Well strange times call for strange measures don’t they? I’m sure by now we have all had our worlds turned upside down, inside out or round about in one way or another.

Chris has been otherwise engaged on other business and has reluctantly conceded that I can take his limelight and steal his thunder on this one occasion (otherwise dear reader you could have been waiting til Christmas!).
We know all our international readers are in various states of lockdown and social distancing themselves right now, so I thought we’d share the little news we have from our very own VP lockdown.

The April weather this year wasn’t that great in VP so instead of learning a new language or refining his pastry-making skills like everyone else was doing, Chris locked himself away and ahead of schedule completed our tax returns for both the UK and Spain. It was a time when I knew to leave him best alone because he always finds the combination of software and the phone queue to HMRC brings out the worst in his personality. But rather him than me!

In other news, like the rest of the world, we had also taken to cutting each other’s hair…with mixed results it must be said!
In fact a neighbour, on seeing Chris from a social distance just now, called across to him: ’Crikey, what the **** have you done to your hair?!!’
How rude! Not everyone can carry off the skinhead look can they…? Poor Chris.
If you have been hacking at your loved one’s hair we hope you have achieved a more skilful ‘salon-beautiful’ look than we have managed ourselves. Don’t worry we have no plans to give up our day jobs! And thankfully the hairdressers have now re-opened here in Vera Playa!

It’s amazing the things people have been doing to fill their time locked up, ‘en casa’.
We heard on the news that a certain UK department store had all but sold out of jigsaws during this crisis. Jigsaws!!! Wow, the return of the humble jigsaw is indeed amazing in itself in these technological times, however the last winter guests we had in our beach apartment ‘Mediterraneo’ were actually jigsaw trailblazers. Far ahead of the masses in fact, they completed our ‘Compton Acres’ jigsaw way back in March…just take a look at it in the gallery below!!

Another activity people have been taking part in around the globe is of course exercise. Even people who have never done a day’s exercise in their life are suddenly and somewhat miraculously, finding their inner Olympian it seems. Here in Spain, as we're confined to our homes for 7 weeks without public exercise we had to improvise.
Chris found a workout series on YouTube to perform on the terrace. So there he was one sunny afternoon, computer set up, speaker set up, primed and ready for his first session… he pressed ‘play’ and he was off for an intense 30 minutes of flailing limbs and ear-piercing grunts. I later went outside to find him collapsed in a damp, slippery heap on the tiles. This was Day 1 reader…Day 2 of that routine never happened…! As we have been able to get out and exercise now…there is no excuse. Must say there have been a lot of relieved faces exercising on the beach…swimming and sunbathing on the beach isn’t allowed yet of course…but that should be coming in the not-too-distant future.

Having a good view of the beach we were able to see exactly what had been going on during the closure. It was good to see the welcome return of the beach tractor making its periodic trips up and down the beach, removing washed-up debris. Not only this but we spotted the water company out fixing the pipes for the beach showers and also workers repairing the boardwalks.  Of course at the moment we don’t know exactly how long it will be before the beach opens fully or when foreign visitors will return but it was good to see that maintenance was being carried out while no-one was on the beach.

I have been taking loads and loads of photos while out on walks and from above the beach, so keep an eye out on social media pages if you’re interested to see more of these!

The weather is now set into its usual pattern of long sunny days and the sea has been taking on a beautiful blue colour so we’re hoping it won’t be too long now before we can all enjoy our beloved beach again. Let’s stay positive everyone and hope it’s a case of ‘business as usual’ soon. Talking of business as usual, is that Chris I can hear in the background, filling up his ink well and sharpening his quill?! Fear not reader, he will be back with you next time!