The best “grand depart” ever, Suzy in Tenerife, Hemingway’s grandson runs with the bulls, Brazil’s humiliation, Eladio’s invention for picking greengages from the tree in the garden, Sandra and Jeffer in Santa Pola, a presentation in Madrid, Olivia fencing and other stories.

Sunday 13th July 2014

At a presentation in Madrid on Wednesday

Hello again my friends,

It is Sunday again.  The day started well, quietly having my breakfast with the dogs and with my iPad in the kitchen.  I don’t know about you but my favourite meal of the day is breakfast.

Breakfast whilst reading the papers on my iPad

This time last week the Tour de France ended its journey in Yorkshire.  As I said to Paul Sherwen, the British TV commentator, ex cyclist and ex Motorola Cycling Team Comms Manager which is how I got to know him, I would have killed to be there especially in my beloved Haworth.  The Yorkshire people went all out to welcome the Tour and the Grand Depart as it was known was a huge success.

Le Grand Départ of the Tour de France in Yorkshire was a huge success

The Tour de France race director, Christian Prudhomme, described Yorkshire’s Grand Départ as the “greatest” in the 111 year history of the race.  I am so proud of my fellow Yorkshire men. Since the Tour left the British Isles I have lost interest which probably won’t be sparked again until the race reaches the high mountains.  With the great British hope Christian Froome now out as he crashed badly on the day the race incurred into the Paris Roubaix cobbled stage that leaves more hope for Spain’s Alberto Contador. But we shall see.

At the same time as the Tour de France was racing through the wonderful Yorkshire countryside a different sports battle was also taking place in England. Wimbledon is the number one British sporting event and last Sunday there was a classic final, Federer against Djokovic.  The match went to a thrilling 5 sets and the Serb had to give his all to beat the mighty Swiss.  I really wanted Roger Federer to win but it wasn’t to be so.

Meanwhile Miguel, Olivia’s boyfriend, was racing that day in an open sea swimming race between the island of Tabarca and Santa Pola.  The race started at 7 in the morning so as to take advantage of a calm sea.  Oli didn’t post any photos but I was very proud to hear from Miguel that he came 10^th out of over 1000 competitors! Well done Miguel.

Our family was scattered all over the place that day as Suzy too was away.  As I told you last week she had flown to the island of Tenerife with her boyfriend Gabor who is from there and was to meet part of his family for the first time.  As I write it is their last day on the island before returning to greyer London.

Suzy and Gabor with his family in Tenerife this week

They have been travelling all over the island and yesterday went up to the Teide Mountain, the highest in Spain. For the record it is 3.718 metres high(12,198 ft).  You might be interested to know that the highest mountain in the Spanish mainland is not much smaller; the Mulhacen in the Sierra Nevada (near Granada) which measures 3.482m.  Mount Teide is also the third highest volcano in the world. 

Mount Teide as seen by Suzy yesterday in Tenerife

It must have been cold up there as Suzy was wearing a jumper. 

Suzy near Mount Teide in Tenerife yesterday

They also had some quality holiday time on the beaches.  Here is one picture of the two love birds enjoying the beach.  Suzy looks lovely.

Suzy and Gabor on the beach in Tenerife this week

Monday was a very full day.  It was also the day the Argentinian football legend, Alfredo Di Stefano, who made Real Madrid the team it is today, chose to die aged 88.  In Madrid and everywhere in the football world his death was mourned.  At the World Cup the players wore black on their sleeves in respect.  He is supposedly one of the world’s greatest football players ever; at least judging by the mind boggling number of articles and obituaries that were written this week.  RIP Alfredo Di Stefano, here you were known as “el maestro”.

For me it was a fasting day.  But it was also the start of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, known here as “Los San Fermines”.  This ghastly annual ritual became famous when Ernest Hemingway witnessed it and his novel “Fiesta” made it world famous.  I hate this “fiesta” and the only thing I found interesting about it was when I read that Hemingway’s grandson John ran with the bulls for the first time this year. He later commented that his grandfather never did owing to the shrapnel in his leg from the First World War. 

