CASTELLDEFELS LOCKDOWN - Day 94 - Wednesday 17th June

Today, this evening, our first trip outside Castelldefels proper for months – to Terrassa (still in the province area of Barcelona and therefore legal) for the Name Day of one of Toni’s nephews.

     We have been on one of the motorways to the local superstores but they are within a couple of minutes of where we live.  This will be well outside our usual routes.  Not, of course, that the journey is not something that we haven’t done many, many times – but the experience will be different this time.

     Just a quick note before we go, perhaps I’ll add to it later.

We don't actually know where, specifically, we are going as the restaurants in Terrassa are not taking bookings and so I am not entirely sure how our final location is going to be worked out.  Adds to the excitement of the journey. 
     And the weather looks threatening.  After an indifferent start to the day, it gradually brightened up and, apart from a fairly still breeze, the day was one during which you could have gone to the beach and expected to tan - the sort of day, in short that inexperienced visitors from duller shores such as Britain would assume would be an ideal 'starter day' to work on the tan.  And they would have been flayed by the time of their evening shower.  Though, there again, as one of my friends used to say, "If your first shower after sunbathing doesn't hurt, you haven't been sunbathing properly." [N.B. This advice and comment does not meet the requirements for safe sunning and should not be taken as a recommendation.]
     I suppose that it is often true that, depending on the direction in which you are looking, you could make radically different predictions about the weather.  I have often noted in Castelldefels that observing the climactic conditions from the cardinal points of the compass gives one views which are often diametrically opposed - whereas, in Britain one was often surrounded by a unity of weather in which ever direction you cared to glance!

The trip to Terrassa had an odd feel to it as this was, for us, a major jaunt - the furthest that we have travelled from our house in months.  We thought that there was less traffic than usual, but we were driving after 8 pm so the usual rush hour traffic (whatever that term means nowadays) had died down.
     There was a sense of freedom, or at least of some sort of normality about our trip that was satisfying . as though another part of Old Normality was adding to whatever New Normality is going to be.
     The Name Day celebrations were held in a restaurant chain called Viena (sic) which is a take on a fast food burger place, but with a slightly higher quality of food.  The design and uniform of the staff has an odd dirdle vibe with some odd Austrian Tyrol embroidery thrown in for what appears to be no good reason! 
     My 'meal' was chicken fillets with some strange and messy sauce whose selling point was that it was supposedly picant - perhaps for the Catalans, not really for me, but the end result was messily delicious - as opposed to the '0% alcohol' beer which was disgusting, do not drink Heineken alcohol-free beer in cans!
     Because of faulty crossed-lines of communication, we ended up walking far too far to the eventual restaurant and I tripled my steps target for the day.  Even linking that to swimming 1,500m and going on two bike rides of over 20k, my smart watch still rated my 'exercise capacity' as 'Low' for the day!  What else do I have to do!

The excesses and corruption of the Bourbon de Bourbon family i.e. the so-called royal family of Spain, are being splashed across the newspapers in the European press - not so much in the Spanish press.  The debased political parties of PSOE and PP have joined together to kill-off any attempt by the authorities in this country to investigate the mounting evidence of theft and corruption of the family.
     In spite of the fact that the thief-in-chief (aka the so-called king emerito, the one who was forced to abdicate to try and control the mounting rumours and overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing; the one who went on television to vaunt the 'fact' in Spain that, "Justice is the same for everyone" but obviously did not include himself or his family in the category of "everyone" and has, so far, escaped judicial punishment while the powers-that-be here have ignored the evidence of his skimming-off contracts to boost his finances.
     One of the latest exposés is in the Times, in one of their supplements entitled, "Sex, lies and Swiss bank accounts"!  You can read that here:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-lies-and-swiss-bank-accounts-the-allegations-against-spains-ex-king-that-are-rocking-his-sons-reign-0sgw99c2b

because you can't read it in Spain!

My next swim is at 12 mid day tomorrow.  My slots get worse and worse!

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 38 – Wednesday, 22nd APRIL

An unconvincingly dry start to the day, where the most you can say about the weather is that it is not raining.  I will, however, take the opportunity to go for my walk in the dry, or dry-ish conditions, about which I will not complain – for fear the rains return!

