Pedro J’s last day, storms in Spain and snow in Madrid, Facebook’s look back video, my early birthday present, a trip to El Escorial with the girls, my birthday weekend, the Winter Games take off, a Spanish princess in the dock, thank you Google and other stories.

With my beautiful girls (Oli left with  the grey scarf and Suzy right with sun glasses) at El Escorial on Friday

Hi everyone

What a great week it has been in very many ways.  It has been full of news and surprises and the best birthday ever!  I left off last Sunday.  That day was my god daughter Alicia’s birthday.  She is the youngest of the 13 cousins and the ones who live in Madrid prepared a surprise lunch for her.  Here is the photo to document the event.  Love you Ali, you know that.

The surprise birthday lunch for Alicia

Last Sunday was also the last day for Pedro J Ramírez, as editor of the right wing Spanish paper El Mundo. He is one of Spain’s most high profile journalists and the news was echoed by media as prestigious as The New York Times which wrote that his dismissal was mainly caused by his criticism of Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s right wing premiere.  Be that as it may, Pedro J is now asking the American newspaper to correct its piece which I doubt it will.

Sunday also saw the beautiful north eastern town of San Sebastian suffer a mini tsunami.  The pictures of the waves penetrating into the city centre are incredible.  There have been vicious storms in the north of Spain as there have been in England, France and Portugal.  The main news of the week here has been mostly about the devastation they caused. 

A mini tsunami in San Sebastian

The weather forecasts also predicted snow in many parts of Spain.  Here in Madrid we were eager to see its arrival and were delighted when it began to snow heavily in the middle of the morning on Monday.

It snowed on Monday

But it didn’t last or settle and all I could do was envy my colleagues and friends in other parts of Europe who have lots of snow.

Tuesday was a busy day.  The mother company of Yoigo, TeliaSonera, announced reorganization changes that day in the communications team.  I was very sad to hear that the head of my communications team will be taking another role.  I have worked with Anna for years and will sorely miss her.  Her role will be resumed by a Finn called Tatu who I don’t know.  However I have good experiences with working with Finns, so the change might not be too drastic.

Tuesday 4^th February was Facebook’s 10^th anniversary.  Curious to see when I had actually joined, I found out it had been in August 2007 and that my first friend had been Anne (Finnish).  My second friend was Juana and my third Maija.  Anne and Maija have both been my bosses at Nokia and all three “girls” are ex Nokia.  It was funny to see the Nokia Connecting people slogan ringing true here once again. That day Facebook launched an individual look back video for all its users and it went completely viral with everyone posting their video.  I am not very keen on Facebook as a company (bit too dominant) but was impressed with the idea.  This is my video if you are interested which I wouldn’t be surprised if you weren’t. 

On Wednesday, as on Monday, I fasted.  I was up early for a conference call and then off to Yoigo for a meeting with my external PR team. Wednesday was a day we had all been looking forward to.  Let me explain; on Wednesday night Suzy was coming from London especially for my birthday.  She was also coming for her friend Copi’s 30^th birthday but wanted it to be a surprise for Copi, so none of us were allowed to post anything on Facebook or anywhere else.  Now I can finally talk about her visit in the open. She brought her boyfriend Gabor with her who was met by his mother at the airport too.  He hadn’t seen her for a year and a half and I witnessed the reunion which was very emotional.  Seeing Suzy again was emotional for us too and a very happy moment.

Oli had taken off Thursday and Friday to be with Suzy and I had done as much work as possible beforehand so as to spend nearly all my time with her too.

After a wonderful breakfast together on Thursday morning in the dining room with my Father – a table loaded with churros, chocolate, coffee, croissants and orange juice – the three of us got ready to go out. I went shopping with my beautiful daughters and we had a field day at Zara together.  There I got my Father’s present for me, a lovely pastel blue wool coat.

My lovely pastel blue woolen Zara coat

We had a family lunch together – Eladio was back from invigilating the UNED University exams. I had made “cocido madrileño” for Suzy – which, being the productive sort of person I am, was cooked and ready by the time the girls were up at 9 O’clock!

