What’s happening with everyone? Please leave me a comment below so I can catch up!
I’m not sure what order to write the things that have been happening in my life. Should I write things in order of importance? Maybe it will just be a bit of a jumble … so not in any specific order …
The C-word! yes, the Coronavirus has directly affected my life (and so many other people’s lives). My eldest child has just got over a fairly serious bout of Coronavirus. He is living away from home in Scotland so I the rest of the family are unaffected. He was sick for over two weeks, he might not thank me for telling the world but he started a few weeks ago with a niggly cough. I remember speaking to him on the phone and joking about it being Coronoavirus! I can’t believe I actually did that, because as the week wore on he became sick and contacted the relevant authorities. Initially, they said it was a bug and to take precautions then as the days wore on my son get very sick. Eventually, he was ill and diagnosed with the virus. It has been a long road to recovery for my son, but he’s going to be okay. I am relieved because he has underlying issues with asthma and with all the scare stories in the media it is hard not to worry.
My father passed away. The following may be a little distressing for some but there is a lesson hidden in this shortened version of this story. My father was on a holiday to Menorca, one of the Balearic islands. He was swimming in the sea, it was rough and he was advised not to go in the water – he did anyway. The short story is he drowned and the beach lifeguards could not get out to him to rescue him. It took a while to retrieve him, he was brought ashore by a human chain and by then it was too late to save him. He was there with his new wife and she did not know how to get in touch with me. When I heard through the grapevine that something had happened to my father I contacted the Foreign & Common Wealth Office. They were instantly helpful and they assigned a caseworker to me. They were able to communicate with the embassy in Menorca who were able to tell me what happened with my father and they put me in touch with his wife. Unfortunately, my father, foolishly, had not taken out travel insurance and his wife could not afford to have his body repatriated and he had to be cremated n Menorca. By the time I had become aware of his death, it was too late to intervene anyway, though I suspect I would have made the same choice. A couple of weeks later I travelled to England and stayed in a hotel near my father’s home. I was able to meet up with my father’s wife and talk about what happened. She has his ashes now, she was planning on scattering them in a holiday spot but with the travel restrictions that won’t happen.
To make sure life is not dull I really know how to liven things up with my travel escapades. I decided that it has been a while since I had travelled anywhere exciting and I booked some flights to the Canary Islands. It was still fairly early days for the C-word, but I was aware it was going on. I contacted the foreign office for advice and learned that there had been an isolated incident of the virus on the island where I wanted to stay. Looked it up and was happy enough to travel. On the island there was no evidence of the Coronavirus, everyone was getting on with life as normal. As the days wore by Spain was having a hard time controlling the spread of the Coronavirus, I was watching the news daily incase there was word on the Canary Islands that something would come into play there. I don’t know all the details, but my understanding is that it is the same laws that apply to Spain applies to the Canaries too. So you guessed it, Spain went into lockdown and so did we. I am thankful for it, the disease is really bad. However, that left me in the Canaries with one of my daughters and three of my children at home. The police were patrolling the streets with loudhailers, it was quite frightening. After a fraught few days, I got home on a rescue flight, and I was happy! I loved my time away, but in the state of national emergency, it was best to leave. I got some surreal photos of the deserted beaches and streets.
I have been home a couple of weeks and we are now in severe lockdown too. I had started a new job in January, I was able to get settled in before all this happened. A lot of my new job is computer work, I am thankful I can work most of from home. I am not sure what life will be like over the next few months. The conditions being experienced by my family or no different to what anyone else is going through, everyone is in this together.
Below – some photos from my recent trip abroad.
