Saturday 11/04/2020
As lots of the supermarkets were closed on Thursday and Friday due to the bank holiday, today everyone seems to have come out to do their shopping for the important Easter Sunday meal. As a result, I waited in a queue outside the local express supermarket for at least one hour to get the bits and bobs we needed. There were probably about 25 of us waiting in the queue which snaked down the narrow street in Malasaña in complete silence. This was only broken when the shop assistant shouted that elderly people had priority. Masked faces looked up and down, clearly searching to let someone of the aforementioned description go in front of them, but the handful of individuals, who in my opinion fitted the bill perfectly, chose not to accept the preferential treatment. This is a tricky formality which, like giving up seats on a train, can so often turn into a faux pas and end up in someone feeling lightly offended. Everyone politely glanced in the direction of a couple of individuals who definitely have an excuse not to be waiting in queues at a time like this, but they stood their ground and chose to stay in line. I suppose like the rest of us, they didn’t want their hugely anticipated weekly trip to the shop to be cut short for any reason. Since exercising and socialising have been banned, trudging forward in a queue in silence has become the new – and only – way to do something vaguely resembling both of these once common practices. For a Brit like myself, who has perfected the art of patient queuing, today was a great day.
Jammie Blogger 