Well as I write it's the second day of 'freedom' in the UK and it seems that caveats are already in the frame 🤔 things have taken a bit of a hiccup here too - some areas of the Valencia region, but not where we live, have had a curfew re-imposed (I believe from 1-6am) and the whole region is not allowed any gatherings of more than 10 people. I understand the national government is now looking at other possible measures including a re-introduction of mask wearing outdoors. This really would be a pain in the proverbial in the heat we currently have - it being summer in Spain and all 😂 more about that later..... But anyway, we just have to wait and see what the government comes up with - much the same as in the UK.
Last week I FINALLY got my first Covid jab and I couldn't have been more excited as we drove there, you'd have thought I was off to collect an award or to a party and not to have someone stick a needle in my arm 😂 I was so keen, we got there over half an hour early and apart from a couple of other early birds it was really quiet. The venue was the sports centre on the other side of the valley and the view from outside wasn't too shabby:
On entry I was asked if I was there for my second jab....errr no!!! Anyhow, the whole process was easy and I went straight to the nurse for the jab and from there to a chair to wait for 15 minutes. It seems that locally at least, the Spanish hold no truck with private booths in which to be jabbed, no sirree. It's lights, camera, action in front of everyone who is queuing and everyone waiting out the 15 minutes 😱 luckily I don't mind jabs but if you were needle-phobic or similar I'm not sure how you'd feel! In any event I bounced out of there like I'd won the lottery and joined Ian at the sports centre cafe for a celebratory coffee. Now just to wait for them to contact me in mid-September or so for the second one - Astra Zeneca if you're wondering.
A friend from Mallorca came out to stay for 2 nights recently and we had a wonderful time showing her the area, eating some great food and relaxing in the pool. During a menu del dia one evening in the little square, the town hall band gave us a tune or two - I think they were on their way to the oldest part of town called Orbeta which was celebrating a fiesta. All towns and villages here seem to have wonderful facilities - music schools, sports centres, swimming pools.....you name it, they've got it! Nice to see that learning to play a musical instrument is seen as an important skill here as this seems to have dropped by the wayside in the UK.
During her visit we stopped at the vaccination sports centre cafe for a coffee whilst driving around the valley, slightly concerned that we'd gatecrashed a youth club party as the place was packed with mainly young male adults - on closer inspection we realised that the clanking racket we could hear over and above the voices was the table football tables they were all playing highly competitively on 6 carefully numbered tables. Then we saw the computer system and realised we'd inadvertently walked in on a hard-fought table football competition. They were enjoying themselves but it was obviously serious stuff for most of them. But what struck me after about 10 minutes of so was that this was good old-fashioned table football, albeit with digital goal scoring and connected to a series of computer tablets and ever changing league table computer screens, but..... not a computer game as such in sight. Maybe I'm showing my age but it was fantastic to see lots of young people having such a great time with the same thing that those of us a lot older did too.
And on the subject of football....ah well. It was nice while it lasted but it was great to see an England team do so well and do the country proud. The less said about the vile trolling the better - sometimes I just don't know what the world is coming to (god, I sound so old! but really??!)
We've been working hard on various parts of the exterior of the property with the current issue being the replacement of a water deposit (tank) at the back of the garage which fills from the mains and then provides greater water pressure in the house when a pump in our garage is switched on. We haven't used it yet but as we have family coming out soon and we might need that extra pressure we tried it out. It works perfectly but we thought we'd clean the water deposit out before refilling it as it hasn't been used for so long. But then Ian discovered it needs replacing so one is on order - there's always something! Whilst Ian had fun with that, I painted a gate - much easier!
I'm continuing to go to my wonderful art support group in Benidoleig every Monday and enjoying it beyond all expectation. However last Monday the temperature here took a sharp upwards turn and quite how we managed to paint with just a few fans and no air-conditioning I will never know. The car temperature gauge said it was 42.5 degrees C! And from today onwards temperatures are heading up again - still the pool is great when the heat is all just a bit much and some days we've been in the pool 3 times. Mind you the chillis we've been growing are providing heat of a different kind:
And finally.....an update on Alfie the toad hunter. He successfully went on a toad hunt right in the middle of the Euro 2020 final which Ian found highly amusing as you can imagine 😳 it was quite a big one too, maybe in celebration of such a big event, who knows! It was transported to a nearby dry riverbed and I really hope that's now the last of them. Mind you, when we went for dinner with our neighbours we commiserated about toads and wasps but then they mentioned tarantulas. Yep, apparently they're a possibility too 😱😱😱 all I can hope is that this is because our neighbours have a long border with the fruit trees that are grown all over the valley floor because trust me, if I encounter a tarantula it won't end well for either of us!!
Stay safe and hasta luego!
