Spain calling. Mr van de Ven and I are still here despite it all. Our eclectic ancestors survived a famine, wars, a pogrom, Nazis and much more which helped us be where we are today which is here and we are not prepared to fall off our perches yet!

THE ARC OF THE UNIVERSE IS LONG....

I have a horrible deep fear that the UK is turning a blind eye and that Prime Minister Johnson never expected he would have to deal with something so worrying. Brexit is out of the window. No one cares anymore. What a privilege that has been.

I am not ashamed to say that on Friday and yesterday I was in a state of shock when the Spanish government said it was issuing a state of emergency.

THINNING OUT THE HERD?

When Italy declared they were going to close down the country lots of people panicked and got on trains to get to other parts of Italy mainly to be with their families or out of fear the virus was coming to get them. Here in Spain a state of alarm was announced yesterday and many felt sick to their stomachs but immediately started to be practical, sorting out how they would be able to work, who was going to look after the kids and so on. What did lots of people from Madrid who have second homes along the costas or up in a pretty village in the Pyrenees or as far away as Galica do? They got in their cars, jumped on trains and buses to get to said second home. On the train to Murcia an elderly man, late eighties, who had been told to go home by doctors in Madrid and isolate thought they must have meant his second home in Murcia. He got there did a bit of supermarket shopping with his wife and is now in intensive care in a hospital. His wife, like everyone else is now at home but alone. The mayor made it quite clear what he thinks of this and has decided to close everything except chemist's and food shops. Apparently there have been bus loads of people turning up asking what touristy things are on offer thinking the state of alarm is just a holiday. We are all going to get this virus whether we like it or not, but the thing is, and the Italians and Chinese have both said the same, we don't want to all get it at the same time and we don't want to give it to doctors, nurses, the cleaners and so on. You know, the people who will do their best to help us stay alive and herd immunity or not, we want our doctors and nurses to be as healthy as possible to do their job of looking after and curing us. On top of this if you have an accident or stroke and get to the hospital but it's full of people on life support because they all have pneumonia, the medics will have to decide who to treat. Common sense people! If you feel ill stay at home and if you get really sick, meaning pneumonia go to the hospital, where hopefully they will be able to give their all to help you and just hope it's not full of reckless dickheads. 

So the bog roll hoarding has started in Spain. For the love of God what do you think that thing that has been sitting in your bathroom for the last three decades is for? You know, the bidet, the thing everyone keeps 'stuff' in, like rubber gloves, magazines, bathroom scales etc etc depending on your perversion!!

Serious question. How do British people think they are going to circumnavigate the lack of freedom of movement within Europe. Why is it that British people think they can still turn up in a European country and live and work but this freedom ends for anyone coming to the UK?

What is it about the Brexiters, the people who voted to leave the European Union who think that they will still be able to live and work in the rest of Europe because and I quote from a million voices, that, 'we were able to go and live in Europe way before the EU came about'. What is it about freedom of movement that they don't understand? That closing the borders works both ways and no, you won't be able to just turn up in Spain and get a job or get residency just as foreigners will be unable to just turn up in the UK to do the same. There is a cut off point and any British person who seriously thinks they can just rock up and be a resident in another European country is seriously uneducated, deluded or both. There will be no preferential treatment for you either.