1 year since Russia invaded Ukraine, fun in the park, my fight with Movistar continues, Shrove Tuesday / Pancake day, Elliot and Juliet in Cáceres and other stories of the week.

 Sunday, 26th February, 2023

Me behaving like a child instead of a grandmother in a park last Sunday

Good morning friends and readers. How are you all? Enjoying life, I hope. 

February is nearly at its end. This week, of course, marks the 1st anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, for he and he alone is responsible for this. 

Like the majority of people in the world, last year on 24th February, I couldn't believe he had gone and done what we all feared. He didn't just want the Crimea and the Donbas region, he wanted to overtake the whole of Ukraine which he believes is part of "Mother Russia". It may have historical roots, but it became an independent country in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Frankly this is something Putin never got over. In his mind too he was afraid of Ukraine joining NATO as well as the EU and wanted to stop it. What else was in his mind apart from madness?  Last week I watched the excellent BBC documentary, "Putin vs the West" which details just how he built up his plan and how the US and European leaders tried to stop him but couldn't. Are they to blame? I don't really think so. The whole world changed after the invasion and didn't just affect Ukrainians who have suffered the most. Putin caused a world recession, inflation went up and things like food shopping is now at least 15% higher. How long can this go on? If in one year he hasn't managed to crush this incredibly valiant country, it is obviously thanks to the help of the EU and NATO countries in arming it  but also because of how Zelenski has handled it.  The  former comedian,  more than rose to the occasion. Frankly this man is remarkable in how he is fighting Russia, has gained support from all the western world and how he rallies his countrymen in their relentless fight against the invader. I suspect Putin totally underestimated the man. He is part of the reason Ukraine is still fighting and won't give up. 

Ukraine could not have a better leader to fight the war against Russia

For me he is the best politician I could imagine fighting Putin. But, he needs more help. Meanwhile, this week we heard that China is musing sending Russia weapons. Then we will be in another dimension entirely. Things are not looking good, one year on. With my heart and soul and my Russian roots, I only want to see a good end in this conflict for Zelenski and his brave people.  Slava Ukraini!

But last Sunday, I wasn't thinking about Ukraine. I have the luxury of freedom and no bombs or building crashing around me. I have the luck of living in the civilised western world with all its faults. I always feel for people, especially repressed women, who don't. 

It was another sunny day in February and Oli suggested we meet for coffee at Alverán (where else?). Not wanting to miss our walk, we went on foot. And there we were greeted with the sight of Oli and her two babies sitting outside in the sun. It was a lovely moment. Elliot who is such a chatterbox sat next to his grandfather who he always calls "booboo" - and I hope it stays that way. They were talking about numbers and he was saying them first in Spanish and then in English, with a Spanish accent, I'm afraid. Hopefully, that will be corrected not too long in the future. He was also telling him how that night he had not worn a nappy for the first time and that he is now a big boy! He hasn't worn a daytime nappy since last summer in Montrondo and it wasn't until last week he no longer needs one at night.  All minor progress steps are a wonder and children have to be praised so that they can  develop happily.  They were so engrossed they made for a lovely picture and this what I got. Don't tell me it isn't beautiful?

Elliot having a conversation with "Booboo"

Juliet hasn't taken to talking yet but she understands so much, both in English and in Spanish, bless her. Here they are all together last week at a lovely little family reunion at our favourite café, Alverán.

Eladio with Oli and the babies

It was such a lovely day that instead of going home we took our grandchildren to a nearby park; not the big flashy one near their house but a small one in the centre of Boadilla. It was practically empty and we had it to ourselves. It was also more adapted to Juliet's age and she loved it. What I loved was seeing an outdoor ludo table. You may not know that I am a huge ludo fan, the pity being that hardly anyone ever plays with me. Suzy later told me there were two men sitting at it smoking weed:( Oh, well).  I had to send a photo to my friend Amanda who got hooked on the game when she came to stay with me last September. When she comes back I shall take her there.

The outdoor ludo table I saw at a park in Boadilla last Sunday. I would love one of them. 

The kids had a grand time and so did I. Oli challenged me to go down the slide and that's what I did. I maybe be 66 but there is still the child inside me. She took a video to record the happy moment which you can see on my You tube channel. The still she took has to be this week's feature photo of me feeling happy. Happiness is in the small moments isn't it?

