Tags
It’s done! Third jab.
boostered!
09 Thursday Dec 2021
Posted in coronavirus, covid, health & happiness
Category Archives: coronavirus
omicron
29 Monday Nov 2021
Posted in coronavirus, covid, sevilla, travel
Tags
Well fuck. Though I guess nobody should really be surprised by this latest even more contagious Covid variant since we keep on not sending vaccines to less developed nations, preferring to make anti-vaxxing a political football at home. I mean seriously, just send the damn vaccines to the people who really want them. And so the latest variant omicron has left its “birthplace” of South Africa and is now rapidly travelling around the world, just as Delta (India) and Alpha (UK) did before it. Of course by the time we are notified of it even existing, by the time we are told it is a “variant of concern”, it is already spreading everywhere. And so now what?
For the most part this wouldn’t affect me in the sense that my life wouldn’t change that much. EXCEPT that this week I had made plans to take a couple of research trips (for another Decanter article) to Cádiz province, first to Arcos de la Frontera and then to Cádiz city and El Puerto de Santa María. Now I just want to stay at home. I mean, if these trips had been last week I wouldn’t have been as worried as I am now, even though the reality of the situation probably wasn’t much different last week, we just didn’t know about it yet.
And so… fuck it, I am going. Today to Arcos on a day trip with my friend Tania in her car. We’ll be visiting two bodegas and then coming home in the afternoon. And tomorrow I’ll be going to Cádiz by train with Peter, stopping off first in El Puerto to visit another bodega, then overnighting in Cádiz city, and coming back on Wednesday. I had originally planned on staying two nights in Cádiz but have decided to just stay for one and cut back on exposure risks.
Last Friday my health centre told me I could have my booster shot today (!!!) but as I won’t be here I have to go back and rebook it after I return. In any case, the booster wouldn’t have “taken effect” in time to make any difference for this trip. But guys… THIS IS MY FIRST TIME OUT OF SEVILLA SINCE MARCH 2020. I’m a bit terrified.
local hero
23 Tuesday Nov 2021
Posted in coronavirus, covid, health & happiness
Walking past my neighbourhood churros place, the legendary Calentería San Pablo, I saw these signs (the Spanish one says “we won’t serve anyone without a mask”) and asked if I could take a photo. Because… YES. The churros counter is open to the street but of course people coming up to place orders are less than a metre away from the staff. I was told they have been threatened by customers who yell at them and say all kinds of nasty crap. But you know what? Their business, THEIR RULES. So suck it up, assholes.
I am so grateful for the continued mask mandate in Spain, which we’ve been told will be in place at least until spring. Even though more and more people (mostly tourists) are not wearing masks outdoors even when not maintaining the 1.5 metre social distance requirement, at least there is an element of safety when going anywhere indoors or public transport, etc.
Covid infection numbers have been steadily rising the past few weeks and there is already talk of the sixth wave. Happily they have reduced the time between second jabs and the booster, from six months to three, so I should be getting mine very soon.
double jabbed – again!
28 Thursday Oct 2021
Posted in coronavirus, covid, health & happiness
Today I went to get my flu jab and the nurse said I was also eligible for a bonus pneumonia jab (cos I’m OLD), so I said, hell yes, give me all the jabs. One in each arm. Still waiting for word on the Covid booster shot. At the moment in Andalucía they are only doing over 70s and front line workers, and beginning to give kids their first jabs. Anyhow. This is good. Because I really feel this winter is going to be the real test re: Covid and all the variants, and how (if?) we end up working together to eradicate it. And every day I give thanks that we will have a mask mandate in place until (at least) next spring.
sustainable tourism – an oxymoron?
20 Wednesday Oct 2021
If there’s one thing the latest holiday long weekend (October 8-12) has shown it’s that nobody gives a fuck about so-called sustainable tourism. What l saw in the bars and in the streets was total greed in action and it was not pretty. Visitors desperate for an “experience” and a tourism/hospitality industry that only cares about massive profit. All backed by the government that miraculously discovered the Covid data it needed to justify the elimination of all restrictions just in time for the biggest national holiday between summer and Christmas. Coincidence?
Most people appeared to have thrown caution to the wind in terms of Covid (no masks or social distancing AT ALL) while hotels were crowing about having a 90% occupation rate, and many bars were allowing way too many people inside… back to normal! What short memories we have. And how stupid we are to blindly believe that we are safe at “Level 0” when just a few days previously we were not. I get it, sort of. People are tired of being locked down, shut in, etc. Except most people haven’t been. They just haven’t been able to go on holiday abroad without testing or pack themselves into tapas bars. Boo fucking hoo.
I truly see this sudden return to “normal” in Sevilla with cheap flights, hordes of mindless (and maskless) tourists milling about everywhere, streets clogged, bars and restaurants overflowing, as not only a special kind of hell, but also a reaffirmation that people, at heart, are basically selfish assholes.
I mean, have we not learned anything during these past almost 20 months?? Have we not learned to re-evaluate what is truly valuable to us? Have we not given one thought to the idea that our past NORMAL was in part what caused this most recent global catastrophe? Apparently not. And even though there has been a lot of press about the concept of sustainable tourism, it looks like that is just so much lip service. No such thing exists at the moment.
casa azahar 