The latest on Covid in Spain – and on life on standby
February 28, 2021
News came out last week that Spain had 9,387 Covid deaths in February – the highest number of deaths since April of 2020. In many ways life remains on standby: there’s a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, non-essential stores have to close at 6 pm, and there are restrictions on non-essential travel between different autonomous regions and provinces.
Don’t shoot me if I’ve made a mistake in the hours I cite above – the rules seemingly change every week. One new rule came into effect a couple of weeks ago: a new rule in Andalusia stating that no alcohol could be bought after 6 pm. I went to the local grocery store and asked the owner about that. “We don’t agree with that rule. Don’t worry, you can buy all the alcohol you want” he said while showing off his wine rack in the same manner those models on The Price Is Right show off a new car. Thank god.
There are no tourists: the only travellers allowed are from the EU or from countries that share a reciprocal agreement with Spain. And in all cases you need a negative CPR test within 72 hours prior to arrival in Spain.
I had hoped to have gotten some hikes in by now but even the hiking group that I had my mind set on joining is closed down.
So life is on standby and I’m hearing restrictions may only be lifted in May.
Happy to be in Spain
This time has really made us reflect however on how happy we are to be in Spain. Locals tell us that it’s been a cold winter but most days in January and February we’ve had temperatures in the high teens. We had one spell a few weeks ago where we had highs of 25C (that’s 77 Fahrenheit) for a few days. It’s almost always sunny and we’ve spent a lot of time in our garden. In the next few weeks we intend to go to a garden center and buy a shitload of plants, earth and pots. We’ve got a huge yard and we plan on doing a lot of gardening. We totally agree with mask laws but we also both hate wearing them outdoors (sick of sweaty faces and foggy glasses) – having a large outdoor space of our own is great. It was a priority when we were looking for an apartment and we’re glad we paid a little more for the extra space.
But besides the apartment, life in Spain is easy. I’ll admit – it’s a bit hard adjusting to “normal life” after travelling full-time for 6 years. We got used to being active and always being stimulated by something new. I’ve always wondered “what do you do after a life of full-time travel?” (that was a post title that’s bounced around in my head for years). Now we’ve basically been forced to stop. But again, we’re really happy to be in Spain. People are friendly, helpful and communication is easy. Speaking Spanish is a huge advantage and we feel at home here.
“Who cares?”
It’s something we’ve said a lot lately.
Like yesterday. “We should go to the hardware store”. But by the time we finished breakfast we kind of looked at each other.
“Who cares?”
We can do it tomorrow or next week. Who cares? It’s not like our schedule is full of different activities that we have to plan around. And does it really matter if we pick up that screw gun this week or next? (I’ll have more on the need for a screw gun soon)
Again, maybe we’re having a hard time adjusting to “normal life”. Or maybe it’s just hard getting motivated to do anything during this period.
I’m wondering: anyone else feeling a bit like this??
Keeping busy
You see our spin bike up top. I’ve been doing a lot of spinning and working down the alcohol belly. I now pass the “fluff test” (“fluff test” – when you have a bit of a belly you might take off your shirt and notice you’ve got lint stuck in your belly button hole. I no longer have lint in my belly button hole).
I’ve also been keeping busy with our new Spanish blog and it’s starting to pay off. I have a new series entitled “Ask an Expat” where I’ve interviewed Expats living in different parts of Spain. It’s been interesting hearing people’s stories and their experiences living in various places around the country. The series has done well and accounts for most of the traffic on the blog.
New Theme on this Bbqboy
Over the next week (or two) you’ll notice a new look on this blog. I haven’t had a choice – WordPress updated their editor and the current theme (or “look” for those of you who are not tech savvy) is outdated. I’ve got some plugins keeping it functional but it’s been a temporary patch.
So I’m going to take a bit of time off this blog until I get the new look up (maybe a week or two). Once up, I’ll have a great post that I’ve been working hard on. If you’re looking to see Spain and do it in style you’ll love it.
Odds and ends on stuff
The Screw gun I mention up top. Our walls are cement layered with plaster (like most Spanish walls). Initially, to hang up photos and paintings we tried to put in screws or nails. Plaster would start crumbling and we couldn’t get anything into the layer of cement beyond the plaster. So we went to the hardware store and bought hooks with adhesive backs. That was fine until we got a few humid days and suddenly paintings started falling off the wall in the middle of the night. So we bought cement and refixed the adhesive hooks to the wall with that. That was fine. Then, over the last few days, the hooks again fell off the wall – – this time with a ring of plaster stuck to the back of them. So we’ve been woken up a bunch of times to paintings falling and glass breaking. Now we’ve got some broken frames and patches in the walls where plaster used to be. I’m fed up. So we have to get a screw gun and get some big ass screws in the cement wall. It seems to be the only way to keep paintings on the wall in Spain.
