To talk to you about life in Spain right now

[Changednamesorry]

In case UK follows many other countries and tightens the rules, I made a post about what it's like here in Spain.

A few things worth buying. Vitamin D for kids in case you are not allowed to take them out from next week, especially if you have no outside space. Craft materials (these are now very scarce here as supermarkets have had to close that section if they had it to discourage browsing). Disney Plus for movie nights. Microwave popcorn!

I live in Spain. We have an apartment in the city centre and no outside space at all. I am separated from my son's father but we chose for him to move in just before the lockdown as we saw it coming in the news and wanted to ensure the kids were not separated from him for months on end. We get on very well, I appreciate this is not an option for everyone. We also have a flatmate who is a lovely 27 year old Portuguese guy. So we are 3 adults and 2 kids in 115 square metres of space..... And that's better than some of our friends who live in 60 or 70 square metre apartments. Spanish children have not been outside for 3 weeks. My sons are 9 and 3 and normally active boys doing lots of sports and we are normally out of the house every day between 8am and 8:30pm. That has all changed. Schools are fully closed and have been since 13th March, no exceptions.

1. How are people coping with kids?

Varying levels of coping, of course. Here with the little one I bake, do drawing, dance, play football inside etc. For the older one I made little bags. One has basketball drills (his favorite sport) which he does 2 a day. One has exercise sets (I will post an example), one has different amounts of screen time and one has activities linked to school (maths, history, Spanish, English, science projects, baking etc). He chooses 3 of those.

1. Grocery shopping.

My ex goes to the shops once every 6 days. That's it. You are asked to carry a paper justifying your journey. You can not go to whatever shop you choose. You must go to the closest one to home. If you are caught turning this into a walk you will be stopped and fined between 600 and 30000 euros. If the police decide you are covering up a walk with a "shopping trip".... Fined. Someone I know was fined 200 euros for only buying a can of coke and a chocolate. We have not seen scenes of panic buying or bulk buying here, possibly because in cities most do not have a car so you take a granny trolley and a couple of bags for life so no space for millones of toilet paper etc. This may be different in rural areas but there haven't been many reports of it (I haven't seen any, in fact). People wear a mask and gloves and supermarkets make you queue outside 2 meters apart and don't let many people in at a time. Most supermarkets also provide gloves and require you to wear them.

1. What can you leave the house for?

Essential food shopping, pharmacy, medical appointments, essential workers, walk your dog (but only so he can go to the toilet... No big long walks) Only allowed to leave the house individually unless you are accompanying someone who is unable to go alone.

4.Can you use your garden or roof terrace?
If it is for private use, yes. If it is for communal use (shared garden or roof terrace with other flats), no. You'll get fined as if you were outside.

1. Clapping?

Yes. Every night for keyworkers at 8pm. Most people join in. Slight difference with UK is its unusual for kids to be in bed before 9pm here. Occasionally will be extra one for kids at 6pm.

1. Doctors appointments

All non urgent appointments canceled. Telephone appointments with emailed prescriptions available and I had one within an hour of asking.

Please stay safe. It's difficult, but it's not forever and it will be less time the more people abide by the rules. Feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer. It's tough, but we are coping. So will you if the UK tightens the rules for a while.

I have a friend in Madrid he says they don’t have the clapping there ?

Oh hush @Ponoka7

OP - when is lockdown currently expected to finish?

Ponoka7 she has posted her view of the situation, which is the only one she can really comment on.

My IL’s all live in Spain. SIL, her partner and her partner’s mum have all lost their jobs due to the situation. At the moment they don’t believe they’re entitled to any state help. PIL’s are coping fine so far as they have a large house with plenty of land and are retired. Everyone in Spain is experiencing it differently, just like here.

@Ponoka7 why is it fluffy???

What about walking dogs

But what about? But what about? But what about? Is why we may indeed end up with lockdown as strict as Spain's .

I'm also in a city centre apartment in Spain, our experience is pretty much bang on yours OP. It's just me and my DP here, we have a small courtyard we can use and our apartment is about 900sq ft.

No riots anywhere, in fact I'd say things are very calm. A lot of the
apartments round here appear empty, some will be airbnb/holiday homes but we wonder if a lot of people left the city for the country when the lockdown started.

We all clap at 8pm and then most of the flats around us stay outside on our balconies and chat for an hour or so on Friday/Saturday nights.

We don't tend to see more than a small handful of people in supermarkets and the larger ones have security outside where you have to sanitise your hands and wear gloves.

We've also seem them starting to disinfect the streets this last week.

Same with the police, I've been stopped twice on my way to the shops, explained where I live and where I'm going and it's been fine each time.

