What a busy time. As far as our trip to Spain went, all was well apart from not getting the water company to refund a massive water bill that was recorded in August and paid on direct debit! Other than that, very hot first couple of weeks, some heavy rain for 3 days in the middle and when MaryL joined us for the last week it was comfortably warm. I wrote a daily diary whilst there so I don’t intend going through it again here. The Covid travel paperwork and tests were a pain but all OK in the end.
The big news was that the day before we flew to Spain I had a call from social services which announced that Mum will stay at Barty and in an arrangement with Barty, social services will cover all Mum’s costs, so there will be no family top- up. We were amazed and thrilled as were my family! That was one less thing to worry about. We have been to see Mum twice since our return and she is in great shape. She had lots of visitors from friends and family and I am grateful to them for that. This week Barty made the national TV and papers as the home is in the Detling/Thurnham area which has the greatest longevity in the country. 102 yr old Irene or was it Ivy, was interviewed on ITV news and apparently Mum has been been interviewed for the Daily Mail. We are expecting it to appear with a photo sometime this week.
The other big news is that Sue, Mary and myself have agreed to sell the villa. We have had 21 great years and the time has come to draw a line and do other things. Apparently, it is a sellers market at the moment so we have decided to sell now and hopefully it will go sometime in the next 6 months. It was a great relief as the 2 yrs away meant a lot of work to be done and we are not getting any younger!
As for Covid, controls in Spain have been much tougher than here and it was pleasing to see most people wearing masks in shops etc and where people congregate. Coming home was the opposite and cases are rising faster than most other European countries. I had my booster Pfizer jab yesterday and the Govt are still undecided whether or not under 12s should be vaccinated. The hospital cases are now mainly younger, unvaccinated people. The Govt have been strongly criticised by an all party investigation for their lack of action in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Concerns now that winter illnesses will increase our problems and hospitals could be over-stretched again.
On that not so happy note, from now on, I will update this blog only when there is something significant to record. I hope my ramblings have been of interest to whoever reads this and maybe one day there may be a sequel…
“LEARNING TO LIVE WITH CORONAVIRUS” …..maybe.