     At times such as these one takes pleasure in small mercies, so I am truly thankful that I was able to complete my regulation walk unaccompanied by the lashing rain that has been such an obtrusive feature of the last three days.  And I had to wear a jacket, as the temperature was nowhere near the twenty-one degrees that my London cousin told me would be the norm where she was!  Still, I will bide my time and as we move nearer to the summer, I think that the balance of warmth will tip back in my favour!

Spain is going to ask for a two-week extension to the lockdown, putting its possible end some time in May.  Although the curve is flattening, there are still deaths and new cases of the virus and I am not sure that we have a convincing exit strategy.  It would be tragic indeed if the loosening of restrictions resulted in a virus spike towards the end of May.  I suppose the government is putting a great deal of hopeful expectation on the summer heat doing more efficiently what they have failed to do.  God help us all in the autumn!

     In Britain the controversy over the non-joining of the EU bulk buy initiative to get PPE shows no signs of calming down with the Civil Servant’s mea culpa letter being scrutinized stylistically in a way which would have done credit to the reading of the runes that used to go on in the gnomic pronouncements of the old USSR during the Cold War.  I do agree that paragraph three in the letter is one of Mandarin double-speak and the refutation of what was a clearly stated ‘fact’ that Brexit was the root cause of our non-participation is far less than convincing.

     It is depressing to realize that the government is more concerned about getting away with questionable statements, or maybe downright lies, in the short term in the hope that the inevitable inquiry in the longer term will be bad, but people will have moved one and memories are inevitably fickle and we will probably be back on the old territory of Brexit chaos to take people’s minds off what happened all those weeks ago.

     In the USA Trump is demonstrating on a daily basis that consequences are for little people and that lies, blatant and proven, are no hindrance to a narcissist’s grip on power if his base is indiscriminating enough.

     I feel very much the same about those people who voted for the present Conservative government and feel that the “Vote Conservative!” badge that I used to wear years ago is still more than valid, as around that injunction in smaller letters it had, “Young and stupid?  Old and selfish?”  Some things never change.

     Our ostensibly “socialist” government here in Spain, propped up with left wing parties’ support, is a little less than impressive and, apart from moving the corpse of the dictator Franco, it is difficult to point to any real achievements.  Admittedly, Trump has set the bar absurdly low for competence in crisis for a so-called democratic government, but his fatal dithering in the early days of the crisis has been mirrored to an extent in other governments in Europe.

     It remains to be seen how the releasing of the Plague Children into the community works out.  It has been said that kids can be unwitting carriers of Covid-19, so without testing allowing youngsters out from lockdown is something of a gamble, especially for the more senior parts of the community – in which category I firmly place my good self.  I can’t help thinking that there will be a whole age group re-watching Chitty-chitty-bang-bang and thinking that the figure of the ‘Child Catcher’ is one whose time has come round at last!

The story of the EU Bulk Buying Scandal has taken a further turn with the EU detailing when and how many times the UK had been informed about the whole thing.  One, or all of the front bench ministers is/are lying, as the ‘missed email farce’ is not really gaining any traction, while the 'Brexit Prejudice Pantomime' is seeming more and more like the truth.  So these unutterable bastards put the absurd foot-shooting of Brexit before actual people’s lives.  Who would have thought that Conservatives would have done something as despicable as that?  Well, I for one!

     This is obviously a resigning matter.  At a time of national crisis there might be some who might say that to change the people at the top would be counter productive.  Fair point.  But what if the people at the top are a bunch of vicious incompetents whose actions have killed people?  Surely getting rid of them is an act of self-preservation?  And don’t forget, the first to offer his too long delayed resignation should be the Blond Buffoon for his dereliction of duty in ostentatiously going out of his way to mix with Covid-19 carriers and thus become infected and deliberately taking a NHS bed that could have been used more profitably for those who, in spite of taking every precaution, caught the virus.  Vile man.  Vile government.

The Spanish government has now (again) come round to the point of view of the Catalan government over the question of the Plague Kids and how free they should be in the Great Breakout for this weekend.  The untramelled liberation of the Plague Kids has now been modified to bring it more like the Catalan suggestions that stipulated that kids under 12 would be allowed to accompany a parent for recreational short walks but not NOT going to places like supermarkets and places where real human beings could be infected.

