Sunday 9th October, 2022
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| Enjoying a quiet read by the pool this week where I have spent most afternoons. |
Hello again everyone,
I hope this blog post finds you all well and that you've had a good week. Let me tell you about mine which is the main mission of my weekly blog as well you know.
Last Sunday was a busy day but also a family day. The house was full of guests and more were coming. I count my blessings every time I get a new booking, I really do. I started preparing lunch at around 7.30 am so that I would have time for our all important daily walk. It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperature reached 28ºc. It remained so all week which was another blessing. I thought our guests would all be hogging the pool but no, funnily enough, they didn't as they all had things to do away from the house. Thus we had the house to ourselves which was an advantage when Oli and family came for lunch, a family lunch which we would all enjoy in harmony and it's not always like that.
I made "cocido madrileño", a chickpea stew like dish with lots of different meats and veg. Then I had an interrupted siesta. I was expecting a new guest, a man from Sweden who actually lives in the Canary Islands. Lili, our inexperienced new housekeeper, sent me a message to say "they" had arrived - when he had only booked for one person. I imagined he would be outside and went to greet him only to find that Lili had received him and his son and had taken them through the garage and straight to their room. I was upset as I like to receive my guests and take them, logically, through the front door. The impression is very different. I had to gently tell Lili that next time she must warn me when guests arrive. The problem is we can't hear the gate bell from our room while she can from the ground floor. Most guests send me a Whatsapp to say they have arrived and out I go. But this time they rang the bell and Lili didn't warn me. Feeling rather stressed I rushed to their room - my father's room - greeted them and then took them on a tour of the house. They seemed to love it. They had arrived without transport hoping to be able to rent an electric scooter. They didn't find one and in the end rented a car from the company that I got to know when our horrible squatter Felipe Turover didn't pay. Diego brings the car personally and it is a lot cheaper than an airport rental.
When they arrived, Oli and co were all over the house which stressed me out too as I like guests to arrive to a quiet atmosphere with as few people around as possible. It shouldn't stress me but it does. The most important moment for guests to get a good impression is on arrival and it all went wrong last Sunday. I will do my best for it not to happen again.
I tried to resume my siesta afterwards but it was mission impossible so I went down to the kitchen to make a cup of decaf tea. I had it with an apple by the pool where I sat reading in total peace until around dinner time. Most of my afternoons this week have been spent reading quietly by the pool; lucky me. We had dinner on our own and all our guests were out.
Monday came and I was up at 5.45 which I suppose is better than 5 am haha. It was a quiet day which started off badly. Remember the lady from the US who kicked up a fuss when she couldn't get into the house and then checked out 2 days early requesting a refund? Well, unsurprisingly, she left me a horrible 2 star review. I tried to get Airbnb to remove it but they wouldn't budge. I refused to let it spoil my day and thankfully as I have so many good reviews - with 3 straight 5 star ones that very day - my status as Super Host was not affected. Being the beginning of October, that day I was awarded Super Host status again which boosted my morale quite a lot.
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| Super Host again - corresponding to the period 1st July - 1st Oct 2022 |
There will always be awkward and picky guests as there are awkward and picky people. I just have to learn to live with it.
My trials and tribulations though were nothing compared to those of the new PM in the UK, Liz Truss and her now very unpopular Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng - I can never remember his name and keep thinking it's Quasimodo (hahahaha). As I'm sure you know, last week they announced a mini budget, full of good intentions on tax cuts but with no plan for how to fund them. Even though the 45p tax cut on salaries of over 170k a year, was only a tiny part of the budget, it is what hit the market the hardest and made the pound tumble, mortgages rise and pension funds lose their value. Last week was a huge economical storm in the UK. Despite the backlash and turbulence, both the PM and her Chancellor were sticking to their guns until Monday morning at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. In the end the duo with an "A" level in Economics, to quote my friend Amanda, just had to make a U turn.
