Sarkozy’s boots, Afghan women protest, Indian elections, Imagine never having been kissed at 48? Internet and me, my Danish princess and other stories

A star was born in England last week. Susan Boyle the new world media phenomenon.
Hi again

There has been lots of news this week that caught my attention. This was the week Sakorzy, the modern day Napoleon, put his foot in it and was caught off the air criticising both Barack Obama and the Spanish President Zapatero; the latter as weak and the former as dim. The only leader who came away unscathed was Berlusconi! More than his foot, it seems he is getting too big for his boots and it could take some time to live down this faux pas.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, a bit too big for his boots
This was also the week Afghan women demonstrated for possibly the first time ever. They may not be able to revoke the unacceptable new Shia family law which gives Shia husbands wide-ranging powers over their wives, who are not allowed to leave the house without their husband's permission or to refuse him sex without a medical excuse. But at least they got their voice heard, which is quite a miracle in this country where life for women is worse than in the dark ages.

Afghan Shia women protesting in Kabul, a very unusual scene.
In a country close to my heart, the sub continent of India, elections started this week and nearly 800 million people will be voting. Not surprisingly the whole process will take as long as a month. Will yet another Gandhi family member and descendent of Jawaharlal Nerhu win for the Congress party again? And if Indira Gandhi’s grandson Rahul gets elected, will he also be assassinated like his grand mother Indira and his Father Rajiv or like the Father of the nation itself, Mahatma Gandhi? Is the price of power worth paying for certain death one day at the hands of his own countrymen?

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party candidate in the Indian elections.
But above all it was the week a star was born and a dream came true for an unknown frumpy looking and astoundingly charismatic 48 year old Scottish lady called Susan Boyle. She took part in ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent programme last week and literally rocked the audience off its feet despite initial jeering at this plump and unattractive looking middle aged lady who admitted on stage that she was unemployed, unmarried and that no one had ever kissed her. The song she sang, I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables, has now been viewed over 20 million times on You Tube and Susan Boyle has become a world star. I, for one, am truly amazed by this dream come true and hope it all works out for the lovely and very authentic Susan Boyle. Her voice is fantastic, that is true but I wonder whether there would have been so much noise about this participant if she had been young and beautiful. Certainly not. What we all seem to like, to quote one of the judges, is the underdog story she portrays. There is also an element of the Cinderalla fable without the beauty which goes to prove that appearances can be misleading. As my dear Aunty Gloria used to say: never trust a man by his umbrella, it may not be his. Good luck Susan, you more than deserve it.

Another bit of news I have to report this week, is a video news piece that Oli did for RTVE.es with another colleague. It is about young and successful professionals who have to return home because of the credit crunch. I am pleased for her that this turned out to be the most seen video of the week on their website. I am not, however, pleased for those young people. Times are difficult for them.

Talking of websites, that leads me to my next subject which has to be Internet or rather Internet and me. I have to acknowledge I am addicted to quite a degree. It fascinates me and I spend my time on email primarily of course and on news items and the weather for example. My blog is my passion and this week I surpassed 20.000 visitors. That’s a lot of people following someone neither famous nor extraordinary like me. What is news about the visitors is the variety of countries they come from. You just have to click on the cluster map on the right hand side of the blog to see the list. The top 5 countries are Spain, USA, Finland, Mexico and India but boy are there some obscure countries after them.

Of course I am on Facebook and have been for some time and more recently I am on Twitter. I couldn’t believe that I was ranked 458 in the Twitter holic ranking for Madrid – possibly that proves Twitter has not yet taken off in Spain properly. If you don’t know what Twitter is read here. Actually when you update your status in Twitter it updates automatically in Facebook so you don’t waste time.

In Facebook you belong to a circle of friends. In Twitter, however, you can find anyone (unless you block them or they block you) and there are many high profile people out there using it like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Britney Spears or Demi Moore (she tweeted that Susan Boyle had moved her to tears)to name a few. I was happy to find a whole load of old cronies from my Motorola Cycling Team days such as Lance Armstrong himself, Paul Sherwen, Kevin Levingstone, Graham Watson, Jim Ochowich, Rupert Guinness or Johan Bruyneel. Following their tweets brings me right back to the Tour of the Basque Country drinking pacharán with some of them. It’s great to have found them.

To quote the NYT’s article on Twitter above, it unleashes the diarist in you. I have to admit I have been a diarist on and off since the age of 6 so the diarist in me was already unleashed. More than that, these internet tools have made diary writing a joy and easier to be consistent about.

Finally I have my own channel on You Tube where I have some domestic videos of our trip to India and mainly of Norah, our new Beagle puppy I am besotted with. And this week I joined Digg which seems to be the next best thing after sliced bread in the online news world. Try it, it’s great. By the way you can find my You Tube and Twitter profiles added to my blog now (right hand side and quite low down).

On the offline front, yes I mean, here at home, the week began with Anne leaving after a great Easter weekend. On Monday night we went out with Graciela and Eduardo to a nice little tapas place in Boadilla called Vinoteca. Congratulations go to them as they are expecting a baby boy. I wonder who will get their way: Eduardo with Eduardo or Graciela with Mateo? I expect the latter. The four of us are now all ex Nokians so had a great time gossiping about old times as well as new events. I must say the Nokia slogan “connecting people” and the internal one “reuniting colleagues” are both true. The best thing about my nearly 6 year stint as the PR Manager for Nokia Spain was the people I met.

