St. Valentine's, route planning for our trip to Georgia and Armenia, grandparent duty, sleepless nights and other stories of the week.

Madrid, 19th February, 2023

This year's St. Valentine's dinner photo

Hi again friends and readers. We are now past the half way mark of February and I just can't wait for spring. I love it when nature revives the green, flowers, trees, shrubs, ... Our garden this time last Sunday looked pretty forlorn after all the pruning and trimming. It seems a miracle that soon everything will be green again.

It was sunny but cold on our walk that day but we came back feeling refreshed. Our walks are essential for our health. It was then that we finally came up with a date for the start of our trip - the trip of our life time. We shall set off around 21st April and the first objective will be to stop in Venice, a city we have never visited. We talked about all the indumentary we shall need and I hope it all fits in the Mini.

The day was quiet with just one guest and no family visits. We had a lovely lunch though - my famed "cocido madrileño" - chickpea based stew, the perfect winter dish.

If Sunday was quiet and relaxing, Monday was quite the opposite. I was up at 5.45 and had promised myself that that day I would write a letter to the Convent which my Aunt Olga built in 1944 in Sofia. As you know, part of our trip will be an important stop there for more gathering of my my mother's family roots. I wrote it in English and then google translated it into Russian. For the envelope I had to put the address in Bulgarian and again Google Translate helped.  I really hope the new mother superior will answer. I'll keep you posted. 

Then it was time to get ready to go to the final session with my urologist. Eladio went with me, bless him. I have to do more tests so my sessions are not over, damn it. Our errands afterwards led us to pick up a fine for driving in the centre of Madrid in my Mini - 100 euros, thank you very much. 

In the afternoon I got an urgent message for help from Simon, our young padel player from Sweden. He was ill so I had to play nurse and mother at the same time, holding him while he was sick poor boy. We took his temperature and I gave him a paracetamol and then when he felt better and slightly hungry I made him his dinner; rice with lean ham and an apple. I made his breakfast too the next day and finally by Wednesday morning he was better. He left on Thursday after more than 2 weeks here. He was a wonderful guest and I hope he will be back. 

Monday afternoon was hectic as we had to look after the kids. They are lovely but a bit of an endurance test. Miguel picked them up sooner than expected so I had some quiet time before dinner. I did miss my weekly Skype call with Amanda though. 

Tuesday was St. Valentine's Day and perhaps the wrong day  to go and have a blood test. I hate going on an empty stomach so had to cheat and had a cup of milky coffee - hope that didn't alter the results. Usually after a blood test on an empty stomach, I feel bad for the rest of the day. Add to that the ingredient of so much lost sleep, I  felt absolutely drained. Once home I continued my battle with Movistar (aka Telefónica) - over the miserable router they have installed which doesn't have a strong enough signal to reach all of the house. I was promised a better one than with Yoigo and they lied and I am cross. They want me to pay for a faster one and I have been refusing so far. Let the battle continue

Our walk that day was to the local shopping centre to have a coffee together and in my case a "porra" - a thicker kind of "churro". It was to cheer me up and I argued I could have one as it was St. Valentine's Day. I have been lax about my diet since the day before my birthday but am on track again  well, more or less.  All I seem to have achieved after Christmas is to stay at the same weight, not losing even a pound. I must be more strict. I must. 

It was a cold but sunny day and I long for warmer temperatures. Lunch was leftovers and then there was no siesta again as we had to look after the children once more. Oli brought Juliet at around 4.15 and Suzy went to get Elliot at 5. We spent the time with them in the library lounge or toy lounge. It is or was also called the "cat lounge" but now that Phoebe is not with us, this name is no longer applicable. Suzy fed them fruit and biscuits and there were crumbs everywhere as well as sticky fingers. 

With the children on Wednesday afternoon - feeding them and keeping them busy

That day they behaved quite well with no tantrums or Elliot hitting his sister. He does tend to take her toys away from her though or rather snatch any of his she might have got hold of - poor Juliet.

