Sunday, 16th April, 2023
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| Easter Day and birthday lunch last Sunday |
I hope you all had a great Easter and are back into the swing of things. I couldn't have had a better Easter Day with all the family and a birthday celebration thrown in too and what a wonderful day it was.
I didn't sleep much that night but woke up feeling good. Soon our Chinese guests, Echo, Marco and little Junlin were in the kitchen and I was able to get to know them better. They left Shanghai 4 years ago to set up life in Valencia in Spain which must have been a huge cultural shock. Marco explained that both he and his wife were former Chinese secret police but hated their job, I suppose for obvious reasons. I asked if he had been back and he said he didn't want to. I was worried about him missing his family but he told me he had also brought his parents and that his wife's parents will be coming next year. They are here on what is a called a "golden visa" - for an investment of a minimum of half a million euros, foreigners automatically get a golden visa, allowing them to live in Spain. I don't know what a secret policeman's salary is in China is but it must have taken him years to save up. He told me what I already suspected, that many people, who can, leave China as they cannot stand what he called "the politics", meaning I suppose the communist regime. Their son seems to have settled in amazingly. He goes to a British school and speaks fluent Spanish and English besides his native Chinese. As Airbnb hosts, we are privileged to get to know people like Marco and his family and get a bird's eye view of part of their origins and culture. They were here to visit Chinese friends, who, like them, had upped and left the PRC. We had a similar case in the family of "George", "Amanda" and "Lucy" who stayed with us earlier in the year and are now living nearby. Chinese culture is so radically different from European culture, the move these people make has to be provoked by desperation. Imagine uprooting yourself from your country, selling your house and arriving in China to start life from scratch. They certainly have courage and I wish them well.
Elliot had already eaten two mini croissants (vigilantes) by the time we got there and then went and had a third when we ordered our coffees. Obviously he wasn't going to have any of the roast chicken hahahahaha. Here he is playing around at Alverán last Sunday. I had to share this with their Instagram profile.
I then set about making a traditional Sunday roast for Easter day, roast chicken with all the trimmings. I was interrupted by a call from Oli to go and have coffee with them at Alverán. Thus I left Lucy in charge but as she is from Paraguay I would have to be back on time to finish making this very British dish.
It was great seeing the kids again and we took lots of photos, like this one of me and Eladio with little Juliet, now aged one and a half. She is such a sweetie but I am told she comes into her own at school and has quite a character. So far she can only say Mama and Papa but that day we heard her speak her proper first word and it was "mío" - mine, when Junlin lent her a toy which Elliot grabbed from her to give back to the Chinese boy. She has a good sense of private property hahaha.
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| Eladio and I with little Juliet at Alverán cafe last Sunday |
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| Elliot playing around at Alveran cafe last Sunday |
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| Celebrating Miguel's birthday on Easter Day |
The cake moment last Sunday
As if we weren't hungry enough, I got out one of the 2 Easter eggs I had bought from The British Corner Shop Online. I was the main consumer in Eladio's words hahahaha. Oh, I do love my chocolate.
We spent the afternoon in the garden with the temperature reaching 28ºc. If the pool had been open, no doubt we would have gone in the water. The weather is unusually warm for this time of year. It meant we could be together outdoors with the babies. We were joined later by Junlin who made immediate friends with Elliot. They had a grand time together. They both called each other "friends". I got a lovely snap of both of them towards the end of the afternoon. This is it, a snap to be remembered.
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| Junlin and Elliot posing for my camera on Sunday |
Dinner was outside again, but just the two of us. We both commented what a wonderful Easter Day we had had. Only Suzy was missing. She was back from Elche on Tuesday.
I slept really well and woke up at 7 am on Monday morning. I was delighted to read in the news over breakfast that the Spaniard Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters at Augusta, the golf championship that awards the winner with a green jacket. But he can only keep it for a year and will have to give it back to next year's champion unless he wins again.
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| The very happy Spaniard in his Augusta Masters green jacket after his win there on Sunday last |
Amazingly, he won it 40 years after Seve Ballesteros won his second Masters there and on what would have been his 66th birthday (my age). That is quite a coincidence and made the headlines of course. 28 year old Rahm , the 2021 US Open Champion and now the world's number one, is the fourth Spaniard to win at Augustus after Ballesteros, Olazabal and Sergio García. I was happy for him and for Spanish sport. Spain usually wins at football and tennis but winning the Masters at Augusta is a feather in the cap of for Spanish golf; it really is. It definitely looks like Seve Ballesteros has a great heir in Rahm and Rahm knows it as Seve is his hero.