Anne went back to Finland and as we are quite a globe trotting family, I suppose it is no surprise that Suzy went to Denmark on Thursday. She went with Rocío to visit Estefania who is there on an Erasmus University scholarship and they were joined on Friday by two other school friends, Erika and Carolina. Suzy is having a great time. They are riding bikes to go everywhere and are very pleased with the modern Scandinavian style residence they are staying at. Of course Suzy went with her friends to see the Little Mermaid, a fairy tale character she has always equated with ever since she saw the Disney film as a child. Suzy and Ariel and Ariel and Suzy have a strong relationship.
That unique and lovely statue of the Little Mermaid, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's tale rests by the sea in Copenhagen.
In Copenhagen there lives a real princess, at least for us. I refer here to Pernille, the lovely golden girl who came to live with us in 1991. She was 19 and as she reminded me last night on the phone, I was just 35. The girls were about 6 and 7 and she was to be their au pair. That was the beginning of a life time relationship and of a person who has a permanent place in our hearts. Pernille married her childhood sweetheart, Thomas and they have two little girls called Julia and Alberte. Suzy met them yesterday for the first time and also saw Pernille and Thomas for the first time since their wedding. We all went to that fairy tale wedding in 2000 as you can see here in the photo. Pernille, we miss you. Please come with your family and see us this Summer as you said you would last night.

The girls at Pernille and Thomas' wedding in Copenhagen in 2000.
Suzy will be back tonight and I’m dying to see photos of that encounter. Meanwhile here are some of her in Copenhagen.

Suzy and the Little Mermaid
Suzy on her bike in Copenhagen.
Next week she will be celebrating her 25th birthday and there will be a big party here on Saturday. Andy and Amanda will be her for that as they are coming to Spain to visit Salamanca to look for accommodation for a course in Spanish they will be doing in August. Also Marta and Paula will be here, passing through, on their way to Liverpool (tourism is big there these days. Who would have believed that a few years ago?). So next week we are going to have a full house. What fun. What Suzy doesn’t know about (and she won’t read this so I’m not worried) are the amount of surprises in store for her that day.

We’re going to have fun.

More, next week. Cheers till then,

Masha

Semana Santa, women in government, off to Montrondo with Anne and all good things come to an end.

Semana Santa in Spain - a very typical sight, probably in Seville.
Hi again,

Well today is Easter Monday, officially a working day and the end of Semana Santa as Easter is called here. Holy Week in Spain is all about tradition with their world famous processions, such as the ones in Seville. This is what De Brasa y Puchero which has great home made country food on its menu and where they make you feel very welcome.

Last week was a short working week and the pace was very slow. Perhaps that’s why Zapatero, Spain’s premiere, chose that time to announce the reshuffle in his cabinet. Unfortunately for him some of the changes had filtered to the press the week before during his highly awaited for meeting with Obama in Prague which overshadowed the news of the meeting itself. In any case, whatever the timing, the changes are quite significant as is the fact that over half of the cabinet are now women and in some of the most important posts such as Finance a big issue in Spain due to the financial crisis.

I, for one, am all for more women in top government positions and in politics in general as well as in other walks of life. No one ever made a commen when the governments were all male. Will there ever be a day when cabinets are all female? I understand some people’s thinking that it should be the best person for the job irrespective of their sex. However if example is not made, change will probably never happen. Things like this take time in a highly male dominated society like Spain.
PICTURE HAD TO BE REMOVED
Zapatero and his new cabinet, more than 50% are women.
Where they are second nature is in Finland, the opposite end of Spain in Europe, where my dear friend Anne is from. Anne who came to stay with us for Easter and is a great fan of Spain would be happy to know that there are now more women in the Spanish government.

Anne came on Wednesday night for her half yearly jab of Spain (sun, friends, jamón, wine, shopping,…)and we took her with us to Montrondo, my husband’s family village and to see the one part of my life she was not familiar with.

On our way we made the usual stop at the Palacio de Bornos wine cellar in Rueda and here we enjoyed a glass of great wine wine (Colagón) and plate of ham and chorizo. In case I haven’t told you before, Rueda is where the best white wine comes from in the world. Anne was duly impressed as we expected her to be. We stopped too on the way back to load 2 crates of the lovely liquid in the car.

Anne in Rueda
As we left Madrid and drove north the weather got worse but then that was to be expected as the weather is always bad in Spain in Semana Santa, although no one ever learns that.

We were the first to arrive in Montrondo as the rest of the family was arriving on Friday. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and settled in to the very cold and unkempt house which we never really got warm until the next day. As I had told Anne in my Facebook message: “there is no central heating but there are great views”!

Eladio stoking the fire in the aga cooking range in the kitchen in Montrondo
Despite these obstacles we enjoyed our time and went for a very long walk up the mountains and through snow to reach an area called “la solapaña”. Every stone, hill, path, fountain, rock or valley has a name in Montrondo and if you were not born there they are not easy to learn.