Suzy joined Eladio and I and the dogs for a walk that afternoon.  It was the perfect day.  Later they met up with the “manada” – their group of friends, minus Copi of course and this time they were joined by Gabor.

If Thursday was perfect Friday only got better. It started off with another nice breakfast (minus the churros, croissants, etc) in the kitchen with the girls and both their boyfriends, Gabor and Miguel.  They had decided to spend the morning in El Escorial – that beautiful little town near the mountains outside Madrid where Philip II built the famous monastery come Palace.  I decided to join them and thus the five of us found ourselves in that very austere but pretty town walking the streets in the sun.  Miguel took some great photos of us all with Olivia’s semi-professional camera I wish she would use more.  The one I like best is the one illustrating this week’s post, of the girls and I.  I also love this one of all of us, minus Miguel the photographer of course.  You can see the rest of Miguel’s great photos of us in El Escorial here.

In El Escorial with Suzy (sun glasses), Gabor and Olivia (right)

We decided to have lunch nearer Madrid so that Eladio could join us.  Thus we went to La Vaca Argentina in Las Rozas, the scene of many family celebrations.  Thank you Olivia and Miguel for treating us all to a wonderful lunch there.

That night the girls were off to the surprise party they had planned with their friends for Copi’s 30^th birthday which in fact was to be the next day like mine.  The girls have been friends with Copi since they were 3 and 4 and she is very much part of our family and life.  Suzy's attending was supposed to be a surprise for Copi, except that by mistake Oli posted photos of our day trip to El Escorial on the group whatsapp.  It was my job, as usual, then, to keep the peace after the unfortunate incident.  Even so Copi was delighted to see Suzy.  Here is a photo of the girls, their boyfriends and Copi that night.

Celebrating Copito's 30th birthday on Friday night

That evening the Sotchi Winter Games were inaugurated.  I only watched a bit, but of course much has been reported on the news. The main stories running up to Friday were about hotels not being finished, the gay rights controversies and huge security worries.  Sotchi, Russia’s answer to Benidorm or Blackpool but on the Black Sea and apparently Joseph Stalin’s favourite resort, was for a few hours on Friday the centre of attention around the world.  You can watch the amazing ceremony here.  I only saw a part of it but read later that it was supposed to be a view of Russia, connected by its majestic past to an exciting future through the dreams of a young girl called “Lubvov” – love in Russian.  There was nothing missing; all the Russian stereotypes such as War and Peace, Swan Lake, the Revolution, all had a part in the fantastic ceremony.  While it happened, some madman in Istanbul tried to highjack a plane to take him to Sotchi but thankfully the attempt was aborted.  I hope nothing awful happens and wish that the young Spanish ice skater, Javier Fernández, who just won the European  Championship brings home a gold medal from Sotchi. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

The Sotchi Winter Games inauguration

Saturday of course was my birthday.  I was 57 yesterday and surrounded by my family.  I think yesterday was one of my best birthdays ever.  It started off with a special breakfast – yes more churros and croissants.

My birthday breakfast with all the family and the boyfriends

This year we were joined by both boyfriends and both of them signed my birthday card.  I loved all the words from them and my family which you can read here.  I was happy with my presents too, a watch and jumper from the girls, the coat from my father, a white cold winter anorak from Eladio and a lovely scarf from Fatima our home help.

Lovely words on my birthday card

However we were alone as a family at lunch for which Fátima made one of our favourite meals – fish and chips. I did the beer batter though and Oli helped me deep fry the fish.  The piece de resistance was the cake. I loved the fruit and chocolate creation Eladio got from one of our favourite bakery shops nearby.

No birthday would be the same without a cake

Saturday wasn’t only Copi’s birthday or mine. It was also my nephew and Eladio’s godson, Juan’s.  Below is a photo of Juan and his family, our family, celebrating his birthday too.  Happy birthday dear Juan too.

Our nephew Juan celebrating his birthday too on Saturday with his family

In the afternoon on went on a second walk, to work off all the churros and cake and to work up an appetite for dinner.  Dinner was a family affair again and we were joined by the “boyfriends”.  We went to “Terraza La Escondida” in Pozuelo where our invitees agreed the place is great and the food superb and all at a very good price.  We took more photos over dinner of course and below is the one of us all around the table at dinner.

