Tag Archives: lockdown

jacaranda 2020

15 Friday May 2020

Posted by in coronavirus, lockdown, sevilla

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Oh my heart! đź’ś As most of you know, I’m still staying at home because I’m high risk (compromised immune stuff due to previous cancer and chemo) but today l took a quick walk around the block after taking out the rubbish (an Essential Outing) and OMG. I thought I’d totally missed the jacaranda this year and almost cried when l saw these in Plaza Museo. Okay, they were kind of on their last legs, already a bit shrivelled up and I’m sure many blossoms had been lost during the last few days of heavy rain. But suddenly there they were! So happy making. It really made my day.

lockdown day 36

18 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in coronavirus, home, sevilla

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Last night I got an unexpected call from my friend Manolo Manosalbas, possibly the best food photographer in Spain. We’ve known each other for many years and we always see each other at various events, and for awhile I did some “tapas research” with his wife Blanca. But we were never “friends” like the kind who call each other up at 23.30h on a Friday night. So that’s why it was a surprise.

It turned out that Manolo just wanted to check up on me and also to talk about the “new normal” coming our way. I was really touched by this, as I do often feel a bit “forgotten” and truly miss my rather vasty social circle. The hard truth is that for those of us who work with hospitality and tourism, we are pretty much fucked now, along with all our friends who run bars and restaurants here.

Some harsh realities are starting to sink in now after five weeks of lockdown, with the (fake) news and (mis)information changing daily. The latest is that “officially” we are on lockdown until May 10th, but nobody really sees that lifting until the end of May at the earliest, and more likely sometime this summer. At first we heard that bars, restaurants and hotels would be able to open again shortly after that, perhaps September, but now reports are saying they will probably have to remain shut down until January 2121. Very sadly this means that many many places we know and love will not survive.

With a second wave of the virus imminent, until we have a vaccine it’s never going to be safe to go out there again, at least not how we were used to doing things. I’m kind of looking ahead with both a sense of trepidation and genuine curiosity bordering on hopefulness. I mean, we already knew things couldn’t keep going on the way they were. Now we have no choice but to make changes. I think for starters people are going to have to become less greedy. By that I mostly mean big biz, banks, landlords, utility companies, etc, but also on a personal level. It simply cannot be just about us anymore. Not sure I have that much faith in humanity to do the right thing, to be honest, but for now it’s all the hope we’ve got.  ❤ xx

lockdown: day 3

16 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in casa azahar, coronavirus, home, sevilla

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The official nationwide lockdown started on Saturday, though as I made a quick cat food run to El Corte InglĂ©s that day I feel like my first real day being shuttered in at home was yesterday. And you know, so far so good. I’ve actually got lots to do with finishing up the Decanter article by Wednesday. And I’m used to working from home anyhow, and spending a lot of time at the computer. What I’m not used to is not being able to go outside. Obvs.

It’s actually not that easy. I miss walking. I miss fresh air. Freedom of movement. And along with all that is the fear about how nobody can actually say how long this is going to last. We’ve been told two weeks, but apparently that was just to keep us from panicking. I’ve mostly gone numb in the Worry Dept because there is only so much I can process before I slip into my usual living in denial thang. But today I found myself getting all WHAAAT reading (on Twitter) about people in the UK who are thinking exactly like I was a week ago.

A week ago today l went to a wine tasting event in Sevilla. I was still going to tapas bars. Then midweek l did an overnight trip to Málaga to visit wineries. In retrospect I shouldn’t have done any of those things. So I am here to tell you now, boys and girls, with the wisdom that only hindsight can bring… wherever you happen to be living now DO NOT wait for your gov’t to tell you what to do, self-isolate NOW.

Also, we all have more information than we did a week ago, even though a lot of it is contradictory and confusing. But really, do not worry about losing your job because, guess what, you are going to lose it anyhow unless it is something you can do from home. And as for supporting other local businesses, they are only days away from losing everything, so although well-meaning, you will not be able to save them. Seriously, save yourselves, and by doing so, you may also save the actual lives of many others who have compromised immune systems. This is serious shit. Learn from us.