Madrid, 14th July, 2019
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| Suzy and Eladio chilling under the trees by the pool this week. We spent most afternoons doing that this week. |
Good morning my friends. If you are French then let me say I hope you have an enjoyable Bastille Day. It's going to be another scorcher for us which I am not looking forward to.
The week has been quiet. Last Sunday we went for our walk early and came back to find our Taiwanese guests, Jason, Sarah and Peter, had already left. I was sorry not to say goodbye in person as they were lovely people. Later they gave me a 5 star review, bless them. It's good to keep the ratings up as that maintains my super host status. Bashra was also leaving but had come back from her Moroccan wedding at 6 am and thus didn't leave until past 1 pm.
Lucy, with a little bit of help from me, got the rooms ready for the next guests who were arriving on Monday. That meant the house was pretty empty on Sunday which was rather nice for a change. We had a quiet day only going out for our walk. The afternoon was spent by the pool with the dogs and reading together quietly.
We did not hear from the girls in Montrondo but not doubt they were having a lovely time. I want to go too soon and maybe we will this week. How I long to escape from this heat to the cool of the mountains there.
The day ended with us watching the fascinating new series on Netflix about Nicholas and Alexandra and the downfall of the Monarchy in Russia which lead to the revolution. Called "The last Czars", part documentary, part drama, It is right up our street. Oh, I hate Rasputin though. The series makes it very clear he is one of the main reasons for their downfall.
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| A scene from The Last Czars on Netflix which we watched this week. |
Monday would be a busier day. I was up quite late for me at 7 am. After writing a bit of this blog, I went on our morning walk with Eladio. It was warm and sunny but actually Monday turned out to be one of the coolest days of the week with the temperature only topping 30ºc. What a relief. That morning we went out on errands. I finally got to send my father's book to some close friends, ex pupils of my father and relatives: Sandra and Magda, Maggie, Brenda, Anne, Andrei, Daniel, Richard and Valya. Each book weighs 600 grammes which made for a total postage payment of 130 euros, more than what the books cost. I think it's the most I've ever spent at a post office. I just hoped they would like the book. So far I got feedback from Sandra, Magda and from my dear friend Anne from Finland. She wrote: "Only on page 13 and already in tears. "This is the biggest act of love I have seen anyone do for their loved one, you are amazing". Sandra wrote: "We are both SO impressed with what you have achieved. And your dad's amazing life story. And his amazing daughter! Masha, you are unbelievable. And we love you lots". Magda, her 90 odd year old mother, a Jewish survivor of WW2, wrote: "Thank you for the book. I enjoyed reading it. wonderfully written. Not only did you write about your father but now I know a lot about your life too. I think you are becoming a writer. Very talented. Looking forward to your mother's life story too, if you can find out details in Russia." That will be difficult". Indeed it will. What lovely feedback from my dear friends. Indeed too the book was written with love for my father, a lot of it.
From the post office we went to the chemist, the Chinese shop (equivalent to a sort of Poundland) to change something and then to do more food shopping at Carrefour Market, the gourmet supermarket I so favour in our area. I was home on time to finish making lunch - a summer "cocido madrileño" and also to cook the prawns for a salad for dinner that night for when the girls came back from Montrondo.
I was also busy getting the green room ready for our next guests, Nora and her friend Karin from Norway. It looked lovely when it was ready with the flowers (pink and white hydrangeas) and the plate of tantalising fruit including some thick black cherries that are in season now.