Last night's birthday dinner.

You can see the rest of the photos of my action packed or should I say food packed birthday here.  I should also make a mention here to thank all my friends and family for their phone calls, emails, videos, whatsapps and posts on Facebook to wish me a happy birthday. Thank you, all your wishes came true, I had a great day.

Who didn’t have a great day yesterday was the Spanish Princess the Infanta Cristina, King Juan Carlos’ youngest daughte,r who was in the dock of the courts of Palma in Mallorca.  It was the first time in history a member of the Spanish royal family was to appear in court as the subject of a criminal investigation. She was to be questioned in connection with the corruption scandal involving her husband’s questionable business affairs; allegedly defrauding regional governments of millions of euros of public money.  The whole affair has caused the royal family a huge headache and has damaged its reputation enormously.  Who knows what the outcome will be but it is a triumph of justice just to see the king’s daughter in the dock. I’m sure she had a dreadful time whilst pleading innocent of her husband’s crooked dealings, saying she knew nothing about them.  I wonder!

The Spanish princess arriving at the courts in Palma yesterday

And today is Sunday.  As I was checking my gmail at breakfast I suddenly realized that thousands of my missing emails had suddenly appeared in my “bin” folder.  In fact some 5.500 emails dated from 2005 to 2010 which had been purged by the hackers of my gmail account were suddenly there.  You will know that when my gmail account was hacked on 20th January in Stockholm, they deleted all the emails.  I tried reaching google unsuccessfully and then decided to ask for help from the communications manager of their offices here in Spain.  Marisa immediately went to work getting the help of a group of engineers in California.  They sent me an automated message during the week acknowledging the problem and saying that if my messages didn’t reappear they could not be recovered.  What I didn’t know though was that my case had been taken on as a special project. So I was delighted to see  some of the messages reappear today. I now have hope the messages between 2010 and 19^th January this year will also be recovered.  My faith in Google has been restored.  To boot, to quote my friend Jacky, yesterday on my birthday there was a google doodle birthday greeting for me; wow an individual doodle.  I was impressed. This was it.

My Google birthday doodle which pleasantly surprised me yesterday

I started writing this post this morning when the girls were asleep and have resumed after taking Suzy to the airport.  It’s amazing how soon her visit and my birthday have come to an end.  However we enjoyed her company to the last moment.  I joined the girls for a late breakfast (my own was at about 8.30) and spent time with Suzy before we had lunch.  Lunch was the last family gathering before we all took Suzy to the airport.  There we met with Gabor whose Mother was seeing him off too.  Our goodbyes were sweet but nostalgic with the odd tear shed – mostly by my lovely emotional daughter Suzy.  I do hope it won’t be long before we see her again.  We have to make plans to see each other for her birthday in April and or Olivia’s birthday in May.

The house feels flat now, it’s raining cats and dogs outside so there will be no walk this afternoon.  Next week will be quiet but we have St. Valentine’s to look forward to.  Eladio and I will be going away on Friday for a romantic getaway to a spa hotel in a small village near Soria. 

Meanwhile my friends, I wish you all a great week ahead,

Cheers Masha

To Stockholm and back, off to Montrondo, Eladio’s birthday and other stories.

In Stockholm last week

Hi everyone,

I’m a bit late with my blog post this week but if you read last week’s entry you will forgive me because you will know I have been travelling yet again.  

Today is Tuesday and finally I am at home and here to stay for a while.  So let me tell you about last week.  I left off on Monday 16^th September when I wrote my blog on the plane on my way to Stockholm.

I arrived in the early evening and went straight to my hotel, the Stureplan, right next door to the company HQ.  I was disappointed with my room as it had a tiny window in the roof which could not be opened.  I knew I couldn’t sleep there as I would have felt totally claustrophobic, so after some haranguing with the desk staff, I was finally given a junior suite, for a small extra charge.  It turned out to be lovely with its own balcony, the only negative point being that it was miles from the lift; but that’s always my luck.  It was too late to go out as it was already dark and uninviting because of the rain.  I decided thus to publish my blog, order room service and have an early night on quite a comfortable bed.  Unfortunately this time I hadn’t brought my feather pillow which wouldn’t fit in my cabin luggage and I had relied on the Swedish hotel having one which it didn’t. Thus I got three nights of fitful sleep and came back with a sore neck. On the plus side, I ordered my favourite Swedish food for dinner – an open prawn sandwich which is called “Räksmörgås” as I learned from my Swedish friend Gunilla and Mexican but Swedish bred friend Ilyana when I posted the picture below on Facebook.

