Here is the Covid-19 news: Good, mixed and pitiful!

 

No "friends and Reflex is closed!

On Monday and again today our island press announced a day with no new cases, and yesterday just one. Along with a whole tranche of recoveries this brings the active cases down to 52, The pressure is off for the hospital and deaths sit at 13, with no new ones for weeks! A huge sigh of relief :- especially as on Thursday there were 30 plus new cases! This had put an end to hope that the restriction level might come down, as otherwise it might have done. Fingers are crossed for this week's review. Never mind: Level 2 is tolerable - for Greyrocks anyway! We have had two Sundays when Yiannis has played and sung by the beach at Anno 2011. .Unfortunately yesterday we were there again (celebrating our second vaccinations). We asked if the rule infringements of the more recent afternoon - mostly but not entirely young Italians dancing, moving around without masks and over-occupying spaces   - had escalated after we left and were told it had, it was noticed, and that there could be no more live music for the time being!! Such a shame: we were getting on very well with him, practising our Greek, and teaching a member of staff the word "malaka". (This was apparently appreciated by Yiannis)

Good news also on the vaccination front. The explanation for the lack of arm-twisting necessary to get Ruth "done" at the same time as Bob became clear when we saw that the rule for cohorts was years of birth not actual age. On this basis our neighbours (one older and one slightly younger than us) were seen the following week for AZ injections. Unknown at first to us the next oldest cohort was invited - initially through Facebook - and another couple of friends asked Ruth to help them get an appointments. So quite a chunk of Monday morning was spent using the contact number, trying to catch the instructions (in very fast Spanish) and then dealing in Spanglish with long ID numbers, dates, ages and times! Eventually we succeeded and they are off for first jabs today. We needed a drink but it was a MOTH day!

Moving towards the bad end of the news continuum: There was - here in Corralejo- a party with 84 guests busted at 3 in the morning 10 days ago (and eight other smaller ones as well!) We were intrigued as to its location and are still looking for some of the evident landmarks as we wander round town. No luck so far! Here is the Guardia Civil video!

A panic has now gone round the Greyrocks household over the data from Cyprus:- destined to be our Schengen-free bolt-hole in a couple of weeks. It's not too bad on the deaths front, but a tough lockdown has been imposed in response to a surge in cases. and it will last over Orthodox Easter -  which starts on Friday. We are not keen to spend our two weeks in those conditions - even if fully vaccinated, so Plans B to G are being made for the summer migration! 

Desperately sad was the news from our cleaner - a star amongst cleaners - when she came on Sunday. looking less chirpy than usual and dressed in black. She is from Colombia, and her older sister had died there during the week from the virus! This is the closest we have come to Covid death (two "degrees of separation") RIP

But there can be no tragedy to match in scale that in India! With eight wonderful holidays in Goa under Greyrocks' substantial belt we know it isn't the real India, but we follow the news with interest and pick up the vibe when there. Back in January 2020 when we were last there we were appalled at the sectarian populism of Modi. It seems it is this that has made him tolerate mass religious and electoral crowds. The ultimate death toll is blood on his hands.   

"Pass the shoehorn:- another island needed!"

 A sigh of relief throughout Fuerteventura this morning as we are the only island in the archipelago to change CoVid status after yesterday's meeting. There had been a hope that it would happen last week as Easter specials were removed, and indeed our Cabildo formally complained that the metrics did not support remaining at level 3 (red), but it was not to be! Thus, this week has involved outdoor eating and drinking, yet more arrivals of surfers/"diginomads", and even fewer sightings of police to attempt enforcement of the regulations. Greyrocks has nervously interrogated the data for fear of the post-Easter surge and miraculously it hasn't happened! ICU is empty of CoVid cases, deaths are at 13 and active cases 61. We move to Level 2 (amber) joining Lanzarote. On a rather dull day we can look forward to tapas inside!

