Bare necessities still arriving in Xativa in Costa Blanca

NOT relishing the prospect of cold showers, EWN reporter Linda Hall rang her Butano office, enquiring if deliveries were affected.

“Business as usual,” she was told and assured that she only needed to leave empty bottles outside the front door of her Xativa (Valencia) home as usual on a Wednesday.

Time passed, and still, no gas as the deliveryman’s usual knocking-off time approached.

Another phone call, this time to learn that yes, the butano was on its way and not to worry, “but it’s all taking so much longer, as he has to put on gloves each time,” the distribution office explained. “The gas did arrive in the end and although we were the only ones who had put gas bottles outside and thought to ring first, heads popped around doors and over balconies, asking for gas,” Linda said.  “Possibly another case of panic-buying.”

Everyone got their gas, although the delivery man, who was wearing a facemask, apologized for having to leave it outside instead of bringing it inside as usual.

“I can’t speak for the rest of Xativa, but in our little square in the Casco Antiguo, everyone is really sticking to the self-isolation regulations,” she said.“It is unnaturally quiet and when one dog-walker meets another they keep their distance, which is most un-Xativa.  And it’s so quiet, which is even more out of character.”