Juliet had come back from school with her face painted - probably something to do with St. Valentines and Elliot had a heart sticker on his hand. Juliet did look funny. We put some baby cartoons on with English nursery rhymes and she danced to the music, clapping her hands. 

Juliet dancing - notice her painted face

Meanwhile their mother, Oli, sent a photo of herself about to start her class. 

Olivia teaching this week

She told me later they are 3 hours long and quite tiring. Of course they are but I know she is doing a good job and I'm sure her students love her.

Miguel picked the kids up earlier than we had thought, so again we had some quiet time before dinner. I was so tired I was tempted to cancel our St. Valentine's dinner but made the effort not to. It's a special date and I couldn't ruin it could I? In the end I was pleased we went. My choice was El  Jardín de la Máquina where I went recently to have dinner with Julio and Augustin. It used to be called "La Leyenda" and I have been many times. It's very near my old Nokia offices and I have been to company events there, lunches with friends and even my goodbye Nokia dinner was held there. It's a nice place.

My husband is not into buying me flowers - I love them but he thinks they are not worth the money as they wither so soon. I totally disagree so was delighted when the maître handed me a beautiful long stemmed red rose. I asked him for a photo. He took a few and they are not good but at least record this year's St. Valentine's dinner. The tiredness on my face seems almost palpable. I have a feeling I look like my mother in it when she was in her 60's. 

This year's St. Valentine's dinner photo - not one of our best

The food was wonderful as El Jardín de la Máquina is quite a top class restaurant. I went for small scallops, artichokes (my favourite vegetable) and lamb chops. Eladio made a beeline guess what for? Tripe, would you believe? He loves offal which I, obviously, do not. 

We were home to a very quiet house at around 10.45 with only Pippa up to greet us. That night, at last I got some decent sleep even if I did wake up 3 times. But I was less drained on Wednesday. We had nothing planned for that day and, hurray, would be free of grandparent duty until Thursday and Friday

That morning we began working properly on the route from Madrid to Georgia to include the places we want to visit on our way. It's not about reaching Georgia and Armenia, it's also about all the stops we will be making. That morning too I made our first accommodation reservations. We decided the first night would be near Barcelona, in the seaside town of Blanes where I booked a room. The next night will be spent on the Côte d'Azure and I found a lovely place in the medieval town of Biot but I haven't booked it yet. From there we will probably travel to Genoa and then to Venice. The next day I would plan our route through the Balkans.

It was a quiet day without the babies. We went on our walk in the sunshine, had lunch with Suzy and a quiet afternoon and evening. The biggest news of the day in the UK  was the surprise resignation of the Scottish independence firebrand Nicola Sturgeon who, it seems, has had enough of politics. Good luck to her successor. 

Thursday was the day Simon was leaving and on Friday both Pilar and Javier came. Both are students and Pilar is a regular. She studied journalism but is now doing a degree in Pharmacy; the idea being to inherit and run her parent's chemist shop. She seems very determined.   

That morning I planned the Balkan part of our trip. It's looking like this at the moment but it keeps changing. It will probably change even more once we hit the road. It's difficult to fit in all the countries going there and coming back and I think in the end we will have to skip some. But which? That is the question. 

The possible route through the Balkans from Venice to Sofia

I will not be making more than 2 accommodation bookings until we are on the road as we want to be free to change our minds if we want to go off route. 

Thursday was shopping day and another day of looking after the babies in the afternoon. I actually like our shopping trips together, especially the coffee at Alverán where one of the waitresses, Rahma - from North Africa, makes my coffee to perfection.

