An irregular diary of life in a Covid bubble of loveliness – Part 4

I'm sure I'm not the only one that in the lead-up to Christmas pretends that there is nothing much to get excited about but, actually, I am usually secretly stressing about it all; what to buy the most impossible man in the world, what else I need to get, whom I mustn't forget, what I need to organise, etc. Which means that I always wake up on Boxing Day with a feeling of relief that it is all over (combined with a hangover and a feeling that I ate way too much and will have to starve for the next few days to make up for it).

Having said that, we had a very nice time this year, despite the fact that it poured with rain more or less continually from early Christmas Day until the morning of the 27th (or, as our adoptive daughter put it, 'two rainy days of pissing non-stop - nature obviously needed it (I presume she was talking about the weather...!)). I say our 'adoptive daughter' ('AD') - she is not, of course, our daughter, nor is she adopted by us - she is, in fact, our Czech 'girlfriend' down here whom we met not long after she got divorced and whom we have advised on a regular basis as she has wheeled out various unsuitable (and unsavoury) suitors - the result being that she named us her 'adopted parents' (or AP) from then on. Personally, I would have preferred to be called her 'AS' or similar (adopted sister) since she loves to address us as 'Mum' or 'Dad', especially in public, and it is always a bit irritating when no-one comments on the fact that I, in particular, am way too young to be her Mum.... At least she is extremely beautiful and no-one comments on that either, so that's something.

Anyway, Christmas came and went in a blur of food, drink, socialising and exercising - we even dragged ourselves out to run on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day mornings despite the rain - in order to build up a bit of calorie reserve, and even though the rain in Spain is particularly wet, running by the side of the sea, with the waves crashing down and not too many other people to avoid, can be quite invigorating. But for the last few days the sun has been beating down, everything is returning to near normality, and we are now pondering what the New Year will bring.

What I am sure will be high on my list is the monitoring of the news and social media again as Covid continues to be the biggest talking point for most of us (even though we try to avoid it as much as possible). This morning I pondered the fact that two of our British friends, both living in or near to London, got cold feet about coming to Spain (and Andalusia, in particular - which has a population of more than 8.5 million and a daily Covid positive number of about 500) - one because he had read in the UK media that people have to wear a mask all the time and the other as she had read that foreigners, even double or treble vaccinated, would not be allowed into the hotels without first showing a test. Both reasons being, of course, being completely daft (and incorrect).

What is incredible is that (a) the media outside of Spain have barely mentioned how amazingly the country has been doing for the past eighteen months (for fear it shows them up I guess) but the minute the numbers started rising, off they went, blowing everything out of proportion, (b) that anyone living on what the 'Twitterers' generally call 'Plague Island' (the UK) would worry about coming here for whatever reason, since life has been more or less normal for ages now, and (c) why masks, in the UK, are still viewed with such horror. I just don't get it, especially when you consider that the biggest difference between most of Europe and the UK is that in most parts of Europe, social distancing and mask wearing has continued, even during the summer when the numbers were low, whilst in the UK the government still continues to struggle with both, and in the last week alone it has had nearly a million positive cases (!!!! bloody HELL - I just had to check that, but it's true!!). I doubt that anyone likes wearing masks - I don't like them, Jan hates them, but what's the big deal? I don't much like wearing shoes, as my feet always hurt, but I do, and Jan would much prefer to go naked at all times (masked or otherwise), but despite that still gets dressed every day. But there we are. Life is not fair...

On the 'life is not fair' subject and moving on from Covid for now, I was in the gym the other morning watching highlights of the Paralympics from earlier this year being shown on Spanish TV (diverting my attention from the incredible boredom of being on the cross-trainer). I am ashamed to say that we hadn't watched any of it before (due, of course, to being burned-out from 24 hours a day watching of the Olympics themselves) but wow! They were repeating various races for blind runners, and aside from marvelling at the 'blind runners' themselves, I was struck by how amazing their 'partners' are - imagine doing all of that training and competing purely to enable someone else to take part and succeed. How completely selfless and wonderful that is (oh, that reminds me of a word I read on Twitter this morning (but in a different context) - 'Confelicity' - taking joy in the happiness of others. Something to think about). But, anyway, watching all those blind-runners was pretty emotional and made me think that if wearing a mask is all we have to complain about, we are pretty damn lucky.

So New Year's Eve is upon us and 2022 looms. We shall be spending some of today on the beach (maybe a spot of sunbathing in the afternoon, definitely watching the fireworks that can be seen right around the bay at midnight), after playing tennis this morning (me) and running (Jan). And then we will be looking ahead to next week when I will be starting my usual 'dry January' and, for sure, struggling with it like mad - so expect some grumpiness in the coming weeks. But needs must. We will also be visiting a few lovely houses as our 'finding a property for friends' project (www.liveinmarbella.com) is starting to take off, and quite a few people we know are beginning to think seriously about joining us down here. Anyway, I will be back soon. For now, though, I wish everyone a good New Year's Eve celebration and let's hope for a lot of confelicity in 2022, along with a bit of joy for ourselves. Happy New Year (Feliz Ano!/Stastny Novy Rok!)!.