Well it's been exactly one year since the first lockdown here in Spain and what a journey we've all had. At the moment the Balearics are taking baby steps down the path of the easing of restrictions but they are doing so VERY gingerly - and whilst it's difficult not to be impatient I can't say I blame them. From tomorrow bars/restaurants can open 30% capacity inside with tables of maximum 4 people from 2 households. Outside terraces remain at 50% capacity under the same arrangements with everything still to shut at 5pm. In addition a maximum of 6 people can mix from 2 households only and there is an easing of restrictions on shopping centres. The curfew from 10pm to 6am remains. As the weather is due to get colder this week, the opening of interiors will be welcome news to those who feel the cold although at 30% capacity, those seats will be highly sought after!
We've had some lovely sunny days this past week and on one of them I sat with a friend at the churrería in the square (where the Kashmir Indian restaurant used to be) with a cheeky cafe con leche and an even cheekier churros 😜
A tough gig indeed but someone has to do it!!
Other coffee venues this week - well it would be rude not to - have included La Vall and Stay whose terrace has to be one of the best in terms of a view so here is the view from where I sat:
In terms of vaccinations, around 74,000 people have been vaccination in Mallorca with just over 20,000 having received both doses. They have focused on residential homes, essential professions (obviously including healthcare workers), teachers, the over 80s and senior dependents and caregivers. I believe that they have, by and large, been using the Astra Zeneca jab and as Spain has decided not to use this for the over 55s, this has meant that the essential profession workers have been the priority with the vaccinations they have. I'm assuming they are waiting until they have sufficient numbers of other vaccinations in order to roll things out for the under 80s but over 55s. This is pretty frustrating of course but it is what it is and we just have to wait.
In great news, since Monday (8th) there have been no active cases of Covid-19 in the Pollensa municipality although the PAC in Pollensa have reminded people on Radio Pollenca and through social media that it is important not to become complacent and I think (or maybe I hope!) that most of us have got that message loud and clear!
This week saw the XVII Rally Clásico Mallorca and part of the route was around Pollensa, the caves at Campanet and Lluc. I didn't see any of it, but the route also takes in Sa Calobra which is not for the faint-hearted! 😳 Anyway, well done to all who took part.
The tourist information centre down by the marina here in the Port is really coming along nicely and this week they finished the plastering of the outside. It certainly looks like it won't be too long before they get things like glazing in, here it is compared to last week:
It's certainly good to see the information centre back in its original location 👍
The other day as I was walking the dogs past Bisanyes patisseria up near the petrol station, I glanced again at the sign in the window saying that it was up for lease due to retirement and as I did so it struck me - the word retirement in Spanish is 'jubilación' and I realised that whilst the English word retirement implies a withdrawal or pullback from work (not inaccurate of course), the Spanish word has much closer linguistic links to the word jubilation; it occurred to me that the Spanish approach is much more celebratory and joyous and I rather like that 🥳
And so to rather more personal news. Writing it makes it seem more real somehow but..... this is my penultimate blog post about PP. This is because on 27 March we are moving to the Valencia region. During the first lockdown we, like many of us, had plenty of time to reflect. And whilst we reflected on how lucky we were to live in such a wonderful place in a lovely large apartment with plenty of outside space, it is rented and so doing work on it and making it totally our own isn't part of the deal really. And we really really miss having a garden 😒 as do the dogs! We realised that we wanted to be able to just let the dogs into the garden as well as enjoying a garden ourselves. In a nutshell we realised that we don't quite have the lifestyle we want here and because Mallorca, and the Pollensa area in particular, are so expensive property-wise we could never afford a house here - sad but just how it is. And so we have sold our apartment here (we had a small one we rented out) and bought a villa on the mainland - as you do in the middle of a global pandemic! 😂 We are both sad and excited all at the same time. Sad because we will miss some lovely friends here and I will most definitely miss my job and doing my show on English Radio Pollensa, but excited because we will finally have our dream home surrounded by orange groves on the edge of a lovely little town inland from Denia.
There will be a final blog post about PP on the I Love PP Facebook page next Sunday and thereafter I will continue the blog but it will of course not be about PP. So it will be on Twitter (SarahatSarum) or on my own FB page but no longer on I Love PP. I have had such lovely comments about the blog and feel sad that I will no longer be able to update people on PP after next week but we have to do what we think is right for us - life is definitely too short.
In the meantime.... stay safe and hasta el próximo domingo!
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