Fireworks, Valencia and the Yoigo Mid Summer Party, a celebration, more on the World Cup 2010, good news from Wimbledon, Hennie Kuiper at the Tour of France and sandals from Menorca.

The Yoigo family at the Mid Summer Party this week in Valencia cheering on Spain in the World Cup

Hi everyone

I have just noticed I have more than 40 thousand readers. I love writing my blog but it’s the number of readers that often inspires me to continue. I am amazed to see where they all come from. Blogger has just launched something called real time blogger stats which give you an insight on the traffic to your blog. My top 5 countries in order of readers are India, Spain, Germany, US and UK. I often wonder why people who don’t know me find my blog interesting and I don’t have the answer. Hopefully this week’s post meets with their approval.

It starts where I left off, last weekend. On Sunday, we had a barbecue and in the evening, after another World Cup match (when humble Ghana beat the USA) we went out to dinner with Anne, my Finnish friend, to nearby Boadilla.

The only team from Africa to make it through to the Last 16, Ghana who beat the USA.

Oli joined us and we finally decided on Las Tres Nueces where we could eat outside and Anne could enjoy local tapas. As we were leaving we were able to witness and enjoy an amazing firework display put on by the town hall to celebrate San Juan, Spain’s Mid Summer fiesta. Anne commented how in Finland fireworks are going out of fashion because they pollute the atmosphere and also because they are very costly something people don’t appreciate during the crisis. Apparently the modern alternative is laser. Anne who now works for a town hall herself (Salo in Finland) obviously knows what she is talking about and estimated that Boadilla had spent more than 100.000 euros on the display. She is possibly right but I have always enjoyed fireworks, probably from the celebration of Guy Fawkes in England every 5th November when I was a child in England, and wouldn’t like to see them disappear.

A firework display, just like the one we saw in Boadilla to celebrate San Juan

On Monday I was to say goodbye to Anne as I was rushing off to Valencia with Suzy to make sure everything was in order for this year’s Yoigo Summer Party which was to take place there on the Tuesday and Wednesday for some 200 people. I left Anne in good hands and knew my two men would take care of her till she left on Wednesday morning. Later I got a message to thank me for our hospitality and the chance to rest at Sanatorium Villa Freijo Lloyd, which is what she calls our humble abode. It was a pleasure darling.

We got to Valencia in the early evening, on time for a quick meeting with the hotel manager and Bea from our events agency. I then joined Suzy for half an hour on the beach which is all the time I managed to get there in the end which is a pity as the Hotel Sidi Saler sits right on the unspoiled Saler Beach.

The unspoilt Saler Beach where our hotel was at the Yoigo Mid Summer Party in Valencia this week.

Dinner was a slightly disappointing affair at La Rosa restaurant on the Malvarrosa beach in Valencia. Afterwards we walked on the promenade and had a look at the outdoor market which sold the usual rubbish you find in similar places all over the world. The anecdote of the night was when some boys mistook Susana for a gypsy which is probably because of her intense tan as well as the bun in her even more intensely red hair.  We were walking by the beach and along came 2 boys on bicycles and one shouted: "look, what a pretty gypsy girl" pointing at Susana which we found very amusing.

Suzy with her red hair in a bun and her tan was mistaken for a gypsy in Valencia this week!

The next day the Yoigo Mid Summer Party 2010 was to begin and we were expecting some 200 guests made up of employees and suppliers. On arrival they were greeted by a local band playing the famous song, Valencia Valencia. It was such a hoot. This was the programme:

The Yoigo Mid Summer Party programme.  Notice we had more than 20 sponsors who funded the event.

One of the highlights was a regatta of 22 sailing boats in the Pobla de Farnals port, some 12km from the city. For many people it was their first regatta and from the feedback I got and the happy faces I saw, this activity was well chosen.

The regatta at the Yoigo Mid Summer party this week.  There were 22 sailing boats.  It was very professional.

In the evening watching the Spain Portugal Last 16 match was a must for everyone, even though it meant having dinner past 10.30 p.m. We kitted everyone out in the Spanish red and yellow colours and even organised a bet at one euro per person. We were joined by local distributors from Valencia. Thus some 300 people dressed in red and yellow watched the match live outside on two big plasma screens.