Bugs in Andalusia. Spring is coming in Spain and that means bugs. We’ve done some reading because we were wondering whether to get some screens for the windows. Some of the bugs we can expect: cockroaches (including some that can fly) and Spiders (including the Spanish Black Widow). But the most dangerous? It’s a caterpillar. Thankfully they don’t fly.
My Spanish Drivers License. I’ve mentioned previously that getting a Spanish driver’s license is my goal this year. A good article on that here. For now though I’ve decided to wait until I get the vaccine.
How will Covid change travel? A good video here by the economist (the first 2 minutes are a bit boring, applying to digital nomads, but the rest is interesting).
So that’s our update. Like everyone else we feel like our life is on standby at the moment. How about you?
Related: Why we chose Nerja as our new home in Spain
The “who cares” philosophy is also seen in the retirement lifestyle. I often don’t even know what day it is (especially in the past year) and really, who cares? The only time I pay attention is on the weekends. We tend to stay home while everyone else is out and about. Although, I don’t remember the last time we went anywhere notable, other than for a hike.
Yuck. Cockroaches are disgusting. I’m surprised though that with those thick brick walls you would see spiders and such. All the time we’ve spent in Portugal we never had a spider in the apartment. Thankfully. I’ve told you before it’s the reason I never travel solo. Someone needs to kill the spiders. Speaking of serious bugs, my worst nightmare is about to descend upon the east coast and we’re planning to get out of town for several weeks because I have a serious phobia. The 17-year emergence of cicadas, we’re talking trillions and Maryland is the epicenter, is going to arise in early to mid May. The election year from hell, a pandemic and now this jurassic episode of the Twilight Zone. The mental fatigue is real.
We’ve both gotten our first dose of the Pfizer vaccine with the 2nd dose scheduled. Biden is working to open vaccine distribution to everyone in May. There are too many states here in the divided states of America that are throwing out all covid mandates so the number of infections/deaths will continue to rise. The ignorance is astounding.
Good to read your update. Stay healthy and take care. Happy gardening.
I have to laugh Patti because it’s all a really bad Hollywood movie: Cockroaches, spiders, a piece of shit president who’s stain is still dripping down the wall, a pandemic that’s mutating and a populace that acts like the pretty girl in the first scene of a horror movie (they’re always the first to go)…and on top of it a horde of plant-sucking insects about to infest the eastern coast US. Yikes. Speaking of which, did you see the news reports of the plague of mice overrunning southeast Australia? Unbelievable.
Very easy to get depressed.
Good luck Patti, I’ll be following the news on the cicadas. Maybe they’ll divert to south Florida.
Your new life is so vibrant and interesting: drill, screws, cockroaches, caterpillars… Here in Russia, everything is much more “boring.” We can go where we want without restrictions, just put on a mask in public places. The temperature is -27 Celsius. Probably the virus run of to more warm countries.
Good luck with your paintings and walls.
Thank you Victor. Ah, yes, the exciting humdrum of everyday life. We’ve traded in a life of full-time travel and now argue over whether humus is best on toast or crackers.
-27C. Ouch. That reminds me of Montreal. Makes you feel alive but not in a good way 🙂
I hope you and Irina are well, I’m sure you are also missing travel. Do you have anything planned? I think we’ve mentioned before Victor – Russia high on our list and we hope to get there in the near future!
Stay safe and all the best to you both.
No, we don’t have plans. We just wait when all this fuss is over. In the circumstances, Russia is one of the most comfortable countries for stay.
Stay safe you both.
Lissette and Frank, It’s good that you had adapted so fast to life in Spain, yes, it is a very nice country. The walls in (I think) most of Europe are like the regular ones in Spain as well as in South America even though I know that in my country they started using dry wall some years ago, to hang pictures the best way I found for this kind of walls is using a drill (I’m sure you have one, don’t buy more tools than those that you need) with masonry drill bits (they go from very slim to very fat) and use plastic or wood anchors, pictures will be hung for centuries. Still have not decided if traveling this year is safe, if not, next year will be mandatory it’s our 50th year wedding anniversary, so we will have to celebrate.
