Menorca

 

We've just returned from a 6 night trip in Menorca (Santo Tomas). The weather was lovely, and we experienced the best snorkelling we've done in Europe, but the trip was still only almost relaxing due to the pandemic. 

Starting from the beginning there were a number of additional stressors which I'll outline below (for the fun of reliving!) which took away from a fully relaxing holiday: 

1.   Mark had issues logging onto the NHS Covid Pass website, which said it needed to verify his identity the day before our trip (and this could take up to 7 days) even though he'd logged in the week prior with no issues. In the end he had his information confirmed in a few hours, but it was a stressful few hours. 
2. The train to the airport was sold out - this has never been an issue, and I didn't think to worry about it (silly me!). We booked a taxi to take us to the airport instead, and realised at pick up time that the booking was for the wrong day! Luckily the taxi company was able to send a cab within 10 minutes anyway, but again it was really stressful. I'm sure Mark provided the correct details when he made the booking. 
3. There was a car wreck (and delay) on the way to the airport. Luckily this didn't slow us down too much in the end, but was another 'oh shit' moment, and it felt like we were not going to be able to go on this trip. 
4. People are assholes! Nothing new here, but on full display at the airport via the number of people who didn't wear their masks correctly or at all. We were in FP2 masks and face shields and using copious hand gel in response, but feeling the need to be so vigilant was not relaxing.

I felt pretty frazzled by the time we got there and am happy to report that once we arrived to Menorca things went pretty smoothly. Menorca is beautiful and the weather was great. If we did it again, we'd stay somewhere different, where we could self-cater as the hotel buffet was pretty mediocre. But our room was nice and we had a gorgeous view of the sea. The hotel pool was pretty great, and we were right on the beach. Also, there were no children at the hotel which was a big perk. 

The snorkelling was the best we've experienced in Europe so far. I saw two eels, no other 'big ticket' animals, but plenty of fish and lots of varieties. The visibility was amazing, the water was clear at 30+feet, and the island off the shore (near Es Bruc- restaurant) was easy to circumnavigate and provided really excellent snorkelling conditions. 

Es Bruc was the best restaurant in the area by far, but we didn't have any meals on this trip that I'd call 'gourmet'. If we go again we'll rent a car as well as there may have been better options a bit further afield. 

On the whole I think Menorca was doing pretty well with Covid safety compliance. Most people were good about wearing their masks and we were mostly outside which made things feel much safer, but there were unavoidable covid stressors due to UK precautions before returning including a covid test (not fun, but understand the reasons) and a four page document to complete 2 days before returning. We did manage to let down our guards enough to book massages, which we've not done since covid and that was really nice. 

Ultimately I'm glad we were able to go and glad to have had a week of real summer (and the suntans to show for it). 

Hamish also seemed to have a nice time with the dog sitter which was a real plus. He apparently liked them so much he was sleeping with the youngest son of the family by the last night. Little bugger. 

Parkrant

Parkrun was my soccer replacement after blowing out my knee. A weekly timed 5K run that promised to be forever free, tracked your statistics for you, and was a worldwide phenomenon, it scratched a lot of my itches, and was this shiny awesome thing. Of course it had to shut down for the pandemic like every other mass gathering, but they soon worked out a system (NotParkrun) whereby you could just do your own socially-distanced run during the week on the honor system and they'd still track it for you.

A lot of the shine has gone off it for me though. Not the running -- I'm still doing NotParkruns more than twice a week on average. Rather, I'm not keen on how both Parkrun and my fellow parkrunners are handling the proposed restart.

It's partly a victim of its own popularity. I hadn't anticipated this happening at all, but for Parkrun to restart, a significant number of parkruns have to restart simultaneously. Why? Because if only a few restart, they will be flooded by parkrunners from neighboring runs that are shut down, creating unsafe conditions. So Parkrun had to get agreements from a lot of landowners, who have responded to the restart plan with varying degrees of enthusiam, for a variety of reasons. This is where Parkrun really seemed to screw up their response: unbelievably, they got pissy with the landowners and invalidated their concerns.

