Fearless Felix, Olivia reporting for TVE in Galicia, an interview of my memories of the Motorola Cycling Team, Yoigo best mobile operator of 2012 and other things.

Sunday 21st October 2012

Fearless Felix, Olivia reporting for TVE in  Galicia, an interview of my memories of the Motorola Cycling Team, Yoigo best mobile operator of 2012 and other things.

Proud to receive the prize of best mobile phone operator 2012 for Yoigo with my colleague María Luisa

Hi everyone

How was your week?  Mine was at times quiet and at others rather hectic and stressful what with it being financial third quarterly results week for Yoigo.  

My week, however, has been nothing compared to 43 year old Austrian Felix Baumgartner’s I’m sure.  By now he has become a worldwide household name after his amazing supersonic jump last Sunday where he broke three world  records during his descent from a balloon 24 miles above earth.  He apparently hit Mach 1.24 or nearly 850 miles per hour.  He had to wear an amazing space suit and jump from a spacecraft with the whole world looking on, including his tearful mother.  The descent lasted 9 minutes.  Imagine.  The whole project was financed by Red Bull, the drink teenagers take to keep awake during exams or whilst clubbing.  I heard it took 5 years to achieve and cost some 50 million dollars.  I just wonder whether Red Bull will see any return on investment in sales.  It seems a silly thing to finance to me and that the money could have been put to better use.  Fearless Felix, as the Austrian is now known, will surely not agree with me.  Whatever the case, the man and the project had the whole world looking on in amazement, myself included.

Fearless Felix when he landed in New Mexico

Oli’s week must have been stressful and hectic too as she was reporting live nearly every day from Galicia this week.  Her boyfriend Miguel joined her for a busman’s holiday and accompanied her everywhere.  Monday saw her reporting on an English teacher giving free lessons to unemployed Spaniards in Santiago de Compostela which you can see here (fast foreward to 11.42h).

Oli reporting live on TVE1 on Monday about free English lessons for the unemployed in Santiago

And on Tuesday she reported on the big court case concerning the Prestige tanker which spilled oil on the coast of Galicia now some ten years ago (see the report here  if you go to 13.50h). Olivia is at her best reporting on court cases and I have always thought she would have made just as good a lawyer as a journalist.

Olivia reporting live on the Prestige tanker court case in La Coruña on Tuesday

Later she posted a photo on Facebook of her and a group of journalists trying to record declarations from Gaspar Llamazares, the head of the left wing party I.U. who are involved in the case as one of the accusers of what they say was bad practice of the government at the time.  I loved her Indian friend Sumit’s comment on the photo which I share with you here: “Reporting is like boxing... the longer your arm reach... the better you are at your job! Well done for crushing the lady in white Oli!”.

Oli trying to get her arm in with other journalists outside the court in La Coruña

On Thursday she reported on a very sad case, the mysterious death of an 11 month old baby in Pontevedra which you can see here (12.40h).   Later on Friday she did another story on the case and interviewed the Father live.  She spoke to both parents and told us how difficult it was for them to agree to do the interview.  Of course it would have been.  What an awful story.

She had some fun moments too, like this one where she reverses her role with her cameraman in this picture by the coast.  They were going to be reporting on the weather but had technical problems or rather the satellite TV van didn’t arrive on time for the report, which annoyed Olivia intensely.

Oli having fun on the job reversing roles with her cameraman

There was also time for some tourism with her boyfriend Miguel.  The photo below is of the famous Hercules Tower in La Coruña apparently the oldest lighthouse in the world. 

Free time for Oli in Galicia.  With her boyfriend Miguel and the Hercules Tower light house in the background (La Coruña)

Whilst Olivia was away, we had the pleasure of the company of Susana quite a few days of the week when she worked with me by my desk, often staying for lunch with us.  We even went clothes shopping one evening.  She is a little frustrated with her job which although interesting is extremely badly paid and is talking of moving to England. So this week has found me scouring the internet for food related jobs in the UK of which it seems there are plenty. One of them was for Nestlé in York where the old Rowntrees factory is.  I thought how funny it would be if she ended up working in Yorkshire, sort of reversing what I did, moving from Yorkshire to Spain for my own career.  