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| The duo with "an 'A' level in Economics - at the Conservative Party in Birmingham |
As the new Chancellor announced it, his words were "we heard you". God damn it, why on earth did they ever try to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of the poor basically? I personally think that Liz Truss will never be forgiven for her very wrong mini budget. What a way to start her premiership. I wonder how well she is sleeping. We were warned though that she would be even worse than Boris Johnson and maybe she is. I think the only outcome here is a general election and for Labour to win - they lead now in the polls - as there is no one else fit to lead the country in the Tory Party in my opinion. Can you think of anyone? I can't. They are done I am afraid.
Who was having a difficult day too was my daughter Olivia. She was reporting from the Spanish Federation of Football. The coach of the women's national team, Jorge Vidal, was in the eye of the hurricane as 15 members of the team had refused to take part in important upcoming matches. They sent emails to the Federation saying they would not play until the "situation" they found themselves in was reversed. The interpretation here is that they want Vidal to be replaced. Since then many rumours surfaced on how badly the coach treats the team members. But no one had uncovered what was behind their refusal until Olivia did. Good for her is all I can say, although she would pay for her work with a backlash from the very powerful Spanish football federation. This last weekend while we were at the park, Oli talked to "sources" from the Federation who confirmed the coach was " a controlling despot who made the lives of those under him who stole his thunder impossible". Olivia could not reveal her source as the person said that if the Federation found out he or she had talked, it would be the end of his or her career in football. Before launching her report, Oli got the go ahead from her bosses on what she was going to say. She knew too that as a journalist, she has the right to protect her source. Her source, no doubt, was trembling but did ask Olivia to tell the story as otherwise no one else would. None of the girls can because they have all signed confidentiality agreements in their contracts. Basically their tongues are tied. So Olivia did the job for them.
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| Oli uncovering the women's football scandal |
You can watch her here in what was later conceived as a very hard attack against the football coach. As soon as RTVE posted the report, it went viral. Never before has a report from my daughter caused such a stir on Twitter. These are just some of the numbers.
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| Seen by 110.000 people, retweeted 582 times and liked by 1.377 people! |
The story was then taken up by a big national sports newspaper,
El Mundo Deportivo, and the big regional paper,
La Voz de Galicia. Oli was in the spotlight and she didn't like it. I told her it went with the job and she had done a good deed by uncovering the scandal. Of course the first to react and to do so menacingly was the Football Federation itself. They were furious and wanted to know who her source was which of course she wouldn't reveal. But she felt threatened. They were furious and as I explained to my worried daughter, I could understand their fury. No doubt they can control the Spanish football journalists but not a wild card from a non sports programme on RTVE: Of course RTVE is the number one channel in this country and the report was scathing. One thing I knew was that they didn't have a leg to stand on but they have a lot of power. I told Oli to stand strong, and not to let their reaction affect her so much. I also told her I was proud of her. Luckily her programme was one hundred percent on her side.
My day was tiddly winks in comparison. We went on our walk, I made lunch, I received a new guest - David from Georgia who brought me more wine and a lovely basket of sweet Georgian delights. It turns out he owns a blueberry farm in his home country. How exotic is that! He was here to see his son who he brought here a month ago to attend the La Liga and NBA school. He also came to visit a fruit fair in Madrid which figures if he has a blueberry farm. Called Fruit Attraction it is the biggest in the sector. I love fruit and if I wasn't so lazy would have gone too. David later brought us a punnet of blueberries. Thanks! Here by the way are his lovely gifts.
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| Gifts from Georgia |
That day as most days this week, I generally followed my normal routine. Once back from our walk I found Suzy making her brunch or late breakfast. She had it sitting next to darling Pippa on the grass outside the kitchen. I thought it made for a super photo to share with you.
