11th November, the BBC in trouble, film Mr. Burton, celebrating Suzy's new job at Honest Greens, coffee is now good for you and other stories of the week.

 Madrid, 16th November, 2025

Celebrating Suzy's new job this week at Honest Greens

Good morning again everyone. 

How are you all? I hope well. 

Life has been good this week as we had something special to celebrate as a family. The girls took us to a place which is new for us called Honest Greens which they have been raving about recently and we were to finally discover. But more about that later.

Last Sunday Remembrance Day was celebrated even though it wasn't actually until 11th November. It came about after WW1 when armistice was declared on the eleventh hour of the eleventh month in 1918. Since then 11th November has been celebrated to include all wars. My father who fought in WW2 and died on 8th November 2021 aged 102, was very much in my mind this week. When he died it was a few days before Remembrance Day and at the time he was one of the very few veterans still alive.They are a dwindling group and soon there will be no more human witnesses to those terrible events. Ah, but their testimony will always live on. Facebook reminded me this week of photos I had posted on 11th November, 2021, including a photo of the front page of the Bradford paper, The Telegraph and Argus, which we used to get at home every afternoon . Fittingly they published it on 11th November. 

The front page of the Telegraph and Argus on 11th November 2021. Bless them, bless him. 

This was their obituary. 

In England everyone would have been wearing red poppies. We don't do that in Spain and I miss it. The origin of the poppy becoming a symbol of Remembrance Day goes back to a wonderful poem called Flanders Field written by a Canadian, Lt .Col. John McCrae. 

Remembrance Day poppies

I think most people know the opening lines "In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row ..." The poppy of course is red and represents the bloodshed but also hope for a peaceful future. 

Oli and family were coming for lunch and as it was a special Sunday I made a proper roast meal which was a bit like Christmas really. We had roast chicken with all the trimmings including sage and onion stuffing and cranberry sauce. It was divine. I honestly don't know how Eladio and I l had the energy later to play hide and seek with Elliot and Juliet but we did and it was lots of fun. Oli had to work on a piece she would be doing on Monday morning about the new candidate for regional head of Valencia after Carlos Mazon's resignation for handling the floods there so badly a year ago.

Monday came and I forgot to watch my daughter but I later saw her on Twitter as often her programme posts stuff they report on; not always though.  Here she is live on Monday.

Oli reporting live last Monday

You can see her piece here. I noted she was wearing my red coat without my permission. That is part of having two daughters who seem to like my clothes. Later in the week she wore a blue trouser suit of mine from Zara which I had given her with a blue coat I hadn't and didn't even remember I had. I suppose the girls taking my clothes is a compliment. I like to think so.

Monday was a good day for former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was let out of jail after serving just 3 weeks of his 5 year sentence. I never understand why people get sentenced and then let out. He says he is not guilty of receiving campaign funding from the former Libyan dictator Gaddafi. He said of his time in prison where he was given special treatment that it had been a nightmare. I read that he only ate yoghurts, afraid there would be spit in his food. Imagine!!! 

It was not a good day for the British Broadcasting Corporation, aka the BBC or simply "The Beeb". The BBC is a national treasure in the UK and people pay a licence to watch it. I had or have great faith in this institution but am pretty appalled at the latest scandal - there have been many. This one is about Trump and the Capitol attack on January 6th 2021. An internal memo  by journalist Michael Prescott describing systematic bias in the BBC's news coverage was leaked to the Daily Telegraph. In it a documentary was mentioned about Trump broadcast over a year ago by the current affairs programme Panorama. The memo claims  Panorama deliberately edited words from  2 of  Trump's speeches to show him calling for violent action as if he was the orchestrator of what happened when actually he had called for people to demonstrate peacefully.  The BBC spliced together two quotes from Trump made on that day despite the comments being made an hour apart on different topics.  He really said "We're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women". However, in the edit it made it seem as if he had said "We're going to walk down to the Capitol .... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell". His fighting like hell actually referred to him (wrongly) arguing the election results were rigged and were not an incitement to attack the Capitol. That is where the BBC got it wrong; really wrong. 

There was more bias uncovered regarding  a documentary about Gaza where the narrator was the son of a member of Hamas. There has been more scandalous bias but the Panorama one was the straw that broke the camel's back. Trump was furious of course and wants to sue the BBC for up to 5 billion dollars. In London, the top management of the Corporation resigned this week  over pressure after the leaked memo alleged "serious and systematic biast in the BBC's news coverage". Well, I never. The BBC is in trouble but I have faith it will recover. It will have to change its tone and become the impartial broadcaster it is supposed to be, the gold standard of journalism. How they will do that I don't but I hope they do. 

The highlight of Monday was my weekly Facetime call with Amanda where of course we spoke about the BBC. My daughter Olivia who is a journalist, is most upset and cannot understand how the BBC actually edited or doctored Trump's words this way. She told that journalists learn that lesson in their first year. She is right. 