On Tuesday I discussed the difficult job market for young people with Susana and Juan who work for the PR consultancy, Llorente y Cuenca and who used to head up the Yoigo PR account for me when I first started with the company.  For lunch we went to a great Asturian restaurant called Esbardos where Juan and I shared a delicious “fabada”.

Wednesday was the results day and TeliaSonera, our mother company, announced the Q3 financials where, unsurprisingly Yoigo had done really well.  I am proud to tell you we have now reached 3.5 million customers in just under 6 years.  This meant a lot of work in the morning preparing the external and internal release but also putting on a staff briefing which we call Yoigo Mornings.  It was the first without our charismatic Swedish CEO Johan and you know what, it went fantastically well. 

On Wednesday too I was tickled pink to read an interview with me about my experience with the Motorola Cycling Team in the 90’s.  You can read it here too, if you know Spanish.  Gustavo had interviewed me and written it for a very popular cycling blog called El Tío del Mazo.  It came out in the throes of the news of the evidence published by the USADA on Lance Armstrong’s doping his way through 7 Tours of France.  This subject has been on my mind most of last week and this week too because of my interest in the matter and of course because I knew the Texan personally.  I read somewhere “We're talking about millions of fans being deceived and tens of millions of dollars being fraudulently earned by Armstrong”.  Yes he was a cheat, there is no doubt about it and a bully too.

This week too I read the book by his former team mate Tyler Hamilton, “The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs” and my mind is still boggling with all the undercover doping that most of the peloton seem to have been involved in. On Monday the UCI who come out nearly as badly as Armstrong does in the USADA report, will finally give their opinion.  I just wonder what they will do about the 7 titles. If they strip him of them, will he have to give the money back and who will they be given to which could be quite a problem as most of the runner ups are tainted with similar accusations?  All I can say, as I did in the interview, is that I sincerely hope that this issue finally serves to clean up a sport so tainted but one that I am passionate about.

Tyler Hamilton's book reveals nearly all about Armstrong's doping

The interview with me was called “The Motorola Cyling Team, a story about pedals and mobile phones”.  I sent the link to some of my cycling friends and contacts, including the Spanish Tour of France winner Pedro Delgado.  He thanked me for mentioning him in the interview but also commented: “cycling and mobile phones, what a nice mixture”.  In a way he summed up my involvement in the sport; always related to mobile phones.

I remembered his comment when I attended the prize giving dinner organized by the online publication ADSL Zone on Thursday night which took place at the Hotel Eurostars Madrid.  Here the whole sector got together including people from Motorola, the sad thing being that Motorola Spain will be closing down in December.

It was at this dinner that I was proud to represent Yoigo and receive the award for best mobile phone operator 2012.  It was rather fitting to receive it the same week as the good results published by TeliaSonera although there are rumours they want to sell the company. The photo illustrating this entry above is of me receiving the prize with my colleague Maria Luisa.

I sat at the table for the sector journalists and communications directors and we had a ball of an evening.  We suddenly realised that all 4 communications directors for the 4 big mobile phone network operators (Vodafone, Yoigo, Telefonica and Orange) were present at the same table so jumped at the chance of a photo.  We may be huge rivals but Juan Carlos, Pepe, Fernando and myself are first and foremost colleagues. We were all delighted when Pepe got the prize of best communications directors as he is so popular.  Well done Pepe.  Of course I would have loved to win the prize but you deserve it more than any of us.

With my counterparts from the competition who do the same job as me (communications directors).  From left to right, Pepe from Vodafone, me from Yoigo, Juan Carlos from Telefónica and Fernando from Orange - at the ADSL Zone prize giving dinner.

So yes you see the week was busy.  But finally Friday came and I was able to relax.  Oli came back from Galicia with Miguel but they arrived just as we were leaving.  We had a dinner date with José Antonio and Dolores in Madrid.  They had booked a table near where they live at a Restaurant that serves food from the Santander area called “Cañadio”.  I must say my fish, sort of fish and chips without the latter was superb. It was great to catch up on their news and I just wish we saw them more often.

That was our only excursion this weekend.  The rest of it has been spent at home this cloudy and cool weekend in October.  Yesterday, Saturday, was a family lunch, the first for quite a while.  Today Sunday has been pretty routine, reading the papers, cooking lunch, a siesta, etc.  Later we will go for our walk with the dogs and watch television, a great interview programme called “Salvados” where the journalist, Jordi Evoli, corners politicians better than anyone.  We will also watch the results of the local elections in Galicia and the Basque Country, a sort of battle between the right wing (PP) and left wing (PSOE) parties and for which Spain’s head of Government, Rajoy was waiting to be over before deciding on a bail out from Europe; very important you see.