We had a short siesta and at about 3.45 I came down to make a cup of tea and read. It sure felt cooler that day under the trees by the pool. At about 5.15 our guests arrived. The two Norwegian girls are very young and are kindergarten teachers just starting in their career. They arrived by taxi without their own transport, despite my insistence they hire a car. Thus I knew they would have limited means of going shopping, etc. They were soon down by the pool and I was surprised to seem them in quite old fashioned clothing for such young girls. Or maybe their way of dress is the height of fashion in Norway. Who knows? Later I took them shopping and had to urge them to buy things like ice cream or chocolate. They didn't even want alcohol and have to be my only Scandinavian guests not to have bought any. They got shop made pizza instead. Karin wanted "crusty bread" and I showed her the bread counter. It turned out she wanted "cracker bread", showed me a photo and I lead her to where they sell Ryvita which is called Wasa here. Once home, they unpacked their food, swam a bit, played some table tennis outside and waited for the oven to heat to bake their pizza. Meanwhile I peeled over 30 prawns for a summer salad for our dinner. The girls arrived just as I was in the throes of making it. It was good to see them. They had come back relaxed after 3 days in the village. Oli had to leave to go and pick up Miguel while Suzy, Eladio and I laid the table.
Oli and Miguel joined us just as we were finishing dinner on the kitchen terrace and I think appreciated my efforts with the prawn, avocado and mango salad. This was it before we polished it off.
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| Dinner on Tuesday night |
We were up late talking around the table and we missed the news but of course as I keep up with it during the day I knew the main topics. One was the leaked mails from the UK Ambassador in the US which included scathing comments about Donald Trump. The US President has said now he will have no dealings with him (later in the week he resigned). The "special relationship" will no doubt be in trouble and this has caused a major diplomatic issue. On a much nicer note, at Wimbledon, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic all cruised through the last sixteen rounds and would not meet until the quarter finals on Wednesday which they would cruise through too. The big three are all in their mid or late 30's and there is really no competition from the younger ranks. Meanwhile in the ladies tennis, the 15 year old thunderbolt, Coco Gauff, who made an astonishing debut at Wimbledon, was finally knocked out in the Last 16 by Simona Halep. No doubt though, she will be the next big player in women's tennis and will be back and win Wimbledon one day.
As were clearing up after dinner there was a freak thunderstorm which thankfully cooled the air. It meant we could sleep at last without the aircon. There was lots of lightening and thunder but hardly any rain.
We went to bed late and watched episodes 3 and 4 of The Last Czars and got to the bit where Felix Yusupov kills Rasputin. One of my family's claim to fame is that my Mother's family were both friends and relatives of the Yusupovs. My mother's godmother was Felix' mother, Zinaida Yusopov, who the family called "Aunty Fairy" because "she was such a lovely person". The Yusupovs were the richest family in Russia. The direct contact is that my mother's maternal grandmother, Olga née Ribeaupierre, was the first cousin of Zinaida, also a Ribeaupierre before she married. Here I have a photo of both cousins probably taken in 1905 or so just as events were getting ugly in Russia.
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| My mother's maternal grandmother Olga Stachovich née Ribeaupierre (right) with her cousin Zinaida Yusupov née Ribeaupierre in about 1905 in Moscow. |
In fact the family were so close they escaped the revolution together towards the very end. In 1920 it is said the two families including Felix Yusupov, got on the same ship, one of the last that King George V sent to rescue white Russians. My grandmother, Sophie Lieven, née Stachovich was pregnant with my mother on that voyage and who was born later in the former Russian Embassy in Rome where the families lived for a while hoping to return to Russia. That's how my mother came to have such an illustrious godmother. Here is a painting of Zinaida Yusupov which hangs in the Yusupov palace - now a museum in St. Petersburg - and which my mother always had a copy of.
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| Zinaida Yusupov all in gold in a painting that hangs in their former palace in St. Petersburg |
On my only ever trip to St. Petersburg in 2004 I visited the palace and saw the painting which I recognised immediately. While there, I imagined my mother's family visiting the Yusupovs or attending one of their famed lavish parties. So, of course you can now understand why I was watching with great interest the new series on the downfall of the Tsar and Tsarina. No doubt the Yusupovs knew them well and no doubt my mother's own family, the Lievens, would have known them too.
We watched it until well into the night, just as Rasputin finally met his death. But it was too late, the damage he had caused with his great influence on the Tsarina and hers on the Tsar, all because he could cure the hemophiliac son, Alexei, the Tsaravich, was too great for any undoing of it after the monk's death and history would take its course.