Room service in Stockholm - my favourite Swedish food open prawn sandwich (“Räksmörgås")

Afterwards I watched the end of Mr. Selfridge on my PC.  I am now waiting anxiously for series 2 of the latter, series 4 of Downton Abbey and series 2 of The Paradise.  I have pre ordered the last two but I don’t think they will be available until November or December. My next series will be Broadchurch which was recommended to me by Amanda and owing to my faulting memory I had forgotten I had already bought it in a spate of Amazon purchases of British TV films and series.

Looking forward to watching Broadchurch

I was up early for our communications team meeting starting at 08.30 and was disappointed with the breakfast as there was nothing sweet on hand – if you know me I’m not one for savoury breakfasts.

 

Our meetings were to be held on the 7^th floor of the TeliaSonera HQ which is surrounded by an open air terrace with great views of the square in front with all the lovely spires on top of the buildings.

Stureplan in Stockholm

The day was good.  We had a day of training in “leadership communication skills” imparted by a wonderful Brit called Dominic who turned out to be from Bristol.  He was a professional trainer who comes from the communications world but what I liked about him most was his witty way of addressing us.  I learned all sorts of new tricks and tools, one I particularly liked is called “the elevator speech” – i.e. getting across your message in less than 45 seconds.  The company he represents is Synopsis Communications Consulting and their mission is apparently to turn strategy into action; not a bad thing.

In the evening our team leader Anna, invited us all to dinner.  When I say all, I mean my colleagues from the communications team she heads up and who are from the Nordic and Baltic countries.  The meal was just up the road at a great steak house called Vassa Eggen.  The food was out of this world but I paid for it later as I tossed and turned all night on a very full stomach.

Wednesday’s meetings were more hands on and about topics we are all in the throes of.  As usual we had an early lunch and this time we went offsite, but round the corner again and to the Scandic Anglais restaurant.  The meeting was over earlier than planned and I realised afterwards that if I had known I would have caught a flight home that afternoon.  So there I was with time on my hands on Wednesday afternoon in Stockholm.  For once it wasn’t raining and the sun had come out, although the temperature was only 14ºc.  So guess what I did?  Yeah you guessed right, I went shopping and had a whale of a time.  I wanted to go to Jackpot the Danish designer I liked but the boutique in Bibliotekasgatan had closed down.  A Swedish colleague warned me but said there was an outlet at Ahlens, a well known department store.  But first I thought I’d go to the Galerian shopping centre nearby to visit Lindex, Kappahl and Vero Moda.  I never got to the latter two because I saw and bought so many things at Lindex.  Lindex is a sort of Scandinavian Zara but as the pretty Hungarian Italian Swedish born shop assistant who charged me for the clothes said, is not as “snooty”.  I had never thought of Zara as snooty but maybe some people do.  I walked out of Lindex with a huge bag of emerald green jeans, various coloured jumpers and cardigans and a white blouse.  The lovely shop assistant thanked me for adding colour to her day.  I thought that was a nice compliment.  I took a photo of my bag outside the shop and immediately sent it to Olivia via whatsapp to tell her I had bought lovely clothes for her and me as it was my intention to share the clothes with her.

Shopping at Lindex

Since I came home I have found out that Lindex has an online store and you can order clothes from Spain and that the transport cost is just 7 euros.  That makes me happy as I love their clothes; the Scandinavian style and up till now I could only shop there on my trips to Sweden.

Conscious of the small capacity of my suitcase and the difficulty of packing my new clothes I skipped on Kappahl and Vero Moda and made my way to Ahlens to see what Jackpot had to offer.  Well they didn’t have anything that appealed to me. But I did spy a nice boutique called In Wear and here I invested in a fashionable bright red lightweight down jacket which everyone in Stockholm seemed to be wearing in different colours.  Of course I won’t be wearing it for a while as we are still experiencing summer weather here.

