Farewell Elliot and Juliet, a quiet week in Montrondo, the heatwave continues, shameful Spanish body beach campaign, the "silly season" - busy on holiday - my it's all yellow" moment in Villablino and other stories.

 Montrondo, Sunday 7th August 2022

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My "it's all yellow" moment in Villablino this wek. 

Good morning again from our village. I hope this post finds you all well and hopefully enjoying your holidays. Since I retired in February I am permanently on holiday. Isn't that fantastic. However, I am still employed, being my own boss of our humble rental business and this is the high season. If I have spent the last few months receiving bookings, the houses are now all fully booked but that involves a lot of work as the guest turnover is sometimes only 2 nights. I have people on site to help and do the job but I am forever alert and in touch with both guests and my helpers. Thank you Lucy and Javier the pool maintenance guy, another Lucy, my daughter Suzy and Mar in Santa Pola as well as  Loli in Asturias. Key to success is guest satisfaction.  So, I await with bated breath for my guests' evaluations and comments. Luckily I mostly get top marks but some guests are picky. So when you next write a comment on an establishment you have been to, think what it means to the owner and workers. The truth is most people only bother commenting if their experience has not been good. Few write when it has been good, great or fantastic. I always do by the way. I got one bad comment for the apartment in Santa Pola saying it was too hot and needed air conditioning  The woman perhaps did not take into account that her stay was during the worst heat wave. In my reply I pointed out the heat wave and the fact that the apartment has 4 fans, is located on a cliff and is usually quite cool. 

As I write now, this week, the semi heat wave continues. In Madrid the temperature is in the high 30's and most of France experienced the 40's. Olivia's first topic this week was the heat wave in Madrid. I believed her when she said that 25 of the 31 days of July the temperature had been above 25 degrees. This was her report which you can see here. 

Olivia reporting on the heat wave this week in Madrid. 

No doubt some are thinking about installing a/c. Even in Montrondo high in the mountains it has been much warmer than usual. One day this week I looked at the inside temperature and it was 26ºc- way too high. The average temperature has been around 30ºc which is just about bearable. I tried to work on the top floor which is too hot for words. I do not know how Oli, Miguel, Elliot and Juliet slept up there with the windows closed and duvets covering their bodies. I would have laid semi naked with the windows open. 

They left us last Sunday as Oli went back to work on Monday. I was sorry to see them go as we had had such a good time with the kids. Elliot, especially, enjoyed his grandfather's village and this summer will be the first of many I imagine. They left at around 11 and we said farewell with heavy hearts. Oli sent me photos of the children/babies in the car on their way home to boiling Madrid. They mostly slept and were not difficult. What was difficult was finding that a whole bag of brown sugar had spilled over the luggage and baby equipment. I suppose oil would have been worse. 

Elliot and Juliet in the car on their way home last Sunday

When they left it was all hands to deck to clear and clean the house which was quite a job but we managed it together. I wish I could find a Lucy or a Loli here and not have to clean or cook but it is not to be. My sister-in-law Dolores says I have been spoiled by having a housekeeper. She is right but it is the money best spent, apart from the fact that we need someone at home always to look after the guests and clean their rooms, etc. 

I think I must have put on 4 washing machine loads and spent a lot of time hanging out the washing, taking it down, folding clothes, etc. It was now just the three of us; Eladio, Pippa and me, because, as you know we are three in our marriage hahaha. 

Pippa at the back of the house by the clothes line with some of the sheets I had to wash

We shared tasks and while Eladio hoovered, I dealt with the washing and cleaned 3 of the bathrooms. I hate cleaning toilets, don't you?

Last Sunday felt so quiet compared to the week before as not only had Oli and co gone but a lot of other family members. Dolores is still here though and that afternoon we enjoyed a game of ludo on a double ludo board. It felt like old times when the children were playing and we whiled away the time by playing ludo. Thank you Dolores.

We had a bit of a scare when Eladio showed cold like symptoms including a sore throat. Could it be Covid again? Well, very easily it could as 3 members of the family had it and we had been with a lot of people at the ·"fiestas". Again Dolores came to the rescue and gave me an anti gen test set or whatever it is called. We were in luck as the test was negative. I hate to think what would have happened if it had been positive. Covid is still here my friends as you all know. It's so easy to think it has gone away but it hasn't. 