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| Suzy relaxing in the sun and having breakfast on the grass with Pippa next to her |
Lucky me, I spent the afternoon by the pool. With me were both Phoebe, our cat, now aged at least 15, and, of course, Pippa - aged 7, who never leaves my side. Peace between them has been a long time coming. Now they respect each other but at a distance as you can see in the photo.
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| Phoebe, our cat, and Pippa, our dog, lying by the pool together at a respectable distance |
I was privileged to be by the pool with them on my own. I don't know where my guests were that day but I can tell you where they were all from; Holland, Algeria, Sweden and Georgia. The next day I would add Chile to the list which makes for quite a cocktail.
The highlight of my day was a Skype call with my dear friend Amanda who came to stay with us a short while ago. Neither of us will ever forget the wonderful time we had together, especially the glorious 6 days in Asturias.We took up from where we had left off and as always, had loads to talk about, including Liz Truss' 'A' Level in Economics. Amanda is convinced the UK is going to the dogs and told me she could not stop telling everyone how marvelous Spanish infrastructure is compared to the UK. I didn't know what she was talking about but of course she meant our motorways and above all our health system. Before hanging up we both agreed she must come out once a year. In any case I will be seeing her when I go to Yorkshire in November.
The day ended watching the news in bed - the dire state Putin has put the world into, how he is losing the war and the Ukraine Army is regaining part of the territories he has annexed. Very shocking too is what is going on in Iran. You will know there are disturbances there after a young girl, Mahsa Amini, a 22 year old Kurd (not Masha like me) was arrested by the Morality Police (come on!) for not wearing her veil properly; i.e completely covering her hair.
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| Mahsa Amini killed for not wearing a veil that completely covers her hair |
You will all know
she later died, most probably having been beaten up by the horrible Morality Police. This incident has been the catalyst for demonstrations which have become violent thanks to how the police are handling it - by shooting people! My heart goes out to Iranian women, it really does. Hopefully, one day, they will be freer. I know that any woman reading this from a relatively free country will feel the same. Where you are born is a total lottery in life and nearly always determines your future. It is not the same to be born in England or Spain as a woman is it is in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Yemen. For both men and women the worst country to be born in these days is North Korea. Russia, too, now, is high on the list. I think about how my own Mother was born in Rome when her family fled the Russian Revolution and all the consequences for her family. Her rich and aristocratic mother could never have imagined when she became pregnant with my mother that she would marry my father, an Englishman or that she would have great grandchildren in Spain. Such is the force of war and politics.
Right now too, over 700.000 young Russian men have fled the country to escape conscription to fight in a war they don't believe in. God bless them. I wish them a happy future away from Mother Russia.
Tuesday came and it was another warm and pleasant day for me - not for Iranian women or young Russian men. It was a busy day too. After our morning walk, Eladio and I parted. He went off on various errands to do with house and garden maintenance and I went to do the shopping. Before going to Mercadona and Carrefour I had a coffee on my own at Alverán and damn it, there was bloody Felipe (Turover). Thankfully, he was sitting with his back to me. I came home with a very heavy load of shopping but Eladio was back by then and took it all into the kitchen. We literally filled our huge fridge with mostly fruit and veg. It has gone up so much. I have read that the ubiquitous supposedly low cost supermarket Mercadona has put up its prices by 16% and boy did I notice it.
I was out again as soon as lunch was over as I had an appointment with Caty, my hairdresser, at 15h, a dreadful time of day for me - when the news is on and prior to a siesta. I think I was asleep most of the time when Caty was dying my roots, cutting and drying my hair. The bill came to a paltry 17 euros. Unbelievable to think that before finding her I used to spend around 70 euros for the same service. What a find and she is good.
I came home feeling very tired but was unable to sleep. Thus I was soon down by the pool with my cup of decaf tea and my daily apple. Keeping me company again were Phoebe and Pippa, bless them. It was so warm that day - reaching 30ºc - that once again we had dinner outside. I love making meals when the fridge is full, don't you? Just after our dinner, our latest guest, Macarena, from Chile arrived. She had come to bring her 14 year old son to study at the new sports school,
ESC La Liga & NBA which is just 1.6km from our house, virtually around the corner. It is home to future athletes and lucky kids come from all over the world. She is our second guest from the recently opened sports school and I hope to have more. Once she had settled in, I was able to retire to our room.