One of my acquisitions in my shopping spree in Stockholm

Ah I nearly forgot to tell you that the whole purpose of my shopping expedition was to buy a birthday present for Eladio.  And I did.  I bought him a yellow Gant shirt to add to his collection of this lovely Swedish menswear.

That evening I had another early night in and watched the only film I had on my pc, The King’s speech and which I adored in English as the first time round I saw it in Spanish.  Unsurprisingly I had the same prawn sandwich for my dinner that night.

On Thursday I was going home and had no idea what an ordeal the journey back would be.  There were no direct flights that day so the company had booked me a flight via London, arriving and leaving from Terminal 5.  I can tell you now that I will never do that again as it is chaos at T5.  The worst thing about returning via London is that you have to go through security again – and the queues are endless, as well as passport control.  Thus I had no time whatsoever for shopping at the airport, the only reason I agreed to travel back through London.  So there you have it, I left the hotel at 09.30 and didn’t get home till about 9 in the evening, 12 hours of travelling for a 3.50h direct flight time.

It was good to be home; but again it wasn’t for long.  Yeah we were going to hit the road again the next day, this time to Montrondo to spend the weekend with Eladio’s 5 brothers and sisters and their wives/partners and their Mother.  Luckily I had the morning to get organized and more importantly to go out and get cakes for Eladio’s birthday to be celebrated in Montrondo and at home the following Monday.  I also had to buy a present from my Father.  I had no idea what to get him so decided on something safe; more Gant clothing.  I got a lovely bottle green and white checked shirt and bottle green cardigan to go with it.

We left after lunch loaded down with food to share with the family; namely Fátima’s Moroccan chicken tagine and her wonderful rice, as well as lots of other food for dinner that night and our breakfasts.  We got there at around 19h and were greeted by the other first arrivals; José Antonio and Dolores.  Dolores and I immediately agreed on a brisk walk to Murias and back with Nuba their mongrel.  We wanted to go the old way across the fields and on the old path but hadn’t bargained for a group of horses or is it a herd? That would have been fine if they hadn’t been so interested in us and started trotting and then galloping towards us.  We weren’t sure whether it was threatening or not.  I love horses but am wary of their size and as I had no sugar or salt to offer them we opted for crossing the fence in the field where they couldn’t reach us.

The horses in Montrondo who chased after us

In the picture above they look very peaceful but later they worried us when they started coming after us.  I do think it was Nuba who put the cat among the pigeons here.  Thus on our way back we came along the path and away from the fields.

Just as we were walking back, Adela, the elder of Eladio’s two sisters, were arriving by car with her husband Primo and my Mother-in-law Ernestina who is in her early 90’s but looks a lot younger.

The next day Adela, Dolores and I went on an early morning walk to Murias and back again, as Adela and I would do on Sunday morning too.

Adela and I in Murias on our early morning walk.  I especially like the old fashioned blue shutters so typical in the area

Later that morning the rest of Eladio’s brothers and sisters arrived; Alejandro and his Paraguayan wife Carolina, Pili and her husband Andrés and Isidro and his wife Yoli.  It was to be a relaxing weekend with just the older generation and the finest weather we have ever experienced at that time of year in Montrondo.

Soon we were enjoying lunch around the big kitchen tables and celebrating Eladio’s birthday with his family.  I loved the sweet garland they had made for him.

Eladio celebrating his birthday in Montrondo.  Just look at the lovely candy garland his family made for him

Afterwards most of the family went off for a siesta.  The men would need it to produce the energy necessary to stack literally tons of logs from a field that belongs to them outside the village which would be brought by a tractor in various journeys to the old house to again be stacked neatly for the winter.  The photo below is of the wood arriving.

The first tractor load of wood to arrive

Meanwhile we women looked on, enjoying the afternoon sunshine and also listening to the radio.  You are probably wondering why we would be listening to the radio.  Well it was to follow a match: Pili and Andres’ son Mario’s was making his debut in the León Handball first team playing in León on Saturday against the Huesca team.  In the end they drew.

