By Ellie Broughton
March 22nd in the UK was Mothering Sunday, but in Spain el Dia de la Madre isn’t until 3rd May, so the whole event almost passed me by. In any case festivals like these aren’t turned into huge commercial spectacles in Spain. In London you can’t walk down a high street without shops trying to tempt you into buying their mother-themed wares or turn on the TV without seeing idealised scenarios in adverts involving flowers, family meals or breakfasts in bed.
So although I have a mother, and two sons, I had completely forgotten about this annual tradition. It was only Boris Johnson’s plea to the nation that people didn’t visit their elderly parents on Sunday that woke me up to the whole occasion. Luckily M&S was still delivering so I managed to get my Mum’s flower order in just in time.
It was just as well that I had low expectations for my special day (although I have been surprised once or twice by flowers coming through the letterbox) because my plans involved completing the hideous decorating nightmare of our kitchen/living room. Far from relaxing and putting my feet up, my feet were busy up a ladder painting the wooden beams and ceiling five times over.
Still, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Much as I loathe decorating, the lockdown has given us an opportunity to undertake big projects like this that would have been impossible with a house full of guests. Casa de Ciclista was almost solidly booked up from the beginning of February until mid-October, though we’re getting cancellations all the time now, and without Covid-19 all these jobs would have remained on the to do list.
My only worry was that the lockdown would end before we’d managed to finish all the decorating! But el Presidente Pedro Sanchez announced in the afternoon that the Spanish lockdown would be extended by almost another two weeks until 11th April. No one was surprised, and given the enormous number of daily deaths here, I think everyone was a little bit relieved.
It’s been well reported that there are positives that have come out of this unprecedented situation such as dolphins appearing in the canals of Venice and the smog lifting over Beijing. For us, calling our families on Skype is almost as good as the real thing. Sometimes I feel that I have a better relationship with my younger son when we’re Skyping regularly and we have some really great chats. Last night we talked for hours, discussing his latest anthropology essay. Today was my elder son’s birthday and he gave me a virtual tour of his new flat in Berlin.
And probably the best thing of all was finally getting my own mother to try facetime. She’s over 70 so self-isolating and my brothers can’t go round and install Skype for her, but she’s facetimed me twice now. It’s worked well enough for me to give her a tour of our newly decorated flat “ooh I like your new tiles!” - I’d forgotten that she hadn’t even seen them!
We’ve still got some way to go - she hasn’t learnt how to frame her face in the screen yet for instance. Still, I had a great view up both her nostrils for about 10 minutes and her kitchen ceiling is looking very well decorated! However, it was my technological illiteracy that got the better of us as my battery packed up without warning and our catch up ended rather abruptly. But with deliveries and technology we can stay close, and safe, while apart.
