Yesterday, for the first time in nearly three months we left the village to go to the vet in Zafra. While we’ve been out to the two pines (the other side of the railway track) to pick asparagus, we haven’t left the village since all this began. We’ve been lucky as it has been made very easy for us to stay in the village, with what I think is an excellent (all things considered) food delivery service from Dia. The main problems with food delivery have been of our making, when we forgot Easter and May Day which both fell on our ‘normal’ delivery day.
While we haven’t taken advantage of this – the Extremadura Government also published a list of local manufacturers who were offering home delivery during this time, which is handy and also made shopping from home easier. The reason why we didn’t buy anything via this scheme is most places you had to ring up and place your order – and that would just be asking for trouble. Although waiting to see what we had ordered could have been fun.
We had to go to the vet with Pixie for her quarterly blood test (which is the last time we’d been to Zafra) and Bobbins as we thought she had another lump growing (she hasn’t). We also wanted to get a few things that we’ve been unable to get online (a mob handle, believe it or not) – plus of course my vitamin tablets and our ‘normal’ coffee.
So, as we didn’t know what to expect, Ian dropped me off at the vet while he did the shopping. The vet was all set up for social distancing, with a perspex screen by the receptionist and lines showing people where to wait. But they are next to a park, so it is really easy to sit outside.
The one big thing I noticed, and I hope isn’t significant, is that I saw Javi, who is one of the owners and is the chief surgeon. We used to see him all the time when we started going there, but when they moved premises, they took on more vets and we now very rarely see him. But I just saw him and a couple of others – while it’s normally brimming with vets. He does training for the university, so I wonder if that had stopped – that would explain why there were less vets, but not why he wasn’t doing operations.
I hope that doesn’t mean that mean that they are experiencing problems with people not bringing in their pets.
Ian said the supermarkets were quiet – and felt pretty normal – although some shop have hand sanitizer or gloves and others request masks are worn. Carrefour had an ‘in one way and out the other’ system going. I asked him about prices and about supply levels, and he said it all seemed much as it had before.
I was talking to my Madrid students who have this weekend gone out for the first time, even though they’ve been allowed out now for a couple of weeks. I do think people’s view on this is tempered by how they have been affected or the implications should they become infected.
Spain is now in the final state of alarm. The way it works here is that the state of alarm can only last for two weeks – so the government has to keep renewing it. They’ve renewed it once more and have said that this is the last time.
I think in the next stage, which starts next week, people can move between provinces, as long as they are of a similar level, so we may see people coming to the village for their holidays this year as normal.
While the virus figures are looking very positive and very different to a couple of months ago, people are being reminded that it will be about now that we may see new cases increase due to the lifting of the lockdown.
Going back to the vet visit – Bobbins’ lump was where we could feel the stitches that are under the skin. And Pixie we won’t know about until her results come back. I don’t think her fur is coming out as much as it was – but neither is it growing. She still has bald patches where they shaved her last time for the blood test.
We’re back again in a couple of weeks to get Horace’s coat cut – which is always a trauatic experience (for the groomer!).