Monday, April 28, 2008

Lunches and dinners with politicians, friends and family. Summer is coming, Suzy is 24, TV again and we met a wild boar!


Suzy this morning, 24 today!
Hi again

This week has brought with it sunshine and warmer weather which was certainly a great plus for the commencement of Suzy’s birthday celebrations this weekend. Because the weekend brought such glorious weather with it, we decided to hold our first barbeque of the season to which José Antonio and Dolores were cordially invited. We seem to have spent so much more time outside which is when our dwelling gains most. There is nothing better than reading the Sunday papers over breakfast in the kitchen patio. It is one of the big pleasures in life.

Eladio and José Antonio, the Barbeque chefs
The week was busy but full of little social highlights which made it more palatable, of course. Midweek I had lunch with Juan, a colleague from work. I don’t seem to fraternise much on the work front and should do more often. I think we both found we had quite a lot in common in more ways than one.

Also midweek I had lunch with a journalist. Well, it was actually an interview with my boss. We went to the quite famous restaurant El Bodegón, only to find that we were joined by the likes of Rodrigo Rato, Angel Acebes and Jordi Sevilla. It is the third time I have coincided with Angel Acebes in a restaurant in quite a short time.

Perhaps the biggest event of the week was coming across a wild boar on our walk on Thursday evening. My Father was just ahead of us and actually did not notice it passing right under his nose to cross the road!! So what was a wild boar doing in our neighbourhood you may ask? We did too. Apparently the answer comes from too much construction. It seems the boars are being driven out of their natural habitat from so much building and have no place to go. This poor specimen, a large male was obviously lost and seemed quite bewildered. We are used to seeing rabbits on our walk and even the odd grass snake, but this was a real surprise that hopefully will not repeat itself.

Oh my God, a wild boar in our street!
Friday saw me again on the TV on the same chat show called “La Mirada Exterior”. This time I was joined by Jill and Lisa Wang. We had a splendid time commenting the week’s news together although nothing really extraordinary had happened last week. I think Luis Vicente, the journalist, enjoyed it too. It was funny to think that we represented 3 of the most powerful countries in the world; the USA, China and the UK!

Posing in the TV studio
It was actually Suzy’s 24th birthday today, Monday– HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DARLING – but as Suzy’s birthdays are always a bit like Indian weddings, the celebrations started on Friday night. I was allowed to help with the cooking (mountains of potato salad, Spanish omelette, etc) but we were politely asked to go out for the evening.

Here we obliged and went out to dinner with Pedro Delgado and his wife Ludi. We went to Bice which is becoming a new favourite – coincidentally one of the places I had previously coincided with Acebes and Rajoy. For those of you who are not Spanish, may I introduce you to Pedro, the ex cyclist and winner of the Tour of France and Tour of Spain in his day. You may all know who Indurain, is, the 6 times winner of the Tour. However, in Spain, Pedro Delgado is probably just as famous and certainly more loved. It’s difficult to describe his undoubtable charisma. On a personal level he is equally attractive and has a constant twinkle in his eye. He had been to Oli’s university on Thursday for a TV sports interview she was coordinating. He was an instant hit and now all we need is a 10 out of 10 for Oli in TV production. Cheers and thanks Pedro.

Ludi and Pedro
Suzy’s celebrations continued into the weekend and here you have a photo of her in some great new sandals, just one of the many birthday gifts she received.

This week will be quite short as Thursday and Friday are a bank holiday. We were going to stay home but were very easily persuaded at the last minute by our travel friends, Roberto and Mari Carmen, to join them on a short trip to Zamora. Zamora is a medieval town in central northern Spain which I do not know at all so I’m quite looking forward to it. More about that on our return.

And that is it for this week; except for quick birthday greetings to Gerardo and Gustavo both of whose birthdays are today too.
Have a great one,
Cheers

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