All I'd say to anyone in the UK is don't take advantage of your exercise allowance. That's the one thing I struggle with.

Thank you for sharing your experience

We are all in this together

All countries, all people

Stay safe

Gwynfluff as the OP stated you can take them out near your house for them to do their business, but not for long walks. This applies whether you have a garden or not. SIL has two dogs and lives in a flat. Her and her partner are taking it in turns to take them out to toilet.

Thank you op

What about keyworkers children who are still attending school has that been completely canceled or the list revised ?

Thank you OP, stay safe..

TheArchSorcererofContwaraburg, sorry shouldn't we be asking questions, such as why our government has fucked us over?

@Rosiejim I'm in the Canary Islands, where we've just had full lockdown extended until April 26.

I'm on Day 23 right now - living alone and have only left the house to take the bins out. April 26 feels a long way off, but I'm taking things 1 day at a time....

Chillicheese123 I'm in Madrid and we clap A LOT!

Ponoka7 but that wasn’t what you asked, and also how is that a question for the OP to answer??

Thank you for this, OP, I love Spain and have been wondering how people are coping. I’m wondering about the psychological impact. Newspapers of course give you the grim facts such as number of dead, the ice rink in Madrid being used as a morgue etc. So reading it you’d think everyone must be traumatised, but I guess on the ground people just get on with their own lives the best they can?

@ladybee28 - thanks for answering- it sounds very tough. I hope you’re managing to stay in touch with people and keep your chin up!

Also in Spain here.

To the person who asked about why you can’t use a communal area if no one else is there, it’s because someone may previously have shed virus there and you could pick it up and/or take it home with you. They’ve been spraying the streets and pavements of my resort this week with bleach and disinfectant to destroy the virus.

My area went into lockdown slightly before the rest of the country to get rid of the pillocks from Madrid who was thought they were going to enjoy extended holidays on the coast when the schools shut. We’ve been under serious lockdown now for over three weeks and the government are extending it till 26th April, so we have another three weeks to go. I see the President of Spain in his weekly teleconference with the leaders of all the regions has asked them to compile a list of hotels, hostels, , sports halls etc that could be used to house people who are Covid-19 positive but asymptomatic, and the cost of doing so. This in conjunction with what sounds like national testing to see what’s who’s infected. english.elpais.com/society/2020-04-05/daily-coronavirus-deaths-continue-downward-trend-in-spain-with-674-in-the-last-24-hours.html

You can walk your dog no further than fifty yards from your front door in order for it to do its business and that’s all. The army and the police have out for weeks and there are roadblocks all over. Some places on the coast have built their own roadblocks before the Easter weekend to stop strangers arriving, and the local police often support them in this. People here are mostly extremely supportive of all these measures because they get the seriousness of the situation. Tbh from out here in Spain, it looks like far too many people in the UK are just taking the proverbial and it’s very worrying.

I’m not sure any rioting or social unrest will start just yet, once people start running out of money or food or the lockdown is extended, then things may get tense.

A worry would be the tourist areas that are going to lose a hell of a lot of money over the coming months, this has the potential to be a tinder box. Is Spain similar to Italy with the cash in hand workers?

Thank you for the update though OP, stay safe you and yours.

What is the most that have died in one day?
Has it started to plateau?

The type of lockdown that Spain currently have will not happen Here in the uk. Our government will maybe try and lock us down more but the force won’t be behind it as we wouldn’t be able to man it with our police force.

ilovedjerrymore that’s when the army can step in and lend a hand 🙏🏻

Thanks that's helpful to know.

Are pet food shops still open? We have an elderly cat on a special renal diet and can only get from the one shop. Have they closed independent food shops - we have the pub in the village supplying food which we can collect outside. Our nearest supermarket never has toilet roll or soap so hope they will let us out further, we can't get deliveries. Soap can kind of improvise with similar products.

I suspect a tougher lockdown maybe coming here as people are flouting this one, feel for those in flats with no gardens who have been obeying rules. Think they should just make the rules crystal clear like a time and distance limit on exercise and shopping and enforce it.

What about walking dogs

Probably exactly what the OP states in her opening post.

@Changednamesorry that's a very informative post and sums things up nicely and is not fluffy by any stretch of the imagination. I am in France so we are a little bit behind you and still (for the moment) have the exercise option.

It's good that there appears to be a glimmer of light for you at last and I really hope France starts to see the same.

@TheArchSorcererofContwaraburg - spot on!

Stay safe.

I got my answer, 961.

Which was roughly the amount that was happening on a daily basis which is crazy amounts.