Eladio cutting the leafy tree

Hi again

One thing we had to attend to when we got back home was dealing with the bed of leaves on the garden outside the kitchen. Every day we have to sweep away loads of leaves from one very stubborn little tree which is a little too close to the house. It must have some sort of illness as it never stops shedding its leaves.

So the day after we got back we finally decided to do something about it and Eladio got out the ladder and saw and went to work. And here he is looking a bit like a Spanish mature version of Tarzan. I have to add he had help from Gaby, Suzy’s extremely fit and helpful boyfriend.



All the best till next time/Masha

The Mystery Play of Elche (Misteri d’Elx)

Hi again

The one exception to our routine at Santa Pola was when we went to Elche to see the Mystery Play. We go nearly every year so that is a bit of a routine too. It’s something we both look forward to immensely. It is held late at night because of the intense heat. It starts at 10.30 p.m. and finishes after one in the morning.

It’s difficult to explain but basically it is a sacred musical drama of the death, assumption and crowning of the Virgin. It has been performed since the 15th century in the Basilica of Saint Mary of Elche with special permission from the Pope. It is sung entirely and by men only. Small choir boys sing the part of the Virgin and angels. None of them are professionals and all of them are from Elche. They spend a whole year preparing for the event which has now become world famous. In 2001 it was awarded the title of Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the Unesco.


If you ever get the chance it is something well worth attending.

All the best/Masha


This photo is of the golden palm tree (the Mangrana) holding an angel which descends from “heaven” (a hole in the dome) for the angel to announce the imminent death of the virgin and to give her a golden palm to take to her grave.



Here is a picture of Eladio and me next to the sculpture representing the Misteri.

Lazy days in Santa Pola

Hello again

After our time in Montrondo we went to Santa Pola for our Summer Holidays, that is, my Father, Olivia, Eladio and myself as Susi went to Jerez to join her boyfriend Gaby for her holiday.

So it was lazy days which generally consisted of getting up at 9 ish and going to the beach at around 10. There we would read the newspaper (The Daily Telegraph and El Mundo), have a café con leche – well my Father has now got into the Spanish habit of having a mid morning “caña” or draught cold beer, take a bathe – carefully because of all the warnings of jelly fish which we actually never saw – go for a brisk walk on the beach past the very interesting nude beach – mainly men showing off their private parts – and then back to the flat to make a copious but simple lunch. After the copious lunch came the 2 or 3 hour siesta, then the 2 or 3 hour read – Eladio’s choice was Schopenhauer and mine was Danielle Steele, then maybe a quick walk, a light dinner, a bit of rubbishy television and so to bed until the next day.

Olivia found us so boring she summoned up her boyfriend, José Luis, from nearby Mazarrón in Murcia to come and rescue her which he lovingly did. We, however, did not find our routine one bit boring as we were all doing the things we love to do in life, as in sleeping, eating, reading, walking and going to the beach. Not a bad life! However after 9 or 10 days we were missing our lovely new home and Eladio started getting worried about the irrigation system, the level of chlorine or lack of it in the swimming pool and whether our beloved animals, Ruby the rabbit and Henry the cat were still alive.

So we cleaned up the flat for next time, packed our things and came back to El Bosque to find that most of our worries were unfounded. Apart from a burst pipe in the garden everything was ok.



The photo is of Eladio on the terrace looking extremely brown and relaxed. The photo includes the bouganville plant he so proudly bought at the local market to take back and grace our new garden. He had been after one of them for a long time. Hence the happy expression on his face.

That's all for the moment folks.

All the best/Masha

The Freijo brothers and sisters with their Mother

Hi again

I thought you'd like to see this picture of Eladio, his brothers and sisters outside their original family home in Montrondo. It's not often the 6 are together so we "snapped" at the opportunity.



From left to right: Alejandro, José Antonio, Adela, Pili, Isidro and finally Eladio in the yellow and white shirt.

Cheers Masha

Summer Shoes

Hello again

My sisters-in-law and I have the same taste, as you saw earlier with the black and white spotted dress. Well now the same taste is in shoes. When Pili (Ealdio's sister) came to stay last month she was wearing a pair of Summer espadrille with a green bow which I adored. So she bought me a pair when she went back to León. Then Yoli, Isidro's wife saw them when I went to Montrondo, loved them and bought herself a pair in León.

So when we met up in Montrondo last weekend I took a photo of Yoli and I with them on. Unfortunately Pili hadn't brought hers.

They are lovely.
Masha

Montrondo – The Annual Family Gathering

Hello

So once again we all gathered together in Montrondo on the last Saturday in July as we have been doing since the “abuelos” celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary nearly 15 years ago. Montrondo is Eladio’s family’s beloved home village where all 6 of the brothers and sisters were born. It is located high in the mountains in a remote part of the northern province of León. The countryside is spectacular, so green, the temperature at least 15 below Madrid and it is the most unspoiled village I know. In the winter there are only about 8 houses with people in but come the Summer months, the people who were born there return with their families and Montrondo comes to life again.

The only people missing this year were Alejandro’s sons and Miguel. This was to be the second year without Antonio, the “abuelo” whose absence is very much felt on such an occasion.