And that my friends, is the end of this week’s events and activities.  Thus I will leave you here wishing you a great week ahead.

All the best, Masha.

My novel of the week, Jimmy the creep, a courageous girl, Oli reporting on the Red Cross day, a Chinese writer, the truth about Lance Armstrong, a funny peace prize, a national holiday and family lunches and the film about the Spanish family that survived the Tsunami.

Sunday 14th October 2012

 

Cooking for a family lunch on Saturday

Hi again everyone,

I hope your week has been good.  Mine has been fine and quite uneventful but there has been lots of news that meant a lot to me and I will comment on in this week’s post. 

On Monday my latest book arrived from Amazon, my novel of the week, “The Casual Vacancy”, JK Rowling’s first novel for adults after the Harry Potter saga.  I was interested to know what it was all about, having read that this so called “big novel about a small town” was set in the fictional town of “Pugford” on the border of Wales but is actually inspired by her own home town, Tutshill which she is supposed to despise and includes her experiences at the local comprehensive, a nightmare of a place.

JK Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy, my novel of the week

The central plot is a battle for the vacancy left on the parish council following a councillor’s death. Here everyone is at war in a small town way over local politics.  In a way it is a criticism of prejudices and hang-ups as well as the terrible snobbery of the middle class. It sounds boring and has been criticized as such by some media but I suspect they haven’t read the book till the end.  Some of it is uphill, but as you get to the end you are riveted by the doings and dealings of her characters, nearly all of whom she most obviously hates.  No wonder the people of Tutshill have protested.  One villager is quoted as saying: ‘I suppose she’s got a bit of a chip on her shoulder. This has always been a happy area.’

Tutshill where J.K. Rowling is from and the town that inspired her new book

Without giving the story away, I must say she has some great lines which have you in stitches, some very explicit sex descriptions and an awful lot of bad language.  I haven’t counted but I think the four letter word beginning with “f” must be the most repeated word in the book.  However the novel, a sort of tragic comedy, with a lot of realism is actually damned good.  I finished it yesterday afternoon and have found myself thinking about it ever since and am sort of missing the nasty or unfortunate characters and hoping that there will be a sequel.  This is not Harry Potter but it’s good stuff and a great read.

This week much of the UK news was peppered with stories about Jimmy Saville, an icon of British TV who first became famous in the 70’s with the TV ads to get people to wear seatbelts.  I always remember his famous phrase “clunk click every trip” but today that is tinged with disgust.  I always thought this man was a bit of a creep.  I mean you just have to look at some of his photos, like the one below, to realize he was not exactly “normal”.  

Jimmy Saville, the creep for me

He went on to present his own charity show called “Jim ‘ll fix it”, supposedly bringing ill and underprivileged children’s dreams come true.  He died last year in his 80’s and now one year after his death, people have come forward claiming he sexually abused them when they were children and used the programme to do so.  These people were often underage boys and girls, some as young as 10.  They have done so after a documentary about the paedophile side of this ghastly man by the ITV. The BBC apparently knew, or it was common knowledge that his predatory behavior went on but they turned a blind eye. The BBC has a lot to answer for in this case, perhaps more so than Jimmy the creep for whom, unfortunately, it comes too late.  

Straight after the news of this awful man, comes the news on Tuesday of a very courageous young girl, Malala, aged 14, from the Swat valley, once called the Switzerland of Pakistan.  She stood up to the Taliban subjugation of women where she lived and had become well known for promoting the education of girls and denouncing the atrocities of who can only be known as thugs..  For this she nearly died on Tuesday when angry Taliban men boarded her crowded school bus and shot her with a near fatal bullet close to her brain.  But Malala has not died and is out of danger for the moment, although the Taliban have sworn they will try to kill her again. Meanwhile she has become an icon in Pakistan where people are outraged and are protesting, something the authorities and people have never really dared to do for fear of the revenge of these thugs.  Malala’s was one of the few voices to take them on, perhaps now there will be more.  I hope so.

