2020! The Year Of The Dangled Carrot!

It's December the 31st, New Years Eve, and for many its time to say goodbye to what has been a terrible year! 

Its been a terrible year for most of us and one we will never forget. Kids will be learning about 2020 in years to come and I´m sure in years to come I´ll be telling younger generations all about how we were there through the great Covid Plague of 2020, I hope so anyway, I´m 46 years old and I hope I´ve got plenty of years left in me yet!

2020 has certainly been an odd year but for all the bad that has happened I also think a lot of good has also come out of it. Families have been thrown together, people seem to talk more, and many of us have learnt to take a step back from the hectic life that we had pre Covid. Who would've thought that on March 14th when we were plunged in to a 2 week lock down that things would now be the way they are? certainly not me.

I've cooked and baked more this year than I have in my whole life. I've learnt to make bread along with many other culinary delights, I had no idea until this year about making bread. I've spent time with my family, usually we are so busy getting on with life that we forget these small luxuries. I've spoken to my Mum and Dad every day. Before lock down we could easily go a few days without speaking, I've also been in touch with many other people that I had lost touch with,although there are many folk that we should've seen this year that we've been unable to, we miss you all and keep everything crossed that we'll see you all soon . Lets hope 2021 sees some kind of return to easy travel and the return of tourism, although I don't think it will ever be the same as it was.

For us, it will be different, for our kids it'll be a little different, for their kids it will just be the norm and they won't know any different! That's my thoughts anyway.

So, we leave 2020 with lots of emotions and we wonder what 2021 will bring. Covid doesn't know its 2021, although at the moment it knows when its 10PM, when we have to be home because of the curfew! However on a more serious note I really can't see things improving anytime soon. Therefore we keep going as we are until things change. 

I have heard some shocking stories about peoples travels, even down to some folk getting people to take Covid tests on their behalf, breaking all the rules and goodness knows what else. As always it will probably be the minority that will delay the return of any normality but isn't that always the way?

Anyway, where ever you are and however you choose to celebrate, I wish you all a Happy and healthy new year and what ever 2021 brings we will face it head on! 

As always, until next time, Stay safe and Ride the Storm

H x

Merry Christmas

More photos than text today. However my family and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Sadly some family's are torn apart this year because of this awful virus, however there are others that are thrown together because of it! We have to look at the positives.

So, wherever you are and whoever you spend Christmas with, have a lovely day and let's hope 2021 brings better times 

Remember Christmas day is just a day. Turkey and trimmings are available 365 days of the year and Christmas can be celebrated when we can all be together again

Until next time, ride the storm and stay safe

H x

Here are some photos of a few of our friends in Los Gigantes!

Us lot at 60s 

Our Maureen 

Our Tiger! 

Yaz at Paddys

Matt & Claire at Paddys

Claire at Paddys

Our Daisy 

CKs Bistro

Domingos

Jetta at Domingos 

Domingo 

Charlie 

Green Corner

Pabs at Green Corner

"Hollie! The Positive One!

Because apparently I am the positive one!

Someone popped in the bar last night and told me so.
"I read your blogs every week and you keep us all going" are the words he used, although the last blog worried him a bit and he had to make sure I was OK.

This is what we have to do in these times. We have to support each other, we are all only human after all and life can mess with ones head in normal times! 

Anyway, as most of you have probably read by now, we have lots of new restrictions and one of those is that we can no longer have people sitting in the bar. We can only use our tiny outside terrace which holds 11 people under the 50% ruling.

So, not to beaten, Eddie and I decided we would keep the bar open. Its better to have a bit of something than all of nothing.

Eddie has decided to use some of this time with no people in the bar to have a clear out of the store cupboard. Since opening after lock down its been full of excess furniture and goodness knows what else. Pretty much everything except for stock!

The one corner of the bar now resembles a very neat, clean version of what can only be described as Steptoes yard, however its a great opportunity to sort it all out, its amazing how much stuff you collect over the years.

There was a time, many years ago that we going to leave the island, and we sold lots of our personal items including our car. My home almost looked like one of the show corners in Ikea. It was minimal, and clean to within an inch of its life without any junk hanging around. 
Anyway, circumstances changed and we decided to stay put, it didn't take long for our home to be full of stuff once again!

"Things change" That has always been the motto in our house. When Jack was small he always knew that whatever plans we made, they were always subject to change, quite often they did. Something else we used to say when he was little was that the reason Mummy and Daddy went to work was for nice things nice things and toys (that's no typo error by the way).