Anne and on the walk to La solapeña. We got drenched
We slept in extremely cold beds with hot water bottles and a building brick heated in the kitchen fire which was covered in newspaper. They certainly helped to keep the cold away. Breakfast was a quiet affair in the big family kitchen.

Anne and I enjoying breakfast before everyone arrived
After that I started on the cooking as I had offered to make “cocido madrileño” for lunch on Friday. This is a very typical winter Spanish dish consisting of chickpeas, potatoes, cabbage and many different sorts of meats and bones, the first course being the broth it’s all cooked in. We were to be 26 people so calculating quantities was quite difficult.

Me making the cocido in the kitchen in Montrondo.
Very soon the family arrived as they had travelled together. It was amazing how the peace and quiet turned into total mayhem, but happy mayhem. The member of the family I was most pleased to see was Lian, the latest addition and the very youngest member. He is the first great grandson in the family and was the centre of attention. In fact there were queues to hold him and I never got a chance. Here is a video I took after lunch where you can see him close up, as well as his proud Mother, Bea, and grand father, Alejandro who is Eladio's brother.

Ernestina, the great grandmother of Lian.
To work off the cocido a lot of us made our way up the mountains again and stopped many times for impromptu snow ball fights or group photos.

The group walk to La Solapeña to work off the cocido and enjoy the mountains of Montrondo. There was also time to catch up with each other's news.
On Saturday morning I showed Anne the village and we walked to Murias de Paredes the next village to get bread at the local bakery. It was also an excuse for another walk and more photography. Montrondo is really off the beaten track and a very authentic rural and remote village in the north west of Spain, in the province of León. It has just 15 or so permanent inhabitants but many more in the holidays as ex residents return.

On the walk to Murias. I love the sign of Montrondo.
If you have been born in Montrondo it is in your blood as I have learned over the years. There is a saying there which they all firmly believe and which goes like this: “Londres, Paris, Granada, como Montrondo, no hay nada”. I can’t equate with this as I was born in Cambridge and not Montrondo. But I have really grown to love the place.

We drove back to Madrid on Saturday, in part to escape the holiday traffic but also the cold. We also wanted to get back to check on my Father and, of course, our animals, our cats Phoebe and Joe and darling Norah. Thankfully all were safe and sound and had survived our absence uneventfully.

The girls came back yesterday, just in time for a family lunch to celebrate Easter day. And as an end to the holiday, Anne, Eladio and I went to see the Clint Eastwood film everyone was recommending me, The Gran Torino. Anne and I loved it but Eladio had his doubts.

Anne relaxing with Norah by the pool on Easter day. There were a few rays of sunshine my Finnish friend could not resist.
And now it’s all over. You spend so much time planning and looking forward to events and all you are left with so soon after are the memories. As they say in England “all good things come to an end”. So thank God for the photos (here is the full album of our trip to Montrondo on Facebook) and for the new events coming up. But then that’s life, one event or activity rolls into another as one ends and another one starts.

So yes, all good things come to an end, but a good time was had by all.

Until next week
Masha

A holiday in Extramadura, world politics – the Queen meets the Obamas, royal protocol is broken, Obama meets Zapatero and an earthquake in Italy.

A sign of a change in the times maybe? Michelle Obama puts her arm round the Queen at Buckingham Palace last weekend. It's not done to touch the Queen and is a complete break in protocol. However, the Queen, perhaps softening as she gets older, returned the gesture and here is the photo to commemorate that unique moment.

Hi again,

This post was supposed to be all about our holiday in Extremadura last week but world politics must have their part as it’s not every day the Queen (of England) receives the leaders of the G20 in Buckingham Palace. Nor is it every day that she (the royal she!) breaks with protocol to have a private meeting with Barack and Michelle Obama.

The Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, receive Michelle and Barack Obama in Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the G20 summit in London.
As you will have read, they got on so well that later Michelle broke with protocol once again and charmed her Majesty by putting an arm around her. Her Majesty promptly responded with the same gesture; a gesture never before seen in all her reign. As usual Prince Philip put his foot in it when he jokingly asked Obama how he could tell who was who in the G20.

The G20 was not only about tea at Buckingham Palace. The subjects at stake are of such importance to the world, immerse in the biggest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crack in 1929, that it attracted many disgruntled people whose protests were aimed mostly at the banking world. In fact they brought the city to a halt with their riots and banking personnel were even warned not to wear ties to work so as to avoid being targeted by the ferocious protestors.

Riots in London at the G20 summit.
As we were travelling through Extremadura, that off the beaten track region of Spain where the best ham comes from, the world’s most important politicians were meeting in London to find a common solution to the financial crisis. They then met in Strasbourg to commemorate the 60th anniversary of NATO and yesterday in Prague for the US EU summit.

The Nato 60th anniversary meeting
Obama was cheered everywhere he went and his presence and charisma left the likes of Sarkozy looking very normal next to him; the difference in their heights not being of help to the latter. The same could not be said of Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, the two first ladies of the US and of Europe, I would say. They met as equals in glamour and fame and in stature unlike their powerful husbands.

The Summit in Prague this weekend was of special significance for Spain as it was here that Obama met Spain’s President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, thus putting an end to 5 years of distance between the two countries.

