Greek Masks

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit Athens temporarily. I spent a week in the city, and noticed something peculiar. People in public transportation (e.g. in subways and in buses) tend to use masks more diligently than in Germany. This somehow surprised me, given that it's already 2026, and it's been a few years since COVID was considered a big thing.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Getting Covid Again

Earlier this year, in June, I got infected with Covid again. It was very mild, that it felt like a joke.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Deleting the Apps

It seems that I haven't used the "coronavirus" tag in this blog for almost a year, the last time being when I finally got Covid during the summer of last year. After that, there wasn't any further noteworthy Covid-related events worth talking about, which was definitely a good thing. I suppose Covid is more or less over, even though people still have their own varying ways of dealing with it. I for example even opted to get my fifth shot (and plan to get further ones on a yearly basis, as long as it is required for travel) back in March. Then a few weeks ago, a noteworthy thing happened: I deleted my Covid apps!

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Finally Getting Covid

Finally, I got Covid a few weeks ago. It was mild. But I actually tested positive on my birthday, out of all days.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: When Others Impose

A few weeks ago, I was in London, where I watched a play in the Old Vic Theatre. During this time, there were no more Covid restrictions, and specifically there was no mask requirement. After all, the United Kingdom was one of the earliest countries to remove Covid restrictions during this summer. However, bizarrely enough, there was one lady nearby who wanted everyone around her to wear a mask. She even had extra masks she was trying to give to others so that they would wear one!

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Forgetting the Use of Meeting Rooms

As I have mentioned earlier this month, I have returned my office chair. I am pretty sure I am not the only one to have done that, since I observe more and more people going to the office. However, I must say that people who are in the office sometimes don't know how to work in an office. Sometimes, they act like basic office etiquette like how to use meeting rooms have been forgotten. I suppose people are so used to doing video calls nowadays such that you see a whole island of office workstations with all people in their own video calls, it more or less feels like a call centre.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Returning my Office Chair

Back in January 2021, I borrowed an office chair from work. This was during the middle of the second and third waves, when it was clear that there would be more than just one wave of Covid. I was already working from home, and even though I worked from the office during the summer of 2020 after the first wave, we all went back to home office when it was clear there was a second wave coming. So in the middle of winter, I borrowed an office chair from work and transported it home using a taxi. Yesterday, I returned it the same way I borrowed it, by taking it to the office using a large taxi.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: When the Measures Went Away

Since the beginning of April, the general coronavirus measures have been ebbing away here in Germany, as is with other European countries. However, to some extent it's a little hard to wrap one's head around it, since after all, the incidence rates are still rather high. As one politician has said, it's like throwing away the fire extinguisher when there's still a fire burning.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Checkpoints of Spontaneity

Due to the uncertainty that Covid has brought upon our lives, we had to adapt. Planning for the future is slightly different now in times of corona.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: The Sensitive Cough

Covid makes people weird and sensitive. And sometimes, it gets annoying.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Waiting for Covid?

Germany is in the middle of the Omicron wave. And if one reads the news regularly, there's always the message of gloom and doom. I have to say, this can be at times challenging.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Covidiots are Real

Up until now, I have only encountered anti-vaxxers and coronaskeptics in the news. I know that these people exist, yet for the most part, they are rather far removed from me, and not in my immediate vicinity. Apparently, that is not true anymore.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Getting the Vaccine (Part 3)

It's been six months since I had gotten my second shot. And since the pandemic is still here, we're now talking about booster shots. I had received mine this past Sunday.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: The Fourth Wave

Germany definitely is going through a fourth wave. And so is the rest of Europe. I wonder how that would affect the upcoming winter.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: When I Flew Again

It's been 19 months, or more than a year and a half, since I last flew. The last time I was in an aeroplane was when I went to Paris for a long weekend, back in March 2020 when the pandemic was just starting to flare up in Europe. And three waves and two vaccine shots later, things are looking slowly like the way they were before the pandemic. And so, this October, I took a flight! I decided to take a two-week vacation somewhere that is too far to go to with the train, so I flew. It was an interesting experience.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Catching Up With Friends

Yes, there seems to be an upcoming fourth wave. But in any case, as restrictions have been slowly relaxed earlier this summer, I have started to catch up with people I haven't met for the longest time. I picked up my phone, looked at my list of friends in my communication apps, and slowly but surely, started arranging opportunities to meet up in person.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: The Streets We Used to Walk

One time in July, I had a haircut appointment. I nowadays work from the office, but since I had an appointment for a haircut, and my salon is close to my house, I opted to work from home that day. And so when my work day was done, I headed out and walked to my salon. It triggered this thought in my head. Back during the months of lockdown, when we couldn't really go anywhere and do something, the only thing we could do was take a walk in and around our neighbourhood. These lockdown months actually allowed us to discover little details of our neighbourhood, which was something we didn't do until the pandemic. We'd discover streets that are literally just around the corner, but until then we had no reason to go there. And then the lockdown was relaxed, and movement was slightly freer again. So these habits disappeared just as fast as they appeared in the first place. So when I was taking a walk to my salon, I realised that I used to walk in this area until recently. And it felt like that was now quite a while ago.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Normalising Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic has been with us for more than a year now. It's now the second summer of the pandemic. And for some reason, I suppose we're slowly yet surely normalising its existence among our lives.

El amor en los tiempos del corona: Where Do We Go Now?

It's summer. I still have more than 15 days of vacation days left to use for the rest of this year. How would I use it?

El amor en los tiempos del corona: An Upcoming Fourth Wave?

Armed with the EU Digital Vaccination Certificate, and together with declining numbers, numerous countries in the EU have been relaxing the coronavirus restriction measures that have been implemented in the previous months. However, as the Delta variant slowly but surely engulfs the continent, infection numbers are rising again. In fact, earlier this week, I checked the dashboards and countries like Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and the Netherlands again have very high numbers. A day ago, France already announced that they consider their numbers the start of a fourth wave. And looking at Germany's numbers, I think it's a similar pattern.