The annual lunch takes place in the old stable which has been transformed into a make-shift dining room. This year we were 15 “grown-ups” and 14 “children”, the oldest child being Roberto who is now 35 years old!! The news this year is that Roberto and Ana will be marrying in June.

Lots of things took place during the lunch this year, the most important being the presentation of the picture I had spent the last 6 months preparing for her – a framed poster with a picture of all the members of the family with a small message from each of us. My mother-in-law is not an emotional person but this did actually draw a few tears of joy from her.



See the picture of Ernestina receiving the picture and José Antonio explaining it to her. Very sweet indeed.

All in all we spent a great 4 days together. The brothers were busy cutting the tall birch trees in one of the fields surrounding the house, the younger generation spent most of their time turning night into day and day into night. As it was the fiesta time (Santa Marta) there were 2 nights of dancing with an orchestra playing and a make-shift bar set up for some heavy drinking.

We went on many walks, the best of which was to pick raspberries on the hills above Montrondo. It turned out to be very picturesque in a lovely rural sense as we went past a sweet grey donkey on the way up, as well as a large herd of beautiful brown cows and a gorgeous litter of new born kittens.


Here is the raspberry picking group on the hill overlooking Montrondo.

And now we are back home and getting ready for the next part of the Summer as we will be going to the beach on Friday coming, all of us except Susi who went to El Puerto de Santa María in Cadiz yesterday to be with her Prince Charming.

So my next post will come after our time in Santa Pola as there is no Internet there.

Cheers till then.

Job Hunting, Going to the Cinema, Too much chocolate, Iberia Plus dinner, Ruby's latest adventures, Sara (Salita Guapa) came to visit.

Hello again

So, since we came back from Montrondo, we haven’t stopped. I’ve been busy with my job hunting: more interviews but for very funny companies, one of them makes bingo equipment, plus a massive direct mailing to over 100 PR agencies in Madrid (thanks Susi and Eladio for your help printing, writing envelopes, etc). We’ve had time to go to the cinema and went with Fátima last week to see the latest Roberto Benigni film, The Tiger and the Snow. I had loved “Life is Beautiful” but this wasn’t half as good. Eladio hated every minute of the guy’s theatrical acting. He goes a bit too far I must admit. What I can’t understand is why he likes to be seen constantly in his underclothes. He looks so unsexy.

Bit of a down this week on the weight front. I haven’t said much about that for a long time but had actually lost 15 kgs when wows of wows last week I put on half a kilo. I know it is the fault of all the chocolate I have been eating or rather it is my fault for eating too much chocolate. So, yes, once more, I shall have to be stricter. Bloody Hell. Excuse the French!

We also went out to another Iberia Plus freebie dinner. They still don’t realize that I no longer have a gold card but I am NOT telling them! – so much for data bases. It was at the Mesón Cinco Jotas in Pozuelo and of course, we ate and drank too much. When we left at midnight, it was 30ºC. So for all of you UK readers, that is real heat, not what the UK papers are complaining about.

Oh, yes and I must tell you about Ruby’s latest adventures. She has been found twice in a row in the middle of the night floundering in the swimming pool. José, the Rabbit Hero, heard her and got her out. We are not sure whether to blame Henry or not but there is probably nothing else to blame. So from now on she sleeps in her cage at night. Better safe than sorry.

The nicest thing that happened this week was Sara (Salita Guapa) coming to visit with her parents, José Antonio (Eladio’s beloved brother) and Dolores. As you must have read by now Sara is currently living and studying in China and only comes home twice a year. We had a lovely family day together with good food, siesta, swimming pool and plenty of time to catch up with eachother’s news.


The 3 cousins together, Susi on the left, Sara in the middle and Oli on the right.


The group photo, the 2 families around the lunch table.


A great picture of José Antonio and Dolores.


Oli has gone to Galicia (a village near Santiago de Compostela) this week with her Universitiy pals, Laura and Ana, so we will be small numbers this week, just Eladio, Susi, Grandpa and I.

Cheers till next time
Masha

The girls

So Susi and Laura came back from London today. Alicia, Laura’s younger sister and our God daughter came back with us from Montrondo to welcome them back too. I couldn’t resist taking this picture of the 4 of them looking great in their new London dresses. Also I couldn’t resist adding this picture of darling Oli who looks lovely in the new yellow dress she bought to go to José’s sister’s wedding this weekend while we were in Montrondo.


Cheers/Masha

A weekend in Montrondo

So this weekend we drove to Montrondo, Eladio’s family’s beloved village, to take Ernestina there after her stay with us. There were no plans for a big gathering as there is the annual one coming up for Santa Marta on the 29th July, but the word spread from brother to sister and all the “grown-ups” ended up spending the weekend together, just 18 or so of us, no big numbers really! It was a lovely weekend, up in the mountains with lower temperatures than in Madrid. My Father had a great time, as you can see in the picture on one of his long walks with Eladio and Toño. We will be going again soon for the annual gathering of all the family when we will be around 30 people. We are certainly looking forward to that. Hectic but fun.

The cat and the rabbit. Who said they couldn’t live together?

