With a pandemic running around there is a clear need to do something. In Spain all non essential things have been stopper for two weeks already. Last weekend these two weeks have passed and have been extended for a couple of weeks extra. Probably we will have to stay at home for around two months. There is a first time for everything, and this is clearly the first pandemic experience for all of us. A strange situation.
Just a couple of days ago Alex and Alan both made a nice cozy habitat for a couple of snails we found outside our home in the mini garden we have. Alex has lots of snails (around 10) and Alan only wanted one, and later added a few more so he had three. For two weeks the kids have been feeding the happy snail cucumber (their favorite), tomato, lettuce.
To avoid damaging the snails whenever that are picked up (as little as possible) the kids wash their hands, to clean any salt and dirt from their hands. After handling the snails they again clean their hands to avoid whatever may occur after touching a snail. They have even cleaned some of the snails a couple of times by holding them gently under slow running lukewarm water. Basically the snails seem to have their own private heaven.
The are happy and it shows. After two weeks both snail farm are already crowded with lots of little snail eggs!
Last month our dinner date fell in the sand. Literally. The fine dust was the topic of the evening and we did not discuss anythings else. This month should have been better, but no, it was even worse. We’re locked in our home and are unable to do anything at all.
The corona virus is here. An actual pandemic. The entire world seems infected. It seems like the virus is everywhere. Such a small bug with such a big effect. Yesterday we got the announcement that the schools will all be closed for two weeks. The hospital where Ana works in suddenly a place of stress. At my work the option to work from home suddenly seems to be valid. Supermarkets are partly empty and people are hamstering. It is a strange time.
Oh no, Alex had music classes today. We are very happy with his progress. He is able to play a couple of songs perfectly on his keyboard. After music Alex went to play in a park nearby. Running around on a wooden boat suddenly made all our days a lot worse. He had some very bad luck and his leg got stuck behind something while running. He took a tumble towards the floor, around two meters lower. The result was a broken arm. We went to the hospital immediately and there they put his arm in a cast. It was not a very nice break, so we hope it will all turn out okay. In 10 days they will check the result. Fingers crossed.
Last weekend was spend inside because the entire island was covered by a strange yellow thick fog. The fog was not made out of water, but existed out of sand. The sand came all the way from the Sahara desert and was/is being blown over the island. Slowly everything here is being covered by a thin layer of yellow/orange sand. It looks pretty nice, but the same layer of sant in our lungs is probably not the best thing, so we spend the weekend inside with all the doors and windows closed. The one time we were outside it was like being in a ghost town. No cars, almost no people and the people that were outside were wearing mouthcaps.
Lets go out to eat some times to have some time to get closer together.
That was the idea. Once a month we wanted to go out to get to know each other again. Leave the kids at home and enjoy life like we did before the hectic of family life took over. We were discussing this idea in the car one day, with the kids in the back semi-fighting. We thought that the kids were not paying any attention to us, but suddenly Alex claimed that he thought it a good idea to go out to dinner once in a while, and that he also preferred to go without Alan.
Finally the day came, but because of a heavy calima we decided to stay close to our home. The streets were literally covered with a fine layer of reddish sand, o for the lungs it did not look very healthy. We went to a pizza place very near by and had a nice dinner. Hopefully next month will be less eventful.