Tuesday came, the real 11th November and I kept thinking of my father. He would have been fascinated to know the latest population figures of my adopted country, Spain, that were published that day. If in 1981 when I came to live here the population was 37.7 million, today it is 49.4 million. Most of the growth in Spain comes from immigration as the birth rate here is one of the lowest in the world.  Interestingly, in 1981, the immigration population of Spain was just 0.52% while today that figure stands at around 14% with some 6.9 million people from abroad. So where do they all come from? Mainly neighbouring Morocco, then Romania, Colombia and Venezuela. And, by the way, I think the UK is in fifth or sixth place.  Immigration is a hot topic in many places. We have our issues too, but less I think, at least in my milieu. However, it is immigration that is driving Spain's economic growth. That sounds great but it can't be so great if another study this week published the poverty figures. A whopping 12.5 million people, 25% of the population, are at risk of poverty or social exclusion and 4 million of them live in severe poverty. Young people, even those with a job,  have it worst as  either they can't afford  getting on the property ladder or paying for rent. Many, of course, carry on living with their parents. Another option is living in a  caravan which is not unheard of here. On a last note and out of curiosity, when  I left the UK in 1981, the population then was 55 million, today it has jumped to 69.7.  

The BBC maybe in trouble but their content is still popular and long may that live. This week I discovered a film called Mr. Burton on the iPlayer which I watched thanks to a VPN (VPN Express) that masks my internet origin as you can't watch the BBC outside the UK. Mr. Burton is the story of how Richard Burton from Pontrhydyfen near Port Talbot in Wales became an actor. 

The BBC film, Mr. Burton about how Richard Burton from a mining village in Wales became an actor. 

He came from a numerous family with a drunken mining father - he himself later went on to drink himself to death. Born Richard Jenkins, his teacher, Mr. Philip Burton, saw something in him and when he left school early to work, he took him under his wing. He acted in a local play and his talent was even obvious then. The film is a real story of rags to riches done in a magnificent way. The biggest job his teacher had was to change his Welsh accent to Received Pronunciation. He went on to be famous for his wonderful baritone voice, despite smoking 4 packets of cigarettes a day, but there still remained a beautiful Welsh lilt.  When I was young, Richard Burton was one of the most famous actors in the world. He first became famous for his acclaimed performances in Shakespeare's plays. Sadly he became more famous for his role as Mark Antony in Cleopatra, mostly because he fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor. They became known for their passionate and dramatic relationship. It seems they both loved and hated each other as they married twice from 1964 to 1974 and from 1975 to  1976. They spent money as they lived with passion and excess. Most famous was the diamond called the Taylor-Burton diamond which cost 1.1 million dollars in 1969! I watched Michael Parkinson's interview with the Welsh actor broadcast in 1974 where Burton chain smoked throughout. In it he spoke of his battle with alcoholism which brought him to near death and of his depression and dark moments but there was also time for laughter. I especially loved his stories of returning to his home town and encounters with his drunken father in the local pub. It remains today as Parkinson's best interview. The famous Yorkshire presenter died in 2023 but I'm sure he would have loved the film Mr. Burton. Here is the link to the interview by the way if you want to watch it as well as an article from the BBC about the teacher and pupil which makes for great reading if you are interested of course. 

Wednesday came and we managed our walk. Nothing interesting happened that day. What didn't please me though, on Wednesday, was to receive a bad review from a recent guest in the best room in the house because she said the house was too big for her liking. Honestly!! I have to say I do actually dread American guests who can be very picky. Maybe they are all lovely but I just seem to get the picky ones. As they say in my beloved Yorkshire, "there is nowt so queer as folk". Maybe they no longer use as these days you can't use the word queer or can you? A final thing about Wednesday. Unbelievably, for November, the temperature reached 24ºc that day which had us enjoying our wine and pistachios on the terrace by the pool. Not so the rest of the week which has been foul.

Thursday was foul and we didn't go out at all. Importantly that day, at least for me and other tennis fans in Spain, Carlos Alcaraz returned to the number one stop after reaching the semi finals in the ATP finals. He might beat his rival Sinner in the final today but, despite whoever wins, the Spaniard will remain the number one player at least until the end of this year. I think he deserves it as he has had 70 wins this year. He also beat Sinner in 7 of their past 8 matches, albeit that 1 being Wimbledon. He is probably the better player of the two but not as consistent. That's what he has to work on. But we love him, maybe because of his inconsistency. He makes us suffer so we love him even more when he wins. Sinner doesn't make us suffer; that is the difference in my opinion. 

Olivia was busy that day and Friday. This week saw her emceeing at some big conference organised by the NHS anti fraud department. Oli later reported she hates conferences and finds them boring, even if the Spanish Minister of Health attended. I totally agree with her; company conferences are nearly always boring. I'm so glad I am retired and no longer work in the corporate world. As a PR person I always tried to make my speakers' content more interesting. When I worked at Yoigo and had to make both the brand famous and the CEO, I was inspired by Virgin's Richard Branson and it worked. It's obvious the NHS and the Spanish Ministry of Health don't have a good Communications Director, hahaha. 