Zapatero finally got to meet Obama. He never met George Bush though!
And today, Monday, as I am beginning this post, I must sadly record the eruption of a devastating earthquake in L’Aquila in central Italy, some 90km from Rome. The toll so far of this 6.3 scale quake has been 179 dead, 34 missing, 1,500 injured, 10.000 buildings destroyed and thousands homeless. Italy is in a state of shock and the tragedy is enormous.

The earthquake in Italy

But this blog is about my life and thankfully we have suffered no earthquakes nor are we affected greatly by the credit crunch. Instead we have been in the quiet and peaceful region of Extremadura in the mid western area of Spain that borders with Portugal. Extremadura which takes its name from the river Duero (or Douro in Portuguese), is a region or “comunidad” of two provinces, Cáceres and Badajoz. Funnily enough the regional capital is the smaller town of Mérida in the province of Cáceres. Mérida was, however, in Roman times, the Iberian capital and there are many signs of its Roman past, some of them quite intact.

This was one area of Spain we were not very familiar with and as we had some spare Parador points we decided to use them on this trip a week before Easter so as to avoid the traffic and general congestion. Our first port of call was Cáceres where we stayed at the slightly run down Parador in the old city. As soon as we had checked in we made our way to the famous Atrio restaurant, the only 2 star Michelin guide restaurant in the area. It was as good as I had expected but the portions somewhat mean and very expensive. It’s amazing to think it cost three times more than Arzak in San Sebastián for example.

We visited the historic centre of Cáceres in the afternoon and it was like walking into another era, a medieval era of course. It’s all stone and palaces and churches and beautiful squares, specially the Plaza de España, a somewhat unique rectangular shaped square – probably not a correct mathematical description but that’s what it is.

Cáceres, the medieval town.
You could see preparations for Spain’s still and ever important Easter celebrations or Semana Santa as it is called here. In fact we were to see them throughout our trip.

Wooden crosses to be used in the Easter processions of the Holy Week or Semana Santa which is still so important in Spain despite increased laicism. It's the tradition that seems to count.
From Cáceres we made our way to Guadalupe. Had we done our geography correctly we should actually have started in Guadalupe and then worked our way south as we ended up driving more kilometres than necessary. To get to Guadalupe we drove past Trujillo which was a must to visit. Trujillo, equally steeped in history and similar in architecture to Cáceres, is the home of some of Spain’s most famous “conquistadores” or discoverers of América, such as the Pizarro brothers who discovered Peru or Orellano who discovered the Amazon. The city or town is breathtaking in its beautiful buildings and castles. Here we visited the Plaza de España, another splendid medieval square, Pizarro’s house and the tenth century castle with great views of the city. Here too we purchased some lovely local pottery.

Trujillo, the cradle of the Spanish "conquistadores"
The drive from Trujillo through country roads to Guadalupe took us past some very different scenery, from solar panel “farms” and orange trees to evergreen oak fields dotted with merino sheep or white horses and black pigs, to mountainous roads and gorges; all of which led us to the enchanting enclave of Guadalupe, a Unesco Heritage site, better known as the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe

The Monastery in the background and the Parador in the foreground. Truly one of the best located paradors in Spain.
The monastery has its origins in the 12th or 13th century, when a shepherd called Gil Cordero, discovered a statue of Mary by the Guadalupe River which had been apparently hidden by local inhabitants from Moorish invaders in 714. It is on this site that the church and monastery were built. The place is quite unique and very beautiful and has become something of a pilgrim destination for many Catholics from Spain of course, but also abroad. I think there is a story of Mary appearing to Gil Cordero and a possible miracle. Even today you can read that the statue’s eyes move or close and open. We saw it close up, showed to us by one of the 10 Franciscan monks left. I kissed it, as did the other visitors, more out of respect than anything else and I certainly did not see any eye movement.

We stayed at the much nicer Parador with its charming orange and lemon tree patio and got upgraded to room number 1 which was actually a suite. As we opened our balcony doors there was the monastery right in front of us. We also visited the tiny little town with its upper and lower streets. As we climbed the very steep streets to the top of the village we happened upon Daniel, a local villager who actually invited us into his house which he claimed had the best view of the Monastery in all of Guadalupe. Well here is the result, so you can judge for yourselves.

The monastery as seen from Daniel Merino's house high at the top of the village of Guadalupe. I promised to send him the photos and I will.
From Guadalupe we made our way to Mérida, some 130km away and checked into the lovely old Parador which in the past had been both a convent and hospital. Having got a taste for the suites, we upgraded again but paid the difference and got given room 122 with one big lounge and an even bigger bedroom. It was so good I could have moved in!

Here we visited many of the Roman landmarks such as the Trajan arch, the splendid and intact Roman bridge as well as the famous amphitheatre and theatre.

The superb Roman bridge that crosses the River Guadiana in Mérida. Perhaps the best of all the photos.
I fell in love with the Plaza de España once again. This one had many buildings of the typical colonial style architecture, the sort the Spanish “conquistadores” exported to many cities in Latin America, such as Hernán Cortés from Medellín. In other cities, such as Badajoz, you would see the colonial style next to the Arab style, fitting perfectly together.

