2020 a Disastrous Virus

This Virus caused so much disruption, all over the world, the year 2020 was such an awful time for everyone, we all had to get used to wearing the face masks (not pleasant) and the loss of personal contact - no kissing, or hugs, and having to try to keep about two meters apart.

Politically some good things happened, for although there has been so much criticism of Donald Trump (as a man there was not much to like), but he unlike all the previous presidents, stood up to North Korea, exposed the totally biased UN, and imposed a tough stance against Iran. Amazingly, he achieved a peace settlement between some of the Arab states and Israel. This was extraordinary and a crucial step towards a more stable Middle East that had proved to be impossible before.

Most of the time we stayed home, and only did food shopping once a week, all shops, restaurants, and night life were closed, only chemists could remain open. We did our best to remain cheerful, by keeping in touch with family and friends, thank goodness for the Internet allowing us to make video calls and to have a much wider choice of films and entertainment, whilst unable to go out.

We really missed dancing and being with family and friends, remaining isolated for so long was not much fun.


Vaccination Problem

At last a vaccine became available, but only available to governments (who bought as many as possible), we both have always had Private Health Insurance, so we never tried to sign on with the Spanish national health, as we never used any of the national health services, even when we were living in the UK. But, for the first-time private health has let us down, as it has proved impossible to get vaccinated privately.

In Spain, as in most of Europe, there were not enough vaccines, so they were only doing those at considerable risk, the oldest and those involved in medical care first. Trudy and I should have been included in this high-risk group, but as we were not registered here, we had been missed! So, I contacted the UK and Swiss embassy for help, but was only informed that they would let us know if something could be done for us.

I obtained the S1 document from the UK to allow me to register with the Spanish National Health, but it seems to take a long time for the registration to be completed. However, the UK will not issue the form for Trudy, without obtaining a lot of difficult to get information, from the Swiss. We have both decided to become Spanish residents and have started the process, but once again it takes time.


Brexit and Driving

Because of Brexit, I found out my UK driving licence would not be valid within the EU, so I quickly applied to change it for a Spanish one, as after the end of December it would have been far more difficult to do. What did worry me is that I would have to pass a medical examination first.

It was a quite extraordinary experience, first they checked my sight the usual way, then I was told to sit in front of a screen at a table with two small handles, about twenty-five centimetres apart.

The screen, which was white had about a quarter of the screen, on the left-hand side, which was grey. There was a button on the table, and I was told to watch a small black dot that moved at a constant speed, from the right towards the left, but once it reached the grey area it disappeared from view. I was told to press the button when I guessed it would have reached the far edge of the screen.

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