I made a bit more of an effort for dinner that night and we had a prawn salad with mangoes and avocado pear - delicious. That night we finished the TV series Alba. What would we turn to next?

Monday came and we had a lazy morning. The best bit is doing Wordle with my first cup of coffee and then breakfast with The Times. The main news was the UK Women's football team winning the Euro 2022 final - against Germany and all that that means. Good for them I thought although it takes some getting used to seeing women's football making the front pages. Good that is does. 

In Spain, meanwhile, a story erupted that had already gained headlines in the UK. It was about a campaign from the Ministry of Equality aimed to encourage women to go the beach regardless of how they look. . The slogan is "summer is also ours". When I first saw it I thought it was creating a problem that actually doesn't exist or if it does, then so be it and what about men's beer belly bodies? Are they ashamed to show them on the beach? Are fat women really ashamed to show theirs? Is this really a problem? I have always been a bit chubby and don't like to be seen in a swim suit but don't care much when I am on the beach as there a lot like me. I often think that it is only a small minority that has the perfect body and those of us who don't just have to live with it. We don't need a campaign from the Ministry of Equality to tell us not to be ashamed of our bodies when going to the beach.   In my mind by highlighting non stereotype women's bodies, the campaign actually achieves just the opposite; using these types of bodies is  body shaming in itself. Maybe no one outside Spain would have paid the slightest bit of attention to this ridiculous campaign, had it not been for the fact that the creators used images they found on Instagram and the like and the models that appeared weren't even asked for permission. 3 British women have said their pictures were used without permission! But not only that, the creator or creators  went even further and manipulated the photos by putting a different head on a different body and in one case even removing a prosthetic leg. For this the campaign has been criticised by the media, including The Times that morning. I pointed it out to both Eladio and Olivia who were a bit non plus until the story went viral, the story of image rights. To explain the story better, here is the photo The Times used where you can see the poster with the prosthetic leg removed. 

The before and after picture from this stupid body shaming campaign.

The owner of the leg, a British woman, was appalled and so she should be. This beach body campaign is all wrong and completely shameful, an embarrassment to Spain's far left government. The person who created the poster and used the images illegally is called Gisela Escat and goes by the name of Arte Machape- an ardent anti fat shaming campaigner.  She has apologised and said she will share the money she earned (not much) with the women whose bodies she used without permission. She has now gone missing.But the real culprit is the Spanish government for not doing its homework right. The Spanish Ministry issued a statement saying they didn't realise the photos were of real people and the idea was to use illustrations to portray the bodies. Well that's not good is it? Didn't the people in charge get a good look before this was published? Pathetic. I am not just appalled, I am outraged. Back at work that morning, Olivia wrote to me about the story which was getting bigger and bigger and remarked "You really do see the news". Of course I do when it is something so shameful as this. Later I read that the Ministry concerned has removed all trace of the campaign as they are afraid of having to pay enormous compensation costs. 

You may have noticed the general absence of news in my blog these last few weeks apart from this awful campaign.  I suppose the reason  is that this is the "silly season" and I am "busy" on holiday. The "silly season" is a journalistic term which refers to news during holidays, like the summer,  when not much is going on and the focus is on more trivial matters. I actually don't think it is the silly season even if it is the summer holidays because there is an awful lot going on. As an interesting aside I had a chat with one of The Times correspondents in Spain whose task is to find stories that will interest his editors. He told me he spends a lot of time digging them out and often he comes up with stories that make the news in England but not in Spain. With a sigh though he told me "the rollcall is for bulls, terrorism and silly stories" but not so much terrorism anymore as ETA is finished thank God. 

There is a lot going on. These are some examples: Covid is still with us,  the campaign to find the UK's new PM to replace BJ is ongoing and has 2 candidates left. Not news to you but they are  the former chancellor Rishi Sunak, the sleek rich Tory of Indian origin whose wife doesn't pay her taxes and Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary who has been described as a modern Thatcherite and a pro Boris Tory. I'm not sure I like either candidate. 

The two candidates one of whom will become the leader of the Conservatives and Britain's next PM. 

