Day 21 and what a day it was.

15.54: What a day! Talk about the a hive of activity.

Quick list of players before I go into detail.

Lucía: my immediate neighbour. She is only my quarantine neighbour having come to Granada 2 days before the lockdown to stay in her professor’s flat to finish her master’s thesis. (Her professor, Teo, lives most of the time in Malaga and has the flat for when she teaches here).
Rafa & Rebecca: they live 2 flats over and like leaving me and Lucía bottles of wine.

So… earlier today Lucía sent me a text to say “hurry, open your door.” She had left some homemade cake outside for me. So I obviously dashed out to get it. And then I got a frantic knock and she had been locked out and didn’t have anything on her (except cake). Obviously she was pretty agitated and had no idea what to do. Obviously I tossed all quarantine rules aside (whilst thinking oh shit) and invited her into my place. Luckily I have Teo’s number and so she was able to find out that a friend nearby has a spare set of keys. I don’t know about anyone else but during the quarantine I’m not exactly dressing up and Lucía wasn’t either (pretty much pj’s) and so she’s thinking “oh god I’ve got to go in search of the spare keys wearing my pj’s and slippers.” Obviously with my non-Spanish genes my shoes were far too big but she thought she could use my flipflops. I completely understood how she felt having been in the situation before but we were also laughing because it was just so… hard to believe that this could happen.  I lent her my mobile to go in search of the place and she returned pretty quickly keys in hand. Except her set of keys were in the lock on the other side of the door. So the spare keys couldn’t open the door. Mierda. Ok, plan B. Her balcony is right next to mine and her window onto the balcony was open. Rafa, Rebecca and I all persuaded her that it was far too dangerous to try to cross over despite the proximity but all of us wishing that it were possible. So she rings 112 (Spain’s 911/999) and they tell her that because there is no emergency inside of the flat there was nothing that they could do (Rafa had thought the firemen could maybe scale the building). So no joy. Plan C. Obviously we all know she can ring a locksmith but 1) with the quarantine are they even allowed to work? and 2) I was locked out last month and had to pay a verrrry hefty sum so if that could be avoided then better. So then I ask her if her bedroom window was open because if it were, she could enter through that way (a much, much safer option on the other side of the building). It wasn’t but we still went up to my bedroom window to assess the situation. No joy. Rafa started talking about how he likes to go climbing but he doesn’t have any of the gear. So I had the bright idea to ring some avid climbing friends of mine who were game until they realised that it would just be too risky to be seen outside with climbing gear during the quarantine (and also, rightly, to have even more people together). But for the 20 mins where we thought it was an option we had hope. It’s funny the things the brain will do in trying to look for options that are just ridiculous and not good solutions but if you’re trying to avoid shelling out/are in a state of panic, you’ll grasp onto anything… In between all of this all we were all using various tricks (me with an old credit card and Rebecca with a radiograph) that are supposed to help open locked doors. We didn’t push the door though which is what I forgot needs to be done (having watched the locksmith do it with my door. He made it look very, very easy). Anyway, finally Lucía accepts that a locksmith had to be called and so we locate a number and he gives her a pretty reasonable price and he could come today so even better. While we waited for him to arrive, we figure that at this point we’ve all broken the rules of social distancing so reckon that we should see how different each of our flats are (having wondered during our balcony chats. They are all extremely different). The locksmith arrives and does a little shimmy with a piece of plastic, nudges the door and hey presto she’s in. And then we poked around her flat which is so extremely beautiful (I love my flat but I am a little bit envious) and obviously she’s relieved that she’s back in and everything is fine. Anyway, I then disinfected my flat just in case and showered too but Lucía is making a tortilla and has invited me to share it with her and how could I say no after we’ve been with each other all morning? Also hopefully because all we do is go to the supermarket, and very infrequently at that, we aren’t silent carriers of the virus passing it on to each other. The entire experience was ridiculous and unfortunate but we will definitely laugh about it later (and when remembering the whole quarantine in general) and hopefully it has provided you with a chuckle too… Or at least something to distract you for a few minutes.

N.B. Pics aren’t very good quality but show some of our escapades.

20:46:  Lucía invited me for lunch around 4pm ish for a really delicious tortilla española which of course I should have watched her make but now that we have broken the quarantine rules I think she will show me how to make it next Sunday.  We ended up spending the entire afternoon together and when it was time to applaud at 20:00 I did it from her balcony which gave Rafa and Rebecca a surprise. It was honestly so wonderful to spend the afternoon in a different apartment, in company, because as much as I love my apartment, it was really amazing to have different things to look at and to have such a relaxed conversation with someone who a few weeks ago was a complete stranger. The quarantine (and reason for it) are really difficult but today was a surprisingly wonderful day despite all of the drama of earlier. And now, I am so shattered with all of the excitement and having not slept properly last night and I am going to start watching the latest of Casa de Papel (Money Heist) on Netflix. Happy Sunday friends.