Hello from China III, Italy being China II and now Spain following third in that path.
We got the State of Alarm declaration last week and things have gone from bad to worse mobility-wise. Our trip to Scotland that was due today, has been cancelled due to lockdown and airlines not flying from Spain. Now, you can only travel around with a safe conduct from your company if it is for work or with quite a good
force majeure reason if not. Only one person by car and if you can´t justify your trip, 600 Eur fines have been issued and the perpetrators turned around. There is no way you can travel from one Autonomous Community (that is State, for you) to other and very difficult to travel inter city in any means of transport without proper justification, as there are police and military patrols and checkpoints.
Only pharmacies, banks and supermarkets/food shops are open and with restricted schedule. The local supermarket here in Pozuelo (a town in Madrid) only opens 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon, with people queuing far from each other to enter at peak times, when only a person is allowed to enter when another person has left the supermarket. Plastic gloves to take by the door and touch the stuff in the aisles, cashiers protected with plastic screens, marks in the floor to keep distance when about to pay.
When I go to the supermarket, if I see someone coming the other way on the street we move to be as far as posible from the other when we cross paths (metaphorically now).
On the plus side, the supermarket is stocked as usual so no shortage of food. Sanitary equipment is another story, with the Government requisitioning it from factories and private business while creating a bottle neck on imports due to regulation. Yep, after allowing and encouraging March, 8th demonstrations, they are morons on this as well.
More on the plus side. Wifi is good, electricity unaffected, drinking water still coming out of the tap, every day at 8m people open their windows and applause for a minute as a "thank you" to all medical professionals who are exhausted but going the extra mile to help people in hospitals and out-of-beds ICUs. Also I have been confined with my girlfriend since last week´s friday and so far our relationship has survived
This is a global, contagious, illness but not the Armageddon knocking on the door. Please, please, be careful but don´t panic. Use your common sense and don´t be a moron.
I raise my glass of g&t to all of you, fellow drone enthusiasts, in these times of uncertainty.