It was the swings Juliet loved most and here she is with her mother, Elliot and  "Booboo"; another lovely photo of our fun day in the park last Sunday.

Fun in the park last Sunday

We came home to have a quiet lunch and while the children played with my ornaments - damn it - I went to have some quiet time hoping to sleep. As usual, it eluded me. The rest of the day was as quiet as a Sunday afternoon could be.

I won't go into how I slept that night. Suffice it to say it was another sleepless night. I was glad it was Monday when I woke up and that my horrible night was over. 

We had errands to do, so off we went together. The first stop was to that godforsaken suburb town of Móstoles to mend Eladio's hearing aids; poor him. From there we went to the very swish El Corté Inglés in Pozuelo, a sort of Spanish answer to Debenhams. It exudes quality and the surroundings are "posh" - hate that word. We had an expensive coffee then went to pick up yet another Nespresso machine which I bought in the sales with a Corté Inglés voucher. It is for Montrondo. Eladio then suggested we go in search of a camping gas stove for our long trip in the spring. We can't be having 3 meals out a day so it will come in useful. He also wanted an anti theft device for the Mini. We didn't find either at Decathlon or Norauto and concluded that, as usual, the best place to purchase anything, in my opinion, is Amazon although I hate feeding a giant. 

We had lunch with Suzy and then spent a leisurely afternoon. I tried to sleep but it evaded me. I was **ackered but was still looking forward to my weekly Skype call with Amanda which we had missed last week. I do so miss her. She is like a sister to me as are Adele, Sandra and Kathy. No longer on that list is my dearest Fátima who I miss every day. Amanda also suffers from sleep deprivation so most of our conversation was about that. Later I made an appointment with a doctor friend of my urologist who I am seeing on 3rd March, this week. Ill let you know how I get on.

That night we watched the German film All Quiet on the Western Front which had won so many prizes at this year's Bafta awards.  After seeing it, it would not have been my choice. That name rings a bell for us all and I, wrongly, thought it was a British book but, no, it is German and recounts the terrible situation soldiers faced in World War 1. I did not like it at all - too many gruesome deaths and OMG, those trenches! The one good thing though is that it helped me fall asleep and that night I got a relatively better night's sleep.

The biggest news that day was also about war. In all secrecy, Joe Biden, the US President made a surprise visit to Kiev (sorry Kyiv) to show his support to Zelenski on the first anniversary of the invasion. I think that was pretty brave. Good for him. The Ukrainians need all the support they can get. He promised another 4 or 500 million dollars in weapons but no mention of jets for the moment.

Biden with Zelenski on Monday in a surprise and secret visit to Kyiv to show US support for Ukraine on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. 

Biden's main message was "The US will back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for as long as it takes". I was glad to hear that. 

I was awake at around 6.20 on Tuesday morning.  That day I had to face having an ultra scan on my bladder to see how well or badly it voids. I suspected the latter and the solution for that is not good; not good at all. It would involve self voiding once a day with a catheter. I prayed and hoped that my bladder retention was minor and wouldn't need such an invasive solution. Sorry if I keep telling you about my bl**** bladder but it is constantly on my mind and interrupts normal life, not to mention sleep. But I had great news. The ultra scan showed everything was in order and that there is no bladder retention. That  made me happy. Other things did not.

To increase the Wifi signal on the upstairs floor after recently changing from Yoigo to Movistar - what a battle - the new so called "smart wifi" range extender arrived. It felt like science fiction to set it up FGS. That meant a few frustrating phone calls to 1004 where we got some limited help. In the end it took 2 hours to set up and you know what? It didn't achieve its objective as our big new Samsung smart TV doesn't support a 5 Ghz Wifi network. The whole objective of changing operators was to get Movistar TV but the signal is not too good and we get kicked out a lot. I feel such a fool for even having contemplated changing operators. The experience has been a nightmare and the fight continues.  Damn them. But that wasn't the end of the story as you will read on. 