I didn't sleep very well that night, waking up countless times. In the end I was up at 5.30 am on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a quiet day with not much to tell really. The highlight was going out for a coffee with Suzy after our daily walk. Suzy took me to an ice cream parlour she loves but I swear I only had a coffee although I did take a look at the ice cream. As you know it is my favourite dessert.
Thursday was a day when things went wrong. It was also a day when I got new pains, this time around my throat which I know are from wind. Why I wonder? But the day started off well. One piece of news I liked in The Times that morning was on the top names for babies in the UK. I was stunned to read that Olivia, the name of my youngest daughter, has been top of the table for 6 years.
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| Olivia is the most popular girl's name in the UK |
It seems to be top of the tables too in the UK and Australia. Wow! When we chose our daughter's name, it's only claim to fame came from Olivia Newton John and it was quite original in the early 80's. Oli as we call her, never liked her name much as it was often confused with the word "olive". Well, of course, as that is supposedly its origin which also means peace - as in olive branch. The top boy's name is Noah which overtook the masculine equivalent of Olivia - Oliver. I loved the fact that George - my brother's name - comes 3rd. It was more unusual when my brother was born. I know my mother chose it because of George and the Dragon as she became such an Anglophile when she came to England and later married my father. In England its first public use can be found in a character - a beautiful sought after heiress - in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I wonder why it has become so popular though more recently. Google had the answer. It seems its popularity soared thanks to an American TV show called Scandal where the lead character is a powerful woman called Olivia Pope. Never heard of it. We chose the name not just because we liked it but because it works perfectly in both Spanish and English which was our main requisite. I rushed to tell Oli who was at work. She was stunned and her comment was "Grandpa would have liked that piece of news and would probably have told me". She is spot on. My father was a very keen etymologist and would have been as tickled pink at this article as I was. . It's funny how parents have the responsibility of naming a person who may or may not like their name later. There are some funny names out there that some people must hate. But there are also some names that have become outmoded. I mean, imagine being called "Fanny" if you are a woman or "Dick" or "Randy" if you are a man today; all names which were perfectly acceptable in their day but not now? There is a trend today to come up with the most original names but my warning is be careful as your kid may not like theirs later on in life or the names may become socially unacceptable too. Luckily for me, my daughter loves her name Olivia now. I love it too.
I told Eladio about this on our walk as he had been the one to come up with the name Olivia in the first place. So far, so good. Our walk was good, my coffee was good but at about 12ish when I was in the throes of making lunch, our young couple from Holland - the digital nomad - got locked in their room - Suzy's old room. They had complained the handle was stiff and they were right. Eladio tried to fix it and he did but it was obvious the door needed a new handle. The loo in the same room needed a new part in the cistern too which had Eladio busy. I found a locksmith who came recommended and was at the house by 1.45. We also asked him to change another door handle and more importantly, the lock on the front door which has been stiff and working badly ever since our horrible squatter tried to break the lock one night in his fury. Carlos the locksmith would come back in the afternoon to change both the lock and the door handles. Great I thought and got on with my day. It did mean of course, I would have to tell the occupants of our 4 guest rooms that I would have to change their keys. It turned out I would have to do it twice.
I couldn't sleep after the news so took my book to the pool. This week I have been reading the highly publicised The Courtiers by Valentine Low, the Times Royal correspondent. What an interesting read it makes. On the subject of books, I am not high brow I'm afraid so when this year's Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded that day to the 82 year old French woman writer from Normandy, Annie Ernaux, I, of course, had never heard of her. I think I am not alone. She is the 16th French writer to win the most coveted prize in literature.
