Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*
Life in Spain in the Time of Something Like Cholera- Rejoice! Rejoice! Today is the day I can (legally) leave my house without needing to go shopping or to a pharmacy. My understanding of the rules is:-
o But I can only walk a max of 1km from my home. Note: The shops and pharmacy are 1.5km away
o I'm not allowed to drive anywhere and then walk 1km from there
o But I must drive down to the shops/pharmacy and park there as it's beyond the legal limit for walking
o I am allowed to make an appointment to pick up takeaway food from a restaurant.
o But the nearest one is 2km away and, apparently, I'm not allowed to walk that far or to drive closer to it, so that I can walk less than 1km to it.
Am I confused? Of course, I am, not least because the government has said that 'exercisers' can do their thing during several hours while walkers get only an hour. What is it that they have against the latter'?
As if all that weren't bad enough, whereas in nearby Portugal wearing a mask is compulsory in various public places, here it ain't. WHO recommendation notwithstanding.
I do wonder how the police are going to, well, police all this. Apart from officiously, I mean.
- Will the rules be obeyed in summer on the beaches? This chap doesn't think so.
- One of my neighbours has sent me this video of a tribute to the virus's victims, set in Córdoba cathedral. This - very Spanish - construction was plonked in the middle of the magnificent Grand Mosque, after Córdoba been retaken from the Moors in the 13th century. Suffice to say that Charles V is reputed to have remarked about the extension he commissioned in the 16th century: You have destroyed something unique to build something commonplace. Quite. Not to mention garish and OTT.
- One would like to know exactly how much - if anything - above €600 these guys were fined.
- María's Chronicle: Day 48. I didn't see a lot of broom around yesterday. Possibly because I'd have had to go out into the street in daylight to see it festooned from gateposts and stuck in car radiators. My guess is that people didn't bother this year.
- Especially for olive lovers. Though not Popeye.
- Something I must see next time I'm in Madrid. If I ever am.
- The estimable Hugo Rifkind thinks this is how Boris Johnson's week went:-
“So it’s going to be quite a week,” says Carrie, as we arrive back from Chevening.
“Yes!” I say. “Back to work! Boris to the rescue! Fighting the virus like Winston fought the Hun!”
Carrie puts a hand on her bump and says this isn’t quite what she meant.
“Rigorous testing!” I say. “That’s what we need! To ensure that this nightmare never happens again! Simple ones! Wee on a stick, deal with it early!”
Carrie says she’s never heard me talk like this. She’s finding it quite upsetting.
“And the first priority,” I continue, “is to test literally every nurse!”
“Literally?” she says, incredulously. “But you were only in hospital for a week!”
“Ramping up,” I bluster on, “to 100,000 tests a day!”
Carrie says it’s worse than she expected. Then she says she should have listened to her friends.
Working hard. First Dominic Raab stops by so I can thank him for minding the shop while I was away. Then I apologise and say he might need to do an hour or two this week, too.
“Why?” says Dominic, suspiciously.
“Well,” I say. “Gosh. You know how it is when a chap puts a bun in the oven, eh? Nine months later it comes out!”
Dominic says he hadn’t previously quite understood the full extent of this.
After that, it’s Ratty Matt Hancock’s turn. I’ve Skyped him to tell him I think he’s doing a super job. Despite what everyone is saying.
Really?” says Matt. “Everyone?”
“You aren’t being hung out to dry, old chap” I say. “That’s the important thing.”
“OK good,” says Matt.
“For your mistakes,” I continue.
“Surely our mistakes?” says Matt.
“Anyway, bye,” I say, quite abruptly.
Wednesday
Carrie says she’s going to the hospital.
“You’ll be fine,” I say, consolingly. “If I can pull through, anybody can!”
“To have the baby?” she says.
“Oh that,” I say. Carrie just looks at me.
“Right!” I say, leaping up. “Yes! Action stations! We shall gather the obstetrics team immediately! The doctor! The midwife! The anaesthetist! Dominic Cummings!” Carrie says Dominic isn’t invited.
“To clarify,” I say, “he’s not really on the obstetrics team. He’s more at the obstetrics team. Just an observer.” Carrie just looks at me again.
“OK, OK,” I say. “No Dominic.”
Thursday
Splendid little fellow. Easily in my top five. And now I’m back at work, and I have a visit from Priti Patel.
“Social distancing!” I squeak, as she comes into the office, because she has a habit of rather pushing one up against the wall.
Priti says she’s about to be cleared of bullying people by the Cabinet Office, and I’d better be about to say something about it. Or else.
“Um,” I say. “I mean, yes. In the fullness of . . .”
Priti says I should also mention the way that allegations against her of bullying in the workplace have plummeted to almost none at all over the last five weeks.
“When you haven’t been in the workplace?” I say. “And nor has anybody else?”
Priti shrugs. Upstairs we can hear the baby screaming.
“Your civil servants,” says Priti, “are even louder than mine.”
Friday
It’s 4am when he finally goes to sleep. I turn on the light and tell Carrie I think we’re past the peak of sleepless nights.
“But we’ve only had two,” she says, doubtfully. Then she says I’m an old hand at this and asks how I’ve protected my sleep after some of my other babies.
“Um,” I say, because it beats saying, “by living somewhere else”.
Then I sigh and stare at the ceiling and say this month really might have changed me. First, the sickness. Now this. And all I can think about now is how to fix the world for our new son. And millions of others.
“Oh God,” says Carrie. “Not millions.”
“The fact is,” I continue, “the big challenge lies ahead. As in, just how the bally hell do you tame a thing that reproduces faster than anybody can believe? And when so many others before you have failed?”
“Yes,” says Carrie. “That’s what I’m wondering, too.”
The EU
- Tough times. Need for solidarity. Find out who your friends are, etc. But . . . The vaunted EU single market is all but suspended now anyway, with state aid rules set aside. The EU has instructed member states to adopt protectionist measures to stem capital flows and the French government has unilaterally strengthened its rules on blocking foreign takeovers.
- About to overtake Switzerland in the deaths per million table. Nevertheless, the lockdown(s) there are being relaxed.
- The Oz comedy team at The Juice Media comment on modern capitalism here.
- The Corner claims that Spain is among the group of countries which hasn't done enough, fiscally speaking.
- For opera fans, there's a daily free streaming of New York Met productions. Today's it's Verdi's 'Aida' , richly staged. Scroll down past the request for a donation.
- Which reminds me . . . My musical tastes are very catholic - not at all Catholic - but I confess to having to research this morning who Radiohead were/are.
- And still on music . . . I finally established this morning that it's one of these who's been singing his heart out in my garden.
*A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant
No comments:
Post a Comment