Tag Archives: covid-19

lockdown day 48

30 Thursday Apr 2020

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I got my first mask the other day when I took out the rubbish and made a quick trip to the supermarket. I had tried buying some online but there were so many kinds to choose from that I just got confused and gave up. I thought it would be easier at the pharmacy but it wasn’t really. Sure there were fewer choices but I still had no idea what I was looking for. So I bought five of these cheap one-use paper ones and was a bit surprised when the woman just took them out of a large box of masks and put them in a bag. I mean, they weren’t wrapped in plastic or anything, and although I had seen her disinfecting her gloved hands when I walked in, I did think about the irony of catching the virus from my mask.

Anyhow, they’re not very nice to wear, are they? I can’t imagine having one on all day, especially in summer, as it gets quite hot under there. But since it looks like it may become mandatory for us to start wearing masks outside, any advice on what kind I should buy? I still have four, so that should keep me going for the next forty days (más o menos), but deliveries have been taking longer lately. If you have a link to some that you have purchased and would recommend that would be even better. Thanks!

nico

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in casa azahar, change, coronavirus, home

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I wrote about Nico shortly after lockdown, because he had disappeared for a few days and I was worried about how he was going to get on with fewer people in the streets to give him money. He’s my “designated street guy”. I mean, I can’t afford to be giving money to all the street people, so it’s been my thing that wherever I’ve lived here I get to know one of them a bit and do my best to help them out. Not just with money but also stopping and chatting a bit. I was used to seeing Nico every day.

Anyhow, now that I am only going out about once every ten days or so I haven’t been able to give Nico much help but then I saw him walking past my house and called out for him to stop while I looked around for a fiver. I had visions of it fluttering down onto my neighbour’s balcony so I made it into a tight square and tossed it down to him – and that worked fine! So now I have a new method of getting some cash to him a bit more often, even if it means throwing my money around.  🙂

noche del pescaíto

25 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in coronavirus, fiestas, flamenco, sevilla

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Right, so obviously Sevilla’s Feria de Abril has been cancelled this year. At first it was postponed until the end of September, when I think the city council thought they could do a combo thing with the Feria de San Miguel. But now… nada. In fact ALL festivals, fiestas, etc, are clearly going to be cancelled for the rest of the year, and most likely well into next year.

But tonight is the noche del pescaíto (night of the fried fish) which traditionally is the first evening of Feria before it officially opens, and everyone in their little private casetas do a pre-opening thing for their select friends, make a whack of fried fish and everyone is well and properly full of fish and rebujito by the time the alumbrado – the lighting up of the fair ground – happens, and when the rest of the public is allowed in.

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lockdown day 42

24 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in casa azahar, coronavirus, home, sevilla, sevilla shutdown

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This is a photo of Plaza Salvador on a typical Saturday afternoon. So as you can see, right now during lockdown is a far cry from Sevillana life as we know it. It’s not only that, like everywhere else, people are staying at home, cooking at home, eating at home, actually living at home. I think perhaps it’s a more accutely felt change here because Sevillanos tend to spend a LOT of time out in the streets. Dinner parties at home are pretty much unheard of and if there is anything to be celebrated then we like to do it outside. Streets are usually crowded and happily bustling and there is little reason to go home because we have almost everything we need outside our homes. And even though I’m someone who loves an evening in Netflixing with the cats, I do also enjoy, love, need (and now crave) the energy that being out in the streets gives me.

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rooftop life

23 Thursday Apr 2020

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Remember last Sunday when I did that indoor race for the Red Cross? Well both Ania and I thought it was such a good idea that we are motivating each other to do this at least twice a week now. Ania actually runs a lot of it (indoors!), but I am just walking, so far managing about 5300 steps each time (rather than my usual 10,000 on my river walks). I am doing about 4000 steps upstairs on the terraza (that’s my rooftop walking route in the video) and then the final 1000 inside. Then I do a set of my lockdown workout.

Ha, anyone remember that one? When I said A MONTH AGO that I was going to set my phone timer while sitting at the computer desk, to make sure I got up every 45 minutes and moved around a bit? Well, never happened. I mean, I have been doing my mini-workouts, but not as often as I’d intended. Why not? Fucked if I know. I mean, it’s not like I’ve been busy doing anything else. But somehow I just couldn’t work up any motivation. I dunno, maybe it had to be a progression. Of what, I still have no idea.

But even after only a couple of 5000 step walks at home, I can see this working out. And, look what I found yesterday! I’d forgotten I had this cord attachment doohicky that allows me to hang my iPhone around my neck while walking (and counting steps – don’t have a fitbit or iwatch). And although it may sound silly, today I organised my “workout/walking clothes” so that I make the mental shift from hanging around the house in hanging-around-the-house clothes and get into fitness mode.

And it turns out I’m not alone. Since doing this I have spotted my next door neighbour also walking around in circles on his terraza, and Ana across the street is often out there tending to her plants and enjoying the fresh air, and even my downstairs neighbour is coming up to the roof to sit in a beach chair and take the sun. Also, “balcony life” has also been happening more in the past couple of weeks. Unlike in the past (almost) three years I’ve lived here, I hear my neighbours chatting to each other during the day, out on their balconies, and not just during the evening Balcony Applause. Something lovely is happening in the midst of all this mess, and it’s something I am trying to hold onto.