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| Christmas came to our house last Sunday when we put up all the decorations. |
Hi everyone,
Well this week
went past very quickly and was packed with activity and some very good
news. Last Sunday, Christmas finally
came to our house with all its magic and which we all so love in this
house. Eladio and I got out all the decorations we
have collected over the years, whilst the girls and their friend Juli were still
asleep after a late night out. By the
time they were up, we had put up all the decorations and there was only the
tree left to do. That’s the bit Suzy
likes best, so to the sound of King’s College Christmas carols, Juli, Suzy and
I dressed our little tree. Oli never
helps, although she says she loves to hear and see us bringing Christmas into
the house.
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| Juli and Susana putting the finishing touches on the tree |
The photo
illustrating this week’s blog post is of me by the tree with Norah looking
on. You can see the rest of the photos
here on Facebook.
Monday came
and brought with it so much to do, which turned out to be the tonic of the
week. I have spent most of the week on Yoigo Christmas activities and in
between time I have rushed to prepare our own family Christmas.
I went into
the office early on Monday to meet with the sales and marketing team. Later I went to Madrid to our PR agency
Ketchum and together with the team we posted information on the Yoigo Christmas
campaign offer on our social networks. I
stayed in the Ketchum office for their annual seasonal lunch. This time it was
to be served by the Peruvian restaurant Astrid and Gastón. The lunch was sponsored by an NGO that builds
schools and helps find jobs for its students in a poor area outside Lima. The food, lots of “ceviche” type cuisine, was
outstanding.
Before going
home, I made a dash to an English shop in a nearby street called Príncipe de
Vergara, I had been wanting to go to for a long time. It’s called Living in London and is actually
not English owned. It’s also a tea room
but of course there was no time for the luxury of an English afternoon
tea. The shop was full of English
memorabilia that Spaniards so love but that I had not much need of with lots of
expensive Crabtree cosmetics and delicate china.
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| The English shop in Madrid called Living in London |
I did however
find a superb box of crackers which I bought in case my own didn’t arrive on
time from the Cracker Shop Online. I
could also have got Christmas pudding and cranberry sauce but they are also on
their way to our house from The British Corner Shop. So what else did I get you might want to
know? A delicious chocolate selection box,
Thornton’s chocolates and a small Christmas cake from the edible section. I also spotted an old fashioned rain scarf,
just like my Mother used to have and women wore in the 60’s. Maybe they still wear them today but it
seemed very practical and reminded me of my childhood. My best find was a wonderful
singing and dancing hat. It had us all
in stitches when I got home and we immediately put it on Grandpa’s head. I’m not sure Grandpa realised why we were
laughing so much but I know you will laugh when you see the video which I later
posted here on You Tube.
Coincidentally
when I got home, my huge parcel of crackers, party poppers and sparklers had
arrived. They all look magnificent with
more interesting gifts inside than usual, especially this box of 6 giant luxury
crackers. They will be for our Christmas
Eve Dinner next week.
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| The crackers I ordered online came on time and look fantastic. |
The highlight
of the week and maybe of this year for us, is the good news Olivia gave us on
Wednesday. Her short term contract as a
reporter for the TVE morning programme, La Mañana de la 1, was to terminate at
the beginning of January and she didn’t have much hope of staying on, mainly
because TVE, the state television broadcaster is over staffed. So she was very surprised and pleased when
they rang her to ask her to sign what is known as a “contrato de obra”, which
means she has a job with the programme as long as the programme lasts, or for
three years after which it can be renewed again. The programme is bound to last as it has been
on the television for years and is the most viewed TV morning programme in
Spain. It was a huge relief for her and
for us. I sincerely think she deserved
to stay on as she has proved to be a very good budding TV journalist and has
worked very hard to get where she is now. In my opinion she excels when she reports
live partly because of her “gift of the gab” which I suspect she inherited from
her very talented and outgoing Grandmother.