Running with the bulls in Pamplona

That evening Olivia was on television as she is every evening during the week.  This time she did a report on the new “silent” carriages on the Spanish Ave’s, the high speed trains which you can see here.

Tuesday was a quiet day.  Thinking of Olivia’s packed lunches I made tons of ham and spinach croquettes, her favourite food, at least the ham ones.  I made the spinach ones for Fátima, our Moroccan maid who cannot eat pork. 

Tuesday was also the day Brazil was humiliated by Germany who beat them 7-1 in the semi-final of the World Cup.  Brazil is known for being the best at football and not much else so when they were suddenly bad at the only thing they are supposed to do well, it became a national tragedy, the irony of it being that they were also hosting the event.  I can only imagine now they wished they never had. 

On Wednesday I was up early.  I had to be in Madrid by 10 am for a press event, the presentation of the September Santander telecoms conference, the biggest of its kind in Spain and organized by Ametic.  It was held at the Club Financiero in Madrid near Colon and there was time for coffee before it started.  So I wandered out onto the balcony which commands wonderful views of Madrid from high up. The photo illustrating this week's post is of me on the balcony. 

My great friend Fátima who works for Nokia was there too and later we had a coffee together and she agreed to come back with me to work from home.  We shared my desk and it was like old times; so easy to work together and great company at the same time. 

When we returned Ernestina, my mother-in-law, had just left with Toño and Miguel (welcome back from Cuba by the way) to go to Montrondo.  It was nice having her but I can only imagine she was delighted to be going to stay at the village where she was born which is so much more familiar to her than our house. Whilst she was here she knitted woolen socks for all of us, her main pastime.

Whilst I was away, Eladio had devised a way to pick the greengages from the heavy tree of fruit. We thought they wouldn’t be mature until at least August, but this week many of them were.  I loved Eladio’s invention, a long stick with a sawn off tin at the end designed to cut off each piece of fruit individually.  We have so many we have to give them away and Fátima took some with her too. The good thing is they are not all turning ripe at the same time, so they will not all go to waste or to the birds.  Olivia thought it was so funny she took a video which explains how his invention works and which you can see here.

Eladio and his invention for picking the greengages

It was on Wednesday too that our friends, Sandra, Jeffer and his daughter Isaline and her friend, arrived from Brussels to stay in our flat in Santa Pola.  I was rather worried they wouldn’t find it or know how things worked but they are bright people and rang that afternoon to tell me they had settled in fine. That evening they went to Alicante to have dinner with friends at one of our haunts by the Port, El Porteño which according to Sandra has now changed names although it still belongs to the same family.

Our friends in Alicante

Next week I will start my holidays on Thursday and we will be joining our friends in Santa Pola for a few days.  I can’t wait.

I cooked on Wednesday again and once more thinking about Olivia’s packed lunches I made a huge batch of “perushki” (little Russian pies).  Fátima watched me making them and I gave her some to take home, along with the greengages.  She will be coming again next week to work from home with me and I am sure she will be getting more of the lovely green fruit.

It was on Wednesday too that Chris Froome sadly abandoned the Tour of France.  In the evening, late, because it was televised from Brazil, Eladio and I watched the other World Cup semi-final, Holland against Argentina.  The latter beat the Dutch in a penalty shootout which I didn’t see because I had already fallen asleep. 

Thursday, my second fasting day of the week, was very quiet.  I worked from home and managed my two walks but felt pretty exhausted that night thanks to the combination of heat, not eating and exercise.  That combination also gave me one of my headaches. 

I love Fridays as they are the day after fasting and give me three whole days of eating more or less what I want.  After sending in my weekly bullet points to the company headquarters (that is a tiresome weekly task which just has to be done), off I went to fetch my mamograph results which I will have to take to the hospital when I have my annual gynecologist appointment at the end of August.  I was happy to read I had the all clear and even felt like celebrating.  Celebrating was going and buying a new coffee machine for Santa Pola (the same one Dolores and José Antonio have in Montrondo) a good and inexpensive machine called Senseo by Philips.  My treat would have been some new clothes from Zara whilst I was at the shopping centre, but funnily enough I was probably not very inspired as nothing took my fancy.