We have also had ten days to absorb the significance of vaccination. With our TIE cards and the prospect of being fully jabbed by the end of the month we have turned our attention to a summer plan. Two positive rumours have been around concerning the travel opportunities for UK citizens with residency in an EU country. Both proved false! The Schengen website states:

Well, that's all pretty clear!!

We spent a sun-free afternoon trying to optimise the migrations and using the Schengen Stay Calculator.  Positioning stays in both Crete and France in months of decent weather whilst meeting the more arcane aspects of the180 day lumps is a recipe for brain-ache! Huge compromises have to be made, and we became (yet more) incandescent about Brexit! The wrong people are being punished for it!  But, then again!

There is no getting away from it: we can't have the long Cretan stay and two spells in Montpellier unless we are in one of them in mid-winter! We don't want to be more than six months here because of taxation. So: enter from the only slightly dodgy side: Greek Cyprus!

We were last there in January 1992, when we decided that it was not the best choice for mid-winter sun and our Fuerteventura fate was sealed. Now, however, it comes into its own as a place in Europe outside the 90-day rule (along with Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria) We're primed to give it a try this May! Subject to progress in CoVid recovery of course!

"Millennialisation" and "wrinkly patience pays off!"

 (A translation of one of four different messages around town:- some  of  which were in Italian -

"Stupidity knows no bounds, but the stupid need to obey the limits")

The Holy Week is over with schools re-opened on Monday. (The UK reader may know that here the festivo days are Thursday and Friday - with normality returning on the Monday) We went out that day and the town was eerily quiet!  Local tourists back at work and/or school, surfers hunting surf as we currently had nothing of interest, Germans gone down South, digital nomads online making up for days of indolence, furloughed locals skint after Easter, long-staying Brits all disappeared even a few days after the deadline, and all that was left wandering the streets was our tribe: wrinkly resident  - either EU nationals from the rational 27 or Brits (hopefully not Brexiteers) with the magic TIE or pending its arrival! Greyrocks went for an alcohol-free beer at Anno and the only folk there were of that tribe!

Just before we got there we were in the pharmacy when the Spanish mobile rang but we were too slow to disinter it! The number was a local landline looking official but calling it got us nowhere. Then yesterday morning the Health Centre called again to offer Covid vaccinations: on request to both of us! We agreed a time and this lunchtime were "done" efficiently and with goodwill! Dose 2 in three weeks, which may well beat what we might have had in UK as a full package, so "stop your crowing, Daily Mail!"

An infantile waving of flags aimed at Number 10!

This means that in a period of eight days we have achieved the status of welcome residents for at least ten years and partial Covid immunity (Pfizer of course).

Not that the residency thing was plain sailing! We heard that our cards were ready and Lorraine said she had a group appointment for the Monday morning (early as usual), so we considered an overnight in Puerto as in January, but the data was bad, so instead of a hotel we booked Dave Windows for a 7 am pick-up! The clocks had just gone back so -apart from a beautiful full moon - it was very dark. We arrived ridiculously early and discovered the usual cafeteria was closed for holidays! Another one was nearby so we killed a good hour there with various Brits, including someone exactly Ruth's age who had had her first jab in Caleta! Then Lorraine wanted to check documentation before we hit the police station! Oh dear! We had the main form and our passports but not the green A4 that would be forfeited! Later we realised we might have "got away with it", but at the time we stormed off and no-one was talking to anyone else! We got the 9 am bus back home and "nursed our wounds". The bus was almost as full as it is allowed to be during the crisis! Not our finest hour!

Later in the morning things felt better and we went online to see what would be involved in "flying solo" on this card collection.  With some Spanish and a bit of nous we got an appointment for the next day at a civilised hour!  This meant we could take the bus (nowhere near Covid capacity) and visit a shop before arriving early at the police station. There was no queue; the officer at the door followed us in and went behind the desk and found the cards and checked our fingerprints. We were out before the appointment time! It was beautiful day and we had tapas near the port and came home on a safely spaced bus! Job done!