Time will tell. I have reported on the heat wave but have said nothing about the war in Ukraine. It is ongoing too of course.  Oh and of great importance this week, finally a ship with grain was allowed to leave Odessa for Libya. Also the world got a bit of a shock when on Wednesday Joe Biden announced a US drone had killed the Al Qaeda leader in Kabul. I hate Al Qaeda but wonder if it wouldn't have been better to try and arrest the man rather then kill him outright. That is  definitely "an eye for an eye" in retaliation for 11th September. Also on Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan defying Chinese warnings. China reacted big time and has cut off many ties with the US and deployed armed ships surrounding Taiwan, the world leader in the manufacture of semi conductors that are now more commonly known as micro chips.  While our grandchildren were here we hardly watched the news but now we do, so expect more snippets in my blog from now on. These news snippets are important to me if anyone is ever to read my blog when I pass away; my grandchildren for example. Thus my life or our lives will be read in the context of world events - or history for them. Did I ever tell you that history was my favourite subject and that I should have been a journalist? Well, now you know. 

I have gone off on a tangent. . So let me return to our week. It was too hot on Monday morning for a walk so we went to have a coffee at the only bar open in the area in the morning, Cumbres de Omaña. It's the bar with the grumpy owner. We were joined by Dolores and José Antonio.

It was so hot that day that we could only take our walk in the evening at around 9.30 pm. The picture below was taken at past 10 pm when it was still light. Oh how I love this time of year.

Eladio on our evening walk, past 10 pm and still light. 

Tuesday  was perhaps the highlight of my quiet week as I went to Villablino again with Dolores. My sister-in-law  has to cater for up to 14 family members so has to do some really serious food shopping, unlike me as now we are only 3. Our first stop was at a supermarket called Familia where I don't do my shopping so I waited outside. I was wearing my new  yellow French dress  and my new yellow shoes which are a bit cheesy. They go with the dress and I couldn't resist buying them. These are the shoes in question. Do you think they are cheesy? Maybe ....

My new yellow shoes that go with my French yellow dress

While waiting for Dolores I crossed the road to a little square to sit on a bench. I realised the bench was yellow as was the sign with the name of the region of the province of León, "Laciana". I had to have a picture there with all the yellow. Dolores obliged and that is the photo I have chosen to illustrate this week's post. 

So what is this "it's all yellow about"? It's a family in joke from when I visited The Cotswolds with the girls in 2017. We were there in the  spring and all the fields were yellow from the flowering of rapeseed - not a seed I like for making oil but the fields were beautiful. I loved them so much I had to go in one. 

My famous "it's all yellow" moment in The Cotswolds in May 2017 (I was much thinner then:-()

It was a very silly moment, one not to be forgotten. Oli took a video in which I keep saying "it's all yellow". Since then, every time we see a lot of yellow that's what we say. Thus I had my second important "it's all yellow moment" but this time in Villablino hahahahaa. 

As I was sitting there and waiting for my sister-in-law who insists on shopping at all the supermarkets in Villablino  - to quote her husband, if there were more she would shop at them too hahahahahha. While waiting, Olivia was on TV herself. This time she was reporting on free public transport as one of the new measures to save money on petrol. Not a bad idea, that is if you have a train station near you which we don't. Eladio saw her live. I had to do with watching her via streaming later. Love the fact that I can. Here she is. 

Olivia working on Tuesday while were in Villablino.

The other measure - air con not below 27ºc and heating not above 19ºc - obligatory for public buildings and shops and bars - but only a recommendation for homes - has caused a bit of an uproar. Not sure I could live with 27ºc indoors in the summer or 19ºc in the winter. 

One of the attractions of shopping in Villablino is having a mid morning coffee. Most of the cafes are pretty rotten and shabby except for some, like "Cafetería Selene" which I recommend because the coffee is good and they give you loads of free pastries to go with it. If I had eaten all that was on the plate I would not have been hungry for lunch. 

Coffee with free pastries at the Selene cafeteria in Villablino on Tuesday

The afternoon was quiet with nothing much to report. There is not a lot to report from Montrondo as you must realise. It's the silly season my friends and I am busy on holiday hahahahaha.

Wednesday came and it was another quiet day. I spent most of the morning cooking and made  carrot soup and vichyssoise. The latter proved difficult as the leeks have to be sieved with a puree maker to remove the strings if that is what they are called. It took me ages but I made the perfect vichyssoise. 

