Diana was born, Kings’ day, a lot of snow and an adventurous dinner at Julio’s.

Our walk in the snow this morning, what a joy.

Hi again

As I begin to write my weekly post this Sunday afternoon in January it is snowing quite heavily outside. We are having a very cold spell with extremely low temperatures for Spain all over the country (-15ºc in Burgos for example) and it was even snowing today in Seville, something nearly unheard of. The cold spell has affected most of Europe and I know for one of people snow bound in the UK this last week where chaos reigned with cancelled flights and closed schools.
A great satellite photo of Great Britain snowed under, or as the Daily Telegraph wrote one day: Great Britain in a deep freeze.
Who will not have noticed the snow will be my newest grand niece, Diana. Diana was born on Monday 4th January to Ana, the wife of Roberto, the son of Adela who is Eladio’s sister. She came into this cold world at the beginning of a new decade in a peaceful and uncomplicated way. Her parents are delighted with her as is everybody around her.
Baby Diana born last Monday 4th Jan.
We sent the proud new parents a gift for the new born baby in the form of a baby hamper, my favourite present for babies from a website called Don Faldón. I judge that very subjectively as I know I would have loved to receive something like that when my girls were born, much more than flowers and plants that only die in the end.
Proud parents, Roberto and Ana, with their newly born baby girl Diana posing by the baby hamper we had sent them to celebrate her birth.
My girls, together with Gaby, Suzy’s boyfriend, are actually on their way back from León from visiting Diana and the family this weekend (see their photos here). In fact they should be walking in the door any minute.

The girl cousins around Ana and Diana this weekend.
And they did walk in and it was snowing and time for our walk and so we braved the weather as you can see here.
Eladio and Norah ready for our walk yesterday just as the snow began.
Very soon everything was covered and cars were having difficulties going up the road and Eladio was threatening not to go out tonight to Julio’s annual dinner (more about that later). I loved the silence the snow brought and the crunchy noise you hear as you step on fresh new powdery snow. It was like that in the fields and we were the only ones on the walk. You had to be careful not to step on puddles which had snow on them as the ice was brittle.

Now I am back and writing again before we leave (or try to leave) for Julio’s annual dinner, something we always look forward to. Let me start before though at the beginning of the week.

On Monday, the day Diana was born, I went into the office mainly because my remote corporate email vpn had expired. It was nice to see colleagues and gauge the atmosphere at work. That day I also went shopping with Suzy and ended up buying 2 coats (pink and and black and white) in the sales which were oh so cheap I went back for another one the next day (white).

On Tuesday, my up day (oh yes I’m still doing up and down days, hahaha) we went out to dinner with Roberto and MariCarmen, to celebrate MariCarmen’s birthday to De Brasa y Puchero in Boadilla.

Wednesday was the 3 Kings’ day (Epiphany) and officially the last day of Christmas in Spain (see previous years' entries on the subject here). Most Spaniards give their presents on that day and the 5th of January, the night before is the biggest sales day of the year. It certainly was in the case of Yoigo where we made record sales. Of course we celebrate Father Christmas so none of us were expecting very much that day. As it turned out, the Kings had left presents for us at Gaby’s house (Suzy’s boyfriend) and at José Antonio and Dolores house too for which we were very grateful.

The day began with breakfast all together where we ate the traditional roscón which you can see here. We bought 2, one with cream for lunch and one for breakfast without cream which we always toast. We got them from a superb bakery called Viena Capellanes thanks to vouchers we get at work. So thanks once again Yoigo for feeding the family, hahaha.
The typical "roscón" cake which is eaten by the ton in Spain on the 3 Kings' day.
As is tradition in this house on the Kings’ day, Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and his family are always invited for lunch. This year we had the pleasure of the company of José Antonio, Dolores and Juan as you can see here in the photo of them round the lunch table. We had a very English meal actually, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.
The traditional 3 Kings' day family dinner with José Antonio, Dolores and Juan.
The next day, Thursday, the weather was infernal and bad enough to thwart our daily walk. We did, however, brave it to go shopping as we had to get a few more presents to give out at Julio’s dinner.

