Friday was a national holiday here in Spain – we take 1st May as a holiday on whichever day it falls so a long weekend this year. I would normally get very excited at this prospect and start planning things to do with friends and family. Not possible this year but Andy and I still had a pleasant weekend. We seem to have “swapped” weather with the UK almost overnight and the sun has fianlly come out of Lockdown! Clear blue skies and temperatures in the high 20’s all weekend- lovely!! I have gone from wearing trackies, fleece and fluffy slippers to shorts, T-shirt and flip flops in 24 hours!!
The absolute highlight of the weekend was on Saturday morning, when, after 7 weeks, we were allowed to go out for a walk together. There is a strict timetable as to who can go out when. We fall into the 14 -70 category (with probably about 80% of the population!!) so we can go out for a walk together (max 2 people from same household) between 6am (that’s a bit too early :) and 10am and between 8pm and 11pm and you cannot go more than a kilometre from your house. There are other rules if running or cycling but I wasn’t planning on doing any running!!! We decided to go for the morning slot as we thought it would be less busy. No need to set the alarm..”Cat Alarm” woke us up at 7.30 as usual. I ignored her for about 20 minutes but she wasn’t going to give up, so we got up, fed both the cats, donned our shorts and trainers, sunglasses…and masks…and headed out for our walk. 
I must say, it felt slightly strange leaving the house together – first time in 7 weeks- almost as if we were breaking the rules!
OMG, it felt so good to just to be out for no other reason than to just walk!! I’m not sure how you know if you are a km from your home so we stuck to just walking around the village…twice!! We met some of our neighbours also out for a walk and stopped for a 10 minute chat – socially distancing of course. We had been in touch via Whatsapp but it was so lovely to speak to them face to face.
I’d always thought that Manilva village was beautiful and, due to its elevated location, the views are stunning but on our walks this weekend it seemed even more beautiful – it was as if nature was welcoming us back to the world! Here are some photos we took
So having done our exercise, Andy was in need of cake (he does love Cake!!). I found a jar of mincemeat at the back of the cupboard left from Christmas (yes, it was still in date:) so I thought, why not – Mince pies don’t need to be just for Christmas!!
8pm and time for the daily “Thankyou” Clap. We had another surprise visitor to the urbanisation…
Sunday was Spanish Mother’s day. I was desperately missing my kids (no doubt like every other mum) but we had a nice Skype catch up call. I hope it’s not too long before we can all be together again.
Project Bedroom – I know you are all desperate for the latest update :))) The “tape” that hold the plasterboard together has been covered and all joints have been sealed. The coving is up and has been painted.
All the walls and ceiling have been rubbed down ready for painting – to say that made a mess is a major understatement!! I did my wifely duty and took up a cup of tea for Andy – have to keep the workmen happy :))) As I opened the door there must have been at least a 1cm depth of dust. I just shut the door and ran!!! The cat was meowing at the bedroom door, desperate to get in there with her Daddy – can you imagine the state of her if we’d have let her in – she’d be an albino cat !!:))