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It’s 2^nd March as I sit here writing this I’d hoped to reflect on what exciting things I’ve done during February. The fact is the most exciting thing was one Friday night placing a beer in each room of my house, and called it a pub crawl.

But as I sit here the lockdown has eased, and slowly but surely people are peering from behind their doors wondering if their bodies will permit the consumption of more than a caña before they fall asleep in the corner of the bar dribbling down their carefully ironed ‘going out’ shirt.

Whilst we have all had our social lives reduced to a zoom conversation and numerous online quizzes we have more and more relied on social media for interpersonal contact, and news of what’s going on beyond the virtual walls of our locked down worlds.

Now when I was a lad (Jesus how old am I ??!!!!) News was 5.45pm for 15 minutes, and 9.00pm on BBC1 for 25 minutes. News was brief and to the point. No conversation, no real opinion, just good old boring news.

Today is so much different. 24 hour news channels, News on Facebook, WhatsApp, ( always criticised by my kids for calling it Whatsup) Twitter, and numerous other media that allows anyone to put their ideas and opinions across.

How great is that! True democracy EXCEPT.

How many movies have you watched based in the future or far in the past.? If it wasn’t for the fact we KNEW it was fiction you would struggle to know fact from fiction.

If tomorrow the BBC broadcast the invasion of China they could produce the ‘special effects’ to make it totally convincing.

My point is now that anyone can write anything fact or fiction, within libel laws. We have to be so careful NOT to believe everything we read or watch.

We have been through and still are going through difficult times. We face and have faced many problems, whether that was BREXIT or Covid19 or numerous other political issues.

There are many out there with political or racist axes to grind. Pushing one opinion or another and presenting opinion as fact. And unfortunately I’ve seen many articles shared on social networks that are just outright lies. But when 2.8 Billion people have a Facebook account you only need to convince 0.1% to have convinced 2.8 million people. That’s a lot of people who can cause a lot of damage.

So bear this in mind. We need to do our own research, before we can believe 3rd party news or posts that make any sort of claim. So do everyone a favour. Research everything if you are going to spread what is otherwise gossip. We all accept gossip can often be untrue and damaging, and so much on social media is just that.

As at the time of writing COVID seems to be on the retreat, and hopefully for the last time. We do however here in Spain, and therefore of course GA see another threat on the horizon, that is to say Semana Santa, which runs from 28th March to 4th April. An important festival here.

Most of Spains 17 regions have agreed a perimetral lockdown for that period , meaning no one can enter or leave without a justified reason, such as going to work. In my opinion a great idea. We don’t want to see a fourth wave as we saw a third as a result of Xmas and the New year.

But there is a flea in the ointment Madrid is not going to follow suite. I fear this could cause a major issue, as I’m pretty sure Madridians will now simply head to their holiday homes earlier and leave later to avoid the restrictions aimed at keeping every Spaniard safe.

Its made me think is the Spanish method of government effective? That is to say the System of autonomous regions? In my opinion No. There are large political divides between the various parties, the PP, the PSOE, Podemos or Vox which means often regions are following completely different agendas.

In my view the current system allows far too much decision making freedom across the various regions meaning all of Spain is rarely pulling in the same direction. It means also at times of crisis, unified decision making is almost impossible. The current crisis has set region against region, and created antagonism amongst the Spanish people at a time when we should be united to defeat a common enemy. I know there will be antagonism against the Madrid population if it is discovered they have found their way to their holiday homes, and this does not exactly help create a unified ‘all together’ attitude. Something we need if we are to defeat this enemy.

Reasons to be cheerful Part 3

Summer is around the corner after quite a mixed winter. The Sun and the heat always helps the mood, and give many ladies ( and maybe Men) lucky enough to have long hair a reason to complain about frizz!. With common sense and vaccines everything will improve. As of writing Spain’s vaccine progress is gaining momentum and Spain has fully vaccinated a greater % of the population with the 2nd vaccine only behind the UAE, USA, Gibraltar.

A new Bar/ Restaurant has popped up in Masa Square which I am sure we all wish good luck to.

Until next time, have fun, stay safe, and see you on the sunny side.