The Plaza de España in Mérida.
From Mérida we visited Badajoz which is just 5km from the Portuguese border. Here we visited the Moorish Citadel (or Alcazaba – the biggest of its kind still standing in Spain) and drove through the famous Puerta de Palmas archway into the old town. Badajoz is not a thriving tourist destination, is rather sleepy and in great need of a lot of renovation if it is ever to become so.

The famous Puerta de Palmas of Badajoz, the gate or archway into the old town.
It does, however, boast the excellent restaurant, Aldebarán, highly recommended by my trustworthy travel book companions, the Michelin and Campsa guides. It is of a similar standard to Atrio in Cáceres but a third of the price.

The final leg of our tour was to be in La Parra, a small village in the province of Badajoz. We were to stay at the Hospedería Convento de la Parra which had been recommended to me by a Facebook acquaintance and which had rave reviews in Trip Advisor, my other great source of information when preparing our trips.

The hotel Hospedería Convento La Parra from the outside.
The old convent, turned hotel, is a 17th century white washed building with an orange tree patio in the centre of the cloisters. It supposedly maintains the spirit of a convent in that it is a haven of peace and place to get away from it all. They stick to that claim and purposefully do not offer television or internet connection. As I cannot live without the latter and was not a burnt out case as such, of course I brought my own connection. Thanks Yoigo!

Eladio in the orange tree patio in the centre of the cloister at the Hospedería.
The rooms and style are true too to that original spirit. Thus the décor is basically white washed and stone walls, flagstone floors and white is the colour used for all drapery and bedclothes. The only note of colour in the whole place comes from the green plants and oranges from the trees in the patios. Whilst everything is supposed to be quite sparten, the same cannot be said of the food which is top quality whilst retaining village recipes. I found the whole place truly beautiful and could quite happily have moved in there too.

Again we indulged in a suite, room number 23 and enjoyed our fire place. Eladio found it a bit dark but I loved it.

From La Parra we could have visited a host of pretty places such as Olivenza, Jérez de los Caballeros, Feria or nearby Zafra but instead decided to enjoy the installations and do what the hotel recommended, read, rest and enjoy the countryside with beautiful walks. We did all of these things and also discovered that the village of La Parra itself without boasting any great tourist interest was one of the loveliest white washed villages we had ever seen. I would have appointed it the best kept village in Spain.

A 90 year old villager from La Parra, José, making friends with my Father aged nearly 90 too. We all had a good laugh at the encounter.

We loved it so much that I wrote in the guest book that we would return again and again and again. If any of you are need of a rest or want to get away from it all, this is the place.

Our two days at La Parra were very soon up and Saturday was the day for our return. We packed leisurely to make our way back to Madrid but not before purchasing two wonderful jamón ibéricos (Spanish cured ham). Supposedly Extremadura is the area of Spain where the best ham comes from. Well we certainly saw lots of pigs (dark coloured ones) along on our walks in La Parra as this video proves here.

We came home on Saturday to find the girls had had a great time too, entertaining their friends. But soon we will be parted again as on Thursday they will be off to Santa Pola and we will be going to Montrondo to join Eladio’s family for Easter.

And that’s my post on Extremadura. It was a great trip as you can see here from my photo album in Facebook, but there are more to come this year. I always love having things, generally trips, to look forward to and the next big one will be to Yorkshire in July.

But that’s it for now.

Cheers
Masha

Work, the only Georgian taxi driver in Madrid, Armstrong crashed in Spain, the week I began to tweet with fervour and Earth Hour 2009.

Twitter is catching on in Spain. Have you tried it?

Hiya again

I’m writing today Saturday instead of Sunday as we will be travelling tomorrow to Extremadura for a week, that is my men (Eladio and my Father) and I for a well deserved break. There will be more about that on location.

The week has been very ordinary with not much to report. I had lunch with Juan on Tuesday when it took me 1.5h to get to work!!! Thank God I don’t have to go in early every day. Working from home is the best professional experience I have ever had and just wish it was more widespread. It would certainly decrease the amount of workplace bullying that is around.

On the subject of work, today we went out as a family for lunch to celebrate Oli’s renewed contract at RTVE. Her contract has been extended for another 6 months, so still a precarious situation but great for work experience.

Funnily enough I also went to a farewell dinner for a colleague who will not be renewing his contract with his workplace, Ono. A group of journalists and communications managers organised a dinner for him. And so on Thursday I found myself at a dinner for 20 or so communications people from the sector at the Cuban Centre in Spain, of all places, which actually turned out to be a grand place for a medium sized soirée like ours. It was a great night and it was good to meet some of my counterparts from other operators too.
My counterpart from Vodafone, Pepe, and myself at the dinner on Thursday. You can see more photos here.

The experience of that night was made even more intense by the journey back home. The taxi driver, Misha, an ex wrestler, told me he was from Tbilisi and according to him, the only Georgian taxi driver in Madrid. You don’t get much more exotic than that and we ended up telling each other our life stories and getting lost in the process. He told me something I knew but had forgotten; that Stalin was a Georgian! When I asked him about the relations between the Russians and his compatriots he told me it was the Russians who hated them and that Georgians don’t hate anyone. He spoke good Spanish and we both had a laugh at how Spaniards, who cannot pronounce the “sh”, call him “Misa” which means a religious “mass” and call me “Masa” which means the physical “mass”. It was great to meet you Misha!