That afternoon we missed Olivia again on the television as this week she has failed to tell me when she is going to be on.  However we later saw her report, via streaming, of her interviewing a Spanish actress who was being trained how to fence, something she needed for a film she was in. 

Olivia doing a report on fencing on Friday

Miguel went along and sent me this photo of Olivia trying out fencing with the trainer too.   I think she had a great time.

Olivia (in jeans) trying out fencing for the report

That night Eladio and I went out to dinner to La Vaca Argentina in Las Rozas, one of our familiar haunts.  I had made the reservation via The Fork (El Tenedor) which offers 30 or 40% discount.  In the end we gleefully left the restaurant after having had a totally free dinner, owing to the discount plus the 48 euros in points I had on the restaurant’s loyalty card.  I had the feeling the staff weren’t very pleased, but we were.

Yesterday, Saturday, was quiet too.  It was the only day of the week we were to have lunch with Olivia and Miguel.  I made another of Olivia’s favourite dishes, “salmorejo” a sort of thick gazpacho from the Córdoba region which is made basically of tomato, bread, garlic, olive oil, salt and vinegar. 

I made salmorejo yesterday

The rest of the day was taken up by my two walks, a swim in the pool and a lot of reading too. Yesterday I started on gigantic book called “A suitable boy”, recommended to me by Dolores.  I am bit put off by the size of it; a paperback with over 1500 pages but I think I shall enjoy this famous novel by the Indian writer Vikran Seth although the print is rather too small for my eyesight. 

And today is Sunday, the last day of the week.  Again we shall have lunch with Miguel and Olivia. I have already done my two walks, one at 9 in the morning on my own and one at 10 with Eladio and the dogs.  I prefer to go on my walks early in the morning as afterwards it is far too warm. 

Of course tonight we shall be watching the World Cup final which thankfully starts just slightly earlier, at 9pm, so my Father can watch it too.  The finalists are Germany and Argentina, in case you didn’t know.  Not being a fan of German domination, I prefer Messi’s team to win, but I’m afraid the former are the favourites right now.  I just hope it won’t be another penalty shootout.  Who do you want to win I wonder and why?

This week coming promises to be good.  Tomorrow Monday I have the good fortune of going to Santander, one of my favourite towns in Spain.  I shall be hunting for a good location for the Yoigo party in September during the telecoms conference and shall be accompanied by Cristina and Bea, always a treat.  And then on Thursday my holidays begin and Eladio and I will be off to Santa Pola to join Jeffer, Isaline and Sandra for a few days.  The only obstacle on the horizon is that on Friday the day after my holidays begin I shall have to be up early for the Quarter 2 results to be published by Yoigo’s mother company, TeliaSonera that day.  But after that I shall be feeling quite free to enjoy my time in Santa Pola.  And then the following week I shall be off to London to spend a whole week with my darling daughter Suzy.  In fact this summer promises to be very exciting as far as trips go; first Santander, then Santa Pola, then London, then Montrondo, then Santander again and finally in September I have a trip to my beloved Helsinki.  But meanwhile I shall enjoy the present knowing I have lots to look forward to

.

Wishing you all a great week ahead, cheers till next Sunday,

Masha

Fruit from our garden, Oli reports on Pedro Delgado’s new book, freak hailstorms in Spain, this year’s Yoigo summer party, Suzy in Tenerife, The Tour de France departs in “God’s own country” and other stories.

Sunday 6th July 2014

Me on the vintage round about we hired for the Yoigo Summer Part

Hi everyone,

It’s Sunday again and time to write my blog.  The week has been very eventful.  Three of the biggest sporting events have coincided this weekend; Wimbledon, The Tour of France and The World Cup; the first two taking place in England but more about them later.

Last Sunday we returned from Montrondo and brought back Eladio’s mother who is staying with us for a fortnight.  It was a bit of a squeeze in the back of the car where I sat with José Antonio and Dolores.

My 92 year old mother-in-law, Ernestina who is staying with us for 2 weeks and who spends most of her time knitting socks for us all.

