As it gradually gets a bit cooler down here in Marbella, and with the numbers, even in Andalusia, rising (as we all expected in the winter), we are making a conscious effort to eat healthily, and (in my case anyway), to cut our drinking down (in order to make way for gallons of the stuff over the next few days!). It is much easier to eat well here, as opposed to Prague, since there are always fresh fish, nice meat and amazing vegetables available, and I have been going a bit crazy about hitting our '5 a day' on fruit and veg, as well, of course, as doing 10,000 steps in addition to our usual training.
The downside of all the fruit and veg, though, especially when combined with beer (in Jan's case) is that it can sometimes make us a bit 'anti-social', and Jan, especially, has been known to 'let one or two rip' after eating (obviously not me, since I am a lady). We have actually come up with a new saying, which is 'social farting', something that is guaranteed to ensure that people keep their distance, whilst adding a second benefit, which is accurately testing for Covid, since they still say that the first sign of having it is losing the sense of smell, and I, for one, have not had that happen yet.
Sitting here in Marbella, it is hard to believe that it is just a few days until Christmas and then the start of another year. A second Christmas that we will spend in Spain, although this year, thank God, it is not because we don't want to go back to the Czech Republic (this time last year, the country was having just about the worst Covid time in Europe), but because we actually want to be here. And as the wintry weather sets in, we find ourselves getting back to many of the activities that kept us sane during the early lockdown of 2020 - it is almost nostalgic! That means, of course, all of our usual exercise regimes (but, thankfully, being able to play tennis and go running means that I have parked the Bollywood app for the time-being) as well as, in my case, spending a good part of each morning on social media, in particular ranting on Twitter.
Needless to say, a good part of that ranting is directed at the English government, but for the last week I have also been making myself very unpopular with my thoughts on the result of the BBC's 'Sportsman of the Year' competition (or SPOTY, as it is affectionally called). For those that don't know, this award is given by the BBC to the British sportsperson that, in the voting public's view, has been the biggest success/personality/whatever of the year - and since we Brits aren't good at voting (Brexit anyone?) the result this time was yet another joke.
Now I know that a lot of my friends were pleased to see Emma Raducanu, the young British tennis player, win the US Open (actually the only competition she won all year), and may well be upset by my views on this. But really? Emma Raducanu 'Sportsperson of the Year'? Above Lewis Hamilton, Mark Cavendish (hero) Adam Peaty (also hero) and many, many others? And even more embarrassing was that the BBC thought it would be a nice gesture to get two of the biggest superstars of track cycling (with about a million Olympic gold medals between them) to come and hand out the prizes (even though they clearly weren't worthy of being short-listed themselves). Unbelievable. Emma, of course, is a nice young girl, very pretty, and she even speaks more than one language fluently (unusual for a Brit)! And we Brits do like to have some success at tennis (and the women, especially, have very little, unsurprisingly - I keep ranting to Eurosport that they should send people over to the Czech Republic to see how to train a woman tennis player (or Spain for that matter!)). Plus I do have to wonder if Emma would have got the vote if she was a lesbian, black or, dare I even say it, less pretty? But there we are. For now, I am just putting it out there that I doubt that she will win another tournament, let alone a grand slam, for at least another two years, if at all. And if anyone wants to take me up on that, or remind me when she walks away with everything in 2022, go ahead. I am, though, ready to back this up with money!!
As you can see, I have a lot of stored up ranting to get out, but since it is Christmas I am not going to talk about the UK government too much - really, what is the point? It's just more of the same old thing - Covid chaos (more than 100,000 new cases a day?!), BJ lying through his teeth about just about everything, and the Chief Medical Officer, Chris Twitty (sorry Witty) pleading that he put the country into some form of lockdown but being ignored, as usual (I do find it hard to understand why someone of his stature would continue to be put out there as a sacrificial lamb... but presumably he is looking ahead to writing a book one day or going out on the 'celebrity speaker' circuit). Meanwhile in the Czech Republic the new government has already put out a few weird Covid messages (groups must be limited over Christmas but not over New Year??) - I can't help feeling that all those that voted against the old lot will be disappointed, but we will see.
So what about Christmas. We wont be doing too much that is different to any other day - just less restrictions on food and booze than usual. Highlights will be, for sure, lots of drinks and lunches with friends, lots of walks and runs on the beach, and endless unwrapping of presents (me). Oh, and the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day, which Jan insists we watch religiously (I don't mean that we are 'religious', it's what we say)....
So for now, anyway, we wish you a great Christmas and let's hope that 2022 is a significant improvement on 2021!
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