     It remains to be seen just how the population interprets this relaxation, though I do not think that people are going to be too scrupulous and if they are not, then we are looking at more deaths later.

On the more positive, cultural side, I have, at last been able to print out a copy of The Coasts of Memory – though I think that there is more editing to be done before I am satisfied!

    

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFLS - DAY 36 - Monday 20th April

It’s still raining!  This is the third day; I may as well be in the Britain – except I understand from resentful looking at the weather forecast for Cardiff that it has had the temerity to be fine in my native land!  What is the world coming to!

     I did manage to take my walk in a brief interlude of dryness between showers and then spent the rest of the day trying to edit my new chapbook, Coasts of Memory.

     Every time I read through the thing I find something else that I want to change.  I don’t mind the substantive editing where I am actually changing words, it’s the technical editing that always gets to me.

     I do have something approaching a final working draft, but I am nowhere near finished with the final product.

     The real problems have developed with the printing.  As I am trying to produce something in-house I am relying on one of the printers that we have to do my bidding.  This would be fairly straightforward, but I print out my chapbook poetry in A5 format, which means that I double side a page of A4 so that the final book is put together using multiples of 4 A5 pages to one double sided A4 sheet.

     The last time that I tried to print out a booklet I failed, but I failed with the expert help of technicians from Microsoft, Epson, Brother and Mac.  At one time I was getting on-line advice and help from three continents!  It was truly amazing how uselessly helpful true experts could be!  The end advice?  Buy another printer!  Honestly!

     The final resolution to the problem was to transfer all the files that had failed to my ever-trusty MacBook Air and print from that!  A solution that I am still using.  No matter that I have a state of the art printer in my study, it finds my up to date version of Word too difficult to work with!  Don’t ask!  I don’t understand either, but I do have a solution that works with a ‘vintage’ laptop and I am prepared to go with that.

     As I have added photographs to the chapbook, my current problem is that the printer refuses to print them in colour.  We have given up trying to get satisfactory solutions in the damp dark and I will wait for the bright morn to attack the recalcitrant printer.

     Toni has said that the reason the printer is not working is that I have bought a new Roberts Internet Radio to replace the white junk in the kitchen and the printer is sulking that I have a newer piece of gadgetry than  her!  Given my experience with insane pieces of electronics, I find that explanation for the non-colour printing of the document eminently sensible!

As you might be able to tell, I have embraced the problems with the printer as a way of thinking about something other than the Covid-19 crisis.  But alas, it has only partially worked.

     At the moment I am not convinced that any country in the world has actually got a convincing handle on how to deal with this situation.  I realize that we are in a dire situation: people are dying and are resenting social separation and while we are dealing with the medical crisis, the economic and social crises are gaining traction.  The story of the Great Depression is not an encouraging one, and neither is the long slog out of the Depression.  What is going to happen when the three months of government paying 80% of wages stops?  How far is this government prepared to go to ease the inevitable hardship that the complete dislocation of economic activity is going to continue to produce?

     The economy must be up and running as soon as possible, but at what cost?

Our Catalan class is stumbling towards some sort of new existence: I await developments with interest.

It looks as though it is going to be raining tomorrow as well!  I will have to lose myself in technical resolution.  So to speak.

     Tomorrow the colour many not be courtesy of the weather, thought I hope it will be courtesy of my printer!

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - DAY 31 – Wednesday, 15th APRIL

A sign of the times: I went out for my walk around the pool, no sooner had I started by circuits when the pool person appeared to clean the pine needles and add chemicals to the water.  I did not have my mask (he did) so I went back into the house.  Even though social distancing would have been easy, I did not take the chance.  I can tell myself that it was practical, he is using one of those blower things to sweep up the pine needles and you are likely to get a blast of needle-air if you walk anywhere near – but the real motivation for returning home was justified paranoia!

     I feel that I am on the verge of turning into one of those comedic older persons who takes every opportunity to bring in age in the conversation.  As a member of the generation that is now officially ‘at risk’ during the pandemic, my age has become something of a distinguishing mark, perhaps the next step would be to oblige us all to wear a badge so that crowds part in front of us and a respectful distance is maintained by all the Plague Children who frolic with the virus rather than succumb!