Malala the courageous Pakistani girl

Wednesday was Red Cross day, at least in Spain and is known as the Red Flag day.  Oli was to be reporting on the members of the Spanish Royal family’s participation as patrons of this wonderful organization.  She and her TV team were present where the Princess Letizia was presiding over one of the tables where people queued up to donate in exchange for the famous Red Cross flag sticker, in the centre of Madrid.  In other places nearby the Queen and her daughter were also presiding over Red Cross tables but of course it is Letizia who is more newsworthy. 

Oli reporting on the Red Cross flag day

Here you can watch Oli’ s reports if you fast forward to 12.07 and 12.46.  She was unlucky to just miss the arrival of the Crown Prince who made an appearance at all three tables a few minutes after her live reporting.  It was the second time Olivia was to report on the Royal Family and I was proud to watch her do so.

On Thursday we had the pleasure of the company of Susana for lunch, upon her return first from Santa Pola and then from Barcelona where she had given a training course to new colleagues from her company Aramark.  It was the first family lunch for a long time and it was good to get Suzy’s news.

On Thursday too most of the world heard of a Chinese author, Mo Yan, for the first time ever as he was given this year’s Nobel Literature prize.  It was also the first time, I think, that a Nobel prize has been awarded to a writer embraced by a communist regime.  The Chinese government is delighted, just as it was reviled by the award of the 2010 peace prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo. I wonder if this is politics to appease the Chinese.

Mo Yan the Chinese writer and this year's Nobel Literature Laureate

I know nothing more about Mo Yan but have read he is the Chinese equivalent of Franz Kafka, so I will probably not be reading his books, preferring the likes of JK Rowling or Ken Follett and other less high brow writers.

On the same day the literature laureate was announced, a bomb shell exploded in the sports world. Finally the truth came out about the lies and doping of Lance Armstrong who I now know for sure cheated his way through 7 Tours of France.  For on Thursday the USADA published a 1000 page report and denounced what they called "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen".  You can read the full report here.  I waded through some of it yesterday and read many of his team mates testimonies, some of whom I knew such as George Hincapie, Kevin Livingstone and Frankie Andreu when they rode for Motorola. At that time I don’t think they did take drugs.  I read later that it all started at the Milan San Remo in 1995 (I was there at the time) and that Lance was furious they had done so badly so commented to one of his team mates it was time to start on EPO.  How sad.

Me with Johnny Weltz and Frankie Andreu, Lance's best friend at the Tour of Spain in 1996

I never saw anything, but of ourse it would have been  hidden from me. This was cloak and dagger stuff. The report makes amazing reading and presents overwhelming evidence against the famous Texan who since its publication has remained practically silent on his usually very active Twitter account.  Up till now it seems he did everything he could from bullying to threatening to lawsuits to silence those few who tried to tell the truth, but he cannot stop them all, including Tyler Hamilton.  The latter, a former team mate, has just published a book called “The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping,Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs”.  I ordered it this morning on Amazon.es and look forward to reading it this week.  I always remember seeing Lance at the Tour of Spain when he had just recovered from cancer.  Knowing his aggressive character I had heard that the illness had changed him for the better.  So I asked Frankie Andreu if this was true.  He answered me: “oh no, he’s still the same old son of a bitch”.  And he was because he bullied his team mates and made them drug their bodies too whether they wanted to or not. It is common knowledge, despite the code of silence in the cycling world that is now gradually being broken, that his generation of cyclists doped to perform to an extraordinary extent but he was the greatest of them all and has now sullied that sport for ever.   I wonder how long it will take until he is stripped of his 7 Tours of France.  If that hasn’t happened yet, it is partly due to the cycling ruling body, the UCI, who do not come out well in the USADA report either and look like they also have a role in covering up Lance’s story, in the same way as his and his team’s doping doctors, such as Pedro Celaya (I remember him as the Motorola team doctor; he spoke with a fast Basque accent I could hardly understand) or masseurs such as Freddy Viaene (the nice friendly Belgian soigneur who used to make bacon sandwiches with mustard which I hated for me at some of the races) or team coach where the spotlight is also on Johan Bruyneel, a very shady character in the cycling world who I remember once shouting at me when he rode for the ONCE team asking where the phone I had promised him was.  Since the report has been published he has been fired as coach of his current team but even covers that up too by saying on his Twitter that he has resigned.  For me these people are just as much to blame as Lance.  However it isn’t just Lance and his team mates who have taken dope.  This is a practice that has gone on always and probably explains the code of silence from many top and ex cyclists today.  How can they condone Lance Armstrong when they themselves are not free of guilt? And if his titles are to be stripped, maybe theirs will too.  And where would the investigation start, with Eddie Merck or Tom Simpson who died in the Tour of France on Mt. Ventoux because of doping in 1959?  The only hope here is that the Armstrong doping issue will clean up the sport forever.

Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel both equally guilty of doping in cycling.

Friday was a national holiday and brought with it a three day weekend.  It was the day of celebrations for Hispanic nations and also the day of the Spanish saint, Pilar.  It was also the day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded.  I was astonished to see that this year’s prize went to the European Union, far too big an entity I thought and just as ridiculous as the prize to Barack Obama.  It sort of under minded the importance.  I understand that the European Union was awarded the prize for its role in uniting the continent over the last six decades but it comes at a time when the Union is at its weakest, embroiled in the Euro crisis and found it surprising that it came from a nation, Norway, which has always refused to join.  It came also during the week the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, visited Greece where she was greeted by protesters with Nazi salutes, not exactly a peaceful event!  Maybe though it will serve to strengthen the Union, but I for one could have thought of more deserved peace prize winners, such as Vicente Ferrer for his outstanding service to the poor people of India. 

That night we discussed the peace prize and the euro crisis and unemployment in Spain with our friends Roberto and Mari Carmen over dinner.  We went to Síbara which serves great fish and chips and came up to speed on the lives of our friends whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. As we left the restaurant, Eladio and I commented on just how civilized their relationship is given that they are now divorced.

On Saturday we had another family lunch and Juli came too.  The photo illustrating this week’s post is of me cooking in the kitchen. Notice the pc with FB on the screen, the maps on the wall which are an inspiration for travelling, as well as Elsa at the door wanting to come in for the umpteenth time.  For the record I made Russian pelmeni with sour cream sauce (Smetana), roast chicken with vegetables cooked in honey and mushroom risotto.  After lunch it was sunny and Suzy was going to sunbathe but Eladio had decided that yesterday was the day to cover the swimming pool.  So we made a joint effort of putting on the cover and were all a little sad to see this as a symbol of the end to summer.

That night the girls were to celebrate Anita’s birthday as they had done Dave’s the night before.  They call their group of friends, “la manada” or the herd and here you have a photo of them on Friday night with part of the “manada.

The girls (in stripes Suzy left and Oli right) with part of the "manada" celebrating Dave's birthday

Whilst they were preparing for the birthday do, Eladio and I had a date at the cinema.  I had bought tickets to see the new film, The Impossible.  It is a Spanish made film but shot in English and stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor and is about the 2004 Tsunami in South East Asia.  The story is based on the experiences of a Spanish family, Maria Belón and Enrique Alvarez and their three young boys who amazingly survived the tragedy.

Members of the Spanish family with the cast who starred in the film The Impossible  based on the family's tale of survival of the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia.

 

 Eladio called the film the wave, and in a way he’s right because the replica on screen of the “wave” or tsunami was the most important moment of the film.  I think they used 12 million litres of water at the film studios in Alicante to make it.  The film was beautifully made and had me crying at all the right points and also left me wanting to know more about how this, up till now anonymous Spanish family, coped with returning to normal life after their awful and incredible experience.  It also made me understand what it must have been like to live through the Tsunami and just how terrifying and devastating it was.  Well done Juan Antonio Bayona for making this great film.

The Impossible a great film

Afterwards we went to Ginos for dinner and an ice cream at Hagan Dazs for “pudding” which had me feeling guilty.  Luckily I slept well afterwards.  

Today Sunday is a cool Autumn day with rain threatening any time.  Olivia will be leaving very soon for Galicia from where she will be reporting this week.  After publishing this week’s entry, we shall probably read a bit in the lounge – how different from reading outside in the sun – and then go for our daily walk.  You know us, creatures of habit, usually. 

And the week ahead will be busy and I hope a good one.  

Meanwhile I wish you all the best and sorry for too much international news and not much about home, but as you see it’s been very quiet here and there is not much to tell. 