It was nice to see my Father and Olivia when we got back as well as the dogs.  Nuba, Toño and Dolores’ terrier mongrel, was to stay with us this week too as they were going away.  I must say our house resembled a senior citizens’ and dogs’ home all of this week.  We hardly saw Olivia but when she was here at least she, and her boyfriend Miguel, lowered the average age of the residents, thank goodness.

Monday was quiet and my first fasting day of the week as usual.  I must say I missed Fátima our home help when she went away for her two days off.  It meant Eladio and I had to take care of everything.  That day Eladio picked fruit from our garden.  We have an abundance of different types of plums and here are the small red ones he picked.  The best ones are yet to come and the greengage tree is the heaviest of all.  We have never seen so much fruit of it.  A gust of wind blew down one of the heaviest branches and I think the dogs are semi enjoying the unripe fruit within reach of them.  No doubt the birds will get at the greengages as they did with our peaches of which they left us just one, very annoyingly.  But no way are they going to be able to eat all the greengages thank goodness.

Fruit from our garden, damsels I think

We all watched Olivia that evening reporting on a special layby for Muslims travelling back from France, Belgium and probably Switzerland all the way through Spain to Morocco for their annual summer holiday.  The layby was one of the stops for them to rest, fill their tanks and of course pray, believe it or not. 

Olivia reporting on the muslim layby and rest stop outside Madrid on Monday

On Tuesday I was invited by my friend and cycling legend Pedro Delgado who won the Tour of France in 1988, to the presentation of his new book “A golpe de micrófono” at the Fnac bookstore in Callao in the centre of Madrid.  The book was about his experience as a TV, radio and sports paper cycling journalist which he has been for 20 years now since he quit cycling. 

The invitation to the presentation of Pedro Delgado's new book.

I suggested to Olivia that her programme report on the new book and they agreed.  They were especially interested in his opinion of the upcoming Tour starting this weekend.  So there I witnessed my own TV journalist Olivia covering the story of my friend, the Spanish cycling legend, Pedro Delgado’s new book.  I was literally tickled pink.  Pedro being the darling he is, made no fuss when Olivia’s programme insisted on her doing the live report just as his presentation was supposed to start.  It was great to see many familiar faces at the presentation, not least his lovely wife Ludi and three beautiful boys.  Ludi’s pretty mother was there too as well as lots of Delgado fans of which there a legion in Spain as the ex-cyclist seems to be just as popular today as when he rode. 

Olivia reporting live at the presentation of Pedro Delgado's new book

I was well aware during the presentation that the world’s number one tennis player, Spain’s top ambassador for sport, Rafa Nadal, was playing his third round at Wimbledon and of course expected him to win.  But that wasn’t to be so.  He was shockingly knocked out by an Australian newbie, the 19 year old Nick Kyrgios who is ranked 144 in the world and was playing his first Wimbledon championship.  He beat the Spaniard 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 and he seemed to do so entirely based on his incredibly fast and blistering serve which is the best way to win on grass.  Wimbledon for me has now lost interest.  Today, Sunday, is the men’s final and Federer will be meeting Djokovic. 

Wednesday was a busy day for me, like all of this week.  It was the day before the annual Yoigo summer party and I had lots of last minute hiccups.  On Wednesday I fasted rather than on Thursday so as to be able to enjoy the food at the party.  Again we watched Olivia live on TV.  This time she reported on the killing of a young Danish girl at her hostel in the centre of Madrid at the hands of a Belgium who later admitted to the ghastly crime.  It was big news in Spain that day.

Olivia reporting on the detention of the 33 year old Belgian in Madrid who had killed a young Danish girl recently.

Finally my big day arrived, Thursday 3^rd July, the date of this year’s Yoigo summer party which was to be held at a wonderful location called Las Jarillas.  I had managed to get 28 of our partners and providers to fund the party which would be attended by over 250 people.  But all was not well as we were expecting huge rainfalls during the day and evening and I thought our party would be a wash out. Thus we had to get a marquee and resort to plan b of having the cocktails, dinner and after dinner activities inside rather in the wonderful gardens.  I had to make a big decision as whether to go ahead with bringing a beautiful vintage roundabout all the way from Valencia.  In the end we did bring it.  The photo illustrating this week’s post is of me on the lovely roundabout.  It felt like being in the Mary Poppin’s film as a lot of guests commented.