That same day,
I had an evening do to go to. It was the
Telefónica annual Christmas party and it was the first time I had been
invited. So off I went dressed in an
elegant new black dress but on my own.
The party was at a discotheque in town called Gabana 1800. You probably know I hate discotheques so I
didn’t stay very long. I can’t stand the
dark with too many people and music so loud you can’t talk. I hate them even more when I don’t know many
people. Luckily I quickly found sector
friends such as Víctor, Emiliano, Fernando and others but even so, home lured
with Eladio on his own waiting for me.
Thus I was back, with an empty stomach, at about 11. In any case I had
to be fresh for the next day as Thursday night was the big Yoigo staff
Christmas party and I was the facilitator as always.
Thursday was
the busiest day of the week. I was up
really early after the Telefónica party and was at the hairdresser by 8.30. By
9 I was on my way to the office for a meeting and a thousand little things to
attend to before the evening party. One of
them was the sending of the Yoigo seasonal gift and I was very pleased to see
the final product after working so hard on it with the agency and the cake
maker, Elena.
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| The Yoigo Christmas cup cakes are unique |
But before the
party I was meeting the balloon artist I had hired for our event, Michal
Kahn. She makes the most amazing
balloons, like you’ve never seen before.
Olivia discovered Michal when she was an MC at the Brussels event and
came back telling me that I just had to hire her for a Yoigo event. Well I’m not really into balloons and imagined
something similar to the poodle shaped balloon makers you see at parties and in
the street. However Michal is nothing like
that. She is so special you have to see
her to believe what I am saying. In this
website they refer to her and to her ex group as “undisputedly the UK's most
extravagant balloon artists”. I decided
I wanted to meet her before the party to explain her role and get to know her a
little. We had lunch together in town at
Julián de Tolosa. Later I took her to
the nearby Plaza Mayor and Puerta de Sol, the main sites in Madrid, as she had
never been before and would have no time to see the city. Michal is a young Oxford graduate from London
who out of fate got into the balloon modeling world where she has made an
amazing career for herself. But of
course I wasn’t to see any of this until the evening.
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| Michal Kahn and Olivia at the Yoigo Christmas party |
The Yoigo
party was to take place later in the evening at the Hotel Puerta de América on
the top floor terrace which is a spectacular location. Here we showed the premiere of the Yoigo TV campaign, the night before it was going live. We posted it on our social media pages and if you are interested, you can see it here too. The party was as great as always but
different from other years as I decided it was time to make some changes.
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| The pretty Mother Christmases at the Yoigo party |
The number of
people didn’t change though, with some 200 guests, made up of the staff and
their partners. Here Michal came into
her own making the amazing balloons. She
even made my caricature, believe it or not.
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| This balloon was made by Michal Kahn. Spectacular eh? |
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| The balloon caricature Michal Kahn made of me! |
The highlight
of the night though was The Alphabet Game (Pasapalabra) competition between our
5 departments with tough questions about Yoigo.
The department that won would get to go to out to dinner all together to
celebrate. Silvia Jato, the presenter
who is most associated with this TV programme was our surprise guest and
presenter. She did a great job. I, in
fact, had never seen or even heard of her but was very impressed with her
charisma, her comic side, her beauty and professionalism and found her
charming.
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| Wtih Silvia Jato at the Yoigo Christmas party |
You can see more photos of the party here.
Finally Friday
came and I could concentrate on family affairs and on our own Christmas. In the morning I went with Eladio to
Carrefour for the weekly shopping which is an enormous job. Afterwards we always reward ourselves with a
cup of coffee before taking everything home for unloading and putting
away with Olga's help.
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| Eladio having a well deserved cup of coffee after the food shopping on Friday |
Later we went
Christmas shopping to El Corte Inglés, after our walk of course (haven’t missed
one this week). Here we got presents for
me, I shall have to try and forget about until Christmas day, hahaha. I was very much looking forward to Friday
evening as I had booked a table at La Pérfida Albión , the English restaurant I
mentioned last week. So what did I
think? I loved it but Eladio says that’s because I am biased. Maybe I am.
