Life under lockdown, Part 2
Posted by contentedsouls on 19/03/2020
Wednesday 18th March
It is amazing just how quickly we human beings adjust to a ‘new normal’ and how quickly our expectations are reduced. By contrast, of course, our delight when expectations are exceeded, is magnified.
When G came back from a foraging shopping trip with, amongst other things, fresh broccoli, rice, pasta and wine glasses, I was as happy as the woman who found an unlocked skip open on a Marekrite island out of season. Whilst drinking wine and beer out of thick mugs does not directly impinge on our survival, the ability to drink wine out of a glass makes life feel so much more civilised – not to mention that it tastes much nicer.
Having shivered through Monday and woken up to rain on Tuesday, my priority for the day was to sort out firewood.
I didn’t have high hopes, but I had been given the name and telephone number of a man called Vincento who might still deliver. I thought about the words I needed – telephone calls in a foreign language are far more difficult than face to face – and dialled his number. He understood me and said that he would deliver that afternoon; 10 minutes later and the delightful Vincento was on our doorstep with 4 bags of wood and a cuddle for Muttley (he has 7 dogs himself). Woops there goes another rubber tree plant (see what I did there?)!
Today was a little drier and I decided to walk down the hill with my granny trolley and see if I could find some meat and veg (particularly onions – food without onion is, on the whole, pretty sad). It was the first time I’d been out to acquire food since this started; I’m not allowed to go with G in the van and I’m not, under any circumstance, going to drive a long wheel base tranny up here. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I stuck to individual shops.
My first encounter was at our little corner shop. Nothing untoward there and I was able to get a reasonable assortment of vegetables, including onions, and a bottle of brandy. Wine and alcohol are not in short supply – maybe the authorities feel we will riot if not kept sedated. A little bit of banter ensued at my speaking the total bill in Spanish and himself trying to do it in English – these tiny interactions have become very important in my life.
Further on down the hill (remember this is all unknown territory to me) I found a chemist. I needed contact lens cleaner. We queued patiently on the pavement and were let in, five at a time, to stand on the marked out red arrows as we awaited our turn at the counter, one metre away from the sales lady behind a taped barrier and a sheet of polythene between us as she talked to me through a mask and waved gloved hands about whilst we communicated. After being served, I left via a different exit – a one way system through the building.
The next ‘find’ was a butcher. Only two customers allowed in at a time here, but I was delighted to spot a whole chicken and realised that we could have a celebratory wedding anniversary dinner the next day, I also scored some belly pork. My frantic attempts to stop them from chopping both up into diminutive portions were met with great hilarity – I thoroughly enjoyed their piss take out of my appallingly bad Spanish. I am sooo glad that I took the trouble to learn some – in these troubled times, when so many expats haven’t ever bothered, it puts people on our side and they engage with me. No point in saying ‘us’, as ‘us’ is not allowed out together anymore.
I dragged my granny trolley back up the hills to our old town – they are very steep- and produced my goodies to G with a flourish, only to find that – yet again – we had the dates wrong; it was our anniversary today, not tomorrow. He’d knocked up a spag bog, which was way better than our 30th last year-a baguette and peanuts. We don’t seem to excel at wedding anniversaries!
Because we are tucked up the hill in the old village, we’re not seeing, or hearing, an awful lot of ‘life’. However, down in the new town at 8pm every evening there is a right old celebration of support (from balconies and roof tops) for all the hospital workers, police, shop keepers, delivery drivers and everyone that is helping us keep safe and alive. Under the (permitted) excuse of Muttley, I can walk down to soak it in (we’re allowed 500 metres from home with a dog) and remind myself that the world keeps turning.
I have no idea if I’m boring you with my ‘diary’, but it helps me keep some kind of perspective in this strange world we find ourselves living in.
I still have some pretty pictures left of spring springing.
contentedsouls 
Anne Luard said
Not boring at all !
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contentedsouls said
Nice to know Anne – thank you. How is it for you? xxx
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Anne Luard said
Not so bad…we have loo rolls!!!
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CAROLE GRANT said
I am walking with you through your new little slice of paradise, enjoying the whole thing and am envious of your new adventures in a new abode in Spain……….keep the information coming!!!! Snow and more snow here with minus temperatures. Lockdown is different in Canada since distances are so great. All IKEAs have closed and shopping in grocery stores is monitored to less that 50 at a time. This surely will pass and we can’t wait! x
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contentedsouls said
You’ll not be walking very far nor having many adventures then!!!! Thank you for your interest though .
I take it that all house sits are off?
I don’t think I could deal with snow and minus temperatures as well. Keep your chins up x
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CAROLE GRANT said
NO scheduled house sits until May so we’re revelling in family and granddog hugs. Keep walking!!!!
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Dorothy Canvin said
Interesting and frightening to see the difference from the other side of the world.
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contentedsouls said
It’s pretty frightening living in it too – people hiding behind masks and wearing gloves are usually bank robbers; not pharmacists and butchers!!!!!
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Kevin TOO said
Keep posting Jill, you are a great reporter and not a half bad photographer, but clearly a lousy diary secretary… LOL
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contentedsouls said
Thanks Kevin. I blame my calendar lack of awareness on the fact that I always had a diary secretary in a former life!
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Nicole said
Keep posting! I really enjoyed reading this (a friend of Karen’s)
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contentedsouls said
Thank you Nicole; Karen sharing it to her friends’ has made me think about this from the perspective of the younger generations….maybe a subject for a future post.
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Gill Stollery said
Thank you Jill, fun as usual. Keep them coming!
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contentedsouls said
I’ll do my best, but not a lot happens at the moment!
It was great to talk with you yesterday xxx
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Kath said
Not boring at all! How different it might have been if you hadn’t been lucky enough to exchange before the lock down.
Keep well.
Kath (nb Herbie)
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contentedsouls said
Very different – we may have been better off as we might have been allowed back home to the boat where we could probably cruise and self isolate with all our ‘stuff’ around us and carry on with the boat renovations.
HOWEVER this has made us realise that we can’t prove that our ‘main residence’ is a boat which is currently in the NL, so we might have been stuck in the camper van after our house rental ended on 15th April…..now wouldn’t THAT have been fun (not).
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Annie Taylor said
never boring 😁 xx
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contentedsouls said
Thanks Annie – how are you guys finding things? We had intended to arrange a meet up this month…….. xxx
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Steve said
Not boring – find it fascinating.. keep it up…
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contentedsouls said
Thank you. OK, it’s quite cathartic for me and, let’s face it, I have plenty of time – I just need something to happen to write about!
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vallypee said
A great slice of life post, Jill. It’s so interesting to hear what it’s like there. I read another blog about life in Spain by an American woman who lives there. Her perspective is different and I enjoy reading them both. I love the way you’ve been doing your best to communicate. The fun is in the trying, isn’t it? Stay well, dear heart.
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The Budds said
Thanks Val. Could you message me the address for the American lady’s blog please – I would be very interested to read it.
Hope you and Koos are both safe and well lovely lady xxx
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