Two hours worth of morning, after domestic tasks, were taken up with WhatsApp calls today. One from Clare before she went out for an early walk in Llandaff Fields to see if it was less crowded and safer, then another to report back after. Fortunately the weather there is bright and clear. Here it is cloudy and changeable, not yet warm enough to make life comfortable. I didn't bring enough winter woollies with me, and get by wearing lots of layers indoors and outside.
Then at noon, I plucked courage and drove to St Josep to get food from Hiper Centro, a bigger supermarket than Es Cuco, with a wider range of domestic items available. About two kilometres away from the town. I saw two police motorbikes in my rear mirror. My speed was correct for the road but I wondered if they'd pull me over and quiz me. Around the next bend there was a big lorry going slow with an extension arm on the back, fitted with a grass mower. There was an unbroken white line, so I slowed to the pace of the mower. Then one of the police bikers overtook me, and signalled me to follow him. So I got escorted safely to the open road ahead!
At the supermarket, almost everyone staff and shoppers was wearing mascarillas, which I thought were in short supply! I wouldn't know where to start looking. I felt a bit of a pariah. Shoppers were ordered to take a couple of sturdy plastic veg bags to wear on their hands as they went around, if they didn't arrive with their own surgical gloves. I was able to buy everything I needed, including some liquid soap for clothes handwashing.
Unfortunately this precipitated a little disaster because the cap wasn't tightly screwed on, so some of the soap leaked out on to my shopping, causing chaos and embarrassment at the checkout. I was very impressed with the calm and relaxed way the woman on checkout dealt with this. I must admit that going out shopping certainly raises my anxiety levels to the roof, worrying if did enough to minimise the possibility of getting infected without error. It's a different take on 'mindfulness'.
I bought some chicken, and cooked it as soon as I'd finished cleaning up the soapy mess. It goes in the chiller for use in days to come. I had a chick pea and vegetable think planned for lunch with cabbage and potato as well. Since I arrived I have looked after myself well, and not missed meals. It has taken me quite a while however to realise that I am not quite eating as much as I need in this cooler weather. It's probably my state of nerves as well. So I am making an effort to eat more. For breakfast, I cooked up a porridge with arroz redondo and oats mixed as an experiment, and was quite pleased with the result. It kept me going nicely until I got around to eating lunch at three.
After my daily round of circuitous walking, saying hello to garden lizards. There are two couples I see regularly, in the same locations, more just outside the gate and some I probably never get close enough to notice. Given the proximity of the arroyo, I expected there to be more birds. I have yet to distinguish more than half a dozen different calls, day and night.
I meant to get started earlier in the day on writing, recording and editing tomorrow's bible study to send to Dave for upload. With a couple of hours spent on WhatsApp to Clare and to a frantically worried Kath, trying to sort out an emergency flight for me after today's Foreign Office Advisory. It was aimed either at holiday makers still abroad or people working or just out of work, who would need to return home to take advantage of the government's crisis support for loss of income. Being on a pension that doesn't apply to me anyway.
We spent an hour jumping through the digital hoops to do with flight booking, only to be taken back to a help line that had already closed. While we spoke Boris Johnson announced the UK's version of lock-down. Not as strict at the EU equivalents, so I expect Britain will pay dearly for that. In the end she had to admit that there was no alternative but to stay put to be as safe as possible.
So I started writing and the recording the bible study at ten, and thankfully, it came easily, but it was nevertheless one o-clock when I emailed the finished product to Dave and went to bed. Having neglected to move a space heater into the chaplain's study, where I only work if I need to, I got cold without noticing, as I was concentrating so hard on the task in hand. It took me ages to warm up in bed. Service me right. Again without Clare here to nudge me in the right direction, I need to take care not to neglect myself. Something to do with mindfulness? Good at focusing, but do so much too narrowly when all round vigilance works best.
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