So Ruby and Henry finally met face to face. Poor Ruby, Susi’s rabbit lives in a cage on her own in the new house (better than in Río Tajo where she lived in Susi’s room!). So Ruby has been taken out a few times now and allowed out of her cage to romp in the grass. And romp she does but mostly when Henry the cat is on the prey. We have had to be very stern with him but there have been a few hilarious chases. Actually Ruby is faster though and has survived so far. The first picture was taken after a couple of chases and they both seemed to have calmed down a bit. The other is a lovely close up of Ruby.

Eladio and his Mother enjoying her stay at our new house.

Hi again.

Now that blogger uploads photos again, here are some pics of Eladio and his Mother together during her stay. They spend most of their time talking about old times in Montrondo.

It has been lovely to have Ernestina, despite the intense heat. The hightlight of her stay was probably the outing to the Zarzuela operetta called "Doña Francisquita" held in the open air as part of the Madrid summer theatre festival. It started at 10 at night and finished at 1 in the morning. Even the kids were asleep when we got back.


It has been really nice to have her and we hope she will repeat the experience soon.

Cheers/Masha
Strolling round the house
Mother and Son
Chatting by the pool

Busy times: Pensión “El Bosque” , To London and back, looking after the old folk, housewarming party and back to normal. But oh so hot !

The buffet table
The party setting
Me, Ana and Anne
The group. Front Left to Right: André, Mónica, Charo, Marta, Fran. Back Left to Right: Anne, Masha, David.


Hello again

So, yeah I’ve been so busy I’ve hardly had time to write. Also I’m a bit put off writing because I can no longer upload pictures. So now you have a boring blog with no photos. But as you can see this post now has pictures. It seems Blogger prefers the Mozilla Firefox navigator to Internet Explorer and the Norton Anti Virus has to be switched off. So you can now look out for more photos.

Since I last wrote so much has happened: lunch with Julio and Fátima on 29th June, went to the surprise early retirement party for one of Eladio’s ex colleagues, Elena on the 30th. On the 1st July, Pili (Eladio’s youngest sister) and her husband Andrés (my favourite brother-in-law) came to bring us Eladio’s Mother to stay with us for a couple of weeks. They stayed the weekend and José Antonio (Eladio’s second brother down after him) and his wife Dolores came to spend the day on Sunday. Pili and I got some shopping in. We have very similar taste and ended up buying the same skirt in Zara (white with black spots). There is a great picture to prove it.

Then last week Susi who had been in León with her cousins came back to Madrid with her cousin Laura as they were both off to London on 7th July to stay with Miguel, another cousin, who now lives in London and works at Citibank. He actually lives in Hyde Park.

So last week was like running a small hotel with full meals for all guests, including the boyfriends. Most days we were between 7 and 10 for lunch. Just imagine shopping at the supermarket; 2 full trolleys a go. And on the 7th we had another guest, my dear friend Anne (see her blog in the left hand column). I had planned our housewarming party to coincide with her being here so’s she could kill two birds with one stone and get to see most of her Madrid friends who are also mine, in one go.


Susi and Laura went off to London the same day Anne came from London – thus explaining the title of this post. It was Laura’s first trip on an airplane and her first trip abroad, so very exciting for her. Unfortunately their plane left late and they got to Gatwick at about 2 and had to wait for the first train at 5.30 am. From what I can gather on the phone they are having a great time. On Thursday they will be going out to dinner with my great friends, Amanda, Andy, Jake and family who live near London too.

So yeah, then came the Housewarming party. While Anne was at the hairdressers I started the cooking and preparing for the party (meat loaf, chicken salad, prawn salad, tortilla, trifle, apple crumble, etc.). Suffice it to say, many of our friends came (Marta + Fran, Miguel Angel Muñoz, David and Charo, Fátima and Julio, Mónica and André, Anita Valdivieso, Manuel to name a few). Anne helped us to set the scene on the swimming pool porch and it looked lovely: tables of 6 with table cloths, flowers and candles, the main table groaning with food (all labeled of course) and the house lights all on. The result can only have been good as all the food was eaten and people stayed till 4 in the morning.

The next day after another quick shopping spree, Anne left for London and things quietened down. Oli and José Luis also left for Mazarrón, Murcia. They wanted to get away from the heat. It has been soooo hot these last few weeks, in the 40ºs which for my poor Father is a little too much. He keeps saying his favourite month in Spain is January!!

So the house is no longer full, just Eladio, his Mother, my Father and me. Yesterday we went to José Antonio’s house for lunch and an old friend of their family and distant cousin, Elenita (a 78 year old nun) joined us. Quite a cry away from last week’s times here in El Bosque but very relaxing. So here we are looking after the old folk and enjoying the house to ourselves. At least there is no more non-stop cooking for 8 or 9 every day and a bit less sheet washing and changing and we can relax a bit too.

So that’s our news for a while. On Saturday we will be off to Montrondo (Eladio’s family village) to take his Mother there to be with his sisters who are there on holiday.

So will write again after that.

Cheers to you all.

Love Masha
Pili and me in our identical Zara skirts.