The best thing about Tuesday was that it was Pancake Day; i.e. Shrove Tuesday - Mardi Gras or Martes de Carnaval in Spain. It's the feast before 40 days of Lent and tradition has it in England that the day before Lent we make pancakes; to eat up all that's in the cupboards before the fasting period.  I broke my diet big time that evening when I made a plate full of them with the help of Lucy while Suzy looked on. There was a choice of fillings; honey, bananas, maple syrup (my favourite), spray whipped cream, fresh raspberries, Bonne Maman strawberry jam and most importantly for Suzy, "nocilla" - the Spanish equivalent of Nutella which all kids love in Spain. Eladio ate each of his with honey. (he is a honey freak).  I had mine with raspberrries, cream  and maple syrup and my daughter's favourite was "nocilla". Oh what a feast. This is what the table looked like.

Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday which in turn is the first day of Lent, a holy day of prayer and fasting. I remember at my catholic school, St. Joseph's College, how the priest would mark the girls' foreheads with a cross from ash. He didn't mark mine as I was not Catholic. 

I was in need of prayer that night when I found out my daughter Suzy is flirting with the Mormon Cult of all things. I have always been frightened of her joining a sect. I was so upset when I heard I just couldn't sleep. Maybe I shouldn't write about this here but oh my God, it hit me like a ton of bricks.But she is 38, nearly 39 and there is nothing I can to do stop her from going down the road of self destruction. But, oh, it hurts so much. 

For obvious reasons I got even less sleep that night than on my worst nights and woke up late after falling asleep after 3 in the morning. It was Ash Wednesday, a day of prayer and I reached out to my mother. I always do that when I feel desperate. She left this world in 1999 - 24 years ago - I just hoped she was listening. Who am I to know?

I was **ackered again and somehow got through the day but with little will. I am usually a very positive person but that day I was not me. I went through the motions, including our walk, ate my lunch with not much appetite and then couldn't sleep a siesta even though my body needed it so much. I ate three pieces of chocolate, reminding myself of my younger days when I would binge on chocolate. I did not feel guilty. I felt as if I deserved the chocolate and to hell with the diet I thought. I watched the end of Putin vs the West and started on the BBC's latest thriller "Gold". It whiled the time away until dinner with my husband. I fell asleep during the news, thank God, and that night although I woke up countless times, I managed quite a few hours sleep. I just hoped Thursday would be a better day. Luckily, it turned out it would be. 

Thursday was shopping day again. Yes again. It's amazing how much we buy and how soon we run out of everything. I buy countless punnets of expensive raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and they disappear like there is no tomorrow. On the topic of fruit (and veg), not only have the prices gone up but there is a shortage due mainly to bad weather in Spain and Morocco. Some supermarket shelves are pretty empty in the UK. I read also that once again Brexit is part of the problem as Spanish growers find it easier to sell to other countries rather than dealing with the paperwork now imposed. Haven't noticed any lack of anything here but have noticed how the prices have rocketed. The government is mulling on how to solve the problem like they did with petrol, although that subsidy finished at the beginning of the year. 

The temperature dropped that day and it was cold on our walk. For shopping I wore my new and incredibly warm Uniqlo coat. But first for coffee at Alveran, then to pick up my sleeping tablet prescription. Only then did we do our shopping first at Mercadona and Carrefour and lastly at BM. 

Meanwhile Telefonica/Movistar were in touch with me again. The only good thing is that as I am over 65 I get priority treatment. Plus I have made a lot of noise on social media they don't like. Finally I got them to agree to send a technician that afternoon. It was Enrique, the same one who installed it. He's a darling. He sorted out the new range extender and brought me another one. Within an hour we had perfect coverage in the whole house but it had cost me a fight of nearly a month. The range extenders and installation will cost me a pretty penny but I am already in touch with the social media people of the company and have warned them I will contest the charge. The reason is that their sales people duped me by telling me I would get a better router and better coverage than with Yoigo which turned out not to be true. Only with the range extenders is it better. So by the 7 pm, I had finally finished by fight with Movistar but envisage another one when I have to contest the invoice. 

But it was one big problem solved, one of them that had been robbing me of my sleep lately.  

Friday came and the sun was out although it was cold again. No doubt it had snowed in Montrondo and we would like to go again except that we have engagements next week we can't postpone.