It wasn’t till the second half that La Roja, as the Spanish team is often called, scored and it was a happy bunch of people who went into dinner after having witnessed Spain beat Portugal and go through to the Quarter Finals. Dinner which was an outdoor barbecue or rather the party afterwards was another highlight. As we were in Valencia I came up with the idea of doing a themed party based on the Moors and Christians festivals that take place in that area of Spain. To tell the truth there were more Moorish activities than Christian, such as: fire spectacle, henna dyeing, tarot card reading, Moroccan pipe smoking, an Arab style market, belly dancers etc.

Suzy and Lucía working at the Moors and Christians dinner during the Yoigo Mid Summer party this week. 

The next day there was a choice of staying in the hotel to recover from hangovers or enjoy the pool and beach or go to the famous Oceanografic in Valencia which is actually the biggest aquarium in Spain. I chose to stay behind, have a leisurely breakfast and read my emails. We were all to meet at a small wharf of the Albufera lake to take the traditional boats on a ride round the lake before landing at the Nou Raco restaurant which was to be the last activity of the 2 day Summer Party. You can easily guess what we ate here. Yes of course it was rice which is grown in the Albufera district and it was superb.

The traditional boats we went on in the Albufera lake on the last day of the Yoigo Mid Summer party in Valencia.

By the time we got home I was exhausted and as tradition has it, pretty hoarse too. I had worked on this project for months now. It was great and then it was over and the adrenaline leaves your body and you feel exhausted.  You can see the video of the whole event here as well as some of the photos.  The full collection is here on Flickr

I was exhausted but had to be up early the next day to attend a conference on telecommunications spectrum at Unidad Editorial, the group that comprises El Mundo, amongst other publications. There I was to see familiar faces from my Motorola and Nokia years. Luckily I was able to get away early and I spent the afternoon catching up on my work at a leisurely pace.

The Unidad Editorial publication house building where the spectrum conference took place on Thursday.

Friday was a great day in many ways. The girls and I did some quick girly shopping at Centro Oeste mostly at Zara, Friday’s Project and Cortefiel. The news there is that I actually bought a summer dress, a garment I haven’t worn for years and you know what? I love it. From there we drove to La Vaca Argentina restaurant to join Eladio and my Father for a celebration lunch. We were celebrating Suzy’s graduation, of course, but also my promotion at work.

The afternoon was spent by the pool and watching football and tennis. Holland was playing Brazil in the quarter finals and very surprisingly beat the favourites. They will now go through to play Uruguay in the semi finals. As I am writing, this Saturday evening, Germany already beat Argentina 4-0 in their quarter final. Now Spain has to beat Paraguay but if it does it will meet Germany in the semi final which is rather a daunting idea. We have to remember though that Spain is the reigning European champion and actually beat Germany in that final. So who knows?

Meanwhile Wimbledon, the most important tennis championship in the world which takes place at the All England lawn tennis club, was well into its second week. Federer the reigning champion was knocked out and yesterday Spain’s best loved tennis player, Rafael Nadal was to play the Scot Andy Murray. Even though the former is not at his peak he beat Murray in 3 straight sets. On Sunday he will play to win his second trophy at the All England Club. His opponent will be no knock over, to quote my Father. He will be playing Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic who beat Roger Federer earlier. On Sunday we look forward to yet another victory in Spanish sport.

This weekend has been dominated by sport. Today was also the start of the Tour de France. I used to be a great fan of cycling thanks to my involvement in the sport when I worked for Motorola. The Tour started today in Rotterdam in Holland and I could not help thinking what that must have meant for my good friend Hennie Kuiper, a Dutch cycling legend who used to be the Motorola Cycling Team coach. Hennie is a wonderful modest gentleman, in the true sense of the word and a sports legend in Holland.  He has an Olympic gold medal in cycling and came second in the Tour de France twice. He also won the Alpe D’Huez stage twice and was the world professional road race champion in 1975. I would have loved to be there today enjoying the start with Hennie.

Hennie Kuiper, the Dutch cycling legend who was the Motorola Cycling Team coach.  It was a privilege to be his friend.

But no I could not be there. Instead I went somewhere nearer with Eladio this morning, to the Majadahonda market to change some shorts I had bought him there last week with Anne. I also took the opportunity to buy myself a pair of Abarca sandals handmade in Menorca like the ones I had bought him last week. I must say they are extremely comfortable. Made in the Balearic Islands, which is where the Spanish Royal family spend their vacation, they have, in a way, made these sandals popular in the peninsula. In the summer you often see the King and Prince Felipe in this type of footwear.

