Michelle Johnstone  0:01  Hola Funky Media listeners, Essex here again, the week's seem to fly by so fast, don't they. We've had a good week here in Spain. Although the temperatures have gone through the roof. As of last Saturday, we are no longer required to wear masks outside, which is very welcome in this heat. We only need to wear a mask to go into stores and initially to go into restaurants. So life here is pretty much going back to normal. Everyone is just going about their business. I said last week that I was hoping they would move my second jab up and they did. I received a phone call from the NHS here and had my second dose on Saturday and I'm glad to report, other than a sore arm,  I had no other discomforts. I then downloaded my QR code from the NHS app to say that I have been double pricked, so, all is well. Did I ever mention, we have an app here for our doctor surgery, so you can go online and book a doctor's appointment if you need one and it's always easy to get an appointment within the following day or two. They really have a great system and the medical attention here is fantastic. In fact, the Costa del Sol Hospital has been voted one of the best hospitals in Spain. So we are very lucky here. It's still very quiet here on our beaches and resorts with the lack of British tourists, cases of Coronavirus are down here and our hospitals are doing well, so I am still confused as to why we are still on the amber list when it seems that you are more of a risk to us than we are to you. So, the breaking news here today is that, as of this coming Thursday, travellers from the UK will be required to have a negative PCR test or proof of completed vaccinations, in order to enter Spain, where, up until now, all you needed was to fill in a locator form. This measure is being taken due to the rise of infections in the UK. The report for Andalucia is 165 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, over the last 14 days. Andalucia is a very large province with about eight and a half million inhabitants, so, numbers are very low. We're currently showing positivity tests are down at 4.3% throughout the whole of Spain. So here on the Costa del Sol, we're all feeling pretty safe. Well over 50% of the population in the whole of Spain have now already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and one in three people have had the full schedule. The regional president of Andalucia, Juanma Moreno is pleased with the pace of the vaccinations and reckons that 70% of our province should be vaccinated by the eighth or ninth of July.                                                                       Now, people renting out their homes and spare rooms on sites such as Airbnb and booking.com are back on the tax offices radar again. The holiday letting sector has been waiting to have to comply with new rules that were put on hold in 2019.  Owners will now be required to inform them of each reservation,  how much was paid and for what property. The government has rushed to get these revised laws hurried through, so as not to lose out on the lucrative summer season tax income and quite rightly so in my opinion. With too many people playing the system, if caught, they will now be hit with some hefty fines. I'm all for this, these people have been exploiting the system for far too long.

In other news here, residents with UK driving licences will be allowed to carry on using them until October, 31st. This was due to stop on June the 30th and then, instead of being able to trade licences, you would have been required to take a Spanish driving test but Britain and Spain are trying to reach a deal which will mean that those with the UK permit won't need to take the Spanish test. Due to the pandemic everything has been held up and those people who successfully registered with the DGT traffic office prior to the end of 2020 but haven't received their residency will have until December to swap. Another gift from Brexit. From my experience, as long as you learn how to park on a roundabout and not use indicators to signal to people where you're going, the test should be a doddle.  Spanish drivers are terrible, it´s a standard joke here that Spanish cars are built without turn signals. It's just a guessing game as to where they're turning off.   In the news this week I see Boris has moved the Balearic Islands the green list. So at least if you're looking for some sun, sand, sangria and a short flight from the UK, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza are open to you but can you trust him is the question ?       It would be a nightmare for him to do what he did with Portugal, a few weeks ago and suddenly backtrack again leaving people scrambling for flights back at the last minute. 

Oh my god ! don't do as I do, do as I say, Matt Hancock.  Hands,  space, embrace has filled the news here and it's okay for me to grope my aide.   Millionaire Gina, Coladangelo who has three children of her own and is an entrepreneur and advisor for the Department of Health, is also a longtime friend of his from Oxford and was given the job last March. This just smacks of cronyism, doesn't it ?   I do feel sorry for Matt Hancock's wife and children having to watch his infidelity plastered all over the news all weekend.  Poor woman must be feeling so bad. It's not enough that he did the dirty on his Mrs. but now she has reporters camped outside her house like pariahs, which I don't think is fair to her or her three children.  Spineless Boris couldn't fire him obviously, as he's had a few dalliances himself and let's face it, he hasn't been a fine example in the keeping his trousers on department either but I think the affair is a distraction from the money and the contracts that he's doled out to his nearest and dearest, which I think is the bigger issue here. I hope the UK fully investigates that because from my view, the affair is just a distraction, as I said from the main story.  Her brother, Roberto Coladangelo gets a nice contract out of it, while his friend the pub landlord, Alex Bourne secured a nice 30 million deal to supply test tubes for COVID tests, all paid by the British taxpayer and now, Matt Hancock is in line for a 16,000 golden goodbye after quitting amidst his scandalous affair. What other job could you do the dirty on your partner and get a golden handshake like that ?  Incredible !  Is that fair ?  No wonder the general public have had enough. The world has turned upside down with all this wokery, it's hardly surprising that there were protests in London this past weekend, where 10s of 1000s of people were standing up for their freedom and their rights. People have had enough of the double standards and I am totally with you on this. Funny how there was very little news coverage of that, considering the amount of people who turned up to protests but it was plastered all over YouTube, like I said last week, it´s one rule for them, and another for us. I think it's great that the people have come together to voice their displeasure, especially with all the controversy this week. It's time that people reminded these civil servants who they work for and who pays their wages. 

Now, enough ranting for this week, moving on. When we were young and our baby teeth fell out, we were encouraged to pop them under our pillows at night in the hopes that the Tooth Fairy would visit, take it away and leave behind a treasure in its place. Now, when I was a child, that would be about half a crown but then when decimalisation came in, it went up to 50 pence. A mother took to social media, of course and social media has a lot to answer for, to ask opinions of what people put under their children's pillows for teeth these days. Well, when I saw the responses, my "flabber" was well and truly "gasted".  When I found out that some parents paid 20 pounds for the first tooth lost and because it's a milestone and 10 pounds for each tooth after that. I never realised that the tooth fairy had become so expensive. Now that's inflation for you.......wow !                                                                                                    And here we go again. There seems to be a pattern emerging here. A team of emergency rescue divers were called out after a nude woman was reported drowning off Japan's north coast by YouTuber filming a fishing video. After responding to the scene of the nude drowning woman, they discovered that it was actually...... wait for it...... a floating life size sex doll.   The gaffe was chronicled on Twitter, (God bless social media) by a YouTuber called Natsuki Tanaka who was filming and had initially believed she was witnessing a real life rescue.  These dolls sure do get around and seem to be popping up everywhere in the news. I just can't get that episode of Only Fools and Horses out of my brain. Maybe Dell boy has been at it again.                                       Well folks, that's it for this week. I hope the sun is shining on you, wherever you are.  If you're going on holiday have a fab time. I wish you all a wonderful week. Stay safe, and as always, for me, Michelle, until next week, Hasta Luego from the Costa del Sol.

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