The décor is simple and semi pub like.
Their website refers to the restaurant as a “gastro pub” and I suppose
it is in a way. The food is good with
some very English items on the menu but I was disappointed to see they offer “Eton
Mess” with bananas!! What would Etonians
say I wonder? The fish and chips were
not the Harry Ramsden’s type but more “gourmet”. That doesn’t mean to say they weren’t
delicious because they were. We also tried
the apple crumble. It was lovely but covered in nuts rather than crumble made
the traditional way. All in all I loved
it and I think it will now be my most popular local restaurant, beating La
Alpargatería. I must remember to book
for next Friday when I hope my brother and sister-in-law, José Antonio and
Dolores will join us.
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| Gourmet fish and chips at La Pérfida Albión in Pozuelo |
On Saturday
they were coming for lunch and to spend the day with us, along with Nuba, their mongrel dog, of
course. So whilst Olga was preparing fish and chips for lunch, Eladio and I
went off to the Centro Oeste shopping Centre in Majadahonda for what will
probably not be my last Christmas shopping session. Here, apart from buying presents, I bought
myself a lovely dress from Trucco. That
was not on the agenda but there you are, I couldn’t resist it. After our copious lunch and short siesta, we
took the dogs out for a long walk, longer than usual. It was cold but crispy and the sun was
shining when we set off, but it was dusk when we returned as the days are so
short. I much prefer walks when it is
light until late. José Antonio and
Dolores were persuaded to stay for dinner as we were enjoying each other’s
company so much and a good day was had by all, the dogs included.
Whilst we were
either eating or out walking, Charlie was born.
Charlie has made my school friend Kathryn, who lives in Keighley in
Yorkshire, a grandmother for the first time and she must be so happy. More than happy, in Facebook she posted “ today
I fell in love”. Kathy is my second friend to become a grandmother, after
Adele. So hearty congratulations Kathy
and Phil and dying to meet Charlie. And, welcome Charlie to this world.
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| Congratulations Kathy on the birth of your first grandson Charlie |
Now it’s
Sunday and I’ve come to the end of this week’s blog. Today has been quiet and I spent the whole
morning cooking. I made Fabada for
lunch, an Asturian thick bean soup which is ideal for cold winter days.
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| Fabada in the cooking today |
I was feeling
very productive, as I often do on Sunday mornings. So whilst the men were
reading the papers and the girls had gone to the cinema and then out to lunch
with their friends, I started making batches of perushki, little Russian meat
pies, which we always eat in this house on Christmas Eve, to the music, once again
of Kings College Cambridge and courtesy of Spotify on my computer. However I couldn’t resist putting some in the oven for
lunch today to have with the Fabada. You
can see them being made here; quite a sophisticated process which I learned
from my Mother who used to make them for us at Christmas with the girls when
they were little. I can be congratulated
as I made 60 which are now in the deep freeze, none to be taken out till
Christmas Eve.
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| Making perushki for Christmas |
I am now
nearly all prepared for our own Christmas after all the shopping and cooking
this weekend. However I am not going to
have much of a respite this week either, as on Wednesday I am the facilitator
of the Yoigo children’s party. That is
the most important item in my diary next week but I can assure you it is as
full of activities and meetings, probably just as many as this week’s.
When I write
next it will be Christmas. However if
the 25th is Christmas day, I may take a day off and write my next
blog post on Boxing day or later. So let
me wish you all a great Christmas, happiness and fun and thank you all for
following me on my blog. I have now been
writing it for over 6 years and have received over 70.000 visits since I started counting just 2 or 3 years ago. My visitors are from all over the world and
it astonishes me to see the lists of countries my readers are from even though
I don’t know them. So thank you again
and I wish you all a Happy Christmas.
Masha
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