The weather was threatening all day and in most of Spain.  In the afternoon there was a freak hailstorm in Madrid, so unusual in July.  Even the outer ring road, the M40 was blocked for over an hour.  Much damage was done.  There were similar hailstorms in other parts of Spain making some villages turn completely white from the huge and extensive hail stones. 

Clearing the hail after the freak storm in Madrid on the M40 on the day of the Yoigo Summer Party this week

The weather forecast for 8pm which was when our party was to start was for rain.  As I left the house, Eladio looked at the sky and told me he didn’t think it would rain that evening.  He was right.  In the end our wonderful party was not a wash out.  Quite the opposite really, it was a huge success.  People enjoyed the roundabout, the cocktails, the amazing dinner, as well as the musical group called Fe de facto y flores or something like that, as well as the tombola, casino and endless free drinks.  Here is collage of just some of the shots from the party.

A collage of photos of the Yoigo Summer party this last Thursday

I was not able to see Olivia on the TV that day as I was on my way to Las Jarillas.  Thus I missed her report on the Spanish melons grown in Villaconejos in the province of Madrid, supposedly the best melons grown in Spain.  However I was able to see the report the next day.  You can too if you click on this link and don’t mind watching a few adverts before the report starts!

Friday was of course 4^th July, American Independence Day which I of course do not celebrate but I wished a happy 4^th July to my American friends on Facebook. I was pretty tired on Friday as I usually am after an event I have been working on for a long time is finally over.  I went for a walk with Eladio in the morning before it got too hot and took this lovely shot of my husband combing Elsa our golden Labrador who once again is shedding hair from one of her coats.  I didn’t know until recently that this breed has two coats; one for water resistance and the other for keeping warm.  Elsa seems to love the attention and keeps very still whilst Eladio grooms her.

Eladio grooming Elsa on our walk on Friday

Eladio and I went out to dinner that night for the first time in a long time.  We enjoyed dinner at La Vaca Argentina and found out afterwards that the teams we didn’t want to win, won the quarter finals.  Germany beat France and Brazil beat Colombia.  In the latter Neymar fractured a vertebra and will be out for the rest of the World Cup.  The next day, Saturday, again play went the wrong way for us when Argentina and Holland beat valiant Belgium and Costa Rica respectively.  The next matches will be the semifinals.  On Tuesday 8^th July the hosts, Brazil will play Germany and on Wednesday 9^th July Holland will play Argentina.  Like Wimbledon, I have now lost interest in the World Cup.   Everyone I know, including myself, doesn’t seem to want Brazil to win.  I wonder why.

That day was Suzy’s last day at Oxo.  She has left in seek of a better job with the NHS and hopes to start working as a dietitian in July or August.  That night she and Gabor spent the night at Stansted airport as they were to catch an early morning flight to Santa Cruz de Tenerife where Gabor is from.  She sent us a photo of her new haircut.  It’s the only photo I have of her this week. 

Suzy's new haircut the day before she left for an 8 day holiday in Tenerife.

They will be spending 8 days in the Canary Islands and I look forward to hearing what they have been up to.

Meanwhile on Friday night Olivia and Miguel had left Madrid for Santa Pola where they were to stay the weekend.  The reason for going was because Miguel would be taking part in a deep swim race from the small island of Tabarca to Santa Pola very early this morning when the sea is at is calmest.  We haven’t received any photos from them either but look forward to seeing them again tonight.

So on Saturday we were all alone with my Father and my mother-in-law.  That day the Tour de France was starting and amazingly it was to start in “God’s own country”, i.e, my home country Yorkshire.  Yorkshire is definitely the most beautiful area in England, even if I say so myself.  I am so pleased the rest of the world watching the race will realize that too.  It is great publicity for Yorkshire and the people from there have risen to the occasion in a magnificent way.

Le Tour in Yorkshire, the first two stages 

The first stage, “le grand depart”, started in Leeds and ended in beautiful Harrogate, passing through the most wonderful Yorkshire towns, such as Ilkley or Skipton and of course through the spectacular Dales.  I really wished I could have been there amongst the crowds of spectators, reported to be over 2 million all along the route.