I'm sure our Chinese guests weren't at all aware of this win, their priorities elsewhere. Is golf big in China I wonder? It's more ping pong (sorry table tennis) isn't it? They were leaving that day and were very sorry to leave as they loved our house. If when they came the husband, Marco - the ex Chinese secret policeman - said our home was like Downton Abbey (hahahaha), the morning they left, the couple asked for permission to film and take photos of the house. That was fine by me. They asked me so many questions about the house, it felt like they wanted to buy it but it's not for sale. We said our fond goodbyes and took pictures to record their stay here. This is one of them with Echo, Marco and little Junlin. We get so many guests I don't remember all of them; I can't, but some make their mark like this lovely Chinese family. We won't forget them and hope they come back.
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| A photo with our Chinese guests just before they left on Monday |
Monday was the day we made our annual visit to the Verdecora gardening centre to stock up on geraniums and hydrangea for the swimming pool area and front garden. Some of the plants survive the winter and some don't so we always have to get some new ones. Eladio, my gardener, also needed soil of different types that come in huge 70 liter bags. My still very strong husband had no issues putting them on the trolleys or into the boot of the car. Here he is with some of our purchases designed to spruce up the garden.
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| Eladio at the garden centre |
Once home and after coffee outside on the kitchen patio, Eladio had a big job ahead of him and got to work. I left him to it. I am not a gardener but do appreciate his work.
Lunch was on the patio and it was just us. We ate the Easter day roast lunch leftovers - no complaints. I spent a lazy afternoon watching Magpie Murders while my husband worked. We met again at dinner - again on the patio. That night I had record sleep - just under 8 hours which is like a miracle for me.
I was up at 7.30 on Tuesday morning, the day Suzy was coming home from Elche. It was a quiet day. That morning after some gentle reminders from Eladio, I set about creating lists for the "trip of our lifetime". There are 4 main categories: Documents, food and drink, clothing and toiletries and finally "other stuff to take". It's the other stuff to take that takes up the room, including our picnic chairs and table. I might have to downsize at some stage if everything is to fit into my Mini. Writing the lists made the trip more real. On our walk after coffee at home that day, Eladio asked if I was feeling excited about the trip. Well, of course I am. I love adventure and discovering new places and as I have said many times, we have to make the most of the quality time we have left before we are too old.
As I said too , we had a quiet day which included our walk. We were looking forward to dinner with Suzy but she wasn't back until after 9pm. I was already in bed and watching the news when she got back. It was good to see her again.
The big news on Tuesday in the UK was Joe Biden's visit to Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement. Before he left on Air Force One he said it was his priority to "keep the peace" in Northern Ireland. I'm not sure he will convince the Unionists to back Sunak's Windsor Framework, the updated and post Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.
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| Joe Biden arriving in Belfast on Tuesday evening in an historic visit to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement. |
But he would only be there for half a day, spending 3 more days in the Republic of Ireland. It therefore seems his main mission was to explore his Irish roots of which he is most proud. His great great great grandfather, Edward Blewitt was born in County Mayo. I can't criticise him for that. Remember my trip to Anglesey in 2019 where my grandfather was born? The last Irish Catholic US President, JF Kennedy did just the same thing in 1963 (a few months before he was assassinated) and later told aids it was the "best four days of my life". It was the same for Joe Biden, the oldest US President in history. But let's hope his presence is a force for good in Northern Ireland too.
I certainly understand his nostalgia and interest in his roots. It is something that lives with me; my English and Russian roots, the stories of my father and mother and that's why the stop off in Sofia, Bulgaria, next month will be so important to me.
That too is why dinner on Wednesday was to be so special. Richard Nurekar was my father's pupil at Bradford Grammar School and we had been in touch after my father's 100th birthday when so many "old boys" sent cards. That was unforgettable. Richard was in Madrid with his wife to see his daughter who has been studying here as part of her French and Spanish degree at Leeds Uni and so we agreed to meet and I invited them to dinner this week. Richard studied Russian at Oxford but became a very important athlete in long distance running. From what I know he was inspired by the one and only Selby Brock, my father's colleague, the head of cross country running but also Master of both maths and history. I was really looking forward to meeting him, mainly of course to hear his memories of my father. He must have been one of his last Russian pupils as he finished school in 1982 and my father retired the following year. I was interested to know too why Richard had studied Russian.
I also made a list for the dinner menu; something Spanish and something English which included Spanish tortilla as part of the main course and Eton mess for dessert.
That's what I was thinking about when I woke up on Wednesday morning. It was to be another beautiful day but the temperature would only rise as high as 23ºc which had me wondering whether we could eat outside or not.