Settling In

Well now that we are nearly all sorted out, with most things in their place and many missing, of course, we’re going through a settling in period. Sometimes I have the feeling I’m on holiday or in a hotel – especially when I go in our super duper bathroom. And when we talk about “home” we usually mean our old house. It is our house ok but it still doesn’t feel like home. I think these things take time.

Some things are frustrating. We have 4 tvs , 3 digital receivers and 2 aerial men have been and gone and we still can only get Tele 5 on one of the TVs. The problem there is that I only really ever watch one programme a week and that is “Hospital Central” on Tele 5! And the one TV I can see it on is the only TV the World Cup can be watched on, so yes, a bit frustrating. To get even more football, we are getting Canal + installed but they are having trouble with putting the antenna on the roof as they hadn’t expected such a big house.

We are very “home bound” at the moment and tend to live in our own little world only going out occasionally to do the shopping. Our only other outing is our daily walk which is not as nice as the one at our old house, but the exercise is the same, thank God. So we must start to socialize again. One way will be with the housewarming party on the 8th July next which I am busily preparing in my mind. The invitation has gone out already though. Something lovely to look forward to.

The girls are having their 2nd housewarming party tonight and there will be more than 30 guests. A barbecue has been planned and dear Susi bought nearly all the meat there was in Carrefour. Thank God Eladio and I are going out to dinner! The problem is that when we get back at 11ish their party will only just be starting and it takes place on the terrace just beneath our bedroom., so there is no escaping it. Well you never know, we may just join them.

The family are fine. My poor Father is dealing with the hot weather as best he can but confessed the other day that his favourite month in Spain is January! Eladio has lost 3 kgs thanks to the removal and is now worried he is on the decline or getting old and is bent on eating more than usual. It’s very funny. I wish I had lost weight with the move. I am losing but the rhythm is about a kilo or less a month. I think the ice-cream a day (Magnum) might have something to do with that. The girls are going through the end of term, just before the Summer hols phase and are have finished their exams. Susi just has to finish a dissertation on food hygiene. So, of course, it’s Summer party time.

And that’s all for the moment folks

All my love
Masha
PS Sorry no pics again. Blogger just won't upload them and I don't know what the solution is.

New home, new life. Moving in: the removal men and Henry the cat. And yes we now have internet again!

Hello again

Well as predicted this new post is being written from our new house with a brand new internet connexion. It's great to have internet back at long last. Thanks Telefónica!!

So here we are finally, adapting, adjusting, settling in, opening mountains of boxes and then dragging the empty ones down the drive to be picked up by the town council, washing, cleaning and more or less never leaving the house as there is so much to do. But the essentials are up and running: deep freeze, fridge, electrical appliances, tv, internet and a new telephone line.

The move took place over 2 exhausting days in great heat. There were 3 lorries and 10 men. I must talk about the men because it was a very interesting group, besides the fact that some of them were extremely fit and good looking, so Susi and I thought!!!! The foreman, Ernesto, was the only Spaniard and wow did he work hard; he was so fast I wondered if he was going to have a fit with so much activity. Then came Jerry, the good looking Bulgarian who was extremely happy to be in charge of the content of Olivia's room (more boxes came out of Olivia's room than any other room in the house!!! - in the new house she has 2 rooms!! One is for sleeping and the other is her study!). In fact there were about 3 Bulgarians, 2 Peruvians, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian and 1 Indian.

Dismantling the lounge in Río Tajo
The van outside Río Tajo.
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So many things going on. Santa Pola, Aunty Masha, a trip down memory lane, lunch with Carmen Cafarel, bitten by mosquitoes, just 4 days to go,

Hello again.

Sorry I haven’t written since the anniversary weekend in León but I have been so busy and, as predicted, there will be no internet until we move to the new house. Once again I am writing from Fátima’s house.

So much has been going on. After León, Eladio, my Father and I went to Santa Pola to our beach flat for a short holiday before the removal. We had a very relaxing time, apart from Eladio, who suddenly decided to paint the flat. It was hard work but the result is very pleasing.

We took the time to look up my “famous” Aunty Masha who lives nearby in Benidorm and whom we hadn’t seen for about 3 years. Aunty Masha is my Mother’s beloved younger sister who was once an actress (she is still beautiful with her whitish blonde curls and plastic hip at 79) and ran away from here home in Bulgaria to fight for Tito in Yugoslavia at the age of 15. She also escaped the communists and made her way to France in the late 50's. She is living history but a bit too large for life. It is thanks to my Aunt that I am now living in Spain but that story will have to be told another day. The short version is that she bought a small house in a village in the mountains of the costa blanca around 30 odd years ago and that from then on I spent all my youth years holidaying in that area where I fell in love several times and of course learned the language.

The 4 of us went on a trip down memory lane and visited Callosa the town or pueblo where my Mother bought a house in Calle de las Flores (see picture of my Father and me). We wandered down the winding streets (see picture of my Aunt, my Father and me) which haven’t changed since we first went. Then we went to have lunch at Algar, a beautiful and very special place – a sort of oasis in a valley of orange and lemon orchards famous for its waterfall. On the way back we went to have a coffee at the very bar Eladio and I started our romance which has lead to a happy life together of
more than 20 years now.


Have just realised that this half of this post has been deleted. Strange things are happening with blogger, one being that I can no longer publish photos - very frustrating.