The Tour de France going past Ilkley yesterday in West Yorkshire.

There were many hopes for the yellow jersey to be won on the first stage by England’s Mark Cavendish in Harrogate where his Mother lives.  Spectators included the royals, Kate Middleton, Prince William and Prince Harry as well as David Cameron, the Prime Minister.  Yorkshire had gone all out to make this a festival of Yorkshire but the stage ended in tragedy as Cavendish trying to sprint to the finish line first, pushed another rider and ended up on the ground himself.  He crossed the line minutes later holding his midriff and collar bone in obvious pain.  This morning he went to the start in majestic York for the second stage which would end in Sheffield and go through some of my favourite places, such as the home of the Brontë’s, Haworth, but there and then he announced he would have abandon the Tour.  What a shame.  However the Tour continues and the final stage in England will be from the town I was born in, Cambridge, ending in London from where it will cross the channel to its natural home in France.  It is quite amazing to see how popular cycling has become in England. 

In the afternoon, after the stage finished we had the pleasure of the visit of my niece Sara and Cristina, Sara’s brother’s partner who I was happy to congratulate on her pregnancy.  They had come to pick up Nuba who would be returning to life in a flat in Madrid rather than life with our dogs in our massive garden.  I have to add that Nuba was not at all pleased about leaving and had to be picked up to be put in Cristina’s car.

Yesterday night, Eladio and I had an exciting evening to look forward to.  We had been invited to Tomas’ 50^th birthday party where the women had to dress in black and white, the idea being that when he was born in the 60s life was black and white as it was indeed.  Tomas is the husband of Irene who is a member of what I consider “my other Spanish family”, the family I lived with for a year when I was studying Spanish in Madrid in 1978.  It was great to see them, as well as Irene’s sister Julieta, her brother Gerardo and his wife Vicky and their brother “Toti” and his wife Sonsoles who live in Tenerife where Suzy is at the moment. Pili their Mother was away on a cruise in Russia and Lucía their youngest sister was also missing.  It was a great evening. I now regret not having taken any photos for this week’s blog but look forward to the photos Tomas should be sending us all soon, taken by his son Tomas’ delightful girlfriend whose name I cannot remember with an impressive looking Canon camera.

And today is Sunday, the last day of the week and I have come to the end of the story of this week.  Fátima went off early and won’t be back until tomorrow night.  Eladio and I were up a little late and after making everyone’s breakfast went off for my first walk of the day.  I hope to do another one after publishing this blog as thankfully today is not quite as hot as yesterday. 

Next week should be quiet and I feel so relieved now one of my biggest projects of the year is over and was successful.

I will leave you here now, wishing you all the best until next time,

Cheers Masha

Suzy at Oxo, Olivia our royal correspondent again, a silly fall, to the hospital, a Motorola reunion dinner, to Montrondo for the weekend and other stories.

 

On the early morning walk to Murias and back on Saturday 

Hello again another Sunday, the last one in June.

Here I am writing from Montrondo where it’s quite cold so I am inside, in José Antonio and Dolores’ kitchen.

I left off last Sunday and just as I had published my post, Suzy sent me a photo of her with some of her team at Oxo 2 where she is the catering manager.  She will be leaving soon and hopefully by July or August will have a job as a dietitian with the NHS.  Her team has told her they don’t want to lose her and that their jobs will just not be the same without her. I’m sure she makes a loveable boss.

Suzy and her team at Oxo 2 in London

Monday was my fasting day which I always find easy to do after an excess of food at the weekend.  That afternoon we were delighted to watch Olivia on television reporting on the new Queen of Spain, Doña Letizia’s first solo engagement. She was to be opening an important El Greco inspired exhibition at the Prado museum.  So Olivia continued in her role as royal correspondent which had started when she reported on the ex-King’s abdication the day her new programme, Aquí en Madrid, started at the beginning of June.

