal now, but trust me when I say that those who don't think it will make any difference to UK nationals living in the EU and the ability of UK nationals to come here to live and/or work in the future, are sadly incorrect.  In any event, Ian had already been to sort the paperwork out and now that his card was back from Madrid where they're processed, it was time to collect it.  You have to book an appointment online and my goodness they're difficult to get.  For quite a while the only place that had appointments was Mahon in Menorca!  The fact that having an appointment makes absolutely no difference to having to queue up to get in is an interesting, but typically Spanish, anomaly 😂  Sorry indeed is the person who turns up at the time on their appointment confirmation; Ian was in that queue by 8.30am with a 10.30am appointment as we've been around the block a few times here (much like the queue in busy periods 😂) and there was no fooling us.  And it came to pass that, as ever, once the doors open they got through the queue really quite quickly and Ian was done and dusted more than an hour ahead of his actual appointment and able to join me for coffee in the convenient little cafe opposite where I'd gone to have a delicious breakfast of coffee and toast with tomato with a side order of a few olives.  I've been in there quite a few times and the owner is a cheerful guy but he surpassed himself this time by singing along lustily to Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits with the climax of the performance being "The Greateeeest Loff of All" which provided an interesting but very entertaining ambience at 8.30am! The man was born to perform I tell you and totally wasted on cafe ownership 😝  I should point out that he only sang along when well away from anyone else such as clearing a vacated table, in a very spacious and airy premises and was fully masked at all times, so it was all perfectly safe.  In any event and in case you're wondering, the reason I haven't had to change my residence card in the same way is that I'm a dual national UK/Irish and have made sure that my residency here is based on my Irish (and therefore EU) citizenship.

Today we went along to Bar Bondia (opposite the Pollensa Park Hotel) who, after their Sunday roast lunchtime service, had a Christmas Crafternoon where local small businesses sold their homemade goods, decorations, jewellery and foods.  Only 6 people were allowed in at a time and everyone had a wonderful time browsing the lovely things on offer.  

Amongst other things we bought a jar of caramelised onion chutney and a pack of homemade Cumberland sausages - yum!   It is more important than ever before to support our local small businesses and artisans in these challenging times and even when things return to normal - and they will - I intend to continue doing so 👍

This week has been a challenging one with regard to one of our dogs who, long story short, appears to have a herniated (slipped) disc in his back near his rear end.  So there have been several visits to the vets behind the church culminating in him being sedated for an x-ray, and some blood tests.  You can actually see how narrow the gap is between his vertebrae in one spot so we're now on tablet, back warming and massaging plus carrying duties.  He only walks a little way and then can't/won't go any further so we have to pick him up just so, in order not to make things worse.   He's also not allowed to go up and down stairs, on/off the sofa etc and as we live quite high up and with no lift this is proving to be a test of our fitness - he's just shy of 10kg which feels very heavy after a while!  I just wonder what we'd do if he was a Great Dane 😳  Anyhow, we've ordered a dog buggy online so that when his back is bad we can wheel him around in his chariot like the little prince he is; this will also help us if we're honest as staggering around carrying 10kg across both your arms to keep his spine straight whilst trying to manage our other dog's lead plus making every effort not to squash the inevitable bag of dog poo really is as tricky as it sounds 😂

In wider news, most of us are now very aware of the need for travellers to Spain from countries on the EU high risk of infection list needing to have had a negative PCR test done within the previous 72 hours.  This will have the effect for most of preventing travel as I believe costs for these specialised tests are around £150 a time.  But on the bright side, the news about the new vaccination seems more than hopeful although for sure it will be many months yet before it, and others like it, are widely available.  But patience is a virtue as they say so......

As I've been writing, the Christmas ads are showing thick and fast on the TV plus I've been seeing people on social media who have already put their Christmas trees up; normally I'm a dyed in the wool "Christmas starts on 1 Dec at the absolute earliest" kinda gal but you know what?  This year it all makes me smile - whatever makes people happy is just fine and dandy.  

Hasta el próximo domingo!  Stay safe 🤗