So what has been deleted from this post are the bits on the lunch with Carmen Cafarel (head of Spanish TVE), virulent mosquitoes biting me and that there were only a few days to go till removal day, 5th June.

To summarise, I was invited by the Chairwoman (Pilar Gómez Acebo) to a lunch organised by the Spanish Federation of Business Women (FEDEPE)where the guest speaker was Carmen Cafarel. Carmen, a University professor was appointed by the Spanish PM, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and in her speech she described her astonishment at being appointed and how she was finding the job.

Thankfully now the itching and pain caused by the ****** mosquitoes on our daily walk are now over, but they gave me hell at night for more than a week, so much so I had to go to hospital.

That's all for the moments folks

LOL/Mashad
PS Photos are of the 3 of us walking in Callosa (me, Aunty Masha and my Father), Daddy and I in our old street, Calle de las Flores and me outside the Vimi bar where our relationship was forged.

Anniversary

Anniversary

Still no internet at home, so here you have me writing from Yoli’s house in León where we have spent the night. So, got to be quick as we are off to have tapas and drinks before lunch and we woke up at 12. What a lovely life here in León (at the weekends!).

Well, yesterday was the 20th May and the 1st anniversary of the passing away of Eladio’s father, Antonio. We all want to remember him always so a memorial mass was arranged in Montrondo – the family village about an hour north of León – yesterday at one o’clock, time enough for the Madrid families to get there.

It was wonderful meeting all again as we hadn’t been together since New Year. There were very few people missing; Alejandro’s sons, Juan and Sara (Salita guapa) who is in China. The surprise of the day was Miguel who came from London specially for the event. Some of us were in the know (me of course) but his parents were amazed.

Apart from the family and we were 25 people, other people came from the village, as well as cousins from nearby villages and León. The mass was made even more emotional when Olivia read out some beautiful words she had written for the beloved “abuelo”. She got such a lump in her throat Susana had to go out to the altar to read out the end. It made quite a few of us cry.

After the mass, we all walked slowly back to the house for an impromptu lunch. Each family had brought food which we put on the big table in the kitchen and we all sat round eating, talking and catching up with our news. It was great to talk to everyone but I was specially happy to talk to darling Marta (one of my favourite neices: actually they are all favourite) who is living in Ponferrada with her dishy football player husband Fernando, commonly known as Ministro. Poor Marta is plagued by dreadful headaches. She is also working hard at conceving which is proving difficult. My heart goes out to her.

We drove to León in the late afternoon to take Susi and Oli to the bus station as they had to go home to study (I wonder). A lovely picture of them buying sweets for the journey just like old times.

And last night we went out to dinner, all the brothers and sisters plus my fathers and had a very tasty Italian meal at a restaurant called Casablanca.

Today we shall be staying for lunch at Yoli and Isidro’s. I can smell the cocido from the kitchen . I think it is safe to say that Yoli is the best cook in the family.

Tomorrow will be Oli’s 21st birthday – AMAZING! And the next day we will gallavant off to Santa Pola. So next week will be a good relaxing week before preparing for the move.

Don't know when I'll next write, what with not having Internet and going off to Santa Pola for a week. So meantime, cheers to you all.

Love Masha
PS pics are of us all in the kitchen in Montrondo, the younger generation and the older generation. Also one of the "younger generation" outside, plus the one of the girls buying sweets (chuchis).

Still no Internet + moving house soon

Hello again.

Long time no write, that’s because we are still without Internet at home. I don’t want to go into the why, suffice it to say the whole story is like a Kafkian nightmare. We just asked our service provider to increase the broadband speed to 4 megas and the result has been no ADSL for 3 weeks and no land line for 2 weeks. It’s a battle between Wanadoo and Telefonica which I think no one will win. So here I am writing from Fátima’s house. It now looks like we will no have no internet until we move to the new house in 3 weeks time (Yes, 3 weeks time, more about that a bit later).

There have been a few ups and downs lately. The University project is now over. Despite the success of the Mario Vargas Llosa project, there isn’t really any more work for me. On the other hand, another project – selection process for a big US multinational, fell through in the end after more than 7 interviews. There were 4 of us left at the end but I didn’t make it. That has been ongoing for over 2 months now, so I’m sure you can understand my disappointment. But you have to get up and fight again which I will, of course.

However, the fact that I’m not working will be a blessing in disguise for moving house. We will be moving in on the 5th and 6th June. It seems a Herculian task, sorting out and deciding what to take from this house after 18 years here – you cannot imagine the junk, plus the moving itself but also the unpacking and deciding what to put where in the new house. Today Eladio and Olivia went downstairs to the old toy room to decide what to throw away what not. I went down in the middle of it and was just on time to save Celeste (Barbar’s wife) who Eladio referred to as “esa elefanta”.

Not much to report otherwise. Oh yes, Eladio and I went out to a freebie dinner invited by Iberia Plus last Thursday. Funny thing I have just lost my gold card as I hardly fly anymore but they obviously haven’t updated their data base yet! The whole thing was very corporate and a bit stiff – a fancy restaurant with tables only for couples and a huge menu to get through but nothing else. But, in any case, a freebie is always appreciated.

