GA in January

[kevinb]

Got home Tuesday just gone from GA after a two week stay. The place is the quietest we've ever seen it, the first Saturday we decided to eat at the Carabassi strip in the evening so walked there and there was no one open doing food, Molly's was open but serving drinks only, I'd had a couple of beers before we left the house so couldn't drive so walked up the hill and found Dunbars open and doing food, good it was as well. Redz bar , Molly's and Aquarius are open most days, but Aquarius wasn't open on Saturdays. Heard some restaurants aren't reopening until March. We found the weather variable, quite a few days where overnight it was 3° and one guy mentioned 1° one night. Energy prices have shot up, I worked out that my electricity is now slightly under 28 cents a unit, I'm paying 20p in the UK. One bar owner told me her electricity and water bills are double what they were from a year ago. Bar prices are higher and seen a few notices that prices are increasing again shortly. We did a lot of walking with our binoculars, around the clot saw a Marsh Harrier, Stilts and various ducks, on the salt lakes in the 332 saw a Spoonbill and thousands of flamingos . We enjoyed ourselves, walked in the sun with just t-shirts, we drove to Finestrat and looked round the old town and then had lunch on the seafront at Finestrat, sat in the warm sunshine. I'm rambling a bit and jumping subjects  but gas bottles are €21 compared to the €13 I paid for the last one. Can't think of anything else at the moment.

[kevinb]

Forgot to mention, after our return to UK flight for last October and this January we both got pinged by NHS Track and Trace as having had contact with a person who has Covid, filled in the online form and was told we are exempt from quarantine but order lateral flow tests and test every day for seven days. All October tests including 2nd day PCR test were negative, currently awaiting the current PCR result and doing lateral flow tests.

[Sookie]

Kevin just wondering what Alicante airport was like on your return home. We had to board at gate B37 and the queue to get through the passport scanners was way past Burger King. There was airport staff walking along the queue calling out flights to get people at the front. Once we got through our flight was boarding.

We also got the text from track and trace about contact with someone that has covid. This was less than 24hrs of being home. Makes me wonder if they boarded the flight knowing they were unwell and a NHS covid test booked for when they landed

[Spurs]

Kevin

I’ve been pinged by Test and Trace on my last 4 trips one of them was 4 days after I got home I think they seem to ping almost everyone .

[wilson]

Funnily we also got pinged by T&T on the flight back to the Uk which sort of questions the pre departure testing we all took and paid for.
In regards to the queue at B gates it pays to go round early as it’s frequently busy.

[Blue and white stripes]

I think it's pot luck with timing and the B gates. I've never had more than half a dozen people in front of me even last Sunday when our flight was 3/4 full.

[kevinb]

No queues when we flew home on 25th January just us at the E Passport gates, plane was full. I'd bought day 2 PCR tests from CONFIRM testing, managed to buy them a week before they announced you only henceforth need Lateral Flows, on day two took tests with much gagging, posted same day, five days later no results, contacted them, they hadn't received them, turns out the Royal Mail address and track number they supplied is wrong so our tests went to a PR company or such, wonder what they made of that ? New tests turned up today, more gavomiting, now on their way.

[Blue and white stripes]

I bought two 'fit to fly' tests for the return to UK just before the government dropped the requirement.

[puddy-woo]

We’ve got 3 🙄

[wilson]

I bought two 'fit to fly' tests for the return to UK just before the government dropped the requirement.

I’d keep hold of them this pandemic isn’t over yet, with China struggling to contain the latest outbreak.