Friendship is about always supporting each other, but also about having fun together – and making the most of each occasion. Yesterday was a good example of that. As soon as I knew online registration for the Covid 19 vaccination was on for people from 55 on, I called my inseparable friend Beli, and, at the same time – both at our respective homes – we registered for vaccination at the same place, one more advantage …
Tag: Covid-19
No Christmas is exactly like the previous one. You may keep most of the rituals, the people you celebrate it with, shop in the same stores and cook the same dishes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but still, it will feel familiar, because it will be “your” Christmas all over again. Not this year. This Christmas will be different from all the Christmases we have lived before, and, even with those few we’ll get together with, …
All of a sudden, our daily vocabulary has been invaded by new words or expressions; everywhere you look, whatever you hear, they are there. Such as social distance, respiratory etiquette and others I won’t impose on you as, like me, you must be wishing they would disappear, sooner than later, never to return. One of them is the much talked about “new order”. New order may mean many things, from a very original conspiracy theory I heard …
Now that it has been almost a month since we began the “comeback”, a few conclusions may be reached. Different reactions The first one is that people have been reacting to this slow return to “normality” (whatever this means now), in very different ways. There are those who, fed up with confinement, believe it’s time to put all of this behind our backs and start leading a normal life. They make the most of the new liberties that …
A year ago, on this very day, as pilgrims among the thousands that filled the Sanctuary of Fátima, not even in our wildest dreams – or rather nightmares – could we have imagined a day like today. The empty sanctuary Last year, like the year before, May 13 was an explosion of faith, of light. Last year it was a warm, sunny day, more like Summer than Spring. We talked, we prayed, we cried, we thanked, we begged, we …
A May Saturday. Warm, like a summer day. It’s dusk now. I stay a long time at my window, feeling the early evening fresh breeze and watching the sun set over the sea. I never tire of this view; every day the colours are different. There are days with silver-blue and orange, others with deep-blue and pink, and then there are those days when you can see silver in the sky and the sea, only in different shades. …
I go for my late afternoon walk. I stand over the beach and look at the sea, inhaling its smell. It’s not too strong, here, as in other places by the sea, but it’s unmistakeable. I just stay there, filling myself with so many sensations – the light blue of the sky, the still bright light of the sun, already low on the horizon but still warm; the sea breeze on my face and my hair. The sensation of …
It’s driving me crazy. De-contamination, I mean. All the disinfection procedures we have to put in place so that we may be slightly – only slightly – reassured we have not brought the virus into our home. It began with washing my hands every two minutes. Every time I touch anything, I wash them. After two or three days of this regime, I noticed some small cracks appearing. My hands were sore, red, dehydrated. I even had …
Another glorious Saturday. The bluest of skies in the darkest of times. Or is it? It seems we have grown used to this new routine. It’s called acceptance. In the beginning, all we talked about was “when we return to normal”; now, we have realised that what used to be normal will probably take a long time to come back, so we wait, resigned, for the crumbs of freedom that are expected to start making an appearance, come May. …
A week has passed. Rain or shine, days are very much the same, and it’s a good sign. We are home, we work, we sleep, we eat, we see our friends during WhatsApp video calls… we should feel privileged to be home, healthy, comparatively safe, while other people are fighting this battle for us, in hospitals, risking their lives a million times so that one day this nightmare may pass. I cannot help picturing my cousin, the doctor, who sent …