One of the main reasons for gathering together this weekend in Montrondo, apart from the business of transporting and stacking the wood logs for the winter,  was to make plans to reform the old house which we have inherited. But before we reform ours, Pili and Andrés will be rebuilding the old house next to it and which is now a ruin.  It was where Eladio was born so has a lot of sentimental value.  On Sunday morning their builders came to look around and finalise the initial steps that will be taken to start.  They had good references from Eladio’s brother Alejandro, so he took them around the old house we will be reforming too, to get a quote from them.  Both young builders gave us the right “vibes” and right now Eladio and I and, of course, Pili and Andrés are really excited about our projects.

The houses to be soon reformed in Montrondo

We left Montrondo on Sunday in the late afternoon and were home by about 10pm.  We were greeted by Fátima, our living in home help and my Father.  Of course we were greeted by our enthusiastic dogs too.  Poor Norah didn’t get a look in as Elsa overshadows her when it comes to greeting us on our arrival home.  We only saw Olivia to say goodnight as she was out with her old school friends; Paula, Sonia, Elena and co.  

Yesterday, Monday, was Eladio’s official birthday and it was celebrated in style as we like to do so at home.  It started off with a birthday breakfast with “porras” and “churros” (Spanish fritters) dipped in thick chocolate.

Oli and her Father Eladio yesterday at his birthday breakfast

We gave him his presents and card and read with interest what we had written. We also laughed at what Olivia had written – she apologized for being stubborn and tiresome when she was a child!  She couldn’t be with us for lunch when we lit the candles on his cake (chocolate of course and from the marvelous patisserie “Mallorca”).

Eladio was 69 yesterday and looking great.

But she joined us for dinner that night when we went out to La Vaca Argentina to celebrate.  The three of us had a great meal but were keenly aware that Suzy was missing.  All in all I think Eladio had a great 69^th birthday.  I can hardly believe that next year he will be 70.  He looks so good for his age and I’m sure you all agree; it’s not just flattery on my part.

And today is Tuesday, the last day to be recorded in this week’s blogpost.  Today I am fasting (yes I stick to the “fast diet” but only when I am at home), but lots of things are cooking and happening too.  To start with Oli is off to London to see Suzy this Saturday (until next Wednesday) and amazingly she has managed to get the BBC presenter she met in Galicia to show her round the BBC while she is there.  Also her day is now completely topsy turvy.  She went to work but rang me shortly afterwards.  She was coming home as the editors of the programme are sending her to Galicia again today.  She will be covering the terrible case of a 12 year old girl who is adopted and of Chinese origin and who was found dead yesterday.  The story is national news.  I am happy for Olivia though that she will be out in the field again and doing what she likes best, investigative journalism.  

The other thing that got “cooked” today, was another journey to London.  Whilst on our walk to Murias, Adela and I agreed to go together with my other sisters-in-law.  In the end the rest of them decided not to come but Adela is keen to go and for various reasons.  She has never flown before, nor visited London but is very happy for me to be her guide.  Of course I want to go with her too, but I have a vested interest as it means visiting Suzy again.  So I went and booked our flights for the December bank holiday and we will fly out on Thursday 5^th in the evening and return on Sunday 8^th.  It’s going to be fun. Watch this space.  

And now my friends I have reached the end of the story of my life since I last wrote. You can see the full selection of the photos  of our weekend in Montrondo here.

Meanwhile everyone, I wish you all the best, until next time,

Masha

A tornado in Oklahoma, a meeting of colleagues from the competition, Oli’s 28th birthday, Suzy’s London experience, terror in Woolwich and other stories

Sunday 26th May 2013

Oli with the wonderful birthday cake made by Ana standing next to the photo call at her birthday party

Hi everyone,

It’s the last Sunday in May and finally we have some good weather.  My mind this week has been more in London than here, following Suzy’s adventures but also in Stockholm.  The latter is because I have been preparing a press trip there for most of this last week and tomorrow I will be taking 8 of the main telecoms Spanish press to visit the country and experience 4G (the new super fast mobile phone technology) which has been working there since 2009.  So I was most surprised to hear later in the week that this most revered, democratic and calm country had been witness to violent riots from unemployed immigrants in the suburbs similar to the outbreaks so common in the “banlieues of Paris”.  I’m sure it will be a topic of conversation amongst us tomorrow.  

