Day 1 of the New Normal in the swimming pool. We still have to book our time, but more
people are allowed during the hour. How
this is going to work out I’m not sure as, today, there were few enough people
for one-per-lane as previously. The
difference was that we were given a key for a locker (whereas previously we had
to pack our clothes and take them with us to the pool side) which we had to
disinfect before use and after we had dressed at the end of our swim. The showers were open for use. I assume that, for the foreseeable future,
this will be the way that we swim nowadays, with the major difference being
that we have to book times rather than simply turn up.
The weather
was good today and there were plenty of people on the beach, but it was
noticeably quieter than over the weekend.
We are
building up to tomorrow evening, the eve of San Juan when there will be
bangers, drinking and picnics. At least
that was the case in all previous years, it remains to be seen how the pandemic
and physical distancing will change the experience of the fiesta.
There have
been a number of explosions during the past few days, with the kids next door
seeming to take teatime around 5pm as an excuse to cavort around the streets
setting off the sort of fireworks which are sure to get a chorus of dogs
barking in distress. They are completely
unsupervised by adults and every bone in my fussy pedagogic body aches to do something
and my channelling of Victor Meldrew also aches to shout something admonitory
out of the window!
Tomorrow
evening I may well draw down the shutters and retreat to my armchair with a
good book, or alternatively I might mosey down the maritime road to see what
people are doing!
San Juan is
one of those festivals where slightly rowdy behaviour is encouraged and the
throwing of the Catalan equivalent of penny bangers is almost mandatory. Kids usually equip themselves with what look
like the old fashioned Smiths Crisps twists of salt, but in this case they are
of gunpowder and they make a most satisfying ‘bang!’ when thrown on the
pavement. There doesn’t seem to be an
age limit for this form of anti-social behaviour and parent and grandparents
look on approvingly as their kids waltz about in a mist of explosives! Each to his own!
Usually the
explosions go on for most of the night, there doesn’t seem to be a cut-off at
10 pm – which is the usual time for the stopping of noise making. This fiesta encourages that petty decency to
be ignored and loud explosions go on until the small and sometimes the larger
hours! I wonder, though, if it will be
the same this year? All things are
different.
On Wednesday most places will be closed as it is a
national holiday, but I intend to go for a swim, perhaps go for an exploratory
bike ride to see what the beaches are like after the festivities of the night
before and keep myself very much to myself.
I stocked up on food and essentials before the weekend and I don’t need
to go out for anything until the end of this week. Television will have to be my eye on the
world – that and Radio 4 and the World Service of the BBC of course.
The tasks that I set myself for the last few days have
been completed or compromised with varying degrees of satisfaction. I rely, yet again on the old family wisdom of
“Anything is better than nothing!”
