By Linda Bentley
This Month I am writing about something a little different as I have just been back to the UK for a couple of weeks.
On arrival my first impressions were how green the Country was. There was so much of it. I previously recalled it as buildings, buildings, buildings. Most places are just a short ride to the country. As it was Autumn it was not just green there was an abundance of different colours. As I was driving along leaves were cascading off the trees before me and the ground was awash with colour. The one thing that had not changed were the grey skies almost every day I was there.
I couldn’t get over was how friendly and helpful people were in shops, the street and bars. Most people appeared to be happy and smiling even though they will also have been through a rough time these past 18 months.
It is no surprise why the Covid infection is still so high there. It is because there are hordes of people gathering together with very few wearing masks. As in Spain shops have a Sanitiser Bottle at their door – but mostly I found that they were empty and that included larger well known Supermarkets. If you were inclined to search you might be able to find a bottle somewhere hidden away.
The first places visited were Conwy and Llandudno and things had not changed much there. Conwy is still a quaint fishing village with its numerous little stores and Welsh Bakeries. The Smallest House in Wales was still there with people queuing to visit it but, due to Covid, they were only allowed in one at a time. It was lovely to sit on the sea front with the sound of the seagulls and listening to the water lapping as the tide came in.
Llandudno with its wide bay and long Pier still seemed to have been able to withstand the test of time as it had not changed in the least. As I walked down the Pier I decided I had to turn back as there were far too many people too close together and not observing the Social Distancing rules and without a mask in sight. I was the only one wearing a mask and that made me feel self-conscious.
It is law to take a day 2 test and before getting the results I found out that a friend of mine that returned to the UK after visiting Spain returned a Positive result which was very concerning as I had been with him two days before he flew out. My result fortunately came back Negative. Also, someone I knew who was a Resident of Spain was Pinged by the NHS as having been in “close proximity” to somebody on the Plane that had Covid.
As they had the Vaccine in Spain they were told that they would have to isolate for ten days. However, if they had had the same Vaccine in the UK then they could have gone about their business and not isolate at all. This person was called everyday by the NHS to see if they were isolating and how they were feeling. This to me I find discriminatory and hard to understand why the Rules would be so different.
Next, I went to visit my son in Brighton and here I noticed quite a change from the last time I was there. Firstly, there had been a Refuse Collectors strike that had finished 3 days earlier. However, there still were still mounds of rubbish present all over the place. In the High Street there was a mound 10 metres long and 1 metre high. I noticed that it looked a lot shabbier than my last visit there.
Again, there were a lot of people in busy streets with only a few wearing masks. A lot of Bars and Shops had signs outside requesting people to wear masks for the safety of themselves and the staff. Only about 50% of people adhered to this request.
Whilst on the subject of Shops and Restaurants it was surprising how many shortages there were on the shelves.
One Real Ale Bar with 3 pumps stated that they had not had any Beer for 3 Months.
Another Restaurant had a Menu nicely typed out with all the items they had NOT got. This was not an A4 piece of paper taken off a Printer It was a Menu professionally produced that indicated that it was not a one-off shortage for that day.
Another surprising thing was the number of adverts that were in the windows of small shops, Supermarkets and all types of businesses that were requesting Job Vacancies for all different types of jobs that they had available. That is something that I have not seen a lot of in Spain.
I had a great time in the UK and I did not realise how much I missed all the greenery but how much I do NOT miss the grey skies.