I have attempted, and failed, to get a space to have a home delivery from one of our larger supermarkets.  I am registered and I note that a few years ago I actually did have a home delivery: the delivery and the items that I bought are still there for me to see on my account site.  It makes you wonder about the total amount of information that supermarkets actually have on individuals - so much raw material! Countless billions of bits of information about our buying habits!  Best not to think about it too closely.  Anyway, no matter how sophisticated the collection of data might be, the practical problems of getting a timed space to have a delivery means that the likelihood of not having to risk my physical presence in a shop is small.  God alone knows how you actually get a space, but I will persevere, as I much prefer to do our weekly shop remotely than personally!

My Catalan classes have been stopped since the lockdown (just before we were scheduled to have an examination!) and there seemed to be no real prospect of their continuation before the end of the term, both Easter and Summer, but I have had communications that suggest that some form of remote learning could take place.

     There is to be a meeting of ‘delegates’ in a day or so’s time via Google Meet when the arrangements for the Summer Term are presumably going to be considered.  I do not think that I will be interested in any physical meeting or actual classes until the start of the Autumn Term, and I am not convinced that there will be real gains in any virtual classes in the remainder of this year.  But I wait to be persuaded.

     Our classes are highly subsidised and therefore the financial loss is negligible and can be written off easily.  We had to buy two books for the course: we have completed the exercises in one of them and there are still a number of units to be completed in the other.

     It will be interesting to see what the school offers.  I suppose that the teachers will have to offer something to justify their continued salaries, but remote learning is an entirely different form of teaching from the one to which they are accustomed and for it to be achieved successfully there will be a disproportionate amount of work for the teachers to do as well as coping with the inevitable frustration that comes with new technology.

     In the rough and tumble of an ordinary school the most sophisticated piece of technology that has a reasonable chance of survival in a well-used classroom is the Over Head Projector (OHP) – virtually any time that anything more sophisticated is used it leads to frustrated disaster!  There is much to be said for ‘Chalk and Talk’ as the main way of getting a message across!

Life goes on.  This morning I had notification by the Royal Mail of the new issue of stamps on 7^th of April celebrating The Romantic Poets.  Usually the publicity is some time before the date of issue rather than a week afterwards, but it is encouraging to find that the new stamp issues are going ahead.  It is probably a reflection of the amount of automation in the production that we are allowed to get the stamps.  I collect first day covers and I am sure that no human hand actually touches the stamps, envelope and insert until it is actually put through my letterbox!

     The designs by Linda Farquharson are based on linocuts with an extract from a selection of Romantic poets, including John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Walter Scott, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, Mary Robinson, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, John Keats and Lord Byron.  They form an elegant set and each individual stamp is interesting in its own right – and they look right.  Too often, in my opinion, British stamps try and get too much in what is a tiny space.  I like stamps that make an instant impression and still look like something worth seeing even at a distance when the detail is not clear: these stamps work on both criteria.

     I wonder how many people will actually get to see one of these stamps.  Even in what used to be ‘normal’ times most letters were franked rather than having stamps.  Now, in these ‘abnormal’ times the issuing of a new set of stamps looks like spirited defiance rather than utility.

     Perhaps we should have a special Covid-19 issue with a part of the price going to the NHS.  I will write to the Philatelic Bureau and suggest it.  I wonder if they will reply!

The treatment of old people in Care Homes is rapidly gaining traction in the scandal stakes as the numbers of residents and care workers seem to increase with insufficient care and attention from the government or rather governments as the problem seems to be a common one for Britain and Catalonia.  As usual the cliché that you can judge a society by the way its treats those who are the most at risk seems, yet again, to give our way of life low marks!

     On the other hand I have just returned from my daily trip to the open window of the kitchen to show my appreciation to the front-line staff in the health system and essential services and it is heartening to be part of a chorus of applause!

It appears that Bromo (my name for the PP corrupt ex President of Spain Rajoy) has habitually been breaking lockdown and going for his habitual ‘quick walking’ odd hobby sport outside the house whenever he feels like it.  He has been reported by his neighbours.  Fine the bastard, at least that way we can get some of the money back that his corrupt party stole from us during his disgraceful time in power.

Always a good thing to end with a rant!