Madrid, Sunday 30th November, 2025
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| Cooking for a family lunch yesterday |
Last Sunday we had just come back from Santa Pola and Madrid seemed so cold compared.Oh for those lovely mornings on the beach having a coffee and going for a walk. I did a lot of cooking this week, starting with last Sunday. Oli and family were coming for lunch and I made the easiest meal; spag bol for the kids. As I wrote last week, Miguel has broken his arm so we were asked to help taking the kids to school every day and picking them up on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Oli has her French lessons. Suzy helped but it was mostly Eladio who had to get up early to take them to school. Miguel went with him so he didn't have to fight for a space to park the car which is why my presence wasn't needed. I felt bad not helping but you see I have a secret to tell you: I can't reverse the car down the very long and steep drive and if I left the car in the street it would be frozen in the morning. Now you know one of my secrets. As our son-in-law will be out of action for a long time they will need our help for at least 6 weeks although with the Christmas holidays it may be shorter. Meanwhile he is suffering of course, mostly because he can't drive.
Monday came and the main news that day and the rest of the week was a possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Last week's 28 point plan announced by Trump but which could have been written by Putin's aides, was of course, not agreed upon neither by Ukraine nor the EU. Peace talks continue but there is trouble at the heart of Zelensky's government as his chief aide was found guilty of corruption. That doesn't bode well for any future admission into the EU. Meanwhile, the Russian Army continues to attack its neighbour. It was nearly 5 years ago in February 2022 that Russia invaded and frankly it looks like a war of attrition which is leading nowhere except to death and destruction. I hope and pray for peace for Ukraine.
I was up early as always and after playing my puzzles (Daily Mail Word Wheel, Wordle in Spanish and English and Contexto) and reading the headlines, I set about making our lunch. That day I made the most delicious lamb casserole again. I think you must know by now that lamb is my favourite meat. Meat may be going out of fashion but not for me.
I then rushed to the Land Registry Office in our town hall as I needed the papers with the sacred property numbers to add to my Airbnb listings again. They had mysteriously disappeared and so had the papers with the numbers. Once home, I spent a good while uploading them; no mean feat as the numbers are about 40 digits long with so many zeroes to be copied your mind boggles. They wouldn't give me the papers in digital format so I had to copy out each number with great care. Damn the system and damn our socialist government who invents all these bureaucratic obstacles to make life difficult for Airbnb hosts. I noticed recently that most of my competition in the area no longer lists their rooms or properties, probably because the system has stumped them. I understand angst against Airbnb but also Booking for so many short term tourist rentals taking over cities, but couldn't there be a provision for people like me who are retired and want to make a bit on the side to help maintain the cost of running their houses? Without this income, no way could we live in this 650m2 house. No way, José. Oh the trials and tribulations and ups and downs of being an Airbnb host of which there were a few this week.
With the admin work out of the way - as Eladio says, what would I do with my time if I didn't do Airbnb?
- I was able to concentrate on lunch. Tana was off so we made our own meals. One of the perks, however, of hosting is having a live in help who not only takes care of the rooms but of us. Tana is a treasure.
That afternoon I started watching the BBC series called Prisoner 951. It is based on the true story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Anglo Iranian national married to a British man who was imprisoned in Iran for 6 years from 2016 to 2022. She was accused of being a spy and plotting to overthrow the Iranian government which she never did. Nazanin had taken her baby daughter back to Teheran to meet her grandparents and just when they were leaving for London, she was detained at the airport. And thereby began her journey to hell. This was a high profile story which you may remember. The underlying story is that Britain owed Iran around 4000 million dollars for arms not delivered from an agreement in the 70's. Nazanin had nothing to do with the debt but she was the bargaining chip to get the British Government to pay the debt. Eventually they paid but it took them 6 years while Nazanin languished in jail separated from her daughter and husband. If the story of the debt is even remotely true, I am ashamed of what happened to this family.
Meanwhile. Eladio went to have his flu jab which I had a few weeks ago. It's a good job that we now have them as there is an epidemic in Madrid and in Spain. He took a long time to come back from our local health centre and I began to get worried. I rang him countless times and even tried ringing the clinic. I was imagining he'd had an accident but also envisaging life without him - no, that cannot happen. So when he came back I hugged him instead of chastising him. He had gone to copy some keys. Thank God he was back. What would I do without him? Life would be very lonely and sad.
I had one guest arriving that night, a mysterious doctor from Peru - from deep dark Peru like Paddington hahaha. Unfortunately later he rang me as he had stepped on some of Pippa's poo in the doorway. She never does poo in the house but she had that day. I was mortified. I cleaned the mess and his shoe and apologised profusely. He didn't seem to mind. He left yesterday but will be back on Monday I'm not sure for what.