Tuesday came and it turned out to be the second coolest day of the week with the temperature only reaching 30ºc again which was came as a respite. It was on Tuesday that Airbn notified me that I am a super host again. I have been one since shortly after starting on this adventure which brings people of so many nationalities to come to our house. It always gives me a kick to get the badge and at the same time I strive as much as possible to keep the status always worried some guests won't be happy here and will give me a low rating, like the unpleasant Moroccan boys recently. But for now I am still a super host and hope to keep the status as long as possible.
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| Super host again with Airbnb! |
If that gave me a kick, something else totally different gave me the surprise of the day. I noticed on LinkedIn that the post for my most recent blog had been read or followed by the FBI again (yes) but also this time by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I wonder why these two institutions are interested in my blog? It's either employees surfing for fun who have found me or that I am being followed for my comments on politics or stories of spies in my father's biography. I prefer to think it's the former and not the latter. The latter is a little frightening and very Big brotherish.
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| Interesting to see that both the FBI and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office follow my blog! |
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| Our new swinging or rocking pink sunbeds that are so comfortable |
It was full house for lunch on Tuesday except for Suzy who teaches usually from 12 to 3 or 3.30. My father was happy to see Olivia again and commented to her that he thought the name they had chosen for their baby, "Elliot", was very distinguished.
Later both Miguel and Oli left to go back to their flat where they would stay this week and Suzy went off to an afternoon private lesson, leaving us "home alone". The Norwegian girls were out too so we had the house and garden to ourselves.
The day ended with dinner on the kitchen patio table with Suzy and then upstairs to bed to watch more of The Last of the Czars. It was as I walked from Oli's room to ours that I noticed the high windows that had recently been cleaned by professional window cleaners. The light was lovely and the view was stunning of the greenery and flowers from our garden. We live in this great big house and often take it for granted. However, I stopped that night, took a look, loved what I saw and took a photograph. It seemed to me that with a window view like that no pictures can be as good. It's nothing special I suppose but it made me happy.
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| The window and view from the upstairs hall in our house. A wonderful sight. |
That night we got to the part when the Tsar and his family are about to be assassinated. I was nearly asleep so suggested we watch the gruesome chapter the following night.
I didn't sleep badly as it was so much cooler that night and we didn't need the aircon either for a change. But I was awake quite early on Wednesday morning at 6.30.
Wednesday was a good day. It was just Eladio, the dogs and me on our walk that day as Suzy was busy preparing her lessons. We did the food shopping that day for the second time this week - oh how full our fridge was - and I made a Portuguese dish for lunch, one of our favourites. Called "bacalhau à brás", it's a great favourite with our Iberian neighbours and is made of cod, onion, finely sliced chips, parsley and eggs. In a way it's a sort of scrambled eggs. This is the recipe I used.
My father loved it and even Suzy, usually a vegetarian and sometimes vegan, tried it as it was just so delicious.
After my siesta, Suzy invited me out to do some clothes shopping. I had no need for any clothes as I have so many, but I was happy to join her. We went to a big "mall" called Gran Plaza 2 in Majadahonda. Here she bought lots of dresses at H+M or rather one dress and two short pant type dresses. She looked lovely in them. When we got home we had a sort of fashion show by the pool and this is one of the pictures I took. Elsa managed to get into most of them apart from the one below. I love her in this dress and laughing her head off as I said something very naughty to make her laugh and which I can't repeat here hahaha. The next day when Suzy was out, I tried on this dress and it actually looked good on me which was surprising as I am so short (5.4ft) and I didn't think long dresses suited me. If there is an occasion maybe, with Suzy's permission, I shall wear it.
We arrived back to find Eladio reading on one of the new sun beds which are so comfortable. I took this photo of him to remember the moment.
