I'm aware of how devastating Covid has been for so many people, losing family and friends and suffering much pain both physicaly and mentally and of course the huge amount of inconvenience caused when travelling and trying to visit family and friends.
Early on when the Covid problem started I decided to lay low, keep out of the way and just to try and get on with life as best as I could.
I knew that we would have to keep occupied and at first I thought no problem for me, I've got so many hobbies and my wife loves cooking and reading, so we will be OK.
Of course we didn't expect Covid to drag on for so long and after 6 months I decided that we must do something more positive, and that is when I decided to organise and open a Museum, easy I thought.
But my new lifestyle wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been shut down with the pandemic,so something does sometimes happen from otherwise bad situations, methinks ?
Well not as easy as expected, but I plodded on, often burning the 'midnight oil ', hard work however I was really enjoying myself and didn't let Covid stand in the way.
We went out most days ,early in the morning and late at night, long walks with virtually no contact with other humans, and we actually didn't leave our village for over 12 months.
17 years ago when we decided to move to a different part of Spain we were quite determined to find a place where we could walk out of the house and have shops, bars, medical centre etc all close by and the 'shut down' really proved how lucky we had been with our choice.
I know that we've been very lucky to avoid any real complications with Covid , but I'm constantly wondering how other people coped during this dire situation, not just the physical side , but the long term mental stress etc.
What does amaze me is how quickly Covid seemed to disappear from the news and how the focus suddenly switched to the war in Ukraine etc.
The situation of the past few years really does highlight how important it is to choose the right place to live and that's quite difficult when moving from another country, and how to switch from holiday mode to permanent living in Spain mode.
Spain really is a wonderful place to live however it does require a lot of thought and planning about housing , location and how to cope with extreme weather conditions etc. and keeping occupied after the 'honeymoon' period which for most seems to last for about 12 months.
So many questions, which require so many thoughtful answers.
I do urge newcomers to really 'think outside the box ' when choosing their new home, very important to think ahead and remember that we don't know what is around the corner.
I'm sure that many long term residents in Spain could tell so many happy and sad stories
I send my Best Wishes to everyone..