So that’s about it for this post. Oh, yes, Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix today, just ahead of Michael Schumacher to the delight of crowds of over 130.000 people Yes, yes, I am now getting into Formula 1 like most of Spain is.

Next time I write, it may well be from the new house.

All the best

Masha
PS Photos are of the new house, the front and the back (with the pool).

No Internet connection at home - What I've been up to since I last wrote, including the Dr. Honoris Causa ceremony for Maria Vargas Llosa at the UEM

Hello again.

You were probably wondering why I haven’t been updating my blog more often. The reason is that we have had no internet connection at home (or a landline) since the beginning of last week. They are supposed to be updating the broadband, so they say.

It’s amazing how frustrating it is not to have Internet. I have had to resort to my dear old Communicator which is ok for emergencies but is incredibly slow. After all it is only GPRS and not 3G.

So here I am writing from the University.

I have been quite busy with the Doctor Honoris Causa event to Mario Vargas Llosa last Wednesday. It went very well and seems was a lot better than last year. Great picture of me with the man himself. I was impressed with him. He has so much stature and most of all, charisma.

Then I had lunch with my HR friends from Nokia – Jill and Zenaida – and we had a good old gossip about Nokia. We ate at Mood’s in Majadahonda and it was a lovely girlie lunch.

Friday was my daughter Susana’s birthday which we celebrated in a family fashion: birthday cards, pressies, cake and candles plus a lovely lunch. Then she had a party for her friends in the evening at home.

This weekend was a long bank holiday, thanks to Labour day on 1st May and 2nd May is Madrid’s main holiday.

Monday 1st was my father’s 87th birthday which again we celebrated in a family way. We had a guest in Alberto, Eladio’s old boss. He joined us for the day which was very relaxing and ended with a great walk in the countryside around us.

So, all in all, pretty quiet but speckled with family celebrations.

Photos are of my Father just before his birthday (beautiful blue eyes!), Susi receiving her present and me with Mario Vargas Llosa (and the Rector and the Dean)

That’s all for the moment folks

Love/Masha

So what happened this week?

Hello again,
After the Easter holidays, there was a reurn to family life and routine. It’s so nice to enjoy meals together as a family; that’s so important for communication. We all go off and do our things but at meal times we have a chance to catch up on everyone’s lives and also talk about the things that are most important to us and at the moment, that is moving house.

Olivia has been extremely busy this week. She doesn’t always tell us what she’s up to but I do now that she’s been creating 3 adverts for the University competition next week called “Out of the Box”. But she did manage to go out to dinner twice with her lovely boyfriend, José Luis.

Susi came back from Jerez a bit depressed because after having such a lovely Easter Holiday she has exams to face next week. The first one is on Church Doctrine! That’s because she goes to a Catholic University. Oh well, she’s always got her Father to help her. The other thing that depressed her is that she and her boyfriend Gaby had a breakdown in Cordoba on their way back from Jerez and the clutch has to be replaced, all of which means he won’t have a car for a while; so with one thing or another she won’t see much of him.

Eladio has been busy checking out removal companies, getting things repaired and painted in the house on the Insurance, plus his usual looking after the garden and house in his very cheerful fashion. And, of course, he has been preparing his University tutorials.
Another thing he spends time on is looking at the pictures of the new house, over and over again – well I do too, of course. He has also found it on Google Earth.

Grandpa or Daddy has followed his usual routine of making his breakfast, going for his pre-ordered Daily Telegraph from the kiosk, going for a morning walk, lunch with the family, little nap or read, then another walk, this time with the family, more newspaper reading, dinner, news on the TV and so to bed. Not a bad life eh? This was peppered with a visit to the oculist because he had caught or got conjunctivitis which is over now and also one to the ear specialist for a check up. He sees and hears very well for someone of 86 and needs no new glasses and certainly not a hearing aid.

And me, what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been busy with the last minute preparations for the Doctor Honoris Causa of Mario Vargas Llosa next week at the University. I must say I was a bit disappointed in him when one of his secretaries sent me his “speech”. I was looking forward to some wonderful words, only to find that it was a repeat of the speech he had given in 1995 when he got the Cervantes Literary prize. Bit of a cheat really.

Working at the University you get the chance to enjoy and immerse yourself in the cultural activities going on. And this week there were books on sale for 1 euro as part of the Book Week promotion. But also I went to a conference about the Transition to Democracy in Spain and listened to quite an amazing character, Santiago Carrillo who was the leader of the Spanish Communist Party and supposedly the 3rd most instrumental man in the process, after the King and Adolfo Suárez. Carrillo is now 91, a heavy smoker and amazingly fit. I was astonished to see him talking without notes and also to hear the voice of a much younger man. People asked all sorts of questions about the politics of the time. If I had dared I would have asked him what was the secret of his amazing health and longevity.

Also I had a visit from the Director of the boys choir from El Escorial who will be singing at the Doctor Honoris Causa. It was lovely to talk about choirs and music and specially about that choir which is one of the best in Spain (Monserrat too). I had used them once before at a Nokia press Christmas event and they are marvellous. Rolando gave me a couple of their cds. I can't tell you how great I felt driving home and listening to Pie Iesu and the Brahms Lullaby! Just lovely!