Olivia, the royal correspondent, reporting on the new Queen of Spain's first solo engagement

On Tuesday I had another silly fall which only served to make me realize just what a clumsy sort of person I am.  It happened when Eladio and I were returning from our walk coming down the street towards the turnoff to our house.  I always walk behind Eladio with Elsa pulling at her leash behind him and Norah.  We go at such a pace I cannot see the ground so didn’t see the stone on the pavement when I tumbled over it.  I landed on both my knees with an awful bump and ended up lying on the pavement not sure I could get up again.  Fortunately I had only scraped my left knee and bumped the right knee, the one I had already bruised when I fell in Toledo.  Once again my wonderful husband came to my rescue.  I was very cross to see that I had torn my favourite M+S jeans at the knee.  I know torn jeans are in fashion but perhaps not for someone of my age!  Thankfully I hadn’t done much harm and was able to go on my second walk later that evening.

Again that evening we watched Olivia on the television.  This time she was reporting on a suspicious envelope containing a dangerous looking white substance which had been sent to the Madrid Standard and Poor’s office.  Her mission was to explain how the specialist bomb disposal police and firemen put into motion the process of investigating the contents which can be highly dangerous.

Olivia reporting on Tuesday on the chemical alert

On the work front that day and every day of this week I have been busy with final preparations of the Yoigo summer party which takes place next week.  I have a budget for 225 people but it looks like the event is so popular the turnout could be anything from 260 to 290! 

Wednesday was not a good day.  We were worried about my Father who had had traces of blood in his urine for quite a while now and which didn’t seem to be disappearing despite the bout of antibiotics his GP had prescribed.  He was nearly finishing the dose so we rang Dra. Martín who recommended he go the hospital to A&E and she ordered an ambulance for him.  I hate his routine to be interrupted and I know he hates hospitals, probably more than I do, so this was going to be a huge upheaval in his life.  I went in the ambulance with him and Eladio followed behind in the car.  We were taken to the brand new King Juan Carlos hospital in Móstoles, the biggest suburb in Madrid, where we ended up spending the whole day.  He was well attended to but the process was very slow; a whole day just to do a blood and urine test.  At 4.30 pm we were told he would be discharged but then the ambulance didn’t come until 7pm.  Meanwhile because of a typical misunderstanding between Eladio and myself, he and my Father left me behind at the hospital whilst they went home in the ambulance.  You can’t imagine how cross I was.  You probably want to know what the diagnosis was and here we don’t really know as the tests didn’t reveal much and as there are no other symptoms, we were told that more specialist blood tests would have to be done after which my Father will have to see a urologist.  I found that rather frustrating.  I mean, why couldn’t an urologist have seen him at the A&E ward?  On the bright side it meant my Father wouldn’t be admitted to hospital which would have been awful for him and for us.   So we were all happy to be home again.

I came home just on time to watch Olivia continuing in her role as “royal correspondent”.  If on Monday she had reported on the new Queen of Spain’s first solo appointment, on Wednesday evening she was at the Royal Palace to report on the first salute from the new King to the Armed Forces of which he is now head.

Thursday was a busy day, more frantic preparations of the big summer party coming up.  Even so there was time for two walks and even the weekly shopping.  I only managed to watch the end of Olivia’s report that day on the Spanish national ham cutting competition! 

She also did a report that day that I didn’t see on some unlawful housing case in Aldea del Fresno, a small town on the outskirts of Madrid.  Something funny happened when she was there.  Three little girls approached her and recognized her, telling her they watched her every day on television and asked her for an autograph.  This is the first sign of her being recognized in the street!  They were so pleased to meet her they did some lovely drawings for her too.  This is a photo of them with Olivia and the drawings. Olivia, who loves children, was tickled pink.  I was too.

Olivia with her little fans and the drawings they did for her

The highlight of the week was a reunion dinner that night with many of my ex Motorola colleagues at the Clérico restaurant in Las Rozas.  I went with my great friend Fátima.  We had a wonderful time, as we always do at the ex-Motorola events.  I started working for the American telecoms company in 1990 and was the fourth employee to join.  We were such a close team and have some great memories, many of which we spoke about at length that night over a great dinner.  I couldn’t believe it was 12.30 and we were still chatting and catching up on our lives, when, a bit like Cinderella, Fátima and I left the party, but not before taking a group photo. 