Cheers for now

Masha

1st October anniversaries, a coincidental TV appearance, recipe for Spanish oxtail, “the path to Spain”, a Nokia girly lunch, on a yacht in Valencia, moon lit and red sky at night walks, a surprise visit and other things.

Sunday 7th October 2012

1^st October anniversaries, a coincidental TV appearance, recipe for Spanish oxtail, “the path to Spain”, a Nokia girly lunch, on a yacht in Valencia, moon lit and red sky at night walks, a surprise visit and other things.

Oli with Gustavo on Monday - they surprised me and made my day.

Hi again

This week the weather has been wonderful.  We are experiencing what is known as an Indian summer or in Spanish “el veranillo de San Miguel”, so different from the storms and floods of last week where so much damage was done in South East Spain. 

Monday was 1^st October and whilst golf fans on the this side of the ocean were reveling in the win of Europe vs America in the Ryder Cup, captained by the dashing Spaniard José María Olazabal, who dedicated the win to the legendary Seve Ballesteros, my thoughts were elsewhere. For me the 1^st October is the anniversary of the death of my amazing Mother and also the anniversary of my start with Yoigo, already 6 years ago; a bitter and sweet date.  These thoughts remained with me most of the week.  It is a date I can never forget and which is always recorded in this blog diary.  My Father will have been thinking my Mother, his wonderful partner too and it was about one year ago when he had his fall and broke his hip.  Thankfully those days are over and he is much recovered and well looked after. Today whilst my men were reading the physical papers, I was reading the Daily Telegraph online and was astounded to read just how badly elderly people are treated in English residences and hospitals.  I read too how Rumanian and Spanish nurses were appalled at the treatment.  So I am really glad my Father is here with us, safe and well looked after.   Looking back over my 6 years with Yoigo it has been good, although times are changing now.

On Wednesday Olivia made my day in a way with a special and rather coincidental appearance on television.  In the morning she sent a photo via whatsapp of herself with a professional friend of mine Gustavo who used to work on the Yoigo account at my PR agency Ketchum. He has since moved to Ogivly and works on the Ford account there.  I couldn’t understand why they would be together.  The coincidence was explained by them both in successive photos and messages.  The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of the two of them.

Ford had agreed with her programme, La Mañana de la 1 that they would do a piece on suits worn by their engineers when designing and producing cars.  The suits simulate typical disabilities in people over 70 and the engineers wear them to understand better these people’s needs.  I think that’s a great idea, one that could be emulated let’s say by engineers designing mobile phones.  They might then understand that people over 40 start to lose their eyesight and bear that in mind when coming up with new ideas for phones. Gustavo was delighted to see that the reporter covering the issue was Olivia, my daughter and I was equally delighted to hear that the two of them were involved in this piece of news.  Gustavo sent me the picture below of Olivia fitted out with the engineers’ suit, ready to go live from the Ford factory in Madrid. 

Oli live or ready to go live on Monday on a piece about suits Ford engineers wear when taking into account elderly people's needs in cars.

We watched the piece of news live at 11.45 and you can see the piece here if you fast forward to 11.45 of course.  All in all this really made my day.

On Wednesday I sharpened my cooking skills.  I haven’t cooked seriously for a long time as of course Ivanka makes our meals and I have been on my protein based Dukan diet.  But now that my weight is fine and I had some time on my hands and after having spied and bought some very nice looking oxtail at the local supermarket, I decided to cook for the family and for us to enjoy this great Spanish recipe from the 1080 recipe book.  I should add that this is a typical dish from Córdoba. This is what it looked like.

My oxtail dish based on the Spanish recipe - a dish originally from Córdoba

If you are interested, this is how you make it.  Place the cut up oxtail pieces (I used two tails) into cold water until it boils.  Then remove the foam, add big pieces of chopped onion, three or four whole carrots, salt and pepper and cook slowly for at least 3 hours.  Once the meat is soft you drain the water and place the meat in a dish in the oven sprinkled with a little oil so that it browns on both sides.  Then you make a puré out of the carrots and onion and some of the stock which is served separately with the meat.  This dish is typically accompanied with sauté potatoes or fried potatoes but not in the shape or chips, more like the size of small roast potatoes.  And voila, there you have Spanish oxtail ready for eating.  We all loved it, Ivanka too and Suzy took some when she visited us that evening.  

