So… we’re a year on from our when words like ‘pandemic’, ‘border closure’, ‘mutant strains’ and ‘lockdown’ became a normal part of our vocabulary.
This time last year we were in our national lockdown – and Ian saw an armed policeman in the street on the first day, which was sobering.
As everywhere, we found it difficult to get flour, however we found we could buy flour direct from the mill – and this is something we’ve continued to do. While it’s a little cheaper than what we can get from the supermarket, the quality is significantly better, so there really wasn’t any reason to go back to getting flour from the supermarket again. Plus we learned a lot more about flour than we ever really needed to know!
And of course, when we had purchased the big bags of flour, we had to decide how to actually keep it
The other thing which was difficult to get – and remains so – is the multivitamins I liked to take. They went out of stock and the price of vitamins and supplements skyrocketed.
We learned to embrace online shopping and found that one way or another we could get (almost) everything we wanted and delivered.
Our lockdown was hard – I’m not aware of anywhere else where people weren’t allowed out even for exercise (we did spend the first few days debating whether asparagus picking would be allowed).
We took to running in the back yard and in the barn. The red scribble below is the GPS record of our run in the back yard. This is what a 3km run looked like!
But I do wonder if it had a positive effect later on. We’ve been fortunate that since our lockdown was eased last May, we’ve not had a further national lockdown and schools and businesses remained open since September. I can’t help thinking that the threat of another lockdown spurred people into responsible behavior! Since then, we’ve just had the localized lockdowns and measures restricting the opening hours of shops and bars.
Plus, of course, we have had a nighttime curfew in place for several months now – but that’s not something that’s effected us.
During the summer people were allowed to travel although because of water shortages, many villages didn’t open their swimming pools and this acted as a disincentive to travel.
However, later the data showed that ‘social travel’ had been responsible for increased cases, and the main emphasis from there on was on stopping or at least controlling social travel. Those restrictions were lifted a while back, but are reintroduced at holiday weekends. People entering Spain have been required to provide test results since last autumn, however there are discussions now about how and if that will continue as the pressure is on to open tourism again (and people’s view on that appears to be very much dependent on whether their livelihood is affected) – and the border to Portugal is closed except for commerce and essential visits. I’m not sure what the French border is doing, but I guess similar.
I do remember watching the figures rising.
The level of data we get has been excellent and is something I personally have found reassuring. When the health authorities can pinpoint outbreaks and where they have come from so accurately, and share that information promptly, it at least gives the feeling that things are as under control as they can be in an out of control situation.
The wearing of masks was mandated pretty early on and while it seemed odd and alien to start, now feels very normal.
I wonder if we will see a significant increase of people electing to wear face coverings after the restrictions are lifted. Certainly given how dusty it is here in the summer, I can see me wearing a mask more often. The only thing that’s really stopped me before is the fact I’d look odd!
The vaccine is being rolled out, with vulnerable people and key workers, including teachers and support workers, being prioritized. There are concerns about the AtroZeneca vaccine, and the government has said it is up to the health districts to decide whether to stop or continue. I’m not sure what Extremadura has decided – as we’re pretty far down the list, I’ll probably pay more attention when it’s near our time.
Financially, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time as far as the shop in Alston is concerned(or the other way around). The previous tenant had said they were interested in extending their lease for another year – and then the pandemic hit and they didn’t. So we’re responsible for the business rates now – which are quite hefty for a small shop. We finally got the whole building on the market, so fingers crossed something happens there.
I was also wrong about the fact that the pandemic might encourage people to leave cities and that we may see some interest in the house. Even dropping the price to under 200k euros didn’t do the trick – but maybe people just aren’t in buying mode at the moment.
I was looking at the data from my website and we realized pretty early on that we were going to be badly hit – both from the website and from the shop, although I had hoped we might have got the shop sold during this time.
I am surprised looking back that we weren’t in a bigger panic. I can only assume that things were sooooo awful and so much out of our control, we didn’t know what to worry about first! Our site visits dropped by about 70% overnight and our revenue by even more – people were obviously much more focused on googling stuff about pandemics than looking for things to print. We had changed the ad provider on the site just before we saw the downturn, so we also had to see whether the problem was the ad provider (it wasn’t) or the pandemic (it was).
Once the initial shock wore off, I made covid themed coloring pages and other printables for the site – and we saw things pick up as people were looking for activities to do at home.
I had been working on a website with numeracy games for preschoolers, and if I had known that lockdowns in the UK were going to continue for as long as they have, I would have stepped up getting that launched as I am sure parents would be looking for educational games for playing at home.
As a family we learned to embrace Zoom – and importantly, I learned how to turn myself into a smurf for zoom chats.
So looking back on a year living with a pandemic, I remember the initial shock followed by a surprising acceptance of where we are and the ‘new normal’. I wonder what the next year will bring…