Worse, Parkrun's stance seems to have been restart, restart, restart. While they've been compliant with government mandates, I get the sense that they'd definitely restart if government said it was okay but the scientists said it wasn't. So I'll be having a careful look at things before I ever run one again.

They seem to have worked it out with enough of the landowners now, but a lot of the agreements were contingent on the government proceeding with the last stage of lockdown easing, and that's just been put off until 19 July. So Parkrun has made the announcement that they have to delay the restart, and now it's the other parkrunners that have irked me. They have the same restart, restart, restart mentality, and are claiming the delay has no basis in science (spoiler: it does). They're blaming the landowners as well. There's even a group that are proudly meeting at the usual parkrun time in our local park and running in defiance of the national organisation's request that people not do this. Jerks.

I'll still log my runs, and I'll go back (eventually) if they restart, but I'm really hoping things improve.

I can blog too!

I still wish we had kept blogging, as it still makes a much better record of our life than Facebook messages. I still use the blog as a memory assist way more than FB and their crappy search.

I didn't leave the village (even to go into Cambridge) for the whole month of February. We're doing our level best to keep our lives entertaining, but we've missed out on a year of exploring the UK and Europe now. I have a big London map that I stare at wistfully -- it's only an hour away and we haven't been in the past year. We're optimistic that things will improve, though. Marjorie's had her first vaccination, and will have her second next month. And me, I just the NHS text message on Friday, and will be getting my first shot on Thursday. That's the best news I've had in a while!

It's certainly been a memorable year, but because of the lack of variety, I'm worried that I'm going to remember it down the years as a single event, like you remember a concert. We stopped getting takeaway even, though we are trying something novel this month -- going meatless. My brother commented on Facebook that we would be surprised by how many options we'll have, and that's definitely been true. It hasn't been a struggle AT ALL. In fact, I've barely noticed that we're doing it, except for the novelty in dishes that Marjorie has been whipping up. I think it would be a lot harder if we were going out to eat more, and having to choose less tastier-sounding options on the menu. I don't think we'll be permanently meatless but it will certainly effect some sort of permanent change in how much meat we eat.

A year of Covid-19

A year ago today the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, we had just returned from Belgium and planned to go to Florida the following week for Mark's nephew's wedding but our travel plans were cancelled (obviously). At the time it was exciting but abstract, the actual threat didn't seem real, and I suppose we thought it would be like our SARs experience in Singapore and that life would largely go on as usual, and it would all blow over in a few months. 

Now, a year later I'm wondering if we'll every fully return to normal. We've been extremely fortunate throughout this, but it's still been hard. I'm so ready to get back into the world, but know it's likely to feel strange, and scary. I've had my first vaccination (Astra Zeneca) and have the 2nd scheduled for early April. Mark hasn't had his yet (hopefully he'll get a call this month), and we will feel much better 14 days post his first vaccination. I hope we'll be able to travel this summer! It's nice here, but it feels like a tease having the rest of Europe on our doorstep but not being able to go there. 

We've taken lock-down very seriously and haven't gone anywhere in months (including grocery stores - deliveries and click and collect almost exclusively). I miss restaurants/pubs, but, I've definitely become a better cook this year. I was an okay cook pre-pandemic, but as we haven't even had take away in months I've become more adventurous and tried more laborious recipes that I would have previously not felt I had time for. Can't use that excuse now :^)! This month we're having a 'meat-free' March, if only to do something different. It's going well, and I don't think either of us have missed meat as much as we thought we would (but still 20 days to go). Vegan would be hard though, don't think we're ready to give up eggs or milk anytime soon. 

In other news, I finish my current job in two weeks and start a new job in April. The new role is better paying and a permanent position, and hopefully a role I'll enjoy. It's taken 4 years to get back to a position and wage that feels more commiserate with my work experience - the real downside of having to start over again (at least partly) every time we move. 

