We also learned that the care-home in Switzerland would no longer allow any visitors, so there was no way we could be with Trudy's mother for her 99th birthday, which was the main reason for us wanting to travel.
Luckily, Trudy's mother was not concerned and told us she would rather forget about celebrating her birthday, as she has had so many, she could not care less about it.
Thank goodness she is perfectly happy where she is, and not feeling lonely. We can only continue to speak to her several times a week
on the phone.
Soon after this, the news was that this problem is likely to be with us for at least 3 months. How everything is going to be in the future no one knows.
So many businesses closed and most of the Spanish population had to stay at home, all stocks and shares dropped dramatically, and money was become a big problem for everyone!
What is disturbing and causing so many problems, is not only that people can be spreading it before they know that they have it, but this virus can remain live on various surfaces for much longer than we had been told. It is active for at least twenty-four hours on cardboard and days longer on metal, or hard surfaces.
Strict Emergency Measures
In Spain the police are very strictly enforcing the new emergency measures. After we had kept ourselves confined to our apartment and gardens for ten days, we decided to go for a walk, just around the perimeter of La Alcazaba and then to cross the bridge and back for a change of scene.
We thought we could do this, but having come back over the bridge to return, a police car stopped by us, and a couple of police officers told us off, in no uncertain terms. They demanded our passports and completed forms with our address and identity details, these we had to sign, then they insisted that we go straight back. They told us this was a warning and if we were found doing this again, we would be fined and could even be locked up. The police are using drones to keep an eye on anyone leaving their homes. Big brother is watching is now a fact!
We quickly got back and as we got near our entrance; we met a friendly young neighbour from the flat below us. We have spoken to him a few times before.
After we told him what had happened, he told us about his friend who had gone in his car, with his girlfriend (they were not living together), to buy some food. But just as they were nearly home, the police stopped them and fined them six hundred euros each, for being in the car together!
They are only students and have hardly enough money for food, but no more than one person is allowed in a car, unless there are exceptional circumstances, backed up with official paperwork! Poor young lovers are unable to be together!
Rumours
There have been many rumours and one of them suggested that the Chinese, having had to agree to new trading terms with Donald Trump that they did not like, released this virus. Even if a certain number of their own people died, the result was that all other countries were put out of control and all financial markets worldwide dropped considerably.