Who didn’t laugh this week in Spain will have been the seven times winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong. As some of you are aware I knew him from my Motorola days when he was a young rider. He has returned to cycling, three years after retirement and could well win his eighth Tour de France. When he announced his return I wrote a short post which you can read here. His crash this week in the Tour of Castilla León could well jeopardise that return. It seems his collar bone was fractured into many parts. Only time will tell.
Lance in the ambulance after crashing. The photo was taken by my friend Rafa Gómez.
What I did find funny to read was the hullabaloo caused by his mere presence at the race start on Monday. Last year there was one TV and maybe 15 journalists. Apparently this year, those numbers were increased enormously just because of Lance being there. He was, of course, as has become a custom now, accompanied by an entourage of body guards. I can imagine what all that meant to the small sleepy town of Paredes de Navas where the race started.
The small town of Paredes de Nava in Palencia.
And it’s thanks to Lance that I have now taken on tweeting which is the verb for using Twitter. Twitter is a social network which has been around for quite some time. I have used it sporadically, far preferring Facebook but this week became curious about it when I read about Lance’s updates on Twitter. So I began to follow him and since then am using Twitter quite often (you will find me here). The good thing (or maybe not so good) is that what you update on Twitter automatically updates Facebook. So you see I really am a connected person in all senses. To top it all I at long last have corporate e-mail which has completely satiated my email addiction. Yes, I am an addict of social networks, my blog, my mobile phone and email. I suppose they are the perfect tools for a PR person like me.

Other things that happened this week were coffee with my out of friend work Elena yesterday. Also we bumped into my friend and neighbour Fátima this morning whilst shopping and so took the opportunity to have a drink together and catch up on each other’s news. It was good to share the “patatas bravas” and Rueda white wine at our local bar.

I must also mention that I got a phone call from Jesus. No, not Jesus Christ, as some of my English friends might think, but my dear friend and ex colleague from my Motorola days. Yes those were the days of great friendships and cycling of course. Jesús will well remember Lance Armstrong or probably more the pacharáns we would drink in the Tour of the Basque Country. Jesús now lives in Miami and it’s a bit far to go for drinks. So Facebook has to suffice along with the odd phone call like this week. If you read this on Sunday Jesús, this is to tell you I really miss you but then you know that already.

And now I must finishe as it is nearly time for switching off the light as at 20.30 it will be the "Earth Hour" which seems to be a worldwide initiative to save power and protest against the harm being done to the environment. Lights will go off all over the world from 20.30 to 21.30. Also tonight the clocks go forward and tomorrow we will have one extra hour of daylight. I love it when the days get longer and lighter.
The image of the poster of Earth Hour 2009

And that’s it for this week. The week coming up promises to be full of new experiences, discovering Cáceres and Badajoz in Extremadura.

Cheers till next time

Masha

It’s Spring again

Daffodils, the epitome of Spring
Hi

Yes it’s Spring again, the flowers are out and the weather is behaving astonishingly well. Funnily enough today is World Water Day but there hasn’t been a sign of it here for quite a while. I just hope the weather holds until our trip next Sunday to Extremadura and then I won’t mind if it rains of course.
World Water day image
It certainly held out this long bank holiday weekend which was a holiday, thanks to St. Joseph, a very important Saint in Spain. St. Joseph or San José is also the patron saint of all Fathers, thus Thursday 19th March was and is also Father’s Day. In the past nearly all boys born on that day were called José or José something. So, of course, it was my brother-in-law, José Antonio’s birthday too. In the past we used to celebrate it together but somehow the tradition has died and I, for one, miss it.

The week leading up to the holiday was short and sweet with not much to report. Who did have something to report though was my daughter Olivia. The famous Irish hispanist, Ian Gibson was at RTVE for an interview about his new book, Lorca y el Mundo Gay (Lorca and the Gay World). He is possibly the world’s greatest authority on Spain’s famous poet Federico García Lorca. I read his books when I studied Spanish at Nottingham University and Lorca, like most English students of Spanish was my favourite author too. Olivia also interviewed him for the website and here is the result. I must say I got quite excited about that. Part of the interview took part on the phone while he was having dinner but apparently he was charming and attentive throughout.
Ian Gibson, forever fascinated with Federico García Lorca.
And on the subject of interviews, Oli herself was on the radio on RNE on Friday evening to talk about the content of the RTVE website. Unfortunately we didn’t get to hear it as she warned us a bit late and we were at the cinema!

The girls went away on Friday, Suzy to Astorga and Oli to Guadalajara. So we were left rather alone and have had a quiet Father’s day holiday.

On Friday we went to see the much awaited new film from Pedro Almodovar, Abrazos Rotos (broken hugs) with Penelope Cruz who has become his icon actress, having starred in 4 of his films so far. Was it good? Well I never used to like Almodovar until Volver and then I saw some of his other films and have become quite a fan. Yes it was technically a great film but perhaps the story is not really up my street. I am never very fond of films that are about making a film. Said that, I would still highly recommend it.
Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar's icon actress
Who didn’t go the cinema this weekend was my dear sister-in-law Yoli, Eladio’s youngest brother, Isidro’s wife. Yoli had an operation on Wednesday to remove her thyroid gland which had developed a benign tumour the size of a mandarin and was visible even from the outside. Everything went well but the operation was long and poor Yoli has yet to get her voice back properly. I wish her a speedy recovery from these pages.