Sick puppy

Hamish celebrated his ~11th birthday last Sunday. We spoiled him all week beforehand, making him better meals than usual (which is saying something because I cook for him anyway). On the actual day we took him on a long walk to Fen Ditton and gave him a lamb casserole dinner. He was smiley all day and seemed to be loving life. 

The next day however, he was very, very unwell. I woke up before 5am to the noise of Mark escorting Hamish outside after he'd already vomited repeatedly in the house. I was initially worried he might have an abdominal blockage because he ate an entire beef rib on Saturday (it was thinly cut, but I would normally not allow him to have the whole thing in one sitting and he ate the thing in less than 3 minutes so couldn't have chewed it much). I made an emergency vet appt for him and he spent the next 36 hours at the vet having blood tests and x-rays to try to figure out what was making him so unwell. Luckily he didn't have a blockage, and didn't require surgery, but his liver enzymes were elevated, and he was clearly very unwell. Best guess is that he ate something that made him unwell (he eats random crap when we go out on walkies so who knows what it was). The whole situation was incredibly upsetting and I spent most of Monday ugly crying in between work calls. 

He's home now and seems to be improving but he's still very picky about what he eats, which is not normal for our boy (he's a pig). The vet sent him home with sensitive stomach canned food, but he won't touch it so I've been making chicken rice for him. He's eating the chicken and keeping it down, which is reassuring. Day by day he seems to be improving and slowly getting back to his normal self. 

Long way to say it's been a stressful week, but things seem to be mostly okay now. 

Springwatch aka things we love about the UK

One of the things we love the most about living in the UK is the national love of nature, including birdwatching. When we lived in Australia, a nation full of parrots and other amazing wildlife, we were gently ridiculed for being 'twitchers' and didn't know many people who shared our enthusiasm. Here everyone we know is a bird watcher. It's a national obsession - Britons spend more money (per population) on bird feed than any other nation. There is also a quarterly BBC TV program to celebrate British wildlife (especially birds) called Springwatch (Winterwatch, Summerwatch, Autumnwatch) that runs for a few weeks every season. The show is an hour of footage from hidden cameras into nests and woodlands. It's fab and one of the primary reasons we're very happy to pay our TV license fee. Australia needs a Springwatch. 

Four Years Already

As of 18 January we've lived in Cambridge for four years! It's incredible that it's gone so fast. 

Even with the awfulness of the pandemic, and acknowledging that Melbourne might be a better/safer place to be right now,  we're both happy we made the move. England is interesting, and while we loved and still love Melbourne, we were in a bit of rut and it's been good to shake things up again. 

Speaking of which, I have a new job offer. I won't say too much about it until it's official, but it's been interesting proving my right to work when all our bills/bank correspondence are received electronically (like most people in this century). A friend of ours rightly pointed out that this difficulty is part of the Home Office Hostile Environment Policy to make it difficult for people without the legal right to remain in the UK. It also makes it difficult for those with the right to remain, but it would definitely make things nigh impossible if you weren't here legally (or being supported by someone who is). 

Onto other subjects - this time of year the (very short) days start getting longer dramatically and from here to March we gain 3 to 4+ minutes of light every day (compare this to Atlanta where the biggest change is an increase of 2 mins a day). It's quite dramatic and by the end of March it feels very much like the sky lights have been fully turned on. Of course in October/November you have the reverse and the feeling of the light being turned off  and being plunged into darkness for several months. In the dark of December all the Christmas lights/food/festivity feel very necessary (and much more connected to winter solstice than anything religious). I do enjoy a winter Christmas and this was something that I missed every year in Singapore and Melbourne. And it's great to be back to a country that enjoys Christmas music, and not just the same Michael Bublé songs every year . The primary reason I made an Xmas mix every year we were in Melbs is that Australia does not embrace Christmas music (and fair enough - the songs don't really work in summer), but that is definitely not the case in the UK. I may stop putting the mixes together - the only friends that seem particularly grateful for the mixes are our friends in Oz (unsurprisingly really).

The pic attached was taken on one of early morning walks - the sun is finally starting to rise before 8am and the sunrise was gorgeous this day.