Nothing left to close or cancel surely?
Like an ongoing bad dream, or maybe nightmare is more appropriate, this COVID pandemic has a lot to answer for. 2020 will go down in history as an extraordinary year… but for all the wrong reasons. On Tuesday there was another mass protest rally here in Benidorm by those in the tourism sector with a list of demands, one being the extension of the ERTE scheme – Spain’s equivalent of furlough. By coincidence, an announcement came about the same day that it has been extended until January 31, 2021, but my feeling is that this was already in the pipeline. This means workers in the tourism sector who are currently still off work and already on the scheme should continue to receive ‘ some’ money. However, speaking to friends and colleagues in many cases it really is a daily struggle to survive.
Tuesday also saw the official cancellation of this year’s Benidorm fiesta by the town hall – although most had already made that assumption months ago, especially when other towns in the region had cancelled back in the summer. I wonder why they left it so long, keeping people in a state of suspense and uncertainty, hoping against hope that just maybe they will go ahead. It is almost tantamount to cruelty. The wonderful parades, floats, flower offerings at the church to decorate the outside ( a blow to the florists!) By way of some compensation, the mayor said that they will allow two Masses to take place, on November 8 and 9 but rather than at the blue domed San Jaime church at the top of the old town, they will take place at the Julio Iglesias
open air auditorium where there shouldn’t be an issue about capacity. Thinking back, I will certainly keep my fingers crossed as rain seems to have blessed the fiestas over the last few years!
It really is a blow for the resort to hear this which also means no British fancy dress day, traditionally taking place on the Thursday after the end of the town fiesta. The array of outfits each year leaves me astounded and politically incorrect certainly goes out of the window here. There are always plenty of blackfaces, bare bums and that’s just the men.
Economically it is huge business for the bars in the Rincón de Loix area in particular. Brits book from one year to the next, with the Hotels Marina and Orange, in the thick of the celebrations selling out quickly. Both are now sadly in darkness with no indication of when they will be reopening but realistically, like many others in the resort, possibly not until Easter - which is April! A frightening thought really as that is six months away.
Evidently the free New Year’s Eve party along the Levante beach front will also be called off – one that I have attended a number of times with friends. What a great party atmosphere it is, with live DJ’s on a stage and television screens along the promenade broadcasting the strike of midnight. I imagine many will be welcoming in 2021 in PJ’s, holding a glass – or tin of something in their hand, sat in front of the television watching last year’s rerun from the Puerta del Sol then doing the same again at 01.00, of Big Ben to see in the British New Year… and dare I say, our official exit from the
EU.
As if things couldn’t get any worse. This year I think I may just fall into that category of staying in. It reminds me of New Year’s Eve 1999 when babysitters were charging in excess of £ 100 per hour so most parents stayed in… or went to each other’s with said children in tow. Just think how many bottles of Bollinger or Moet you could have bought with the childminding money… far more sensible in my eyes and actually exactly what we did. Trotted down to friends in Uckfield East Sussex, exhausted the children in the daytime, ensuring that come the evening they’d be so tired I wouldn’t need to douse them with Calpol to get them off to sleep – this had been tried, tested and successful on the odd occasion. Our mothers would have added a shot of whiskey to the last milk to send them off so this is far more acceptable in my eyes – but probably not so from social services point of view. Well they have both grown up in fine fettle and do not appear to have suffered any lasting damage from my sleep remedies, so I’ll count that as a blessing.
Well considering that we have just literally entered October I was a little taken aback to have seen a rather extensive Christmas range at Iceland earlier in the week. Yep…. selection boxes, chocolate tubs, crackers, cards, even party food. The only thing missing was the frozen turkeys but give it a week or so and I am sure they’ll be arriving. I can’t even begin to think that far ahead – I’ve only relented by switching the fan off at night and putting an empty duvet cover onto the bed rather than just a thin sheet. Summer short sleeves and open toe sandals are still this week’s uniform, unlike in the UK, where the heating has already been on for some time. Let’s toast the lasting good weather – my app shows it will remain in the mid 20’ s for all next week… I’ll drink to that!
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