Guess who’s STILL still on holiday… This is getting silly now.
What We Did on Our Holidays – Part 4 by 67 and Stopped Counting
Being locked down in a foreign country is a strange experience.
We are stuck in Mallorca after popping out for a quick holiday at the beginning of March to chase away the British winter blues. Then the lockdown happened. We spend a lot of time on our balcony contemplating life and passing comments about the neighbours. But that’s not our only pastime.
We spend a lot of time online looking at flights from Palma to… well, anywhere. There are no direct flights to the UK. Apparently there was a flight going to London Heathrow via Madrid which we did consider. However the whole trip was 21 hours and we couldn’t envisage hanging around Madrid for 16 hours waiting for a flight to a place that is 200 miles from home, then having to get a hire car, if hire cars exist nowadays, in order to get back to Yorkshire. So, no.
We spend a lot of time chatting on WhatsApp and e-mail to family and friends. We miss them all so much. We check Facebook and the BBC news online but surprisingly find that The Sun online seems to be the most unbiased.
We watch TV which comes to us via the super fast fibre broadband they have here in Mallorca. We are keen golfers and watch Sky Golf and NBC golf for our daily fix. We watch boxed sets online. My current favourite is King of the Hill. I’d forgotten how good that show is.
We read our Kindles and download new books. We have real books too but we finished those weeks ago and there is no opportunity to swap them at the Charity shop.
We also exercise a bit – nothing too much as we can’t go outside for a walk or to cycle (not that I would cycle) and thudding up and down doing exercise classes (think Jane Fonda) on the top floor of a block of apartments is not going to win you friends. However my Mallorcan golf coach, who is really Irish/South African – it’s complicated – has posted some yoga exercises online for aged golfers to improve their mobility and breathing during this time of inactivity. We’ve been doing those.
I have also signed up for an online Archaeology course via the University of York, which explores the Mesolithic site of Star Carr in East Yorkshire. I am halfway through Week One’s studies and it’s fascinating. It is mainly reading and watching educational videos. When I worked for a living my organisation collaborated on the last series of digs that took place on this site and they display some of the finds, so I have a special place in my heart for Star Carr.
We also order our wine online from a local vineyard which, as luck would have it, has arrived as I type.
You may have noticed that apart from gossiping about the neighbours, all of our activities involve the internet. What would we have done without it? I can’t imagine. Bless Spain and its progressive attitude towards technology. We watch the BBC news as they try to talk to people in their homes via the internet only to see dropped connections, frozen images etc. Our own home in Yorkshire has slow connectivity and it is a struggle at times to use the net. Clearly we are not alone. Here’s a thought. In these times of crisis how about scrapping HS2 and investing some of that money into online connectivity instead? We clearly need it.
Stay safe.
67 and Stopped Counting is a Canadian girl transplanted into Yorkshire, England and loving her retired life with her husband. She has many pastimes including reading, lampwork, jewellery making, pottery and her big love, golf. She enjoys spending time in their Mallorcan hideaway and living the good life. The Spanish call retirement ‘jubilado’ – and I’m sure she will be very ‘jubilado’ when they are able to come home.
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Stay safe. Stay sane. It’s not forever. We can do this.
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