I had had a dinner party planned for Friday night for a few friends who didn’t make it to the first one. When I signed with Xfera I decided to turn the housewarming party into a celebration dinner. So I promptly doubled the numbers by inviting more friends. In the end we were 16 for dinner. It was the 1st indoor dinner we have had at the new house. We put 2 tables together and, of course, had to use 2 dinner services. One of them was my Grandmother’s which, according to my Father, had not been used in 60 years!!!!
The guests:
It was lovely to welcome darling Jill and her husband Paco. Jill is the HR Manager of Nokia Spain (I always introduce her as the friend who dismissed me from my job) and has become a good friend since I left. But she has also been a bit of an HR coach to me this year. So thanks Jill for your great support. It was also nice to welcome Zenaida and her dishy partner Tapani. Z works with Jill and has also been a great support to me this year. She is pregnant and expecting a little girl quite soon. Ana and Tommy also came as they are always included in our social events. Ana who I got to know in Nokia is the Legal Counsel for HP Spain. She and her amazingly good looking husband Tommy got married last year. Then came the permanent fixtures, Fátima and Julio who are my very best friends. Fátima and I go back a long way and became friends when we first worked for Motorola in the early 90’s. And, at long last, we had the pleasure of the company of my dear (photographer) friend Rafa. Rafa and I also go back a long time and met in my cycling days in the early 90’s. Unfortunately you cannot see how good looking he is, as he took the photo. You might remember him from one of my posts – as the spaghetti monster. Rafa, has a great appetite for food! And then came dear Alexander and Diane. Alex is a friend of Amanda and Andy’s. He works for the same company as Andy – Bertelsmann, is German and is based here in Madrid. We met at A + A’s wedding last year and have finally met up here in Spain. Diane is his lovely girlfriend, who, believe it or not is training to become a brain surgeon!!!
Alex and Diane relaxing after dinner
And, of course, we had the young contingent: Susana, my older daughter, her boyfriend Gaby (who doubled as a waiter that night) and Oli’s boyfriend José Luis. He is part of the family and although Oli is away in England, it seemed right to have him with us on Friday night.
I hope everybody ate well. We prepared home made gazpacho, boeuf strogonof and then a choice between trifle and tiramisu. We also drank quite a lot – or at least I did. For the occasion I opened the last magnum bottle of Quercus!!
The party began to break up at about 2 but Fati, Rafa, Alex and Diane stayed on for a while and Eladio and I ended up going to bed after 4 in the morning.
Needless to stay the next day I was in no good physical state to go to Eladio’s cousin, Elena’s 50 years celebration of religious life. But more about that in another post.
All the best/Masha
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