After the fashion show, we joined him. Well, Suzy did, as I had a swim. I love the photo I took of them chilling out under the trees with Norah in the background. That's the photo I have chosen for this week's feature photo as it sort of sums up this week. We have nearly every afternoon reading by the pool and generally chilling out in the afternoons. How nice to be joined by Suzy. Every moment we have with her I treasure as I know we won't have her for long. The latest thinking on her part is that she will return to her beloved Bali straight after Christmas. Thus I intend to enjoy every moment we have with her.
As we were chilling out, Oli had just come back from a scan and sent us the results. Elliot is growing perfectly and is at 64 percentile, meaning he is a little over the average weight for a baby his size (just over 7 months) and already weighs just under 2 kilos. The doctor told Oli and Miguel he would probably weigh about 3.5kg when he is born. That was lovely news. Roll on 6th September, her due date.
There was more good news that day and it came from Wimbledon. The big three (Djokovic, Federer and Nadal) were all playing their quarter final matches. They all got through but so did another Spaniard, Roberto Bautista which meant there would be two Spaniards in the men's semi finals for the first time ever. Grass has never been a favourite for Spanish tennis players who are outstanding on clay but find grass slow. Now poor Bautista would play Djokovic who predictably beat him in a four set match. Nadal played Federer in a highly anticipated semi final on Friday echoing what must be one of the most exciting matches ever - the final in 2009. This time though it was the Swiss who beat him and who will now meet Djokovic today in the men's final. I think that the winner will be Djokovic who seems to have the edge on them all but let's see what happens today at the All England Club.
After a delicious dinner outside, accompanied by our dogs, it was time to watch the final episode of The Last Czars (I prefer to spell it with a "t") which of course was the story of their terrible assassination. It was only in 1991 that the Soviet government finally told the world the truth, that the whole family had been killed as they had only ever admitted to killing Nicholas II. I have to say the series is great although quite flawed in many ways. I remember my mother criticising the film Dr. Zhivago for many errors - one being the way the Russians cross themselves - and no doubt she would have found fault with this series. My main complaint is the nearly complete lack of mention of the Tsar and his family being rescued, even before they were imprisoned, and going into exile possibly to England. After all George V was his first cousin. There was much talk and negotiations going on which the series hardly mentions. I am sure there are others but that for me was the most outstanding. I also think the series tends to paint far too black a picture of both the Tsar and the Tsarina. Of course they were not perfect and made many many mistakes which would lead to the revolution but I think the series was a little biased against them. In any case, Netflix or whoever the producer is, has made quite a unique piece of film history and I can thoroughly recommend it.
Thursday came and it was to be a scorcher as was Friday with temperatures rising to 37 and 40ºc respectively. We went on our walk early as usual and even so it felt too warm. That day, apart from our walk, we didn't leave the house. I spent part of the morning cooking, something I love to do when I have lots of time on my hands. I made a fresh broccoli and mushroom soup and then a dish I have never made before but which I know Eladio loves: pork rib stew with potatoes. This was it and it went down very well with everyone. It's actually terribly easy to make. The ribs must be cut individually then fried until they are browned. You add chopped onion and garlic and paprika and a little fresh tomato sauce or paste. To this you add vegetable stock and potatoes. The stew is then cooked for about 45 minutes. I was worried the meat would be hard and the potatoes soft but as the meat was pork it cooked quite quickly. So now I have a new dish to add to my repertoire. I won't make it very often though as it is rather fatty and meat as you all know is slowly going out of fashion. It's not the ideal dish for a hot summer day but oh my was it tasty.
Just as we were finishing lunch, my two Norwegian guests arrived with their friend, another Norwegian who is studying at the local Uni. They were so hot they had come home to cool off by the pool and would spend the whole afternoon there. That afternoon they came to thank me for their stay and presented me with a box of Lindt chocolates. That was so sweet. Their comment in the guest book was sweet too where they thanked me for making them feel so cared for on what was for them their first trip abroad on their own. They promised to come back. I hope they do as they were wonderful guests and so well behaved for their age; just 21.
