A quiet week in September

Me, all ready to go to work one day this week.
Hi again

It’s time I got back to updating my blog at the weekend. So here I am this cooler Sunday afternoon on the 13th September sitting at the table by the pool. I am joined by my Father who is, naturally, reading, as is Eladio. Norah goes from of one us to the other hoping we will pay her some attention but we are all too absorbed. Suzy has just taken a break in her studies to come and have an apple and as I finish this sentence, she has gone. Tomorrow is her last exam for this year. If she passes the two she will have taken in September it means she will only have one subject left to pass. The exam for that will be in February, quite a way off.

After her exams, as you may have read from my entry this week, she will be going to India with Oli and Rocío, a school friend of Suzy’s. It’s all very exciting. Rocío has started a blog on their adventure, “3 girls in India” which I will be following avidly. So far the plans are to go on the 12th October and see Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, then go and stay with Oli’s friend Sumit, her Erasmus friend, in the Punjab and after that possibly visit some of the towns in Rajasthan like Johpur, Jaipur and Udaipur.

We are sitting just where the new outdoor 3 piece suite will be and which we madly bought in the sales last week at El Corte Inglés. Hopefully it will come on Tuesday. The summer is nearly over we know but it still gives us a kick to have finally found something. You can see it here; not the best in the world but perhaps the best priced for what it is.
The new furniture for the swimming pool porch
Eladio is reading his third book in English. Being an academic he was never a great reader of novels, but he has decided reading in English will help his knowledge of the language. I carefully choose the books for him and none are novels, they are all biographies or similar. The first one was the riveting Klara’s War, the story of a young Jewish girl who survived the holocaust in Poland. Last week he finished The Bookseller of Kabul and now he is reading Eva’s story, another Holocaust survival story. He has a notebook next to him to write down new words and I am, more often than not, his living dictionary.

I am impatiently waiting for the next 2 books in the Millennium trilogy but meanwhile went to see the film, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yesterday with Eladio. My expectations were low as usually films of books you read are disappointing. Not so this time. The film was excellent and the main character, Lizbeth Salander, played by the Swedo Spanish actress, Noomi Rapace was perfect for the role.
Lisbeth Salander played by Noomi Rapace, great characterisation.
So what else is there to report this week? It has seemed very quiet and thankfully the heat has remitted. We have even had a spot of rain. So, yes what else? I’m back to work at full speed and this week moved into a new office in Yoigo. My previous one was coming down so’s to build more open space for one of the departments. Nothing very remarkable except that two women from work, Angeles and Carmen moved every single item for me and also decorated it with great care. I had imagined entering an office with loads of boxes, but no, they had done all the work for me. I was flabbergasted and extremely grateful.

I was also in and out of the office this week as my pc had to be updated. Basically they were encrypting , removing Windows Vista and installing Windows XP. Nothing very extraordinary but it has taken quite a few days to get everything up and working as before. Thanks Alberto but had I known the pain, I would never have entrusted my pc to you!

Talking about PCs, all the employees in Yoigo have been given one from an excess stock at point of sale and I picked mine up this week. I was going to buy Eladio one for his upcoming birthday (yes he will be 65 on 23rd October and still looking like a boy) but now he has this one. You should see our kitchen table, it has 3 portable pcs on it, mine, Suzy’s and Eladio’s now.

This week I had lunch with María, our Terminal Director (the person in charge of purchasing the phones we sell). I don’t have many friends at work as I don’t go in often enough to build up many personal relationships, but María and I make a point of having lunch on a regular basis. We went to Aspen again in La Moraleja. They do a great home-made hamburger which we had with spinach.

So I didn’t tell you I started a diet again did I? Well, I hardly dare as it’s nothing new in my life. I started on Friday 4th September as I finally dared to weigh myself. Of course the figure is a state secret but it is shameful. Since I started at Yoigo (3 years on 1st October) I must have put on 10 kgs and I wasn’t exactly slim at the time. This time I hope the diet really works out. So far I am happy to say that I have lost 2kg. Cross your fingers please for it to continue that way.

The diet doesn’t stop me going out for meals or making nice ones at home; I’m just careful that’s all. So on Friday we went out to dinner with Roberto and Maricarmen to De Brasa y puchero in Boadilla. Next week we will be going with them to stay at the lovely ex convent hotel, La Hospedería La Parra, in Extremadura. We stayed there with my Father at Easter and adored the place. We are much looking forward to enjoying the installations, going for walks and buying another great ham.
The patio at La Parra

Oli came on Saturday for lunch, so the five of us were together for the first time in a while. She has news in that they have renewed her contract at work (www.rtve.es) but she has also been given a new job. Up till now she has been a news writer for the news section of the website which was a great but rather stressful job because of the constant deadlines. Now they want her to work in the programmes’ section of the site which will be a new world but I think a challenge too. I wish her all the luck in the world. Well, of course, I do, I’m her Mother.

And that’s about if for this week except to say happy birthday to my dearest and oldest friend Amanda. I know, as we have been chatting on Facebook, that she’s having a great day. Cheers my friend, any news of your moving to Spain???

But I can’t end without at least mentioning that this week was the anniversary of the 11th September attacks. It will never go unremembered, at least not in my lifetime. I remember exactly what I was doing the moment I found out what was happening and got to a TV set. Who could forget?
Who could forget this?
On that sombre note, I leave you till next week.

Cheers till then
Masha