And what else? Well, yes, a dear friend Rafa Gómez who is a renowned sports photographer in Spain, came to see me at the University as he will be doing the photos for the Doctor Honoris Causa next week. He had some great news, as he will be following the Formula One world Championship to take the photos of Fernando Alonso for the sponsor’s advertising campaigns.

Rafa came home for lunch with me, following my Volvo on his super motor bike. We came home to previously cooked spaghetti Bolognese. Susi had prepared the rest and laid the table. She also made the spaghetti and it was a good job she made the whole packet as Rafa had 2 enormous portions. He ate more than the rest of us altogether, amazing. He then ate the salad, some trifle and a cornetto!! Then he got on this bike and rode home to Madrid!!

Not much more to report. Am now writing here at my computer on Saturday night on a rainy Madrid weekend. We went out last night, so tonight we are staying in.

Tomorrow we will be going to Ana’s house for lunch, that is the whole family except Oli, who will be busy on some advertising activity. Ana who is a neighbour of ours was our home help for 4 years until about a year ago. We miss her so much, but most of all her cooking.

That’s all for the moment folks.

Cheers
Masha

Pictures are of Rafa and Susi sitting in the sun after the spaghetti bolognese and of the location of the new house on Google Earth.

A lovely Easter Week .... Easter day with Fernanda + the Mexican connection.

Hello again my friends,

So we had a good week, very quiet with the girls away most of the time. Oli came back on Wednesday night from Poland and Susi came back on Thursday afternoon from Benidorm. But then they went away again; Oli to Tarragona with José to see the theme park, Port Aventura and Susi to Jerez to join her boyfriend. Olivia came back today, Easter Day but Susi won’t be back until tomorrow. We at least had the pleasure of Olivia’s company for lunch on Thursday and today but Susana was only seen for a few hours on Thursday as she left that very night for Jerez.

The highlights of the week were lunch on Thursday when Fátima joined us and Friday evening when we went out to dinner with Eladio’s brothers, Isidro and José Antonio and our sister-in-laws, Yoli and Dolores. We all felt like going for an Indian meal, so we went once again to the Ganges. Isidro and Yoli had come to Madrid to pick up their daughter, Alicia (my sweet goddaughter) who had spent the Easter holiday on her return exchange to Paris to stay with my cousin Masha’s daughter Sophie. We were delighted to see a big Indian family sitting on the table next to us and eating very similar things, as it added to the authenticity of the place, not to mention the rickshaw in the middle of the dining room and the two Indians sitting on a mat and playing the zitar. It all added to the atmosphere.

The last day of the holiday was the best though as we had the pleasure of the company of my dear Mexican friend, Fernanda Navarret who came for lunch and to spend the afternoon with us here at Río Tajo. Fernanda, now six months pregnant, is going back to her native Mexico after six years here in Madrid. I will miss her. I met Fernanda through work when she was with Ahciet and I was with Nokia. She and I have really connected people around us; through me she met dearest Anne, who then met Manuel, a friend of Ana Valdivieso’s. Manuel then met Paola, also a friend of Fernanda’s. And now, I hope that Fernanda will meet Juana and Oscar when she goes back to Mexico. They will have a lot in common, I know.

And here is Fernanda looking radiant and one of the two of us hugging (so blonde, so dark). But the best photo of all is of Eladio and Henry our cat, both taking a nap/siesta after a copious Easter lunch. That photo sums up the relaxing week we have had.

Tomorrow will be another day and back to my Doctor Honoris Causa to Mario Vargas Llosa project which actually takes place next week. So I will be rather busy from now until then. But the relaxing week has certainly done me a lot of good.

That’s all for the moment folks

Masha

Quiet Easter week

Hi again

Well here you have me at home. My new job is not that stressful; you see the University has closed down for the week. Well, I can't complain. So any work I have to do, I do from the quiet of my home.

The girls are away and at very different places. Oli has gone to Poland with her boyfriend José Luis. Funny place to go you would probably say but it's because they've gone to visit José's cousin who is on an Erasmus (University exchange programme) there. They went on Friday and will be back this Wednesday coming. A present from me to them was a stay at the Radisson Central Hotel in Warsaw for the first night where they told me they wallowed in luxury. Now they are down to student hostals and poor José has got sick on the heavy Polish food. Olivia just rang from Auschwitz - that's really something for her to see. She was describing the gas chambers on the phone! It all means so much to me because I was brought up on Second World War stories. And I think I've passed that on to her. Also I think the Ana Frank diary had a big impact on her.

Susi went to Benidorm with Carolina to stay with their "bestest" friend, Copito who has just gone to live there. Susi rang from the beach a couple of hours ago. It seems they are having a whale of a time with a lot of clubbing.

So that leaves us, "grown-ups" alone at home. So what have we done, apart from signing the contract for the new house? Not much really; boring things like taking the car to be serviced, getting quotes from removal companies, cleaning the silver, ... Oh, yes, well I did do some serious cooking this morning so that the family can be well provided for while I'm working. What did I make? Actually it was all Russian: "pelmeni" (Siberian ravioli), "Perushki" (small meat and rice pies) and "Bitki" (meat rissoles). I also made cheat Smetana out of yoghurt and natural cream as you cannot buy it here.