On Friday morning I did something terrible and forgot my date with Elena for coffee nearby. Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind that much and we have rescheduled it to the end of this month. Sorry Elena, how forgetful of me!!! I was making “cocido” for the family that morning and was so immersed I never looked at my diary. Here by the way is the result.

My cocido - Cocido madrileño is a very Spanish dish from the Madrid area which consists of different sorts of meats and bones and chorizos with chickpeas, potatoes and vegetables. The stock is used to make a wonderful soup with noodles which is served as a first course. It is the speciality of this household by the way.
In the afternoon we went to the cinema, not before visiting Leroy Merlin to get Eladio’s Christmas toy from my Father, a badly needed leaf blower which you can see him using here and which is going to come very much in handy in our huge garden.

Eladio and his new toy, a leaf blower.
We went to see a Spanish film called Celda 211 (celda means a prison cell) and was about a prison mutiny. It was quite violent as I had predicted but had a fantastic plot. Afterwards we went, of course, to have dinner to our favourite restaurant, La Alpagatería, where we dined at our favourite table, number 7. I do like tradition, don’t I?

Friday, actually, was also the day Spain took over the European Union Presidency, a big day for Spain as you can read here.

On Saturday, when the girls had gone to León, we had visitors for afternoon tea. Suzy’s friend, Rocio’s parents, Esmeralda and Juan came to see us to get advice for their trip to India in March. We hadn’t seen them since the girls were at school and it was nice to catch up and chat about India for 2 or 3 hours. You will remember that is was with Rocío the girls visited India in October.

And that brings me to Sunday, now yesterday as I have broken off to write this blog post several times now. Sunday of course was the day of the snow and the annual dinner at Julio’s house with Fátima, our best friend who lives nearby and who worked with me both at Motorola and Nokia.

As I said at the beginning of the post, it had begun to snow and Eladio was worried about us driving to Madrid. However nothing was going to stop me or the girls cancelling the dinner. After all it is a once a year event and means a lot to us all. So we ventured out very cautiously and slowly. It took us 1.5h to get to Julio’s house but we made it!!! It was mainly thanks to our wonderful car, a Volvo XC90 which is not only a 4WD but has a magic “W” button which we reckon stands for “winter”. Suzy drove there and Oli drove back. You are great drivers girls!!!

Dinner as usual was fantastic, the food being provided by Julio and Fátima, including the traditional roscón with cream which we all adore. Credit also goes to Fátima’s mother for making 2 delicious tortillas. Thanks Gloria.
The annual dinner at Julio's this year, a bit of an adventure to get to but well worth the effort.
And this morning we woke up to the heaviest snow fall we have seen in the last 10 years and certainly the heaviest at our new house. The first thing I did of course was to rush outside with Norah and take photos to remember the day before it melted.

You can see the whole selection of the photos of the snow at our house and also of our walk in the snow with the girls and Norah here on Facebook.

The snow, however, did not melt and is still here. In fact we are trapped at home, the only way out being with the Volvo which actually Oli has just taken to go to work this afternoon. Eladio’s Open University classes have been cancelled this afternoon the same as all schools and Universities in the area. This is a big day for Spanish weather, quite extraordinary.

It was so extraordinary, the four of us decided to go for a walk in the snow with Norah which turned out to be pure magic as you can see in the photo illustrating this post and in the photos in the link above as well as this video I have uploaded to You Tube. and in another one where Eladio and Suzy have a snow fight, haha. Good watching!

And on that magical note, I leave you until next week.

Hope you all have a great one. Cheers till then
Masha

Christmas comes but once a year, Spanish and English traditions, 2009 in pictures and Happy New Year to you all.

Some of my photos of 2009 in a picture collage. I hope 2010 is just as good.
Hello again

Today is Sunday 27th December and the most important days of Christmas are now over. Christmas comes but once a year as the title of this week’s blog says and for me it is always magical and much awaited. And every year I write about it in my blog as you can see here. As ever they were great as a lot of thought and preparations were put in to make them so. But let me tell you first about the run up to Christmas and then how we spent it here at home with the family, somewhat extended this year with the visit of Eladio’s Mother.