It seems we now live in a world where things change constantly. The UK seems to be heading for yet another lock down, some regions already are locked down and its all change again. Sadly many Christmas gatherings will take place via zoom and other video calling mobile apps. Thank god we have all this technology around us, without it things could be a lot worse.

Anyway, enough waffling form me, have a great Sunday and look after each other.

Until next time

H x

I've enclosed two photos today. One is our little terrace at 60's Bar and the other is the cake we had this morning at Macronesia Cafe in Puerto Santiago. They do this amazing Orange Chiffon cake that just melts in you mouth. They are in the same position as us with very little outside space. 

Making The Best Decisions You Can With The Information That You Have!

Once again we have been hit by yet more Covid restrictions. To be honest we kind of knew it was coming so we were not surprised. The official statement is due out later on today but its looking like this:

There will be a curfew between the hours of 10PM and 6AM.
Shopping Centres will have vastly reduced capacity / restrictions.
Bars and restaurants can stay open but no one is allowed to be seated inside, and only 50% of terrace capacity is allowed.
You may only sit with people from you own household.
Sport and leisure activities are pretty much cancelled, and people are being advised against travelling between different municipalities.

That said tourists are still being allowed in providing they can jump through a few hoops on arrival regarding paper work and negative testing.

So where does this leave us and little 60's Bar? We have a small terrace and at 50% we can seat 11 people. We have two tables with four seats and one table with three seats. This is all well and good but if one person comes in and sits at one table, if we need to sit another couple at the same table, this would not be allowed as they would bot be from the same house hold. So, although we have 11 seats, the chances are that most people come in as a couple therefore we would only be able to sit two to each table, a total of 6 people. Is this viable you ask? If  I'm honest I'm not entirely sure but we don't want to be beaten and forced in to being closed. The allowance of entertainment is also being questioned and the answer at the moment is that we simply don't know.

Tenerife is badly affected by Covid at the moment however most cases are in the north. If we wanted to leave the isand and maybe go to Lanzarote for a few days we would have to take a test before we left Tenerife, and then another one before we come home. Like everything else however, it is all subject to change at the drop of a hat. 

I know some people are keen travel to sunnier climes particularly from the UK, however for me the idea of travelling is just a no no for my family and I. We have no real desire to go anywhere, its far too complicated.

Its going to be a very strange Christmas although Eddie and I did predict this many weeks ago when people seemed to be hell bent on telling us that Xmas would be busy!

We will continue to ride this every changing storm and whether the bar remains open who knows? we may decide to just temporarily close, just until we can have people inside again and people from different households sat together. Hopefully all will be revealed in the latest Boletin and we will have some idea of what we can and cannot do.

Until next time, stay safe

H x

Don't Rain On My Parade!

I am just home from work, its 11.15PM and I feel the need to put pen to paper. In all the doom and gloom that is happening and with no end in sight its getting increasingly difficult to keep any momentum going and its getting harder and harder to stay positive! That was until today.

Things are steady and we are ticking over but with the constantly changing news I haven't felt very sociable if I'm honest. Usually when  Monday comes around I'm looking forward to my gig and to seeing people and singing. Today I could've quite easily stayed at home and been a couch potato all day.

As it was I put on my purple sequin frock on and off to work we went. As usual the greeting from the staff and the customers at the Wine Bar was great, we are very well looked after and its always a great afternoon and a real pleasure to be part of the weekly music afternoons. 

The gig was great, we worked with Frankie Mack, and chatting with him afterwards he said he was feeling a similar way to us. keeping the momentum going is hard. Maybe its that pre Christmas lull, Tenerife is always quiet before the christmas rush, this year is the same although we're not quite expecting the Christmas rush for obvious reasons.

We finished the gig and off we went to the bar, only a couple of people in but as the night went on we ended up with a good house and all the people were absolutely lovely, I don't think the dreaded Covid word was mentioned once!

I played my guitar and sang for a while, there's been one song that's been troubling me but tonight I nailed it, the hours and hours of practice had finally paid off!

Its amazing when people bring you gifts and tonight we received Lurpak spreadable and bucket loads of chocolate from some of our customers, it was wonderful! the sweetie fridge is well and truly stocked for a little while.

Its been a fantastic day,the perfect tonic in these weird times. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot to lift your spirits and today has been one of those days. The cheese is well and truly in place.