Also got a phone call from my dear friend Anne who told me that her ex, Manuel's new Mexican girlfriend, Paula, is pregnant. Very happy for them. Then I got a phone call from my darling Mexican friend, Fernanda Navarette who is also pregnant. I'll be having dinner with Fernandita this week as she will be moving back to Mexico forever. She says not to say "forever" but I know it is.

So, not much more news as we are spending a quiet Easter week at home.

Have a good holiday

Love Masha

We have a new house, finally!

Hello again

Well, yes, today we signed the contract for the new house. We have been very quick choosing it and in the end it wasn't one of our finalists. We went to see it last Sunday, just 2 days after having sold ours. It was amazing. We walked in and both Eladio and I knew right from entering the front door that this was the house we wanted to buy. It was the style, the decoration, the size that decided us. While we were there, we called the girls to come and have a look too and they fell in love with it too. There was no discussion, we all loved it, including my Father for whom there is a luxury apartment all for himself on the ground floor.

And after a bit of negotiating this week, we all met this morning to sign the contract. The latest completion date will be the 8th July but we all want that date to be as soon as possible.

The photos are very poor but give some idea. It is a modern house, measuring 600 m2 in grounds of over 2000m2. The doors are white lacquer, the floors wood and the walls painted in the latest fashion (pastel colours and white). I won't go into how many bedrooms with en suite bathrooms there are - quite scandalous - but suffice it to say they are all en suite.

So all we do is talk and plan house moving and just how happy we are with having finally found the house we really want. By the way it is just a few km from where we live now in another "Urbanización", this time called, "El Bosque" which means"The Woods". So I will be able to say we have a house in the woods.

Cheers again
Masha

Dinner with old friends + we finally got to meet Santi!

Hiya again

So we socialise during the week too. Yesterday night, Monday, we went to Julio's house to meet up with old friends, Juana and Oscar from my Nokia days who now live in Mexico city (The link to Juana's blog is on mine). We also got to see their baby, Santi, who I had heard so much about. Santi is 3 months old and weighs over 7kg!! Life has been good to them and they are looking very happy and well.

Julio's dinner was up to his usual high standards - most stuff came from the top Spanish caterers, Mallorca. Wonderful ham, uum!!! The dessert wasn't bad either, even though I say so myself, as I made it; good old English sherry trifle which we all ate heartily.

Here's a picture of Julio holding Santi and Juana cooing over him. Sorry neither Oscar, Fátima nor Eladio got their picture taken, but then Santi was supposed to be the star of the show.

All together a great evening.

Cheers/Masha

A busy weekend socialising and house hunting

Hello again

Well this weekend has been really busy. We had 2 social engagements on Saturday, a housewarming lunch at Ana and Tomy's and dinner with Eladio's brother and family. Isidro, Yoli, Alicia and Laura had come from León to send Ali (my God daughter) off to Paris for 2 weeks to stay with Sophie who is the daughter of a second cousin of mine also called Masha. Sophie had stayed with Alicia for Christmas.

On top of that we had to see some houses and possibly make an offer to those on our list of finalists. Of our top 5 only numbers 4 and 5 are now available, so we quickly arranged to see some more this weekend.

As things turned out, lunch at Ana and Tomy's was great (see the picture) but a bit rushed for us. Their new house in El Boalo is lovely and it was also nice to see the other Nokia friends, Jill and Paco, Zenaida and her dishy Finnish boyfriend Tapani, as well as Susana. The picture accompanying this post is of us all bursting after lunch. We also got a chance, finally to see the photos of Ana and Tomy's wedding and amazing honeymoon in Kenya. Beautiful!.

From there we went to makie an offer to our favourite house, the pink one but the negotiations turned sour unfortunately so we went home a bit sad.

Then we were off to dinner to Madrid with Eladio's family when we got a phone call from them at the airport to tell us Alicia had not been able to fly. The whole affair turned out to be a complete nightmare. Yoli, my sister-in-law had bought the ticket on internet and Ali, who is 14, was flying with a new low cost airline called "Vueling". They checked in ok, they saw her off, she passed 2 controls and then, just when she was getting on the plane they asked how old she was. She replied that she was 14 and they said that she could not get on the plane. All the arguing in the world got them nowhere, even though the police and aiport authorities were on their side. But Vueling would not budge. So they all went home to José Antonio's house in Madrid where we joined them for a very late dinner. Finally Yoli bought another ticket on internet, this time with Easyjet, for today, which, of course cost a fortune. But now Ali is on her way to Paris, on her first ever flight. Have a great time my love.

And today, well, today. Oh, dear, yes, we have seen our dream house. It is amazing and has more bathrooms than Imelda Marcos shoes. But will they accept our offer which is quite below their asking price??? Probably not. So, we shall carry on looking.

The nice thing about the house hunting was that there was no time for making lunch so my Father, Grandpa, kindly invited us to a slap up lunch at the club down the road which we all turned into a celebration for selling Río Tajo 5.

Let's see what this week will bring????

Cheers/Masha