Last week on Monday we woke up to quite a big snowfall. It was actually big enough to make us snowbound until mid afternoon, mostly because our drive is so steep. Our plans therefore for Christmas shopping with the “abuelos” (grandparents in Spanish) had to be put off until Wednesday. Being snowbound has its advantages so I spent the morning cooking perushki which are Russian meat pies. Norah of course thoroughly enjoyed the snow which she had never experienced before. You can see a full set of pictures here.
The snow that had us housebound on Monday.

On Tuesday, with the snow mostly gone, I went into work for a meeting and also to receive a friend, Marta Acebo, from our Nokia days who wanted to pick my brains about PR. It was lovely to see her and I hope my input was useful.

Tuesday was also the Spanish Christmas lottery draw known as “El Gordo”. It is one of the biggest Christmas traditions here in Spain and unites people across the country. When I first came to live in Spain I couldn’t understand why people spent money on it and I was cross with Eladio for buying tickets when we earned so little. Now I couldn’t perceive Christmas without buying a ticket or two. However once again we didn’t win a cent.
The El Gordo Christmas lottery, a truly Spanish tradition.
I didn’t win the lottery but I did contribute to my boss winning a poll for the telecoms executive of the year in a publication called El Economista. I spent at least 10 days canvassing for votes and had people working specially on it, including Juan my nephew. We won hands down with more than 11.000 votes. It was an interesting exercise for me which I actually thoroughly enjoyed. You can see the full results of the poll here.

Not only was I canvassing last week, I was also putting the final touches to the last of the many Yoigo Christmas activities, the last being the making and sending of a Christmas gift to our external contacts and partners. This year we made chocolate in the shape of “muñecos” which are a sort of cartoon dolls that we use in advertising. To judge by the comments in emails I got, people loved them. I have one but want to keep it as a sample and just cannot bear the idea of digging my teeth into the lovely chocolate creation. And this is what it looks like:
The Yoigo gift of chocolate we made in the shape of the "muñecos" (cartoon dolls)
On Wednesday I did a good Christmas deed, together with my friend Fatima, when we visited our friend Julio who is convalescing at his parents’ house after having been in hospital because of a duodenal ulcer. I mentioned in my blog last week that today, 27th December, we would be having our annual Christmas dinner at his house. Due to his illness, that has now been postponed until January. We took him some chocolate and a poinsettia plant, so typical in Spain at Christmas. I think we must have cheered him up and hopefully he is now well on the road to recovery.

Wednesday was also the day we took the “abuelos” out for a family lunch (yes all 6 of us). We meant to go to my Father’s favourite, Vips, but it was full and instead we went to Ginos. My Father later told me that Christmas started for him on that day. I’m glad. In the afternoon we all went to El Corte Inglés (Spain’s top department store) to do more Christmas shopping and as an excursion for the abuelos. I think though in the end we tired them out but I know for one my Father enjoyed it immensely. Most of my own Christmas shopping was done with Suzy on odd afternoons in the last 2 weeks and finally our Christmas tree looked like this.
The Christmas tree with all the presents ready for Christmas Day, another truly British tradition.
And on 24th December, Christmas arrived in what is known here as “Nochebuena” (Christmas Eve)here in Spain. Everything was ready including the fillers for the girls’ stockings my Mother had knitted for them when they were children. It is a tradition from my own childhood. The girls put out the stockings and I fill them with all sorts of little wrapped up enticing objects and put them back outside their rooms. Even though they are now in their 20’s the girls insist I carry on the tradition every Christmas. Here you can see the empty stockings hanging on the tall boy outside their rooms waiting to be filled on Christmas Eve.
The girls' stockings, a truly British Christmas tradition and one we love.
Nochebuena is as important in Spain (and many other countries in Europe) as Christmas Day in England and is celebrated with a special dinner with tables groaning with the finest delicacies. In our house we have the best of both worlds and celebrate Christmas with both Spanish and English traditions. Here you can see our Christmas Eve or Nochebuena table for which I had been cooking for 2 whole days.
The family dinner on Christmas Eve, a truly Spanish tradition called Nochebuena.
The next day, Christmas day, evolved as it always has for me and the children and had as much magic as it always has. The highlights are of course the present opening ceremony after breakfast and the midday traditional English Christmas lunch with all the trimmings including crackers. I, at least, was delighted with my presents: charms for my Pandora bracelet, black leather long gloves, pretty ear warmers and wonderful perfumes. Even Norah got a present this year as you can see in this picture.
Norah opening her present - bone and dog biscuits which were very much appreciated, hahaha.
Eladio and I just before we opened the presents on Christmas Day. Eladio is wearing a bow tie which accidentally matched my blouse. He looks great with it on.
The other Christmas photos can be viewed here.