As usual, let me start from the beginning of last week, or rather from last Sunday where I left off.  Just as I had posted my blog post, RafaelNada beat his arch rival Roger Federer in the Italian Open final which was to be his 7^th title there.  It was the 30^th time the pair met and maybe they will meet again soon at the French Open at Roland Garros.

Rafa Nadal celebrating his win at the Italian tennis open last Sunday

Monday was my fasting day.  They were difficult at the beginning but now I actually look forward to them.  I had a meeting in the office that morning and when I am busy I just don’t think about food.

On Tuesday we woke up to the news of the disaster in Oklahoma caused by a tornado of the highest possible strength, F5 on the scale which measures tornados, the Fujita–Pearson scale.  It has caused a billion dollars worth of damage and killed 20 people, 10 of them children.  The dantesque scenes, especially in Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma, remind you of bombing scenes in the 2^nd world war.  Buildings were completely destroyed but few people died in the scale of things because of the tornado shelters most of the population has access to and which exist because the area lies in what is called the “tornado corridor”. 

Some of the devastation caused by the tornado in Oklahoma

Eladio would have heard of the disaster on the radio in his car that morning when he was on the road early on his way to invigilate exams at the UNED University.  He was to be invigilating most mornings of last week but would join us for lunch.  He was home too to go on our daily walk, something we never like to miss as I’m sure you know.  It keeps us fit but also gives us quality time together and is an intrinsic part of our lives.  That afternoon before our walk we had a date with our oldest couple friends, Benito and Loli who were visiting a handicraft exhibition in Villaviciosa de Odón.  Whenever we meet we always talk about how we met in Saconia where we all lived before we were married.  

Wednesday was Olivia’s 28^th birthday but as she is up so early to start work at 7am, we were not to see her until lunch.  That morning I had an important appointment in Madrid.  The financial daily, El Economista, had just published the first edition of their new online technology magazine and wanted to gather together the communications directors of the main Spanish operators in a round table discussion on the sector.  It is I think the first time we were all gathered together and it was great to stand next to my counterparts in the other operators who are both friends and foe from the competition.  There was Pepe from Vodafone, Fernando from Orange, Paz from Telefónica, Estefanía from Ono, Beatriz from Jazztel and little me from Yoigo.  This is all of us together and thanks to the initiative of Antonio L from El Economista who we all like so much.

The communications directors of the Spanish operators all gathered together

After the historic encounter I had to rush back to prepare for Oli’s birthday lunch.  I went to get her favourite cake made of pastry, cream and raspberries at a cake shop in Boadilla.  They didn’t have it but offered to make it in just 10 minutes.  The sun was shining, I was feeling happy and had 10 minutes on my hands so I decided to sit outside and enjoy a cup of coffee.  I gave in to temptation and also had one of their amazing fruit pies which you can see in the picture below.

A bit of indulgence on Olivia's birthday whilst waiting for her cake to be made

The birthday lunch was very simple. Oli had asked for fried eggs and chips which we would later turn into the Spanish dish called “huevos rotos con jamón” (broken eggs with ham and chips).  This is what it looked like before we broke the eggs.

Olivia chose egg and chips for her birthday lunch

At all birthdays in this house there is a cake, cards and presents.  The photo below is of her reading our card and she looks lovely.

Olivia on her birthday at lunch

As we sat around the dining room table we were all conscious that Susana was not with us.  She is of course in London where she started living just over a week ago.  

I loved the photo she sent to Oli that morning to say happy birthday.  See for yourselves here.