The garden was looking good as Eladio had mowed both the back and front lawns.
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| Nothing lovelier than a freshly mowed lawn. |
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| Eladio and Danilo by the green water pool:( |
I was interested to meet someone from El Salvador, that most violent of Central American countries. I had heard of the recent martial law to crack down on violence where up until recently between 60 and 80 people were killed daily by Latin bands, mostly the Maras. Danilo told me he left El Salvador because of that and described how anyone setting up a business had to pay the bands and if they didn't their families were put in danger. He is in favour of martial law which has made his small country, the size of Madrid with a population of 7 million people, a lot safer.
I went to pick up our guests from the metro station, Colonia Jardín. It's normally a 15 minute drive but I hadn't factored in the traffic. Plus the heavens opened unexpectedly and it rained like crazy. Thus I arrived late and I hope our guests didn't get wet. I was also late as we tried to remove the baby back seat to no avail - will need Miguel to do that before our trip on Friday hahahaha. But finally Richard, his wife Gail and daughter Almi, were in my car and we were on our way home and drove with the traffic against us so we were soon at our place. We welcomed them in and they came bearing wonderful gifts: Yorkshire fudge and Jordanian medjool dates!
We left him to it to do more shopping mostly for the dinner but also because we were running low on stocks despite two food shops last week. It's amazing how much we get through in less than a week. Coffee was at Alverán (again) where we talked non stop about our upcoming trip. It's going to be amazing.
As we drove up the drive to our house I spotted a lilac tree in full bloom with purple lilac. Great, I thought, I now had flowers to decorate the dinner table. Unfortunately the white lilacs were not yet in full bloom. Eladio halped me reach some of the high branches to get the prized flowers and they smelled divine.
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| Purple lilacs from the garden |
The rest of the day was mostly about preparing the dinner which I did with the help of Lucy and Suzy. I took care of the Eton Mess and salmon with chives and creme fraiche "parcels" on a bed of lettuce. Lucy would make the tortillas as she is such a specialist. Just look at the Eton Mess.
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| A quintessential British dessert for the special dinner on Wednesday night |
As it was not so warm on Wednesday we decided on drinks and apertives on the terrace by the pool and dinner in the dining room. Suzy helped me lay the table and we pulled out all the stops for it to look just perfect. We did the same for the dinner which I think was appreciated. Our guests especially loved the "salmorejo". I didn't tell them it came out of a bottle from Mercadona but it's so good even if I made it myself it wouldn't taste better.
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| Dining room table laid for dinner on Wednesday |
We had drinks and aperitives by the pool under the covered terrace and by then the water in the pool was looking less green, thank goodness.
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| The pool with slightly less green water |
It was the beginning of a fun and wonderful dinner where we were to make new friends.
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| Aperitives on the terrace before dinner |
Dinner around the dining room table where Suzy presided, sitting in her grandfather's place, was fun, lively and we all had so much to say to each other and frankly, we got on like a house on fire and made new friends. What an international night it was, one to be remembered for a long time. We took more photos too which I shall treasure. Here are a few.
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| Some pictures from the wonderful evening we had with Richard and his family |
When I posted pictures, people who follow athletics, commented that Richard holds the British record for 10 miles of 46:02 which he set in 1993. Apparently he then moved up distances to running marathons and won his debut marathon in Hamburg after which he won his second, the World Cup Marathon, in Spain - btw - in that gorgeous Basque city, San Sebastián, in 1993. I knew none of this when he got in touch with me a while back. So we really had an illustrious guest with us on Wednesday, also my father's pupil and now a friend. We loved his family, his wonderful wife Gail and beautiful and talented daughter Almi.
Wendesday was the absolute highlight of the week as you can imagine. After all, it's not often you host a former pupil of your father's who is such an important athlete too. Thursday was a much quieter day with little to report. Part of it was spent on more planning for our journey and a lot of the afternoon setting up a new phone for Eladio as his had broken unfortunately. I was able to use Smart Switch and after a few tries, had his new phone restored. It's a mid tier Samsung, the A32 5G which is fine. There is no point in buying the latest for 4 times the price. I then had to set up his smart watch and also link payment via the watch and the phone. I considered myself quite an expert after that. It was a bit stressful but if truth is to tell I quite enjoyed the exercise.
Dinner was a simple affair but appreciated by all. I made pasta with mushroom sauce which I invented, based on the ingredients I had: basil, pine nuts, pistachios, mushrooms and soy cream which we had with tagliatelle. If I had had fresh basil and enough pine nuts I could have pesto sauce. I was inspired to make pasta after seeing our Italian guest, Stefano, make a pasta dish nearly every day since he came to stay.
