After my
short trip to LA (4 days) I decided to spend the rest of my vacation in a
14-day voluntary isolation. Why?
Before I
tell the story, I want to describe my isolation. Richard and I have an Motorhome.
It is right in front of our house. It is is fully equipped with a kitchen,
bathroom with toilet and shower, bedroom, living room. There is also a gas
heater. Our house has several entrances. One is behind the house and leads
directly into the laundry room. There I can fetch water or dispose of the
wastewater without having any contact with anything from the rest of the house.
Once a day I walk with my dog Lennon in the forest. He needs it and so do I. I
avoid people. When we are back, Lennon doesn't really understand why I let him
into the garage and immediately disappear. My husband cooks for me as usual. We
have put a table next to the motorhome entrance. He puts the food there and
when he's gone, I open the door and take it. I do the washing myself and keep
all the plates here. We have enough dishes. In the fridge I have some sweets
and a few bottles of white wine, after all I'm on vacation. And alcohol is part
of vacation. There was meat soup for lunch today and my favorite spaghetti
Bolognese for dinner. We took the aperitif together - by video conference. We
clink glasses over the camera. The first night I slept wonderfully! I had been
traveling for 30 hours before, not knowing if I could reach my home. In the
afternoon I had a siesta again. Isolation also has advantages - you suddenly
have time.
And now to
my story:
I don't
feel sick, but in the past 4 days I've had more social contacts than I usually
have in a year. There were also some coughing and sneezing Asians with masks
flying to LA. For 12 hours. In LA my friend Alejandro picked me up at the
airport. He was the reason why I chose this trip despite the uncertain
situation. He celebrated his 60th birthday and I wanted to be there. The
Puritans among you are probably wondering why a married woman flies over the
ocean to attend another man's birthday? Imagine men and women can actually be
real friends! Without ulterior motives. It really does exist! The secret of who
Alejandro is and how this friendship came about will be revealed later.
So when
Alejandro and I drove to my hotel in his car, he coughed a little.
"Did
you cough?" I asked, worried.
"It's
nothing!" He said.
"Do
you think it's good to have the party?" I asked.
"Why
not?" He paused. "The weather should get better."
The weather
forecasts were not what you would expect in LA. But they weren't what reassured
me.
"I
don't mean because of the weather."
"Why
then?"
"Because
of the Corona!"
"Oh,"
he waved, "this is a family celebration!"
I looked at
him. He was joking I thought. But no, he was serious.
"Do
not worry!" He laughed mischievously. «It's all panic! It's flu and no
more. »
"OK,"
I thought. "You can have your opinion, but I will keep my distance."
So it was
thought. But it turned out quite differently…
I invited
Alejandro for dinner in the bar of my hotel. Thanks for picking me up. I asked
him to order something Mexican. He ordered nachos and jalapenos. And then it
was over with “social distance”. You ate the food with your fingers, from the
same plate!
I admit
that a hypochondriac like me cannot control his fear of infection as well. But
I like Alejandro and didn't want to offend him. So I disinfected my hands with
a disinfectant that I had with me and ate with him from the same plate. I drank
two Prosecco - as an internal disinfection. It also made me don't care anymore if
I got Corona.
The sequel
will follow tomorrow ...
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