Babysitting began at 4.15 when Oli dropped off Juliet. I spent an hour with her on my own trying to entertain her while keeping her away from my ornaments - mostly my china ducks and miniature houses. I resorted to a baby cartoon programme on Netflix. The nursery rhymes made her fall asleep which wasn't my intention as if she sleeps in the afternoon she won't sleep at night. Oh dear. Eladio took over at 5.15 just before Suzy brought Elliot. He had been on his first school trip. It was to a farm and I only got out of him that he had seen a horse. He pronounced the "h" like a heavy Spanish "j" which I tried to correct. We fed them fruit. Here is a photo of Juliet eating a strawberry. But, like me, she prefers raspberries which we also gave her. 

Eladio and Juliet - eating a strawberry - during our baby sitting session on Thursday afternoon. 

When we didn't know what else to do to keep them entertained, my husband  took them to the swings where Elliot fell asleep too because of the rocking I suppose. I had to wake him up by offering him a sweet hahahaha. Thankfully at around 6.30, Miguel arrived to relieve us of  our grandparent baby sitting duties.

Before dinner I watched a bit more of Better - the detective series set in Leeds about a "bent cop" - are there so many of them really?  It's a sort of poor substitute of Happy Valley. The main actress Leila Farzard is actually of Persian origin and has never lived in Yorkshire. Forgive me but her accent is just not up to it. If you are going to do a series set in Yorkshire then the actors have to be credible. Even so, it's not a bad series but is no way a substitute for Happy Valley. 

It was then that my urologist rang me after having spoken to a doctor friend who specialises in sleep problems, like mine. He prescribed me what seems like a very heavy drug - Noctamid (1mg). It belongs to the family of drugs called benzodiazepines aka "benzos". I looked it up of course and read the prospectus which made me very wary. I decided I would try it for 2 nights to see how I got on but I know myself. As soon as I pop one in my mouth I will worry about what it is doing to my body which in turn will make my mind race and elude sleep.  I do not want to take drugs to sleep but if I don't get enough sleep it will harm  my health in many ways. Oh dear, we all have our crosses to bear don't we? On the bright side, I got my blood test results which I shared with Dr. Litton. But Eladio had a look first and both coincided they were splendid results. The only thing that was a bit low was Vitamin D, the so-called "sun vitamin" which is surprising as I live in a sunny country. I shall be taking a supplement for that. I was pleased there was nothing untoward such as high cholesterol or glucose. 

Friday came, the last day of grandparent duty for this week. I slept badly, less than 5 hours and got up at 5.15. I wondered if when I took the new pills my sleep might get better ...... Would it?

 I woke up to two new bookings, one for our house in Asturias in August which is now nearly full and one for this house for next week. A chap from Canada is bringing his son to the exclusive La Liga and NBA school which opened a year ago. He will be staying for 10 days. I got two more that day; 4 in one day. I now have about 12 for our house in El Cueto and 10 for Santa Pola; amazing so early in the year. New bookings always lift my spirits.

What didn't lift my spirits but rather boiled my blood was another  ****dy traffic fine that day This time it was attributed to the Volvo and was for 200 euros for driving through a red light. The car is in my name but I was not the driver. The awful thing is that they have taken 4 points from my driving licence. Now you see why I am cross? The date of the traffic offense is 17th December and the time is 15.46. It's difficult to remember where we were on that day but the time is a time we are always at home. The place is somewhere in Villaviciosa. I did a bit of investigating - on my blog, the best place - and the culprit turns out to be Eladio who was in a hurry to go to a demonstration damn it.  Anyway, .....

I spent the morning waiting for Telefónica to come and install a new router -  I finally caved in -  They were supposed come at 09.30 but didn't arrive till 12.30 which meant I had to sacrifice my walk that day. Then the guy told me I didn't need a new router; that what  I needed was a good 5 mhz range extender which they promptly sold me. Hopefully it will improve the signal upstairs. So my story with changing operators is not yet over. It felt like a uselessly spent morning. 

I did have time to cook though and that day made my new signature dish; stuffed shoulder of lamb, followed by baked apples with orange juice, cinnamon, sultanas and walnuts - great combination. 

