It’s Spring again

Daffodils, the epitome of Spring
Hi

Yes it’s Spring again, the flowers are out and the weather is behaving astonishingly well. Funnily enough today is World Water Day but there hasn’t been a sign of it here for quite a while. I just hope the weather holds until our trip next Sunday to Extremadura and then I won’t mind if it rains of course.
World Water day image
It certainly held out this long bank holiday weekend which was a holiday, thanks to St. Joseph, a very important Saint in Spain. St. Joseph or San José is also the patron saint of all Fathers, thus Thursday 19th March was and is also Father’s Day. In the past nearly all boys born on that day were called José or José something. So, of course, it was my brother-in-law, José Antonio’s birthday too. In the past we used to celebrate it together but somehow the tradition has died and I, for one, miss it.

The week leading up to the holiday was short and sweet with not much to report. Who did have something to report though was my daughter Olivia. The famous Irish hispanist, Ian Gibson was at RTVE for an interview about his new book, Lorca y el Mundo Gay (Lorca and the Gay World). He is possibly the world’s greatest authority on Spain’s famous poet Federico García Lorca. I read his books when I studied Spanish at Nottingham University and Lorca, like most English students of Spanish was my favourite author too. Olivia also interviewed him for the website and here is the result. I must say I got quite excited about that. Part of the interview took part on the phone while he was having dinner but apparently he was charming and attentive throughout.
Ian Gibson, forever fascinated with Federico García Lorca.
And on the subject of interviews, Oli herself was on the radio on RNE on Friday evening to talk about the content of the RTVE website. Unfortunately we didn’t get to hear it as she warned us a bit late and we were at the cinema!

The girls went away on Friday, Suzy to Astorga and Oli to Guadalajara. So we were left rather alone and have had a quiet Father’s day holiday.

On Friday we went to see the much awaited new film from Pedro Almodovar, Abrazos Rotos (broken hugs) with Penelope Cruz who has become his icon actress, having starred in 4 of his films so far. Was it good? Well I never used to like Almodovar until Volver and then I saw some of his other films and have become quite a fan. Yes it was technically a great film but perhaps the story is not really up my street. I am never very fond of films that are about making a film. Said that, I would still highly recommend it.
Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar's icon actress
Who didn’t go the cinema this weekend was my dear sister-in-law Yoli, Eladio’s youngest brother, Isidro’s wife. Yoli had an operation on Wednesday to remove her thyroid gland which had developed a benign tumour the size of a mandarin and was visible even from the outside. Everything went well but the operation was long and poor Yoli has yet to get her voice back properly. I wish her a speedy recovery from these pages.

And on the subject of health, thanks to my sister-in-law Dolores, Zena was received this week by her brother-in-law, Patxi who is an eye specialist. He cannot cure her cancer, but at least he was able to relieve the suffering caused by a huge cyst on her eye. The eye was visibly better when I saw her yesterday. Thanks Dolores!!

This week coming up will be quite busy but I have a lot to look forward to as next Sunday, my men and I will be going to Extremadura to visit Cáceres, Guadalupe and Mérida. We will finalise our stay at a lovely place called La Hospedería Convento de la Parra in a remote village in the province of Badajoz where we have splashed out and booked one of the suites. I can't wait. Whoopeeee!

Meanwhile cheers to you all and have a great week,

Masha