The group photo of the ex-Motorola reunion dinner

My thanks go to Vicente for organizing the dinner.  It was great to see Pepe, José María, Alex, Nuria, Inés (the only surviving Motorola employee), Alberto, Fernando, Ignacio, Carlos, Ruben, Chisco, Gonzalo, Juan Luis and all the others.  Today nearly all of still work in the sector and are representatives of both the big operators and manufacturers.  We are all competitors or customers of one another, but there is a strong bond that remains and when the going gets tough we know we can rely on each other for help of any kind.

Friday was a rush.  I had to get my work up to scratch before leaving for Montrondo in the afternoon with Eladio, José Antonio and Dolores.  I was up early as usual despite having slept only five and a half hours.  I wanted to get a walk in before leaving but that just wasn’t possible.  By lunch everything was done including packing our suitcases and the food to be taken – there is no shop in Montrondo or the surroundings so you have to take everything.  José Antonio, Dolores and their mongrel dog Nuba arrived to join us for lunch; a wonderful home-made pizza made by Fátima.  We left at 4.30 and were in Montrondo a bit later than we had hoped for because of a flock of sheep that held us up on the way in Canales near La Magdalena.  As we were arriving, our house builders, Benito and Recaredo (what a name!), passed us in the car and then rang to say they would turn round and return to Montrondo to show us how the building was progressing otherwise we wouldn’t see them during our stay.  The reason for going to Montrondo of course was to see how the building was going but also to pick up my mother-in-law, Ernestina, who will be staying with us for the first fortnight of July.

Building progressing on our house in Montrondo as seen this weekend.

Benito and Recaredo had started on our house on 20^th May and in just one month and one week have made a lot of progress.  Right now they have started building the extra floor which you can see in the photo above.  However, it will take many months for the house to be finished.  Right now it still looks like a shell as they have taken down all the inside walls and will be removing the floors which means they will have to build everything inside to make the four bedrooms, four bathrooms, lounge and kitchen.  Eladio is quite excited with the progress but to me the house still looks like a ruin. Not until the walls and floor and built will I begin to imagine how it will look when it is finished.

I made dinner for everyone that night, after which Dolores and I went on walk at dusk to Murias and back on the old road.  It was past 10 in the evening but there was still some light.

On Saturday morning we were up early and Dolores and I walked again to Murias and back before breakfast as I would too this morning.  Everything was green and lush and the only noise came from the birds singing.  I asked Dolores to take a photo of me for this week’s blog and it is the photo I have chosen to illustrate this post.

Montrondo, so green at this time of year

Soon other members of the family came from León to join us: Pili and Andrés and their dalmation, Trébol, my mother-in-law, Isidro and Yoli and finally Alejandro and his Paraguayan wife Carolina, who having just past her test drove for the first time to Montrondo.  Their arrival was accompanied by a downpour and we thought the day had been ruined but luckily the sun came out in the afternoon although it was always in between clouds and the air was chilly.

We were eleven around the table for lunch.  All of appetites seem to increase when we have meals together in Montrondo.  It must be because of the country air and mountains.  So we polished off my chicken curry, Pili’s beef stew and pineapple dessert as well as Yoli’s superb apfelstrudel. 

Our only topic of conversation seemed to be about building our houses; i.e. Pili and Andrés’ and ours, theirs being far more advanced than ours as they started their building in the autumn.  I got a bit tired of talk about building so went off for a second walk to Murias and back to work up an appetite again for dinner.  Pili and Andrés stayed the night whilst the others returned to León.  So for dinner last night we were just 7. 

And today is Sunday, our last day here.  Thankfully the sun is shining. The morning has been spent quite lazily and the only work was done by Eladio and José Antonio who cut the grass on the path to the house with the very old scythes their Father used to use. We shall be staying for lunch and at about 4 o’clock we will hit the road, once again, back home to Madrid.  The car will be full as we shall be five plus all our suitcases.

José Antonio and Eladio cutting the grass with scythes this morning.

Next week promises to be even busier than last week. I have meetings at the office and of course my big day will be Thursday, the day of the Yoigo summer party but more about that next week when, finally, it will all be over.

That’s all from me this week.  Cheers till next time,

All the best

Masha