Stuffed shoulder of lamb - stuffed with breadcrumbs, pistachios and dried apricots - delicious and so easy to make. 

Oli arrived with Juliet and Elliot at 4.15 and even though I was trying to catch some shut eye, little Elliot came and knocked on my door. He wanted some of my spearmint chewing gum which he is allowed to have as long as he doesn't swallow it. It was a sunny day so we took them to the park which we thought they would enjoy more and they did, especially Elliot. He loves the helter skelter type slides. Juliet who weighs 12 kilos, prefers to be in her grandfather.- Booboo's arms, poor chap. Here are some photos of our time in the park and what a wonderful park it is and just round the corner from where Oli and family live.

Time in the park with the babies on Friday afternoon

By the time Miguel arrived at 6.30, both babies were getting tired and it was time for them to go home. We said our goodbyes. On our way home we stopped at the chemist to get my new sleeping tablets. I had also ordered Melatonin (1.9g) which many people have been telling me to take - it's the natural sleep hormone. I did try it once and it didn't work but I thought I would give it a try again. 

I fell asleep naturally at 21.50, very early for me but I was shattered after less than 5 hours sleep the night before. So this is what happened. I woke up  at 23.45 just under two hours later and knew I wouldn't be able to continue without help so took the Melatonin. It was strange. I thought I hadn't slept but I did and had some very strange dreams, including having to wipe myself on a staircase and having a phone call with the Queen. According to my smart watch I then slept from 23.54 until 02.14 and woke up feeling wide awake. That is when I took the new pill, the benzo called Noctamid (1mg). I had read up about benzodiazepines and they seemed very very strong and even rather dangerous. I took one pill and tried to keep calm. I was worried I would end up sedated. That didn't happen. From that pill I got 2h 20 minutes sleep when you are supposed to get at least 7. I took it at 02.14 but it only kicked in at 02.55. I woke up again at 04.29. It was too early to get up, so feeling desperate I took my old sleeping pill - somnovit (alprazolam). It kicked in at 05.19 and the effect lasted just 1h 12 minutes. At 06.31 I finally gave in. I think I shall have to visit my Doctor's friend, the sleep expert, as nothing seems to work and I am desperate.  Here is the chart.

How I slept using a variety of pills from Friday night to Saturday morning

On Saturday I was shattered once again, damn it. My friends Andy and Amanda commiserated with me. I spent a lot of the day researching chronic insomnia. Exercise is vital so we went on our walk but I was naughty and had a "porra" again which sort of defeats the object.

After lunch, Eladio left me to catch up on some sleep on my own while he got on with the task of painting the side of the drive so he can see where he is going while reversing in the dark. I took some melatonin just before lunch hoping it would help me sleep a siesta but it didn't work. There was nothing for it but to read and then watch more telly. They say screens are not good for sleep but at night it is the "telly" that helps me fall asleep. I finished Better and then started on a  BBC documentary series . Putin vs the West, It's on the iPlayer which only UK residents or those with a fake VPN, like me, can see,  but it's also on You Tube. This is probably because what it reveals is so important that the BBC want the rest of the world to have the opportunity to watch it. Well documented, it explores how Western leaders got it wrong, especially when Putin annexed the Crimea and a host of other things. Highly recommendable. 

Dinner was just Eladio and myself, no sign of guests, Suzy or babies. I had a glass or red wine - also helps me to fall asleep. There was no TV entertainment for me that night except for the news - all about the aftermath of the deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and the war in Ukraine which is nearing a year since Russia invaded. While Eladio watched a film, I took my usual tablets and soon fell asleep. I woke up a few times but promptly fell asleep again and believe it or not got up this morning at 6.21 - total sleep count was 7h 9 minutes. I felt so restored and just hope my nightmare sleepless nights are a phase. 

There are no plans for today. It will be quiet and if there is anything to report you will hear about it next Sunday. Meanwhile I wish you all the best until then and sorry this week's post is not very upbeat. 

Masha