The temperatures decreased by a couple of degrees that day and rain threatened but all we saw were a few drops. Thus I was able to sit outside under the apple trees without feeling quite so suffocated from the heat. 

Of note that afternoon we went for a walk along the country lane towards Murias and on our way back we crossed the big field called "El Bao" towards the old church. I had forgotten there is wall to cross with rubble and nettles. I managed to get over quite easily with the help of my husband but Pippa refused to cross. I think she could have but maybe it was a dog instinct of some sort that made her steer clear of the nettles. Who knows? In the end Eladio had to go back over the wall and pick her up. 

Pippa got stuck on our walk

Although the land and fields were dry they were full of dust from such a prolonged absence of rain that Pippa was filthy by the time we got home. I washed her in the claw foot bath tub which seems to be only for her use and then again to make sure I removed all the dust including some in her ears. Of course she had her teeth brushed too; but no eau de cologne hahahahha. 

Thursday was a very lazy day, unless you count my cooking another chicken Tika Masala. We didn't venture out of the grounds and I spent the whole afternoon on the sun lounge under the apple trees at the back of the house. Thursday was cooler finally as if, at least, here the heat wave was over.

Friday was market day again in Villablino and even though I didn't really need to do any shopping I accompanied Dolores who has to stock up for her big family. We left at around 9.15 and weren't back until 2.20! I love my trips to Villablino with my sister-in-law, especially when we have a coffee together. But the trip was a bit marred by a stupid fall. I was at the shop where we buy amazing ham, sitting outside while Dolores queued indoors. She called me when it was my turn and I don't know what happened but I think I got entangled with the long strap of my handbag - plus I was texting and then there and then I felt myself falling down. I tried to stop falling but when I couldn't I at least avoided falling on my knee with its torn meniscus or hitting my head. I ended up falling on my side and as my thighs have lots of fat (I hate them) I only got a bruise and didn't break anything for once. I caused a commotion with many people around me trying to help. I nearly fainted but didn't. I am so clumsy and have fallen so many times but I got away with it this time thank goodness.

We were back late but no worries as we didn't have to cook that day. Eladio's younger sister had invited the whole family to paella on her terrace next to ours. All we had to do was take along our own plates and cutlery. The rice was good but I'm not keen on putting chorizo in it. A while back there was a huge issue in the Spanish press about Jamie Oliver (the famous UK cook) including this Spanish sausage in Spain's flagship dish.  It's a big no no in Spain and I tend to agree with the criticism so gave my chorizo to Pippa who was most grateful. Best was the ice cream afterwards. As you know ice cream is my favourite dessert. PS no photos of the family lunch as I am not 

Entertainment that night was watching The Great Escape for the umpteenth time. I'm sure you've seen it too. Even though it was made in 1963 it still enthralls. 76 got out but only 3 made it, 2 Norwegians and 1 Dutchman. I must look up and see if any of them wrote a book about their escape. 

Saturday was to be our last full day in Montrondo and it was another quiet day. Once again I made one of our favourite dishes; "bacalhau à brás" a Portuguese dish made with salted cod, onion, stick like chips, eggs and parsley. No doubt when we are in Portugal on holiday in a couple of weeks time we shall be trying out the real thing. 

Yesterday's bacalhau à brás

We spent a lazy afternoon and dinner  - leftovers - was once again and for the last time as we are leaving today, on the front terrace which we don't use very much. I reflected on how normally at this time of year it would be far too cold to have dinner outside but this holiday has proved the opposite, owing, of course to the heat wave which is not over by far. 

Naughtily we watched 3 films in a row last night. I did not look at my watch but I'm sure we were in bed at past 2 in the morning. The first was a biopic called I am woman which tells the story of the Australian singer Helen Redit who I had never heard of. The second was Julieta by Almodovar. I loved it but was disappointed with the ending which was left open to interpretation. The last was A Letter to Eva, about Eva Peron's visit to Franco's Spain in the 60s' or around the time of The Marshall Plan from which Spain was not included. 

Today is Sunday, the day of our departure. As soon as I have published this post I will start packing. We have been away for 2 weeks now and it's been very relaxing but it is time to go home. 

So my friends, that's it for this week. Cheers till next time.

All the best Masha.