On Tuesday I read with interest about a new study of the brain. A team of neuroscientists from the University of Cambridge, in an extensive study on real people, have identified crucial phases of structural development of the brain in the course of an average life. They occur at the ages of 9, 32, 66 and 83. Apparently at these ages the brain rewires while we grow and mature and eventually decline. There are actually 5 phases: childhood (birth to age 9), adolescence (age 9 to 32), adulthood (age 32 to 66) and "early aging" (Age 66 to 83) when the brain starts to decline - lovely - and "late aging" (Age 83 onward) - "the final epoch".
So they have concluded that people in their 20s and early 30's are still adolescents? Wow! As for Eladio and me, our brains are in decline. Well, we knew that I suppose. I am constantly forgetting things and always have to write lists. This week I had prepared for a guest's arrival and promptly went to sleep a siesta forgetting she was coming. Thankfully she sent me a Whatsapp. But that was a first. Should I be worried? Maybe, but there is not much I can do that I am not already doing. It's part of the process of old age but one thing I refuse to do is embrace it.
On Tuesday I was all go - I did some shopping I had forgot last time - see I am forgetting things. but I did not forget to go to my hospital appointments. Thank God for my phone calendar. I had a follow up consultation with my urogynecologist, who did my operation now over a month ago. She pronounced me nearly fully recovered and I have to say the operation has really helped. It's great not to have my bladder bulging out of my "you know what". Even that has changed and the doctor told me it had got younger and was like one of a 15 year old girl. Hahaha. At the same hospital I had a check up appointment with an eye specialist as I was wondering if they were ok after the cataract ops in 2018. I was pronounced all ok but will go back for more tests just for precaution in January.
I came out feeling on top of the world and came home to share leftover spag bol with Eladio for lunch. Leftovers are a great invention when you have no time for cooking and when I cook I always try to make more than needed to eat another time.
I Facetimed with Kathy that evening who has her own personal chef in Phil and he cooks so well. No doubt he too will have done a lot of cooking this week. I find it creative and relaxing, that is if I don't have to cook under pressure. It's always good to chat to Kathy, like it is to chat with Amanda. If only they lived nearer. Well, I shall be seeing Amanda soon this month. I can't wait for my trip to Devon.
On Wednesday the fuel came which is always an expensive day as to heat this huge house is costly. That is something Eladio deals with, thankfully. I had a troublesome guest coming that morning who asked to check in at 11 vs 3 pm but arrived at 9 am! Of course,as his room was ready, I accommodated him. He had been here before in our absence and gave me what for him was a good review but a bad review for me. Airbnb asks guests to review a host on a scale of 1 to 5 but if you get anything less than 5 woe betide the host. The thing is not all guests know this and think 4 is acceptable which it isn't if it happens too often. You see, this is another bad thing about being an Airbnb host, because you become a slave to guest reviews. Two of our rooms had maintained a constant 5 star listing until a nasty lady from Ecuadar gave me a 1 after arriving at midnight having got lost, etc, etc. That put the listing down to 4.8. And now even if all my future reviews are 5 star, this listing will never regain its 5 star status because of one bad review. It's not fair. The man in question who was here for 3 nights was not a good guest. He left lights on all the time, left a mess in his room, dirty cups in the kitchen and even the front door open when he left - 2 hours after the check out time. I have decided I don't want him to come again so have blocked him on Airbnb. On the other hand the other guest, Jennifer, who arrived that day, was an absolute darling as most guests are.
Of note that afternoon, I went to my hairdresser Conchi as I really needed a cut and the roots dyeing. I hate going but my hair was grateful afterwards and so was I. I haven't changed the style in decades as it's so easy to keep looking good. My friend Julio once said I was like Nancy Reagan who never changed her hairstyle either. I am glad though that I don't look like she did, haha. She must have had an in house hairdresser at the White House.
She and her husband would have been appalled at the shooting at 2 National Guards very near the White House that day. One was killed. Apparently the killer was an Afghan who had worked for the US before they pulled out of Kabul. He must have been deranged and disgruntled. Trump's reaction is to halt all Afghan asylum requests from now on. Shame on him.
But nice things happened at the White House that day, the eve of Thanksgiving. That day Melania Trump received this year's Christmas Tree. She received it in style as you can see from the picture.