Abarca sandals handmade in Menorca as worn by the King of Spain.  I bought some for Eladio and myself in white at the Majadahonda market.

And that my friends, is more or less it for this week. I must rush to cheer on Spain in the vital quarter final match against Paraguay now. When I write again next week the World Cup 2010 will be over and who will be the champion? It could be any of the following: Spain, Uruguay, Paraguay, Holland or Germany.

Cheers till next week

Masha

PS Just after I published this blog post yesterday, Spain beat Paraguay in the Quarter Finals. David Villa scored his 5th goal of the tournament and thanks to this Spain will play its first semi final ever in the world cup and meet a very strong Germany on Wednesday.  May the best team win.

Remembering my Mother on her birthday, Oli continues in Brazil, launch of the iPhone4, Suzy’s last week of studying, the World Cup kicked off in South Africa and other things.

Zakumi, the mascot for the World Cup 2010 hosted by South Africa

  Hi again

Last time I wrote we were in the middle of a heat wave and then suddenly the weather took a turn for the worse and we have gone back to rain and cool temperatures again. It doesn’t look good either for the week coming up as you can see in this shot from Juli’s iPhone. We had just got used to extreme heat, bathing in our pool, late night walks and air conditioning on at night and now we are back to central heating and winter pyjamas! The forecast is for rain until Thursday next week. I hope the good weather will be back by Saturday for the barbecue we have planned for Gerardo and family.

The depressing weather forecast for this week.

The weather affected an event I organised this week. We were to celebrate our Blogger summer party (those young online techies who write about Yoigo and mobile phones) outside on the lawn in the car park but had to go inside and make do with our wonderful new cafeteria. To get people into the spirit of summer, even though it was cold and wet outside, we kitted them all out with Hawaiian party gear. You can see me all dressed up for the occasion here. It certainly broke the ice and the party was a great success.

Me in the Hawaiian gear we kitted everyone out in at the blogger party this week.

The week though began with sun and Monday 7th June would have been my dear Mother’s 90th birthday as my Father reminded me. Of course she is often in my mind but there are two dates when I remember her specially: the day she died on 1st October and her birthday. She was not a great one for organising birthdays but loved to receive a card and chocolates and blow the candles on her cake. She once told me the story of her birthday in the early 50’s in England when she was a refugee and earning a pittance. I think it may well have been the year her beloved Father, Andrei Lieven, died. She had last seen him in the early 40’s when she left Bulgaria for Germany during the war, to escape the Russians, of course. She never saw him again and was alone in London when he died which saddened her enormously. It was her birthday but she was so upset and so alone that she only remembered it in the evening and promptly decided to buy presents for herself to cheer up as there was no one in London who would be giving her any. Luckily she went on to have a happy life with my Father and her children in a country which she admired and loved and which eventually became her own.

My Mother with my Father on New Year's day in 1974.  My Mother is still sadly missed.

Mummy won’t know but on Monday 7th June Apple launched its new iPhone4, with great razmataz at an event for developers in Los Angeles. Steve Jobbs took the stage and the world watched as he unveiled Apple’s latest gadget. From what I can see it’s an improved version of the current iPhone3GS with an amazing display, the ability to multitask which you can’t do now, a better camera and also an inbuilt camera for video calling which actually has never taken off. It’s also much thinner. It will be out in July and there will be huge demand as there is for any product made by this company which I think makes the best mobile phones in the world. At the blogger Party I was able to try out the iPad, the amazing internet tablet Apple launched recently. I would love to have both the iPad and the new iPhone4 but will have to wait.

The new iPhone4, unveiled on 7th June in Los Angeles.  Of course I want one!

Neither Suzy nor Oli will have been much aware about the iPhone launch. Oli is still in Brazil and we are looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow. We haven’t had as much contact as I would have liked but thanks to photos posted by her friend Laura I have been able to follow her adventures. We spoke briefly at the beginning of the week and it was a sorry Oli I spoke to as she had a bad cold and had been bitten alive by nasty mosquitoes in some remote seaside village 2 hours north of Salvador. She had been bitten everywhere but the nastiest bite was on her eye and one morning she woke up to find it all swollen and was hardly able to see out of it. I urged her to go to a doctor but don’t know whether she did. A few days later Suzy heard that she was better and she certainly looks ok in this photo of her with Laura and Cristina.

Oli far right next to Cristina in the middle and Laura on the left in Brazil this week.