And on the subject of health, thanks to my sister-in-law Dolores, Zena was received this week by her brother-in-law, Patxi who is an eye specialist. He cannot cure her cancer, but at least he was able to relieve the suffering caused by a huge cyst on her eye. The eye was visibly better when I saw her yesterday. Thanks Dolores!!

This week coming up will be quite busy but I have a lot to look forward to as next Sunday, my men and I will be going to Extremadura to visit Cáceres, Guadalupe and Mérida. We will finalise our stay at a lovely place called La Hospedería Convento de la Parra in a remote village in the province of Badajoz where we have splashed out and booked one of the suites. I can't wait. Whoopeeee!

Meanwhile cheers to you all and have a great week,

Masha

“Todo va bien”, everything is fine and the wrong places at the wrong times.

Blossom in our garden, the first sure sign of Spring.
Hi again

Another week has passed and it’s a sunny Sunday in March. I am sitting at my pc wondering what to write. I just commented that to Eladio and he suggests I tell you “todo va bien” (everything is fine) so I decided that would be the title of this week’s post.

He is actually right that everything is fine. I cannot complain. We are the lucky ones. Not so lucky is my Ukranian cleaning lady, Zena, who has cancer. She is my only worry and I have been wracking my brains how to help her. It’s amazing to see how she still comes to clean even when she is having chemotherapy and it makes me feel terrible. I so understand the fate of immigrants from the story of my Mother’s family. Luck in life very much depends on where and when you were born. I was obviously born in the right place at the right time and Zena was not.

Talking about places, Paula and Miguel, my niece and nephew are in Cuba this week, although they won’t see each other. They will however both see Rosi, Eladio’s distant cousin who visited us recently and who was also born in a challenging place, like Zena. Paula is there with student friends to celebrate their mid way degree studies (a very Spanish habit called crossing the Ecuador) and Miguel went yesterday for a short holiday with some friends who found a cheap ticket.

Funnily enough now 4 members of Eladio’s family have crossed the Atlantic to Cuba in America as Spaniards call Latin America. It’s interesting to observe how the Anglo speaking world means North America when they say America whereas the Spanish speaking world mean Latin America. I suppose the origin of this Spanish habit comes from when they discovered America.
Paula, Rosi and her daughter Maria Carla on the right this week in Havana.
Meanwhile, Juan, Miguel’s brother is trying to make his fortune in London. Juan is a very enterprising chap and his first job was doing a video for his sister’s flatmate who is the marketing manager for a publishing group. The video shows how older people are catching on to internet. I think it’s great. He’s now got to do one on an ex Russian republic whose name doesn’t even ring a bell. I’m sure he’ll make a great job of it. Meanwhile enjoy the video which was probably shot in Hyde Park.

This week in Spain has been marked by the good weather but it was also the 5th anniversary of the 11th March train bombings which cast a shadow on the week in general. It was also a week when the peace in Ulster was threatened by new attacks by splinter groups of the IRA. The victims of these attacks were also in the wrong places at the wrong times.

On the home front and as the title suggests, life went on as normal and we enjoyed the good weather with walks with Norah whenever we could.
Norah and Suzy ready for the walk, look at the lovely blossom on our drive
Suzy has been sunbathing most afternoons and would text me to join her and Norah by the pool. Often I would find Norah lying on the sun bed and Suzy sitting on the floor. Norah is definitely living in the right place and is a very spoiled puppy.
Suzy and Norah sunbathing this week. Look who's on the sun bed!
Oli has been busier than any of us this week and on Friday proudly attended her first press conference. It was the presentation of Pedro Almodovar’s new film “Abrazos rotos” which was preceded by the press premiere. I later read that it was the most numerous cinema press conference ever held with 300 journalists attending. There was great interest in the new film, of course, but equal interest in seeing Penelope Cruz for the first time in public after winning the Oscar. Here is Oli’s chronicle (in Spanish) which at one stage was on the front page of RTVE. I am looking forward to seeing the film when it is launched to the public next weekend.
Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodóvar and Blanca Portillo at the press conference for his new film "Abrazos Rotos" this week.
This week I further corresponded with my distant Lieven cousin, Tanya, in New Zealand. She sent me photos of herself and family and it is uncanny to see the similarity in looks, the blonde hair and wide faces, wow!

The weekend has been quiet and marked by the good weather too. Thus we got out some of the garden furniture and had our first barbecue of the season on a lovingly laid table in the garden in front of the kitchen which is really our summer dining room.
Eladio grilling the chorizos etc for the first barbecue of the season with Norah placidly enjoying the sun nearby.
Tonight we are going out with our friends Roberto and Mari Carmen who, no doubt, will have lots to tell us about their trip to Turkey.

And that’s about it for this week. As you can see everything was fine, “todo bien”. Let’s hope this week coming up will be just as good.

Cheers for the moment,

Masha

An uneventful week, news from a distant relative in New Zealand, discovering Boadilla and a weekend without my laptop.

