FREEDOM AT LAST!
Whether you are watching Spanish or UK television, asking “Alexa”, or simply researching information on line to try and make sense of the latest set of rules, restrictions and possible variants, it is still mind boggling! The information changes several times a day and depending on your chosen source of information, it never appears to be consistent. Add unchecked social media posts to the mix and the confusion simply explodes! People are falling out with life long friends because, “he said, she said”, has yet again, got totally out of control. We had 4 years of debate just on the Brexit topic, and now we add Corona virus and here we go again. Those with hidden agendas, will selectively share posts, others will stir the pot, the web has never been so active, and “photoshop” has never been manipulated so well but at least we appear to be heading towards freedom.
There have been mass vaccination rollouts of epic proportions, here in the Mazarrón area. It has been reported back to us that on Tuesday the 11th May, nearly 4,000 queued for several hours to obtain theirs. On the whole we have been told that people were very tolerant, well behaved and fairly good humoured, and at least shade and water were provided to make the process a little less painful. This is all supposed to be bringing us “freedom” and a pathway to the “new normal”, whatever that means. Luckily for these people the temperature had not soared into the high 30’s as it did on 16th May, in a freak heatwave.
There is a definite optimistic feel in the air though at last. Murcia as a region (at the time of going to print) had the lowest number of cases out of any province in Spain. The bars and restaurants are open again, both inside with restricted capacity, and outside with no restrictions at all. The most significant change, however is that the border restrictions between provinces have been removed at last.
It has been a constant source of annoyance to many of us living here, as we could not leave Murcia, but anyone from elsewhere in the EU could travel, apparently “Covid free”! Those driving camper vans seem to go “unchecked” and go wherever they wish to, but we could not go to Benidorm! The only “fly in the ointment now” is that there will be court ruling very soon that may change the border restrictions again, but for now we have no idea whether that will actually happen so watch out for further updates as detailed below.
As, The Journal is physically only produced once a month, it is not possible to be able to share the most up to date information in the magazine for obvious reasons, but during a worldwide pandemic, and with every country enforcing their own restrictions, often in isolation, it is quite frankly impossible not only to understand it all, but also to disseminate the information to our readers.
It is for this reason that here at The Journal, all our investment over the last year has been on our new website. Not only do we have over 2000 monthly subscribers that receive the magazine on line already, but the website itself has been redeveloped at great expense to include some of the latest links needed to produce rapid updates on a daily basis.
This information is now being shared to our Facebook page too to keep the local community updated as frequently as we are able. We have added a handy “flight tracker” link to keep up to date with the latest flight details and you may also like to view our new property portal and mortgage calculator.
the-journal.es/
The increased traffic on our website has increased enormously over the last few months, and we can now see exactly how many readers have visited each or our articles, confirming exactly what they like to read. We have listed below (and linked to our website) the only official sources of information that we believe are to be accurate, and they are as follows;
www.borm.es The Official “Gazette” of the Region of Murcia. (BORM) is the official newspaper of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, through which publicity is given for its legal effectiveness and /or knowledge.
The Administrative Contracting Portal is the tool that allows the consultation of information on the contractual processes that are managed in the scope of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. It collects all the information regarding public contracting generated in this Autonomous Community.
www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do.
This is the main UK Government website for everything from personal tax to pension forecasts. The section added for covid-19 is updated daily so invaluable to anyone wishing to travel either to or from the U.K.
www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-madrid.
The British Embassy in Madrid maintains and develops relations between the UK and Spain.
The Ministerio De Sanidad. The Spanish Government Website, for health, social services, and consumer affairs.
The comprehensive website for Mazarron Town Hall, available in English.
Just visit our website www.the-journal.es and use our easy-to-follow links.
the-journal.es/page/alicante-airport-flight-tracker
the-journal.es/page/corvera-airport-flight-tracker
At the time of going to print, we were very optimistic that by the time this magazine hits the streets on the 1st June, that the first tranche of visitors from the U.K. will have arrived. We are led to believe that we will still all be wearing masks for some time yet, in enclosed public places, but finally, it has been confirmed that once laying on the beach, they can be removed. This is great news for visiting tourists who were thinking twice about coming to Spain. Whether fully vaccinated passengers arriving from the U.K still have to take a PCR test is still unclear, and Spain is still currently on the amber list not the green list. Just keep checking the above sources to find out the current situation as it changes daily.
We have been approached by a few more businesses that changed hands during the first lockdown and would like to also tell us their story but sadly too late for this June edition.
We have, however included The Garden Boutique in this issue and will get to the rest as soon as we can.
If you are a local business and would like your story to be included in a future edition of The Journal, please email us at cathydistrictjournal@gmail.com, or if you are a Camposol business please email Camposolupdates@gmail.com.