Suzy meanwhile has spent literally the whole week studying for the last exam of her degree which is in Food Technology tomorrow morning. If only she had studied as hard during the years instead of always leaving the revising until the very end. It’s like betting; you may win, you may not and often she has not which is why it has taken her so long to finish her degree. Anyway I wish her loads of luck because if she doesn’t pass tomorrow she will have to re-sit in September which means studying all through August once again. So, keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow my friends.

Eladio, meanwhile, was actually invigilating University (UNED) exams all week. On Friday he told me he had caught one of his pupils cheating but decided to look the other way to avoid the huge fuss it would cause. He told me that one young woman had been caught cheating (she was in her final year of law) and the penalty was to repeat a whole year. The poor woman fainted and had to be carried out by two of the invigilators. You may remember last week I said we went out to buy him lots of new clothes. Well here he is one morning in some of the new stuff looking great and ready to leave for his invigilating. It was a tough week for him as the hours were long, from 8.30 am to 8.30 pm.

Eladio in his new clothes, ready to go and invigilate UNED University exams this week.

On Friday we went out to dinner with my celebrity and charismatic cycling friend, Pedro Delgado, and his lovely wife Ludi who reminds me more and more of Sarah Jessica Parker. Ludi loves Sex in the City so I hope she found this a compliment. Pedro Delgado who was 50 this year and won the Tour of France in 1988 and two Tours of Spain is still a legend in Spain and when the waiter and chef came to ask him for an autograph I felt proud to be his friend. We went to Filo where I had hoped we could have dinner on the terrace outside but the bad weather forced me inside again for the second time this week. Filo turned out to be a bad choice as it was so noisy I could hardly hear what my friends were saying.

My dear friend, the charismatic celebrity cyclist, Pedro Delgado who is a legend in Spain.

And this was the week the 2010 Football World Cup kicked off in South Africa. The World Cup is a breath of fresh air for people who are fed up with the crisis and it’s a time to fly the colours of your country as I did here with a fun application on Facebook.

Me flying the colours of England who actually got off to a bad start at the World Cup.

I learned two lovely new words at the start of this year’s edition. One is the word Bafana which is a term of endearment in Afrikaans and means “the boys” but actually refers to the South Africa national football team often called Bafana Bafana. The other word is ‘Zakumi', the Fifa World Cup 2010 mascot. I read it is a composition of ‘ZA' standing for South Africa and ‘kumi', which translates into ‘10' in various languages across Africa. Of course it includes the colours of the country’s flag. I thought if fit for Zakumi to be the photo to illustrate this week’s blog post, the week the World Cup started in South Africa and the first time the event has been hosted on the African continent.

The whole world has been enjoying the start of the World Cup but it has brought only bad news for two men. Nelson Mandela, the former first black president, Nobel peace prize winner and prisoner for his fight against apartheid, is the symbol of the new South Africa. Very sadly for him and his family, his 13 year old great-granddaughter, Zenani, was killed in a car accident while returning from the World Cup kick-off concert. The much beloved frail 91 year old Nelson Mandela has not been seen since at the event and is probably mourning this terrible loss in the privacy of his home. He will be much missed.

Nelson Mandela and his 13 year old great granddaughter Zenani who was sadly killed in a drink and drive accident when returning from the World Cup kick-off concert.

The other sad man is Robert Green, England’s goalkeeper who made a terrible mistake in yesterday’s opening match against the USA which should have been an easy win for England. England was winning 1-0 when just before the end Green fumbled with the ball which entered the goal area and instead of easily stopping it he let it bobble out of his grasp. The missed ball cost his country a winning World Cup start. The poor chap (actually the goalkeeper for Westham) is now being called “Calamity Green” and reminds me of Beckham being given a red card in the famous match against Argentina in a previous world cup; something it took him years to live down. Let’s just hope England does better against the other rivals of its group (Slovenia and Algeria). Meanwhile Spain has yet to play its opening match which will be against Switzerland on June 16th. That should be a write-off for Spain but in the World Cup anything can happen.

Robert Green, England's goalkeeper who couldn't stop the ball entering the goal area in the opening match vs USA

And that brings me to the end of this week’s blog. The week ahead looks interesting. I will be going to Barcelona on Tuesday until Friday to attend a conference called “News in a Digital World – the impact on corporate communications and media evaluation”. I signed up for it months ago and now do not feel as enthusiastic. Well, you’ll know how it went when I write next week. Hope it’s inspiring and interesting.

Till then my friends, goodbye.

Masha