Stay healthy
Thanks Carlos! The reason it took me a while to respond to this is that we went out to buy a drill – and ended up having a week of doing changes around the apartment including a lot of drilling. Yes, we have plastic anchors and works well. I never had issues in Canada where walls were wood so this problem was new to me.
Ah, so next year will be a special trip. Any ideas where you’ll go?
All the best!
thanks for the updates Frank and take care!
Hi Frank!
It’s good to read about your firsthand experience living in Spain. Sounds like you and Lissette are enjoying the slowed-down pace of life for now 🙂 Your pictures of Nerja are gorgeous! I looked up the deadly caterpillar too. We were in Andalucia in the spring but had no clue!
Because of our cities encroaching into forests, we do get a few snakes, monkeys, etc., but an apartment building not too far from ours recently had a leopard that wasn’t captured for 5 days. It was only sighted strolling around the outdoor spaces in the middle of the night. Until they finally did catch the fella, the residents had to stay at home and not even enjoy their own grounds. And to think that Covid is bad! A similar thing happened in a school two years ago. It was during holidays so no kids were around and they caught that leopard a few hours later.
I just looked up the vaccine situation in Spain and saw that the country is among the world’s leaders when it comes to the percentage that got two jabs. Do you know when you can expect to get the first jab?
2021 for us in India had very low official infection rates but there are signs of an upward trend again, with two states in particular showing a definite increase in rate of infections. Most people have dropped their guard and been socializing without distancing or masks even though we’re still supposed to be wearing one in public even outdoors.
Today marks the start of private hospitals offering the first jab to people over 60 years and those over 50 with specific comorbidities. Until now, only govt hospitals were administering them and only to medical workers and a few other essential workers. We don’t yet know when the general population will start. India doesn’t have access to any vaccines manufactured outside our country. We’re completely reliant on the AstraZeneca one and a completely homegrown one. The former because the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer happens to be an Indian company and fortunately partnered with them to deliver vaccines not only to Indians but to developing countries around the globe. The completely homegrown vaccine does not have a good reputation because it was given approval for emergency use before phase 3 trials even started. Many doctors all over the country did not agree with the approval without any data being made available publicly. It was recently reported that trial volunteers (all poor people in desperate need of money) were not informed that they were in a trial but told that they were getting vaccinated and were paid to be jabbed. Now only a few states are administering both vaccines. Ours is only offering the AstraZeneca one. Pfizer applied to be allowed into India but were denied on the basis of an absence of local data.
We’re slowly getting fed up. Up until last year, we were pretty patient and ok with hunkering down at home while working and schooling virtually. In January we timidly ventured out to lunch at an outdoor restaurant with tables far apart. Last month, we went to an outdoor brewery and restaurant and included our siblings and their families that have been a part of our bubble since our very strict lockdown ended in June of last year. It was really nice but now we all need a vacation and state governments are threatening to reimpose some restrictions. School summer holidays are just over a month away and I’m going to go nuts making sure my daughter has enough stuff to do at home without gluing herself to a digital screen!
BTW, we have concrete walls so we know a thing or two about drilling holes for nails. We first drill, then insert a tiny piece of wood or cork and then insert the nail. That way the nail won’t slowly get loose over time. I warn you though, if you have a lot of nails to do, the drilling will make you vibrate for a few days after. Hubby and I shared the job in our home and that’s how I felt!
Now I’m off to read your latest posts on Mapping Spain
HA! Good to know about the drilling Claudine.
I’m not sure yet about the vaccine but I think it will be sometime in the spring. We have private insurance (expats coming here on a visa need private insurance, they can’t access the public) and we’ve contacted our insurance company about when/how we can get the vaccine. No news yet.
Yikes. I think I’d rather run into caterpillars than leopards!
Interesting about India. What a massive undertaking with that population. And yes, I heard that story about poor people being “vaccinated” – it made it on the news around the world I think.
Keep up the fight Claudine!
Thanks for the update. Lovely area. Things are much more limited there than here in Sweden. Everyone was out today and only a few had masks. We have no curfews. The only restrictions are on the number of people in shops. Plus social distancing. Can’t wait for all of this to be over to get back to a normal life. I hope I get to retire before I drop dead. A fellow teacher I have worked with for ten years, a Canadian guy I often chatted with online, had a heart attack at 62 and died last month. So sad and unexpected. It made me re-evaluate my current situation.
The sad thing is that so many people look forward to retirement and then drop dead. Especially men who tend to have a lower life expectancy.
I “retired” at 44. Who knows how long I’ll live but if I die tomorrow I have no regrets. But still, we feel that this virus cutting into what’s left of our lives and we still want to do a lot…