The rest of the time, including Boxing Day was spent lazing around, eating too much plus an enormous amount of chocolate and also watching films we had hired. As I had chosen them I ended up watching them more or less on my own. So what did I hire? Well, Good, Amazing Grace and Miss Austen Regrets, all rather historical and academic but just up my street. Last night though we changed the genre and decided to watch one of the Indian “Elements Trilogy” by the Indian director Deepa Metah called Earth which is about the religious strife associated with the formation of Pakistan when the English finally granted India their home rule and independence. We had previously watched Water, an amazing story of the mistreatment of widows in rural India and may well watch Fire tonight, the last of the trilogy, all very recommendable, especially if you are fascinated by India like we are.

Christmas comes but once a year as I wrote above, but it hasn’t gone yet. For me it doesn’t go until 6th January, Epiphany and also the very much celebrated “Reyes” or Kings’ day when most Spaniards give their presents. My nephew Mario, the son of Pili and Andrés who were with us last weekend, got his Kings’ present early this year, in the shape of a wonderful little Dalmation puppy called Trebol. It’s absolutely adorable as I’m sure you agree when you see this photo.
Trebol, the dalmation puppy Mario got for Christmas.
And it is with Pili and Andrés and the rest of Eladio’s family with whom we will be celebrating New Year’s Eve next week in León. We will in fact be staying at Pili’s (Eladio’s sister) and will be meeting Trebol of course.

And talking about next year, I did 2 great collages of my year in photos thanks to an application in Facebook as you can see here and in the photo illustrating this post.
Another collage of my photos in 2009. Great little application from Facebook.
And on that note I leave you and hope you will all enjoy the rest of Christmas and of course New Year’s Eve. I also wish you all a great 2010. 2009 has been fantastic for us and so I hope 2010 will be another good year. We already have nice trips to look forward to: Brussels for a reunion with Adele and Sandie in February and a week in New York in March. Isn’t life great?

Happy New Year to you all

Masha

Snow on a Sunday in Madrid

Hello again

There has been snow all over Spain, quite bad weather and many new warnings of snow, even here in Madrid. However, snow is so unusual here and it hardly every settles, that I didn't take much notice of the weather forecasts. Eladio with his sixth sense for weather in general (he comes from a northern mountainous region in Spain) said last night, just as we were getting into bed: "there's going to be a heavy snowfall tonight".

And, lo and behold, this morning at about 5 a.m, when we were worrying that Susana still wasn't home, he looked outside and announced to me that there was a heavy snowfall. Poor Susi finally arrived home a bit later. She had no chains in the car and had driven home in 2nd gear.

When we finally got up this morning, the snow was still there, so Eladio went outside with his boots and took these photos.

Luckily today is Sunday so there will be no chaos on the road for people going to work or school.

I must admit it looks beautiful, specially with the contrast of the sun. It will melt pretty soon though, but while it lasts it's lovely and reminds us all of our childhoods. In this house, however, only the cat Henry has been out playing in the snow and that's a sight in itself to see.

Today will be a nice quiet day at home with the newspapers and my wonderful book Memoirs of a Geisha. The day however, beholds something nice to look forward to. We are all going out to dinner tonight, yes the 5 of us. The reason? Nothing special, just to enjoy life and do things together. My father is tickled pink about it, so good for him. We are going to Bice a lovely Italian joint operated under the Vips Group. The trick? I have an invitation because I am a platinum member which is a perk from my PR profession.

Cheers/Masha