Thursday, May 13th, 2021
And yet another sunny, dry day with temperatures in the low 20C and a slight breeze. So unfair but, I will get over it.
Tonight, we were invited to one of our generous neighbors with a condo in Madrid to learn more about Madrid and life in Spain. The neighborhood Listserv is truly amazing! It has found us a Spanish teacher for EM and not one, but two battery powered mics with amplifiers for the IBDP graduation picnic in the park. The couple we went to see tonight were truly lovely people. They opened their house and their hearts for us, cooked Spanish Tapas for us, served Tinto de Verano and were even more excited then we are about EM Moving to Segovia and then on to Madrid.
They will connect her with their Spanish family, so she has an anchor. They patiently answered all of EM’s question and then some. Rarely have I encountered so much generosity to strangers as these two have shown us tonight. They lend EM a few books to study Spanish and gave her a guidebook to Madrid as a present to pass on to someone else when she is done. The only covenant: the book needs to be passed on. The gift of giving that never ends. What an altogether lovely evening. I have of course sent a thank you note and invited them to our house for early June. The Cicadas will be out in full force, so not sure we can sit outside, though I am hoping. Hopfully they will all leave their cocoons while we are in California so all we need to deal with is the racket rather than those creatures crawling all over the place as they try to shed their skins. I am also hoping to be able to return their kindness by letting them stay in my Cape Town home sometime in the future. What comes around goes around - good karma and these folks certainly are.
Beyond that it was just another day in COVID life, work from home, school from home, but life is changing noticeably. Almost everyone I interact with has had at least one if not two shots. Many are fully vaccinated, as in it has been two weeks since their second shot.
There are plans for the dojo to reopen for fully vaccinated memebers in about a week or so. Currently we are discussing if we can shed masks. Probably it will be a few weeks before everyone is comfortable with that idea. For now, grateful we can practice in the dojo again and will have open hand practices before the month is out; that is actually touching the partner.
CDC has issued new guidelines today, which do not supersede state or county guidelines, that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in- or outdoors with only a few exceptions like being on a plane. For me going shopping without a mask is unfathomable at this stage. However, I do enjoy walking the hood or meeting other vaccinated people outdoors and even indoors without a mask.
The past twenty-four hours saw 35k new infections to bring the US total to 33.6 million. The downward trend continues and vaccination efforts to reach those undecided, are doubled up. Ohio is offering one million dollars to 5 people who have taken the shot as an incentive for residents to get a jab. I guess they will have a lottery. As of today, the BioNTech vaccine manufactured by Pfizer has been approved for use in children 12 -15 years which means another 17 million residents inoculated. So, things are looking bright, especially with the BioNTech shot effective against the Indian variant also.
This has led us to make travel plans. Not only for our trip to Europe in the summer, but also for Memorial Day weekend. I have now booked flights for EM and I to go to Los Angles, where we will spend two nights and a full day catching up with friends from Istanbul. From there we will make our way via Santa Barbara – a few hours on the beach – to San Francisco, where we will stay with a friend for two nights, before heading to Napa to our Indonesian-American friends for a day and two nights. We will then fly home from Sacramento early on June 2nd. June 3rd will be a normal day and June 4th is EM’s graduation from high school and then we are done in the USA.
It is a very strange thought that she will thereafter be of on her own to Spain and who knows what will happen to me, where I shall go. I have several people wanting to buy my house already. I doubt I shall need to put it on the market when the time comes.
The next few months will go by in no time. May is almost done. June we will be in DC, but probably tidying up lose ends, beginning to pack EM’s belongings to take a first load to Europe, decide on childhood memories to keep and things to part with.
July we are in Europe, mostly on a boat.
August will see some serious decluttering and packing before we return to Europe. The plan is for EM and I to drive from Hamburg to Segovia and make the journey a final mother and daughter road trip. And then it is mid-September and just me and Max at home alone. How strange that shall be.
Guess who is driving the ongoing debate around COVID booster shots? Well apparently, not the scientists, but rather the CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies. Of course, these discussions are free of any commercial interests. Scientists now say there is no evidence whatsoever that booster shots will be needed. There is simply not enough data to tell how long immunity may last.