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| Melania Trump, the First Lady, receiving this year's Christmas tree for the White House. It came in style on a horse and carriage. |
On to Thursday, Thanksgiving in the US which for the moment is not celebrated here. It was a normal Thursday for us. Eladio took the kids to school while I busied myself organising the freezer compartment of our state of the art Samsung fridge. I later did the same with our medicine cupboard throwing out all expired pills, etc.
Facebook reminded me that morning of a photo Eladio took of me on the same day, 27th November in 2013. I was wearing a grey and white striped jumper dress from Mango, a sort of long grey jacket from Zara and a lovely black fur snood I had bought in Stockholm at the Sturegallerian shopping centre on Sturegaten where Telia's HQ used to be. I was also wearing leggings from Primark. This was the photo.
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| The photo taken in on 27th November 2013 |
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| Same clothes on a older lady 12 years later |
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| Eladio with the Christmas lottery tickets he bought this week |
I came home to find packages of stuff I had ordered from Ikea who now have a much better online site and take 2 days to deliver purchases. I had ordered candles and candelabras which I have a bit of fetish about. They are so Scandinavian and I love Scandi decor. This is what I bought.
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| New candles and candelabras |
It was at lunchtime that I bought Suzy and Oli's main presents online too of course but I can't say what they are; not because they will read this blog which they don't but someone might tell them. So I have made some progress for Christmas this year. However, I still don't know whether Oli and family will be with us on Christmas Eve and or Christmas Day. As to New Year's Eve I think they will go to Montrondo and Suzy is going to a dinner party which means we will be alone this year. Thus I doubt we will wait up till midnight and we will not be eating the traditional 12 grapes. Maybe this is a sign of being in the early aging stage of the brain; possibly although I have never really liked New Year's Eve and this year and look forward to an early night.
Who went to bed early that night were two corrupt Spanish politicians, José Luis Abalos, former number two of the government and transport minister and his aide Koldo. They were remanded in custody; accused of taking kickbacks for awarding contracts. They spent their first night in the same cell and it was said that Koldo couldn't sleep because his cellmate and former boss snored all night. It's a very high profile case in Spain and I honestly don't know how Pedro Sanchez, Spain's PM, can carry on. He is surrounded with corruption cases and has no support in Parliament and is unable to get a budget accepted by the House. Yet he carries on but I doubt he sleeps well in his magnificent bed in the Moncloa Palace where he lives with his wife Begoña, also embroiled in a court cases accused of influence peddling, business corruption and embezzlement of public funds. He is also accused of receiving campaign funds from his father in law who was a brothel owner. Then his own brother is facing charges too for taking a trumped up position due to Pedro's influence. Can he survive? Not for long, surely.
I didn't sleep badly that night and woke up on Friday full of beans. I have been feeling so much better mentally and physically since Suzy has a new job and seems to have improved a lot. She still has her moments of anxiety but we are in a much place today than we were a year ago.
Friday was Black Friday which some call Black Fraud Day. Companies like Carrefour or Mediamarkt have been accused of hiking prices before the day and then lowering them. I am not a Black Friday fan and refuse to bow to American traditions which are not mine.
It was a quiet day for us and we didn't go out except for our walk. I was glad to see my bad guest leave. I had a big group of 5 young people coming later from Barcelona who had been asking me questions non stop since they booked back in October. I smelt trouble but they weren't. They only thing is they brought a baby without including it in the booking and two friends to visit which is not allowed but I just let it go. They are leaving today and I wonder what review they will give me.
Saturday saw me cooking again. I was up early and wanted to prepare lunch for the family before our walk. I was making cod fritters on a bed of vegetables followed by meatballs with Tana's rice.Dessert was apple crumble and ice cream - all very filling but very satisfying. Eladio caught me in the act when he came down for breakfast and took this week's feature photo. When Suzy came home from work and saw all the food she told me to stop stuffing her like a turkey, hahahhaa. I did go over the top. Ah but we now have even more leftovers and I won't need to cook today or tomorrow while Tana is off. We had a good lunch together if you don't count Elliot's repeat tantrum of last week but we ignored him and he eventually ate the meatballs I had made specially for him.
The afternoon was quiet after the family left. Our 6 guests were not at home either and I spent most of the time writing today's blog post before I sat down to a very meagre dinner. Today will be quiet too as all the guests will be leaving and only Jennifer will be back.
Now I am at the end of the stories of this week where not much really happened on the home front but overall it was a good week with no scares or crises. So here's to another quiet and happy week. Tomorrow we shall be going into Madrid for our annual day out to see the Christmas market and buy more lottery tickets. It's a tradition for us and one I always look forward to.
So that's it from me for now. Hoping you all have a good Sunday, cheers till next week,
Masha
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