The Palace of Boadilla.
Hi again

Well we are now at the end of the first week of March and luckily the good weather made an entry this weekend. The week was freezing with blustery winds and we thought the winter would never end. However things brightened and this weekend has been lovely.

As I said in the title, the week has been uneventful in that nothing special happened. I had lunch one day with my best friends Julio and Fátima to belatedly celebrate my birthday. Thanks guys for the lovely necklace and ear rings, as well as the good gossip together. I do miss working with you!!

I’m not quite sure which day it was but early in the week I got an email out of the blue from an unknown distant cousin in New Zealand! Julio thought that was quite fascinating and once again encouraged me to write a book (I will my dear but probably when I retire). I must write back to Tanya. She found me on the Lieven page of Wikipedia where I had left a comment asking for the authors to get in touch with me as I wanted to find out more about my Mother’s Russian aristocratic family, the Lievens. Apparently Tanya’s grandfather, a Lieven Prince, left Russia in 1917 and escaped to Australia. I must find out which Lieven he is and how he was related to my Mother’s Father. I have yet to write back so more on that in a later post. I supposed it is quite fascinating to discover you have a cousin in the antipodes whose descendents also went into exile thanks to the Bolshevik revolution. So actually my week was not quite as uneventful as my title promises.

The highlight of this week for me was my visit to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. I went there on Wednesday morning for the presentation of the new campaign for prepaid card users to be identified. The presentation was made by the Minister himself, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba , a politician who has been in and out of government posts since Felipe Gonzalez’s days in the mid 80’s. He’s a true survivor and whether you like him or not, a very clever man. It was interesting to see him live and the best part, at least for the journalist in me, was when the media asked him questions on issues other than the new campaign, such as his views on the election results in the Basque Country or the problems of immigrants coming illegally into Spain on make shift boats via the Canary Islands. His answers were very “political” in that he didn’t seem to answer any but just played with words which sounded clever. He would not take the bait on the Basque question for example.
Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the Minister of the Interior.
And, yes this week we have local elections in Galicia and in the Basque Country. The latter had a very surprising result as the socialists won enough votes to govern there, although they will be needing the support of their arch enemies, the right wing Partido Popular. They have ousted the pro independent party, “PNV” who have been in power for decades and who are suspected of supporting the Basque terrorist movement, ETA. So change has come to the Basque Country and has brought much hope with it for many people.

The weekend too has been uneventful but full of activity. We have been living in or around Boadilla del Monte, a small country town on the outskirts of Madrid, for 20 years now. We knew of its famous forest or wood but had hardly ever walked there. Suzy and I decided to go for a walk there during the week and so I returned with Eladio on Friday and Saturday, so lovely did I find the walks. I say walks, rather than walk, as there are many paths and we have now got lost twice.
The Boadilla forest - El Bosque de Boadilla, what a magical place.
To get there we parked near the Palace which is Boadilla’s main landmark. It is a beautiful building built in the 18th century by the Spanish architect Ventura Rodríguez for Philip V’s son, the Infante Don Luis. Unfortunately today it has gone to seed and needs serious renovation. What has been renovated though is the esplanade in front of it which we discovered too was nearly finished. We also discovered a new restaurant right in front of the Palace to which Eladio and I went on Friday night and I must say it was good and a nice change from La Vaca Argentina or La Alpargateria. It hasn't got a website yet as it only opened a week or so ago and is called El Palacio Restaurante Asador. So, yes, we have sort of rediscovered Boadilla this weekend.

I have had more time to do so perhaps because I have been without my laptop this weekend. Unfortunately it developed a nasty virus on Thursday and is in the “sick bay” at work. Leaving it behind on Friday was like leaving my baby behind. I somehow don’t know how to live without it or without internet. Right now I am writing from Eladio’s computer, so I’m not quite without Internet.

My other baby, of course, is Nora. Nora got her third vaccination on Saturday and since then is no longer living in the kitchen. I think we are all thankful for that, including her as she now has the whole garden to play in. Of course, as the weather was better she is thoroughly enjoying her new adventure. Spring is definitely on its way to judge too by the blossom on the trees.

Talking about blossom, we went to see the new German film by Dorris Dorrie, Cherry Blossoms. It’s a story of a long married couple whose children have grown up and moved away. They seem to have no time for their parents in their busy lives. When Trudi dies, her husband Rudi visits their son in Japan, the country she always wanted to go to. Here he witnesses the cherry blossom festival and the film ends with a pilgrimage to the snow topped Mount Fuji. The film is about love, time and death but somehow doesn’t convince me although parts of it are very moving.
A scene from the film Cherry Blossoms
And that’s about it for this week really, except to mention that I have now fully booked our Summer holiday to Yorkshire in July including the flights, the hotels and the car. We will be staying in Haworth and Robin Hood’s Bay and hopefully will be joined by Amanda and Andy. No doubt we will be visiting our favourite haunts such as Ilkley, Harrogate, Bolton Abbey, the Yorkshire Dales and of course the Yorkshire coast around Whitby. We will of course be visiting our old house and our neighbours as well as my Mother’s grave which I know will be hard for my Father specially. On the bright side I am really looking forward to the cliff walk between Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby amongst other things. So now we have something lovely to look forward to.

Cheers till next week.
Masha