Ian’s been plagued by pigeons. There’s a couple of pigeons which seem to wait for him to go out of the barn door before they fly in and then coo at him in a taunting manner. So Ian’s taken to getting a long piece of bamboo to try to encourage them out.
The mayor came round to invite us for our vaccinations. Mine was on Thursday and Ian’s on Monday. I’m not sure which one I had, but I had one of the two dose ones. Ian had the Janssen one which is the one dose one so he’s now done!
Our appointments were at 1.00, and it was just a case of wandering down there, getting the vaccination and then waiting for 20 minutes out of the sun so they could check for any allergic reactions before wandering home. If we didn’t have to wait the 20 minutes observation period, we’d have both been in and out of the house in 15 minutes. It’s difficult to think of how the process could have been improved.
My vaccination was completely pain free, but my arm was stiff the next day and I couldn’t raise it above my shoulder but that eased during the day and was back to normal the day after. I had a bit of a fluey feeling – but that didn’t last either.
Ian said his vaccination was surprisingly painful at the time, but other than soreness at the site of the needle, he didn’t have any side-effects.
I’m not sure why the mayor did personal visits. I think he’s been excellent throughout, keeping us up to date with what’s going on and sharing good quality data which has helped us understand the situation locally. So perhaps ensuring that the whole village gets vaccinated is just part of his process.
I’ll have the second vaccination in four weeks. If I had the Astro Zeneca vaccine, I will be offered the Pfizer vaccine for the second dose, so I guess I’ll find out then which I had – or maybe not, thinking about it as it sounds as though it will be the pfizer regardless.
House wise, we heard back from the Architect who gave us a valuation of 170 – 180k euros on the house. While we both hoped he would come back with a higher figure, we also feared he’d come back with a lower figure – so it’s pretty much what we expected. Of course, it’s annoying to think we turned down with such disdain the offer of 200k €, a couple of years ago. But who then would have thought we’d be recovering from a pandemic!
We’ve also had an offer on the shop/flat. We were offered £110k which we have turned down as we want nearer the asking price which is £125k. There is someone interested in letting the shop and we do have tenants in the flat, so we are in a reasonably strong position for holding out for the full amount – or at least near to it. The person interested in letting the shop wants to move asap, so I am hoping we will know what we’re doing within the next week or so.
I am trying to include a photo with each blog post from now on. So while vaccinations aren’t very photogenic – I thought I’d include a picture of