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| This year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature - 82 year old French woman Ennie Ernaux |
The Nobel Academy awarded it "for the courage and clinical acuity which which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory". Put like that I don't think I will ever buy one of her books. She apparently writes about daily life in France and a lot of autobiographical stuff about her sex life - not interested in that either. I am something of a Philistine when it comes to my reading choices and this is obviously not mine, but am always interested to read who has won the prize.
At about 5.30 while Eladio was at the plumbers to get a spare part for the broken cistern, I left my book to join Suzy and went to spend time with Oli and family at the wonderful and magical Miguel Angel Blanco Park near their house. It was great to see Elliot and Juliet enjoying their time there.
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| Spot Elliot on this spectacular slide |
I stayed for about 1.5h and was keen to get home to make sure the locksmith had done the job and give the new keys to our guests. I was home just on time to pay him and the bill was quite hefty. When he left Eladio did too, to make more copies of the new key of new front door lock. I dutifully gave out 3 of them. Later when we were going to bed we went to check the door and we realised the lock was faulty and not working. I was rather cross and having wind in my throat and chest did not help. We rang the locksmith who promised to come the next day. But then we had the problem of telling our guests some of whom were out. Thus we had to leave the kitchen door open for them to come in. You see, as I said earlier, Thursday was a day when things went wrong. It was in the evening the new throat and chest pains got worse and I could hardly make dinner. Suzy made it and thankfully I could swallow but I did not enjoy my meal. I kept worrying it was more than wind but then when I started belching/burping (hate those words), I felt slightly better.
If things went wrong for me, on Thursday things went very wrong when a
video went viral in Spain. It was of an all male Catholic run Hall of Residence from the Complutense University in Madrid - (Colegio Mayor Elias Ahuja) where one man shouts verbal sexist abuse to the all women Hall of Residence, Colegio Mayor Santa Mónica across the road. Then, as if choreographed, all the windows of the Hall of Residence open and the man shouting is joined by the rest of the residents.
The language is disgusting and degrading and so unacceptable in this day and age that it has reached the front pages of leading media across the world and so it should. You can see it
here if you have the stomach to watch it. Many Spanish institutions were quick to condemn the macho behaviour and that became pretty viral too. What worried me were comments from the girl students, the receivers of this outrageous sexist behaviour. They told the media it was just a joke and a tradition - apparently it happens every year during Freshers' week - If it's a joke, it's a sick one. These women, in their defense of the sexist attacks just show us how some women today still normalise sexist macho behaviour. I am disgusted.
I woke up on
Friday morning wind free but wondering if it would come back. It is awfully painful. I also wondered if the locksmith would repair his botched job of changing the front door lock. What a mess. He did come and owned up to the new lock being faulty. Thankfully within two hours he had brought and installed a new one and now all is working. I was on a high that morning, having received a reservation for our apartment in Santa Pola this weekend the night before and having woken up to to two new bookings for our house this month for the few days the rooms are free. I also got one for a week in January which really surprised me.
Apart from our walk I did not venture out again and am happy to say I was pain free that day or almost. I spent a lot of it reading The Courtiers which is interesting if you can keep up with the characters. It reminded me of when I had to read "100 years of solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez as part of my literature course at Nottingham University. There are 6 generations of families and so many characters there is a list of them at the beginning of the book - the biggest I have ever encountered. I spent most of my time going back to the beginning to find out who I was reading about and gave up in the futile attempt.
While I read I admired my reading corners and took photos of them to share on Instagram - the thing to do these days. These are my two particular favourites and both are by the pool. I am so lucky.