Friday was, of course, the 1st anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine (still have it in my head that it is called The Ukraine). There was fear of a huge attack by the Russians but it never came. In Moscow there seemed to be no recognition of the event. I suppose there is nothing to celebrate as this war has become a war of attrition, something Putin never imagined. Ukraine had a population of some 43 million before the war. Since then about 19 million left the country while 10 million or so have returned. It is the largest figure for migration since WW2 and that is saying something. I feel for all those people displaced to foreign countries while their houses and country are being destroyed. I mentioned China supplying weapons to Russia - dangerous. Well, I think it was on Friday that the Chinese government has now offered to lead negotiations for peace; so long as the west stops sending weapons to Russia. I'm afraid, that no one can accept this condition. On the other hand I think China knows that if they do send weapons, they will become a pariah state too and will suffer sanctions like Russia. The western world is their main market so I imagine they will have to think this through very carefully. So what is the way out of this war of attrition? I think no one knows, not even Putin. Meanwhile Zelenski has deservedly become the most admired political leader in the world. It's funny to think he spent his whole career as a comedian and starred in a show about a run of the mill teacher becoming a President. But my goodness, against all odds, he has come up trumps. Again I say "Slava Ukraini".  

Friday for us was just another ordinary day without much to recount. Anything we did pales into comparison with world events.

I was up at 5.30 on Saturday morning. I spent at least 2 hours fighting with my Samsung Classic 4 watch and my Galaxy S20 as it had stopped connecting the day before. That had me on the phone to customer service who were useless. They suggested restoring my phone to factory settings or alternatively taking my devices to their only repair and tech centre in Madrid (only one?) on Saturday morning. Well, I trumped them by realising that what I had to do was reset the phone. Using You Tube tutorials - I managed to do it alone and felt victorious when all was working again. 

We had quite a few guests this weekend. Carmen, a vet arrived on Thursday to do a course in surgery at the UEM. Andre, my Swiss guest who I only saw once left on Saturday morning and Faz (Fazal) and his son arrived on Friday night from Canada.  Two more guests - repeat guests - came last night too so we were pretty full house. Faz has brought his son for 10 days football training at La Liga school which is 1km from here. They came needing to order a pizza and I had to help. I have never ordered a pizza from my phone but I did it with Just Eat. I felt quite victorious again. It came and my guests offered me some of their terribly cheesy pizza and I had to say I do not eat cheese - besides I had already had dinner. Faz remarked he found it puzzling the pizza didn't come already cut into pieces. I told him in Spain they don't cut pizzas as they don't know what size people want. He told he me liked that as being a Muslim he is wary if knives used to cut pizza may have accidentally also touched pork or something else that Muslims can't eat!!!! I thought this was an interesting piece of information to add to my ever widening knowledge of different cultures thanks to all our guests. 

This weekend we haven't had the pleasure of the company of our grandchildren. Oli and family went to stay at a house in Cáceres that belongs to Miguel's mother. They are still there I think and complaining the house is cold but they are well wrapped up. I got some photos of their stay there to share with you and who knows? Maybe, one day, when they are older, Elliot and Juliet  will read this and love seeing the photos.

Oli and family in Madrigal de la Vera this weekend

So we had a quiet day. Our walk was to the nearest shopping centre. On our way to have a coffee with churros, we bumped into Faizal, our Canadian guest of Fiji Island origin btw. He had just left his son at the La Liga and NBA school and I think he didn't really know what to do with himself. We invited him to have a coffee with us and we walked to the centre. That's when he told us he had lost his British wife 3 years ago and that he is a widower bringing up 3 adolescent children. My hear went out to him. 

Coffee with Eladio in the sun at the local "Churrrería" was the highlight of the day. Here is Eladio enjoying the moment.

Eladio in the sun yesterday - coffee time at the churros place

At the table next to us was a family with a lovely beagle - you probably know we used to breed them and that Norah who died last year was our last beagle. The family had a little girl who fell in love with Pippa. Pippa is very wary of children so I intervened to make sure nothing untoward happened. I remember as a child being bitten by a dog and it was a sausage dog but it never put me off loving dogs. It just taught me to be careful before touching one. So I showed the little girl how to gain a dog's confidence - feeding it with care and an open hand and also to stroke it from the side like you would a horse. It worked. 

Today is Sunday and we shall go on our walk again of course. They are so good for our soul, body and mind. It will be a very quiet Sunday but I am not complaining.

I have now come to the end of the stories of this week, the most important being the first anniversary of the terrible war with Ukraine. I fear very much that my blog will continue to report on it for a long time as I can see no easy end to it. Let me finish this post by saying again "Slava Ukraini" (glory to Ukraine).

Cheers friends and readers till next week.

Masha

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