Suzy's happy birthday photo to Olivia from London

 Her first week has been an intensive start to her adventure there.  She really is starting from scratch and from the bottom, so there is only room to go up and not down.  She and Chati are sharing a small bunk bed room in a flat of 10 young Spaniards.  I was horrified to learn there are only two bathrooms for all of them.  I also looked up their address on Google Street View.  The building looks like a typical down market 60’s London block of flats in a rather dismal area but Suzy says it’s brimming with life.  I think the East End is not what it used to be.  In any case they are enjoying their experience enormously.  Suzy says there is a spirit of camaraderie and they are learning the ropes fast; looking for jobs, applying for a national insurance number, registering themselves as a nurse and dietitian with all the bureaucracy that involves and even applying for what is called a “job seek allowance”.  They are in a bit of a catch 22 situation in that they cannot open a bank account because they cannot prove they live in London as their accommodation is illegal and if they don’t have a bank account they cannot receive a salary.  Hopefully they will find legal and better accommodation soon.  Meanwhile Suzy’s English is improving daily with lots of new vocabulary she never learned from me and she seems to be getting to know parts of London I have never even heard of, such as Borough Market or Dalston Roof.  

On Tuesday they met up with Oli’s Erasmus Indian friend, dear dear Sandeep whom we all love so much.  He lives in Cornwall and was in London last week to do some editing for the Chelsea Flower Show.  Here they are together.  Doesn’t Suzy look happy?

Suzy with Chati and Sandeep on Tuesday in Chelsea

However she is not following the news, as she is living in her own little bubble in London and had no idea of the terrible terrorist attack that happened in Woolwich, an area she has not yet explored but which is not so far from where she lives in Whitechapel.

On the night of Olivia’s birthday, a young soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, was killed and decapitated in full view of the public by two members of a band of radicalized muslim youth.  The photo of one of them with his hands full of blood ranting in the street will be remembered for a long time.  He justified the killing in revenge for the killing of muslims in Irak and other countries by English and American soldiers. 

The mad perpetrator of the Woolwich attack in London

The next day, Thursday, was my second fasting day of the week.  I was so immersed in preparations for the press trip I hardly thought about food. My mind was so busy that afternoon that when I went shopping with Oufa I never noticed my glasses falling off the neck of my blouse as I left the car to enter the super market.  I went back later to find them broken on the kerb.  Luckily the lenses are not broken and I am now hoping Visionlab, where I bought them can find a similar pair to be able to use the lenses.  If not I will have to fork out 600 euros for a new pair of varifocal glasses.  I have another pair but they are red and as I always wear matching clothes and glasses, my biggest problem was deciding what clothes to put in my suitcase for Stockholm when in my mind I had decided on a lot of black and white for next week’s trip.  I’m sure you think I am very silly.  Well perhaps I am.

My broken glasses, a sorry story

On Friday I had to go the office and then rush to Boadilla for my lunch appointment with Julio and Fátima.  It was to celebrate Julio’s birthday and he invited us for lunch at El Buey where we always go for our celebrations.  It being nearly summer salmorejo (a thick type of gazpacho from Córdoba) was on the menu.  This is what it looked like.  Delicious it was too.

Wonderful salmorejo at El Buey on Friday with Fátima and Julio

On Saturday Olivia was having a birthday party at home for her RTVE colleagues and the girls’ group of friends commonly known as “la manada” – the herd.  I was to help her prepare for the barbecue which thankfully her boyfriend Miguel took care of in Eladio’s absence. Her friends Rocío and Dave turned up early to take care of the decorations.  I had made a photo call and stickers and Anna had made a spectacular cake.  It was very original too as it represented Olivia when she reported on floodings in a river in Valladolid where she got into trouble with the local authorities for dangerous reporting.  The photo illustrating this week’s post is of Olivia with the amazing cake by the photo call in the garden.  Here you can see the cake close up. Isn’t it amazing? It tasted really good too.

The amazing birthday cake Ana made for Olivia's party yesterday

And today is Sunday, everything is cleared away and we are getting ready for another barbecue.  Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and his wife Dolores and their son, Juan (Eladio’s godson) and his girlfriend Cristina will be here for lunch today.  I spent part of yesterday afternoon making salmorejo for the first course whilst Eladio cleaned and prepared the terrace by the swimming pool for their visit.  It is looking great now and I look forward to the moment he removes the swimming pool cover and we take our first dip.

I must start on the rest of the lunch, so will finish this post in haste.  Next week will be exciting.  I always love going to Stockholm but especially at this time of year when the weather is better and there is light until late in the evening.

I wish you all a great week ahead.  Until next week my friends,

Love Masha