I spent the afternoon under the trees on the new sunbeds, going in and out of the pool to cool off too. Eladio, finding it far too hot, disappeared to read in our air conditioned bedroom. Suzy was so busy with her lessons that day we only saw her fleetingly and not even for dinner as she was back late.
On Friday morning, Norah and Karin left early at 6 am to catch their 8 am flight back to cooler Oslo. That day our next set of guests would arrive, 4 English people who were coming for a wedding. There must be a lot of weddings in the area as we receive lots of wedding guests. I was looking forward to receiving English guests. It's always nice to host someone from your birth country.
If Thursday was hot, Friday was to be even hotter reaching 40ºc which is pretty unbearable. Again I spent most of the day at the house and our day was very much like the other days of the week. Suzy had a friend round for lunch, Pili - a friend from the girls' school, St. Michael's. They spent a few hours by the pool while I read. Later Suzy accompanied me to Getafe, a dormitory town outside Madrid, where my friend Mari Carmen has her chemist shop. I wanted to get some pills for which I don't have a doctor's prescription. I had never seen her chemist shop and it was odd but nice to see her behind the counter with her white coat on. But we couldn't stay long as that evening Eladio and I were going out to dinner and Suzy was going out too - to her sister's for dinner which would be cooked by Miguel who is quite a chef I have to say.
Eladio and I went to La Txitxarrería in Pozuelo, a favourite of ours. We had one main course each and that was it apart from the bread and of course a bottle of cider that we shared. We were home by just past 9.30 and on time to meet our English guests who were supposed to be arriving at around that time. We stayed up to wait for them and they arrived a bit late after getting a bit lost. They seemed a lovely group probably in their 40's. It turns out two of them are from Yorkshire (Harrogate and Barnsley) would you believe and one of them had worked in Bradford for some years. I liked them immediately and knew they would be a pleasure to host. As soon as they had settled in, off they went to nearby Boadilla to have a tapas dinner. Meanwhile, Eladio and I went to bed to watch another episode of La Mirada. I didn't hear the guests come home but I did hear Suzy come home so went into Oli's room where she is sleeping to have a chat. Feeling wide awake, both Eladio and I watched more stuff on the TV in the hope of falling asleep but it evaded me until past 1 in the morning. It was hot which didn't help, despite the aircon which is not very strong in our room at least.
On Saturday I was awake at 5 in the morning and finally got up at 5.45. The temperature at that time in the morning was 25ºc so I had my breakfast outside. Oh so hot my friends, I am tired of it. Our walk was so hot too, Eladio had to take his t-shirt off and that was at 8 am in the morning! Hopefully this morning it will be a bit better as the temperature now at 6.48 is "only" 21ºc! The heat got me down on Saturday, perhaps more than any other day. I managed to prepare lunch for everyone (Oli and Miguel were coming) and made a bean stew, another winter dish for a summer day but easy to make and which would fill everyone. My English guests slept on until about midday. I think they must have come back from their dinner on Friday night very late. I slept too, by accident. After preparing the lunch I went to lie on one of the sunbeds in the shade reading my book and although I was in the shade it was just too hot. So I went up to our air conditioned bedroom to read and promptly fell asleep until after 12. I thought my "fabada" (bean stew) would have boiled dry but thankfully it hadn't.
Lunch with the family was the highlight of the day. I think though the only person not feeling the heat, thank goodness, is my father as his room is on the ground floor and is the coolest in the house. We spent the afternoon in our air conditioned bedroom, first having a siesta and then watching TV. I wanted to watch a new hospital series on Amazon Prime, New Amsterdam, and did so, in English, while Eladio was asleep. He is no fan of hospital series but not wanting to leave the cool room, he ended up watching it with me, although I had to switch to the dubbed Spanish version. We must have binge watched about 5 episodes only interrupted by me going down to help my guests get their clothes ironed for the wedding they were going to. It was the two men, Murray and Robert, who wanted their shirts and a suit ironing. I got Lucy to help although she protested a bit not understanding why it wasn't their English wives who were doing their ironing. It was a bit hard to explain that English women are more emancipated than Paraguayan women and for a 5 euro tip from Robert, she did the job. Definitely English women are more emancipated than Spanish women too when it comes to tasks like ironing hahha, which I tried to explain to my Spanish husband also.
