That’s the word of January so far!

Two weeks ago my tango teacher cancelled my lesson and our weekly visit to the milonga because he had a cough. He said he was pretty sure it was just the air conditioning at the milonga, but was isolating and getting tested just in case. He tested negative, but decided to take the rest of the week off because, as he said, a cough these days is anti-social!

My tango buddy, Lina, had her booster shot a week past on Thursday. I had dinner with her that night and she was fine. Next day, she became really sick and was laid low for days, feeling really terrible. She didn’t go to the hospital as she assumed it was just a reaction to the shot. But by Friday she couldn’t take it any more and a friend who lives nearby took her to hospital. Not a reaction to the shot — Covid! I think maybe it was starting just before she got the jab, so of course another hit of the virus through the shot probably made it twice as bad. Anyway, she is feeling much better now that she’s had some treatment, and now it’s a matter of waiting it out. So this week I’m on my own at the milonga.

Last Friday I started a course in Fileteado Porteño, the traditional art of Buenos Aires. This Friday, guess what—cancelled because the teacher had had direct contact with someone with Covid.

Some of us had tickets for a concert at the Kirchner Centre on Friday night by a well known tango singer. On the morning of the show, we received an email from the CCK saying the show had been cancelled because the star had come down with Covid.

On top of all that, we’ve also been having a horrendous heatwave all last week, with temperatures regularly in the high thirties and occasionally into the 40s. Not fun. We had some rain overnight and it did feel a bit easier on my walk this morning, but we still need a lot of rain. The forecast says we’ll get a lot of it this week, so we all have our fingers crossed that’s true!