There is talk of maybe more restrictions from the weekend and the word lockdown is being floated around but until we know for sure I will put it to the back of my mind. Today has been a good day, lets hope it continues, for at least a few more days.

wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stay safe, ride the storm and look out for each other

Until next time

H x

I don't Like Curfew!

As if closing the bar and having everyone out by 11PM wasn't bad enough, we now have a curfew between 11PM and 6AM which means that everyone has to be in their homes between these hours. Its been a long time since I was told to be home for 11 and I don't like it. I'm sure its only temporary but for every two steps forward it feels like we are taking three steps back. We can also only have groups of four people to a table. 

Now I am no conspiracy theorist, I do believe there is a virus and a nasty virus at that but I can't help but feel that they are using it as a vehicle for other things. For example, due to Covid smoking is now pretty much banned and I can't ever see them ever revoking that law. In my opinion it just wont happen. I also think it will be along time before night clubs can open til the small hours, and will they ever allow us to dance freely again? I like a good "Bop" and I love live music, both performing and listening. When will arena tours be back on and how many new rules and restrictions will they have???

Anyway enough ranting, we had our works Christmas outing last night, fortunately there is only four of us so we were all able to sit together at one table. We started at TJ's Bar in the village and we were served delicious cocktails by Paul. From there it was off to Stevie's Chicken Shack where again we were very well looked after and a great time was had by all. We did secret Santa and we all wore Christmas Jumpers. Far too much alcohol was consumed but we made it home with plenty of time before the 11PM curfew.

Once again, things have changed and the carrot got dangled. The Canary Island government has changed the laws regarding what tests are required, meaning that chat cheaper and more widely available tests will be accepted for travel to the islands. Within 24 hours of receiving this news the British government then took us off the safe corridor list and anyone arriving in the UK from the canary Islands from today is now required to self isolate. 

Everyone is beginning to feel very deflated and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the constantly changing rules and restrictions. We cant plan anything and we simply feel like we are all going through the motions. I'm sure the time will come when some sort of normality resumes but it currently feels a long way off. 

We just keep soldering on and doing the best we can.

Until next time

Take care, stay safe and ride the storm. The cheese is becoming a little unstable.

H x

The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly Anywhere Except Where I Am

Its as if there is a invisiblel umbrella over my head. There can be rain almost everywhere on the island but where ever I am it is dry. A bonus, some might say, but for me when it's the one thing that you crave when you live on a dry hot island its a massive disappointment. Sometimes it can be forecast and then when it just doesn't happen you just feel hard done by that someone else had rain and you haven't, and you almost begrudge looking at the forecast.
Fast forward to this week and all the weather models and apps almost one hundred percent guaranteed that we would see some of the wet stuff. I'm not going to say we are storm chasers but when we were driving down the motorway the other day we saw a massive rain cloud that looked like it was about to burst at any time. It wasn't in the direction that we were travelling but we both decided we had to head for it to see if it was as good as it looked. Our prayers were finally answered, the window wipers were at full pelt and the rain still wasn't shifting. The sound of it hitting our windscreen was just fabulous and Eddie and I were sat there like a couple of Cheshire cats, the heavens had opened, and it was just wonderful. 
Now I know that many people reading this are probably thinking I've lost the plot but honestly for me when the summer has been so so hot and so long, this was just what I had been waiting for. People often ask me about the summer weather and what is is like?, my answer is this;

You know when it gets so cold in the winter, the wind is howling, its biting cold and you really don't want to leave the house? well when its forty degrees outside without an ounce of a cool breeze, you blow dry your hair nice but the minute you go out the sweat just makes it wet again, you put your make up on but it gradually slides off over the day, I along with many residents do my best to stay out of it. An Air conditioned car or a chilled super market is the only comfortable place to be when it gets unbearably hot.

Winter in Tenerife is a whole different ball game, we get the best of both worlds and I love it. Its cool enough to sleep, sometimes we even need a thick blanket over us, yet when the suns out its pleasant.
If you want to sunbathe you can but its also nice to walk around without getting too hot. I can absolutely understand why people want to flock here during the winter months, I'm doubtful that there's any place this side of the Atlantic where I would rather be.  

The rainfall seems to be subsiding for now but to say I have loved it would be a massive understatement!

Whatever the weather and wherever you are, stay safe, be nice to each other and ride the storm.

Until next time

H x