I slept better that night and woke up full of beans on Friday morning. Reading The Times, I came across the description of the official Buckingham Palace coronation collection. You may not know that I have a collection of royal mugs started probably by my great grandparents. The oldest mug is of Edward VII, the son of Queen Victoria who reigned from 1901 to 1910. I have mugs of the Kings and Queens but also their offspring. My grandmother, mother and I continued the collection. It includes some of the last Queen's "children", who all got divorced, as we know, except for Edward. So, on Friday I bought the coffee mug for King Charles III's coronation on 6th May next. This is it.
I sometimes wonder what will happen to my collection and all our English furniture and family memorabilia when I pass away. I doubt very much my girls will be interested and if they were, where would they put it? So one day, it will all probably end up in flea markets. I love flea markets and when I see antique china and stuff, I often wonder who it belonged to.
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| The new Coronation mug to add to my collection of royal mugs started by my great grandmother. |
Friday morning saw us at a big local shopping centre. It was to get a cover and screen protector for Eladio's new phone. While there I updated mine for my lovely but slightly chipped Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and my husband invested in a new hands' free device for the Volvo. We came home to find Oli there and sat down to lunch as a family. We were interrupted by a painter who had come to patch some parts of the wall in my father's old room. There had been a leak from the shower which Eladio had fixed but it hasn't dried yet. More worryingly the painter found an even bigger leak which must come from a pipe from the upper floor. We only saw all the damage and it was massive, when the painter and his "mate" moved two of my father's huge book shelves. A plumber is coming on Monday but I hope all can be sorted before we leave next Friday. Meanwhile I offered a different room to Pilar, a recurring guest, but she preferred my father's room for some reason. I have had to block the room calendar until further notice which is a big inconvenience.
So we didn't spend much time with Oli who had to leave to pick up the kids. I hope we will see them today. The rest of the day was incident free.
Saturday dawbed and a chap came to see the house, or rather the garden and pool, for a possible event he wants to hold - his birthday. He is of course looking at other places too. He arrived early and found me in my dressing gown. I had got so engrossed on our route map planning I hadn't yet had a shower or got dressed. He's English and didn't mind. I thought he was a lovely young man and I hope he chooses our house. If he doesn't, it's not the end of the world.
Route planning took up nearly all day. We of course know our final destination - Georgia and Armenia but wanted to plan where we may or may not stay, places on the way that are interesting.
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| The direct route from Madrid to Armenia |
This is what the outbound route is looking like as far as Istanbul.
Madrid - Blanes (Girona)
Blanes - Biot/Antibes (France)
Biot - Garda (Italy)
Garda - Venice (or near) (Italy)
Venice - Ljubliana (Slovenia)
Ljubliana - Zagreb (Croatia)
Zagreb - Sarajevo (Bosnia)
Sarajevo - Pristina (Kosovo)
Pristina - Skopje (North Macedonia)
Sofia (Bulgaria)
Sofia - Istanbul (Turkey)
From Istanbul we shall make our way across Turkey along the Black Sea coast till we get to the Sarpi crossing into George. I have yet to work out this route but no doubt, once on the road, the route will fall into place. If anyone reading this is from any of these countries, especially the Balkans, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, please reach out with suggestions.
On our way back we shall drive from Armenia into Georgia to the BCP Vale border next to Turkey. It seems the border for private traffic between Armenia and Turkey is closed. The route back is looking something like this:
Yerevan (Armenia) to BCP Vale Georgia
Cross the border into Turkey somewhere near Eruzurum
Maybe stay at or visit Kars, Ardahan or Artvin
Drive to Capadoccia
Capadoccia - Thessalonika (Greece)
Thessalonika - Tirana (Albania)
Tirana - Podgorica (Montenegro)
Podgorica - Dubrovnik (Croatia)
Dubrovnik - Split (Croatia)
Split - Zadar (Croatia)
Zadar .- Rijeka (Croatia)
Rijeka - Trieste (Italy)
Italy to France
France to Spain and home.
Sounds very ambitious doesn't it? But plans are plans and can be changed. What I know for certain is that this will be the trip of our lifetime. How exciting. To think that this time next Sunday I will be writing from the Côte d'Azure at the beginning of our new adventure. Stay tuned
And today is Sunday and the sun is shining again. There are no particular plans although I hope to see our grandchildren today.
Next Sunday we will have started our trip and should be in or around Antibes on the wonderful Côte D'Azure and then on our way to Italy.
So, as I say, stay tuned. All suggestions are welcome. Cheers my friends till next time,
Masha
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