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| My favourite reading corners |
From there I read the news too and was happy with the choice for this years
Nobel Peace Prize. There were three joint winners this year and all related to the invasion of the Ukraine. It went to the advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus who probably wasn't even informed as he is in a high security cell in a horrible prison in Belarus. It went also to the valiant Russian human rights organisation Memorial and to the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties. The war is not going well for Putin who turned 70 on Thursday. Since his announcement for the mobilisation of 300.000 men, his popularity has gone down. Also the fact that news is reaching Russia that he is not winning the war is not going to help his morale. For his party, he invited partners in crime, the Belarus dictator Lukashenko who gave him a tractor and the President of Tajikistan (try finding that on the map), Emomali Rahmon, who gave him a crate of melons!! As he doesn't have many friends these days, he obviously kept his birthday party small. Blast the man and I mean blast. But actually his main birthday present would be given to him the next day and it would not make him happy.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden, warned that the world faced "Armageddon" if the Russian leader uses a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. He said just what I thought; that the world is as close as it has come to a nuclear disaster in 60 years. He is referring to the "Bay of Pigs" - the missile threat from Cuba - in JF Kennedy's time. Will he or will he not carry out his threats and if he does, the even bigger question, is how the west or Nato will respond? I doubt they would engage but they would certainly equip Ukraine better to retaliate and then we do have "Armageddon". It is not looking good.
Friday turned to Saturday and that morning we said goodbye to our Swedish guests - a father and son who swapped their life in Sweden to go and live in the Canaries. They told me life in Sweden had gone down the hill and how violence has escalated there and that they preferred a quieter life; one with a better climate too. They told me that Sweden has the highest gun homicide rate in Europe which I found difficult to believe. I checked it and actually Sweden comes second after Croatia. I told them the whole world usually thought of Sweden as as the perfect country. They dared to differ. As someone who is very familiar with Sweden from much business travel there, this was very disturbing to hear.
It was another very quiet day for me but not for the Ukrainian war. Yesterday the very symbolic 12 mile long Kerch bridge which unites the Crimean Peninsula with mainland Russia was blown up. This was Putin's real birthday present which will have made him even more furious. After all he illegally annexed the Crimea in 2014 and of course the Ukrainians want it back. They haven't claimed ownership of the explosion but it is very likely that it is the work of elite Ukrainian forces.
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| The partially blown up Crimean bridge - the Ukrainians dubbed as Putin's 70th birthday present. |
That's what the Ukrainians dubbed it - his birthday present and a poisoned one too - and threatened "what's next in line?" Memes on Twitter included a photo of the bridge with the Marylyn Monroe version of Happy Birthday to You to President Kennedy - ouch. This bridge was inaugurated by Putin himself to great fanfare in 2018 and is the main supply route for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So even though it was not completely blown up yesterday it will be a huge blow to Putin's morale. He is probably thinking about revenge as he eats the melons from the President of Tajikistan or tries out Lukashenko's tractor.
When I read the news yesterday I was reminded of my own family's flight from Russia. It was in 1920 after the family had escaped from estate to estate that they reached Sebastopol - a major port on the Black Sea in Crimea. From there they supposedly boarded one of George V's last rescue ships for Russians fleeing the Revolution. There was no bridge in that time of course. But history repeats itself and Russians flee the country again don't they? What a bloody history the country has in both senses of the word bloody. And it's all so damned pointless and ruins lives in its wake.
Our Russian speaking Georgian guest, David, who told me it was "not a good time to be Russian", left that morning. We hope he comes back because he is a very special person. The Swedes left too and yesterday we only had two guests left. Today they will all be gone and we won't have anyone else until tomorrow.
Thus I had another quiet day where we followed our usual routines. I think I am being lazy but Eladio says that I am not as I am working - on our little hospitality business hahahaha.
Today we will have Olivia and family for lunch and I have planned a barbecue except that we have run out of food and will have to do more shopping. It's amazing how much fruit and veg we get through.
You will hear about it next week. Next week we will have the pleasure of the visit of our dear friends Kathy and Phil from Yorkshire and then our lives will no longer be quite so quiet hahahaha.
Cheers till then. All the best, Masha.
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