The biggest news on Wednesday was the first of three presidential debates in the US between Romney and Obama.  I didn’t watch it, except for some parts of it on the news that day.  Everyone seemed to coincide that surprisingly Romney had beaten Obama.  But the news in Spain was of Romney’s comment to the current President: “I don’t want to go down the path to Spain” in clear reference to our financial crisis.  The Spanish news was very critical of this comment, so bad for Spain’s image abroad.

The Romney Obama debate this week

I wrote last week about the controversial photos of Spain’s supposed poverty in the New York Times.  It is certainly the fashion and very newsworthy for the foreign press to dwell on this subject.  In reference to this issue Olivia told us this week that a journalist friend of hers had been contacted by a journalist from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Canadian state TV) wanting to do a piece on how badly Spain is suffering. The journalist, a she, insisted on being taken to the poor areas and interviewing beggars!.  However much Olivia’s friend tried to tell her this wasn’t the true picture of Spain, the Canadian journalist was only interested in portraying the disastrous “path of Spain”.  This is a very dangerous path for the country whose government is totally unable to improve Spain’s brand awareness. Whilst it is true we are suffering a crisis, the reporting is very biased and only one side of the coin.  It’s a question of give a dog a bad name and the name stays.  After all, it’s all about perceptions.  The image most of us have in our heads about Africa, for example, is that everyone is starving, when that is hardly the truth.  My conclusion then is that you cannot believe everything you read; things are not black and white, but of course stories like these are what people want to read, so journalists, like sheep, churn them out and this way become biased themselves, like the lady from the CBC. 

On Friday in a girly Nokia lunch with Juana, Jill and Zenaida at Sibara in Aravaca, we discussed this issue as of course we discussed Nokia’s fate.  I had read on Wednesday and commented to them that there was news that Nokia was selling off its assets in order to save money.  There was also a rumour that it was selling Nokia House, its amazing flagship headquarters in Espoo just outside Helsinki.  When I posted this on Twitter I actually got a message from Nokia to say this wasn’t true.  So I breathed a sigh of relief, as for me that would have been the end of Nokia.  I well remember that beautiful glass building which I visited many times in my 6 years at Nokia.  The glass gives it light in the winter and the wood inside adds warmth.  It is perhaps the most beautiful modern building I have ever been in. Every time I went there I couldn’t help feeling proud of belonging to that amazing company.  Today it is the shadow of what it was but Nokia House remains, for the moment.

Nokia House, Nokia's worldwide HQ in Espoo (Helsinki) thankfully is not for sale. I have visited it countless times.

The girly Nokia lunch was great as it always is, although Fátima, Susana and Ana couldn’t make it.  Really it is only Jill, Zenaida, Juana and I who are always faithful to our lunch appointments. We also talked about past colleagues, so many of whom have left Nokia and also about our families.  My friends have much younger children and I often feel like the grandmother of the group, although luckily I don’t look like one.  We agreed to meet again at the end of November.  We had such a nice time (great restaurant with superb fish and chips on the menu!) that I completely forgot to take a photo for this week’s blog and kicked myself for not doing so afterwards.

Olivia had left on Thursday for Valencia, Friday being a free day for her.  She went to stay with her boyfriend Miguel and the two of them have spent the weekend on a yacht.  This is Olivia’s first yachting experience and despite initial worries of seasickness, the first night was fine, although she is not too keen on the vessel’s movement.  Her Father is not a good sailor and we were worried she wouldn’t be either, but so far so good.  Here is a picture of her on the yacht before they set off and I think it is taken in Denia.

Oli has spent the weekend on this yacht near Valencia

Meanwhile we have been left alone again with no girls to brighten up our weekend. Suzy went off to Santa Pola with her Russian friend Emil on Wednesday and we have had no news since.  The weekend then has been very quiet.  Eladio and I went out to dinner on Friday night, not to noisy Friday’s like last week, but to another American establishment called Foster Hollywood and it was fine although I felt a bit guilty having a brownie and ice cream for dessert!

Being on our own means sticking to our routines and we have been reading a lot by the pool in the late afternoons.  I finished the harrowing “Five chimneys, the story of Auschwitz” by Olga Lengyel, a survivor from Cluj in Transylvania.  It is one of the most vivid stories by survivors of the holocaust.  Then I started on Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates which arrived from Amazon this week.  It is a novel about Marylyn Monroe and had been recommended to me by Adele, but so far the prose is a bit uphill, so I may not finish it.