Our eyes feeling dry from so much watching the box, we finally left our room at about 7.45 to go down to the pool, Eladio to clean it and me to have a bathe to cool off. Later we had dinner with Suzy who then went out to see a friend. The day ended with us watching Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, "Dolor y Gloria" which is now available on Netflix. We did not like it and found it strange and boring and just couldn't really get it, not understanding the plot or script. I wasn't happy to see Antonio Banderas taking heroin or kissing another man. In fact, it was so boring we fell asleep. Dolor y Gloria definitely has to be Almodóvar's worst film ever.
I slept on and off all night, feeling too hot even with the aircon it. The room temperature was 27ºc which is too warm for proper sleep. When we put air conditioning in the bedrooms, dining room and our study a year after moving into this house, the one we put in our room wasn't powerful enough for the size of our bedroom and never has been and we need to change it but never seem to get round to doing it. Thus I slept on and off and heard our wedding guests get home at about 3.30 in the morning. I myself got up at 5.30 and here I am now writing and complaining about my sleep and the heat to you from my desk at this time in the morning. We may well escape the heat by going for a few days to Montrondo this week but still have to make the decision.
Today is the Wimbledon final between Djokovic and Federer. May the best man win. Yesterday Serena Williams was beaten in the women's final by Simona Halep 6-2, 6-2 and later said it was the best match of her life. Serena was hoping for a 24th grand slam title to equal Margaret Court's but that was not to be as Simona made history herself as the first Romanian to ever win the title. Today too England will play New Zealand in the final of the Cricket World Cup at Lord's Here of course I am on the side of my country's team.
Our day will be less exciting and another scorcher which you will hear about in next Sunday's post.
Meanwhile my friends, I wish you a good day and week ahead,
Cheers till next Sunday,
Masha
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| My bacalhau à brás which I made on Wednesday for lunch |
After my siesta, Suzy invited me out to do some clothes shopping. I had no need for any clothes as I have so many, but I was happy to join her. We went to a big "mall" called Gran Plaza 2 in Majadahonda. Here she bought lots of dresses at H+M or rather one dress and two short pant type dresses. She looked lovely in them. When we got home we had a sort of fashion show by the pool and this is one of the pictures I took. Elsa managed to get into most of them apart from the one below. I love her in this dress and laughing her head off as I said something very naughty to make her laugh and which I can't repeat here hahaha. The next day when Suzy was out, I tried on this dress and it actually looked good on me which was surprising as I am so short (5.4ft) and I didn't think long dresses suited me. If there is an occasion maybe, with Suzy's permission, I shall wear it.
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| My beautiful daughter Suzy in one of her new dresses |
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| Eladio chilling out on one of the new sun beds on Wednesday |
As we were chilling out, Oli had just come back from a scan and sent us the results. Elliot is growing perfectly and is at 64 percentile, meaning he is a little over the average weight for a baby his size (just over 7 months) and already weighs just under 2 kilos. The doctor told Oli and Miguel he would probably weigh about 3.5kg when he is born. That was lovely news. Roll on 6th September, her due date.
There was more good news that day and it came from Wimbledon. The big three (Djokovic, Federer and Nadal) were all playing their quarter final matches. They all got through but so did another Spaniard, Roberto Bautista which meant there would be two Spaniards in the men's semi finals for the first time ever. Grass has never been a favourite for Spanish tennis players who are outstanding on clay but find grass slow. Now poor Bautista would play Djokovic who predictably beat him in a four set match. Nadal played Federer in a highly anticipated semi final on Friday echoing what must be one of the most exciting matches ever - the final in 2009. This time though it was the Swiss who beat him and who will now meet Djokovic today in the men's final. I think that the winner will be Djokovic who seems to have the edge on them all but let's see what happens today at the All England Club.