If Olivia had been at home that afternoon, she would have been delighted to meet and greet my new guests as they are from Lyon in France as Oli loves to practice  her French which she is very good at. Mine is still my limited school French and is rusty but I bring it out of the archive, so to speak, when I have to and I had to when I met Sandrine and Philippe. They are lovely guests and in general I love my guests from France - I get a lot of them and they are the best.

Friday came and was the highlight of the week. It was the day we were going to celebrate Suzy's new job and general mental welfare. I'm so proud of her. But first she and I did the food shopping and I appreciated her help as I can't carry heavy loads after my operation. Suzy chose a restaurant called Honest Greens and I had my doubts as I thought it would be all vegetarian which it mostly is but I was bowled over.  I loved the place instantly. It felt like being in London or New York. 

Honest Greens in Pozuelo. Wonderful place

The food is marvelous because it is all fresh and it's creative and tasty and also affordable. Little did I know there are already 30 restaurants in Spain, two in Portugal and that it is expanding to both Paris and London. Obviously Honest Greens is going places. I was intrigued to know who runs and owns it. Turns out it's a famous French chef Benjamin Bensoussan. I read that he had worked, many years ago, at the famous Ladurée in Paris where I was privileged to have afternoon tea with my cousin Marie and her husband Anas this summer. When I posted photos of our experience on Instagram, I was surprised and pleased to get a comment directly from Benjoussan who, by the way, featured in The Final Table on Netflix. I had complained about the loud music and he promised to do something about it. I loved the avocado salad and beef platter but what I loved most were the desserts, especially the pecan pie. I later looked up how to make it and it's simple but I think my family are not keen. Suzy went for the falafel and Oli for the tofu. Miguel had meat and salmon and Eladio had the same as me. Miguel took photos of us as we left, one of which I have chosen as this week's feature photo as Friday's lunch was the best moment of the week. It was wonderful and I will be going back to Honest Greens. In fact both Oli and Suzy are going again today. Before I move on, here is another photo of the four of us. I love these photos as we don't get many taken of us together.

A great moment this week - the four of us together outside Honest Greens, a real find for me.

We came back to a house full of guests but hardly saw any of them. My day ended with a lovely video call with my friend Kathy. She has  bronchitis and a terrible, terrible cough. I really felt for her; I did. She is so unwell, she couldn't go to our school reunion yesterday. I hope they had a lovely time. I would loved to have gone as it's now 50 years since we started at St. Joseph's College, but with my operation being so recent, I couldn't go. Nothing is stopping me going next year.

On Saturday it poured with rain. When there was a lull, we donned our wet weather clothes and I put Pippa's jumper on but it got too bad and we had to return home. Instead, we went to do some errands and to have a coffee at Alverán. It was yesterday that The Times published an article on the health benefits of coffee from a recent study. So, contrary to being bad for your health, it is now deemed extremely good. The English flagship newspaper went as far as calling it the "new wellness drink" but Eladio wasn't convinced. I, as a coffee lover, was delighted to read the benefits. The properties found are: antioxidant and anti inflammatory, good for your gut health, lowers the risk of heart attacks as well as of diabetes, Parkinson's disease and even certain cancers. It even contributes to longevity and being in a good mood. The article which you probably can't read as you can't get past the paywall is full of quotes from eminent sources so it has to be believed in my opinion. However, if this is true why isn't the whole world talking about it? I hope they will soon. Anyway back to my coffee at Alveran. We sat outside so I could smoke and it was cozy thanks to the outdoor gas heater. I have always wanted one of those but I won't be getting one.  I took a photo of my dear husband who won't drink coffee and still has a nasty cold but he looks great doesn't he? This is it.

Eladio at Alverán yesterday. Who would believe his age?

On our way home we stopped at Carrefour to buy the new obligatory beacon or whatever it is called. It's like the alarm the police put on their cars and will be connected to the traffic authorities so they know where you are. I had no idea they were replacing the old warning triangles. It was Miguel who told me during our lunch on Friday. So I got two for the Mini and the Volvo. 

I came home to cook which I love doing when it's bad weather and I have time on my hands. I made a leak and potato stew followed by a sort of lamb hot pot/casserole. It was a dish I invented years ago but hadn't made for ages. Suzy, who only ate the potatoes, said it reminded her of the past. This was it.

The lamb casserole I made yesterday

I prepared more food yesterday afternoon as we had invited Olivia, Miguel, Elliot and Juliet for dinner. They braved the foul weather caused by Storm Claudia and we were soon sitting down for a cozy family meal. We had cold roast chicken, giant prawns and a Waldorf salad but the kids didn't eat anything. They never do but seem very healthy haha. It was good to have them and it was a nice end to the week.

Today, Sunday, we shall be driving to stay at our modest apartment near Santa Pola on the coast. We are escaping the rain and hoping for some sunshine as well as a change of scenery.

Now I must get going with all the preparations necessary for our stay there.

Till next time my friends. Have a good Sunday, cheers Masha