There are days when only the most dreadful of profanities suit the mood. I won’t mention any of those words here, but I am sure you can use your imagination. Today was one of those days.
Covid-19, and I am loathe these days to even use the word, has made such a hash of so much of life. Great swathes have been cut through what we took so easily for granted. However, we still do our best to keep positive even though, at times, this is almost impossible.
The most positive news for a long, long time is that we have become Grandads!
Granddaughter Georgie
My son, James and his fiancée Hannah are now the blissful parents to a gorgeous little daughter, Georgie Scarlett, born on 11th October. Weighing in at a slightly eye-watering 9lb 2oz, Georgie is by far the best thing to have happened for as long as I can remember. As any grandparent must be, I am inordinately proud of the entire lot of my family but this all brings into sharp focus how ghastly life is right now. We spend every day weighing up the possibility and risk involved in arranging a trip back to the UK to see everyone, but everyday some other barrier seems to crop up to make this well-night impossible.
It is not just the practicalities of flying from one country to another and then arranging accommodation, it is the sense of responsibility that weighs most heavily on our minds. It might well be safe to fly, airports are quiet and aircraft half-full, but it only takes one unnecessary trip to risk introducing the virus into our village, or into our immediate family for any decision we take to be a disaster. I was chatting to our neighbour, Mari-Petra the other morning and her mask is now an almost permanent feature; she admitted that she is scared, as infection rates are rising in Granada and the risks are forever encroaching on our tucked-away lives. I hate to think of our neighbours being terrified of leaving their homes, or chatting to neighbours and visitors to the village.
The children posted photos of Georgie yesterday, and each lovely photo attracted comments from friends all desperate to visit for a cuddle and these simple and expected remarks just brought it home that we may well be the last people to get to see our lovely granddaughter and that is a deeply saddening consideration.
I admit that I have spent much of the past two months wavering between feelings of overwhelming sadness, irritation, anger and despair. Mornings are generally positive times, but the afternoons, for some reason, hit me like a juggernaut and I find it very difficult to focus on the good things that still surround us. I have to have a project. Andrew manages to keep extremely focused on his book design work, and this provides a routine, even though I know that he struggles to maintain that sense of self-discipline all the time. It almost certainly doesn’t help that he knows I sink into troughs with regularity.
All that said, yesterday was a remarkably good day and out of the chipped away comfort of our lives, we managed to find ways to move forward and get excited.
We were approached a couple of months ago by an organisation who had planned to hold a networking event in Granada but, due to the C-work that I now refuse to acknowledge, they were unable to physically come here. Instead, they decided to hold a virtual event and wanted to give a little slice of Spain to the delegates, and asked if we would do a cookery demonstration.
Never one to pass up an opportunity, and not really thinking it would come to anything, I said yes. Time passed, discussions were held, quotes sent and we suddenly found ourselves with this rather amazing opportunity that cropped up out of nowhere. As I said, I have to have a project to focus on, and this did the job rather well.
We therefore found ourselves on 15th October demonstrating to 100 delegates, via Zoom, how to cook arroz and some delicious tapas. We both enjoyed it tremendously and we hope that it will prove to have provided some very good publicity for both the bed and breakfast business and the Granada Concierge Cultural and Creative holidays.
Cooking so much arroz also allowed us to feed most of our street for a few days! You can see a video recording of the demonstration on YouTube.
For us, one of the most satisfying aspects of the project was that we were able to help out a friend and local business owner. Our client, as well as the cookery demonstration, wanted gift boxes for the delegates, so we went to our friend Alfredo who runs Andalucia Delicatessen in Granada. We managed to ship out 108 gift boxes containing jamón, cheese, artisan beer and extra virgin olive oil to all parts of Europe in a very short period of time. Alfredo told us that, although he was allowed to be open throughout lockdown as he is a food outlet, it has been a very difficult time. His business relies on tourism, and July and August were very bad months. The income generated from the sale of these gift boxes threw something of a lifeline to Alfredo and this meant a great deal to us. He has always supported our ventures and it was good to work together. We hope that more such collaborations may come as a result of this situation we all find ourselves in.
October has also been encouraging in terms of bookings for our Bed and Breakfast. We have been lucky to have had guests, all of whom are either Spanish or who live here. Given that we had almost given up hope of ever seeing another paying guest this side of 2030, this has provided a hugely welcome boost and it has been a joy to welcome people to our home.
So, despite all the dreadful news that threatens to drown us all, we still manage to find the occasional rock of optimism to cling onto. However, it is still overwhelming to find myself dealing with new concepts - grieving brother, grieving son, new granddad - when there is no tangible, physical evidence that these circumstances have come to pass. You may as well call me the new Messiah for all the impact and reality this would bring.
We all have to deal with the current set of circumstances and it is not hard to remind myself that I am extraordinarily lucky to have the huge love and support of Andrew and the strength of my beautiful family. I have always been proud of my children; they are my greatest, greatest achievement, and although it is immensely difficult not to be with them, I know they are there and will be there when we next get the chance to visit each other.
In the meantime, if you fancy a quick demonstration on how to knock up a great big plate of arroz, you know who to call: two very happy, proud, excited and fortunate Grandads!