After a delicious dinner outside, accompanied by our dogs, it was time to watch the final episode of The Last Czars (I prefer to spell it with a "t") which of course was the story of their terrible assassination. It was only in 1991 that the Soviet government finally told the world the truth, that the whole family had been killed as they had only ever admitted to killing Nicholas II. I have to say the series is great although quite flawed in many ways. I remember my mother criticising the film Dr. Zhivago for many errors - one being the way the Russians cross themselves - and no doubt she would have found fault with this series. My main complaint is the nearly complete lack of mention of the Tsar and his family being rescued, even before they were imprisoned, and going into exile possibly to England. After all George V was his first cousin. There was much talk and negotiations going on which the series hardly mentions. I am sure there are others but that for me was the most outstanding. I also think the series tends to paint far too black a picture of both the Tsar and the Tsarina. Of course they were not perfect and made many many mistakes which would lead to the revolution but I think the series was a little biased against them. In any case, Netflix or whoever the producer is, has made quite a unique piece of film history and I can thoroughly recommend it.
Thursday came and it was to be a scorcher as was Friday with temperatures rising to 37 and 40ºc respectively. We went on our walk early as usual and even so it felt too warm. That day, apart from our walk, we didn't leave the house. I spent part of the morning cooking, something I love to do when I have lots of time on my hands. I made a fresh broccoli and mushroom soup and then a dish I have never made before but which I know Eladio loves: pork rib stew with potatoes. This was it and it went down very well with everyone. It's actually terribly easy to make. The ribs must be cut individually then fried until they are browned. You add chopped onion and garlic and paprika and a little fresh tomato sauce or paste. To this you add vegetable stock and potatoes. The stew is then cooked for about 45 minutes. I was worried the meat would be hard and the potatoes soft but as the meat was pork it cooked quite quickly. So now I have a new dish to add to my repertoire. I won't make it very often though as it is rather fatty and meat as you all know is slowly going out of fashion. It's not the ideal dish for a hot summer day but oh my was it tasty.
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| Pork rib stew made the Spanish way - delicious |
I spent the afternoon under the trees on the new sunbeds, going in and out of the pool to cool off too. Eladio, finding it far too hot, disappeared to read in our air conditioned bedroom. Suzy was so busy with her lessons that day we only saw her fleetingly and not even for dinner as she was back late.
On Friday morning, Norah and Karin left early at 6 am to catch their 8 am flight back to cooler Oslo. That day our next set of guests would arrive, 4 English people who were coming for a wedding. There must be a lot of weddings in the area as we receive lots of wedding guests. I was looking forward to receiving English guests. It's always nice to host someone from your birth country.
If Thursday was hot, Friday was to be even hotter reaching 40ºc which is pretty unbearable. Again I spent most of the day at the house and our day was very much like the other days of the week. Suzy had a friend round for lunch, Pili - a friend from the girls' school, St. Michael's. They spent a few hours by the pool while I read. Later Suzy accompanied me to Getafe, a dormitory town outside Madrid, where my friend Mari Carmen has her chemist shop. I wanted to get some pills for which I don't have a doctor's prescription. I had never seen her chemist shop and it was odd but nice to see her behind the counter with her white coat on. But we couldn't stay long as that evening Eladio and I were going out to dinner and Suzy was going out too - to her sister's for dinner which would be cooked by Miguel who is quite a chef I have to say.