Sticking to our routines, means a walk each evening with the dogs and this week, because of the weather they have been lovely.  One day this week I captured the moon on my camera when it was bright and seemed so near.

The moon on our walk one evening this week

The walk was almost moon lit.  Then yesterday I captured an amazing red sky.  I always remember being told as a child on walks with my Father that a red sky at night meant shepherds’ delight in that the next day there would be good weather. Whereas a red sky in the morning, meant shepherds’ warning, in that bad weather was coming. My experience has taught me that shepherds are nearly always very right.

The red sky on our walk yesterday

I mentioned to Eladio whilst walking with the dogs, Norah our beagle and Elsa our Labrador, that nowadays, as the girls so seldom here, they have become substitute “daughters” which of course they haven’t but they certainly are company.  On Friday after my Nokia girly lunch I went to the Corte Inglés department store to pick up a watch strap and whilst there bought the dogs a new red collar each and also a rug type bed for them to lie on in the kitchen when it’s cold.  They tend to destroy most of their beds or Norah grabs Elsa’s bed and puts it on top of her own, leaving Elsa to lie uncomplainingly on the cold floor.  So with this in mind, I decided on buying a rug big enough for them both to lie on and with no filling for them to destroy.  So far so good, although I did see Norah trying to bag it for herself this morning to which I immediately put a stop.

Elsa our labrador on the new rug I bought for the dogs.

This weekend they both got their fortnightly bath, as they had to be clean to lie on the new rug for the first time.  And this is Eladio’s job, one he does a little reluctantly but very well.  The dogs are a little reluctant too but once inside the bath seem to even enjoy the experience.

Eladio drying Norah after her bath yesterday

Yesterday, Saturday, was a quiet day too and again I put my hand at a bit of cooking and made lasagne, something I haven’t made for so long I couldn’t remember certain things and had to ask Juana on whatsapp for some instructions.  As I made it, Ivanka looked on, learning to add this dish to her good but limited repertoire, as she did when I made the oxtail.  We ended up making far too much just for the four of us, so we will be having it again for lunch today.  But I must say it was delicious.

Of note yesterday, Saturday, one of the reasons we didn’t go out in the evening is that we wanted to watch a wonderful Spanish film called "Lavida que te espera", called “Your next life” in English.  It was starting at 11pm very late for me and I was worried I would fall asleep, but I didn’t as I find this film riveting.  Set in the remote valley of the Pas in Santander in northern Spain, it is a rural drama of love and death and passion and old fashioned traditions and hard work which has you on the edge of your seat until the very end.  The film was made in 2004 by the director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón who is actually from the Santander province. We saw it when it first came out in 2004 and have wanted to watch it ever since.  So you see it isn’t only Pedro Almodóvar who makes good Spanish films. 

The great Spanish film we saw last night

And today is Sunday and I am at the end of this week’s tale, but not quiet.  Nothing special was going to happen today.  That’s not quite true as the first clásico (Barcelona Madrid football match) is taking place tonight but unfortunately it’s only available on pay per view channels which we do not have.  Something special was going to happen on the home front but Eladio didn’t know. Juan, his nephew and godson was coming with Cristina, his girlfriend, to bring him a belated birthday present.  I knew about it because Juan needed some advice on what to get but I kept the visit secret so that it would a pleasant surprise for my husband.  And indeed it was.  They came mid-morning and stayed for coffee and we sat in the sun by the pool catching up on their news and ours and the of course the news of other members of our mutual family.  Eladio was tickled pink and I think delighted, so when his Mother, Dolores reads this, she too will be pleased at Juan’s gesture and with the photo below.  For the record they bought Eladio one of his favourite fragrances by Loewe.  The visit was lovely and the thought behind it even more and a memory we will treasure.  Thanks Juan and Cristina.

A surprise visit this morning from Juan our nephew and godson and his girlfriend Cristina

Now I am at the end of this week’s tale and it’s time for me to heat up yesterday’s lasagne and set the table for us three oldies.  

That’s it from me for this week my friends.  I wish you all the best, good reading until we meet again next Sunday.

Masha