Eladio and I went to La Txitxarrería in Pozuelo, a favourite of ours. We had one main course each and that was it apart from the bread and of course a bottle of cider that we shared. We were home by just past 9.30 and on time to meet our English guests who were supposed to be arriving at around that time. We stayed up to wait for them and they arrived a bit late after getting a bit lost. They seemed a lovely group probably in their 40's. It turns out two of them are from Yorkshire (Harrogate and Barnsley) would you believe and one of them had worked in Bradford for some years. I liked them immediately and knew they would be a pleasure to host. As soon as they had settled in, off they went to nearby Boadilla to have a tapas dinner. Meanwhile, Eladio and I went to bed to watch another episode of La Mirada. I didn't hear the guests come home but I did hear Suzy come home so went into Oli's room where she is sleeping to have a chat. Feeling wide awake, both Eladio and I watched more stuff on the TV in the hope of falling asleep but it evaded me until past 1 in the morning. It was hot which didn't help, despite the aircon which is not very strong in our room at least.
On Saturday I was awake at 5 in the morning and finally got up at 5.45. The temperature at that time in the morning was 25ºc so I had my breakfast outside. Oh so hot my friends, I am tired of it. Our walk was so hot too, Eladio had to take his t-shirt off and that was at 8 am in the morning! Hopefully this morning it will be a bit better as the temperature now at 6.48 is "only" 21ºc! The heat got me down on Saturday, perhaps more than any other day. I managed to prepare lunch for everyone (Oli and Miguel were coming) and made a bean stew, another winter dish for a summer day but easy to make and which would fill everyone. My English guests slept on until about midday. I think they must have come back from their dinner on Friday night very late. I slept too, by accident. After preparing the lunch I went to lie on one of the sunbeds in the shade reading my book and although I was in the shade it was just too hot. So I went up to our air conditioned bedroom to read and promptly fell asleep until after 12. I thought my "fabada" (bean stew) would have boiled dry but thankfully it hadn't.
Lunch with the family was the highlight of the day. I think though the only person not feeling the heat, thank goodness, is my father as his room is on the ground floor and is the coolest in the house. We spent the afternoon in our air conditioned bedroom, first having a siesta and then watching TV. I wanted to watch a new hospital series on Amazon Prime, New Amsterdam, and did so, in English, while Eladio was asleep. He is no fan of hospital series but not wanting to leave the cool room, he ended up watching it with me, although I had to switch to the dubbed Spanish version. We must have binge watched about 5 episodes only interrupted by me going down to help my guests get their clothes ironed for the wedding they were going to. It was the two men, Murray and Robert, who wanted their shirts and a suit ironing. I got Lucy to help although she protested a bit not understanding why it wasn't their English wives who were doing their ironing. It was a bit hard to explain that English women are more emancipated than Paraguayan women and for a 5 euro tip from Robert, she did the job. Definitely English women are more emancipated than Spanish women too when it comes to tasks like ironing hahha, which I tried to explain to my Spanish husband also.
Our eyes feeling dry from so much watching the box, we finally left our room at about 7.45 to go down to the pool, Eladio to clean it and me to have a bathe to cool off. Later we had dinner with Suzy who then went out to see a friend. The day ended with us watching Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, "Dolor y Gloria" which is now available on Netflix. We did not like it and found it strange and boring and just couldn't really get it, not understanding the plot or script. I wasn't happy to see Antonio Banderas taking heroin or kissing another man. In fact, it was so boring we fell asleep. Dolor y Gloria definitely has to be Almodóvar's worst film ever.
I slept on and off all night, feeling too hot even with the aircon it. The room temperature was 27ºc which is too warm for proper sleep. When we put air conditioning in the bedrooms, dining room and our study a year after moving into this house, the one we put in our room wasn't powerful enough for the size of our bedroom and never has been and we need to change it but never seem to get round to doing it. Thus I slept on and off and heard our wedding guests get home at about 3.30 in the morning. I myself got up at 5.30 and here I am now writing and complaining about my sleep and the heat to you from my desk at this time in the morning. We may well escape the heat by going for a few days to Montrondo this week but still have to make the decision.
Today is the Wimbledon final between Djokovic and Federer. May the best man win. Yesterday Serena Williams was beaten in the women's final by Simona Halep 6-2, 6-2 and later said it was the best match of her life. Serena was hoping for a 24th grand slam title to equal Margaret Court's but that was not to be as Simona made history herself as the first Romanian to ever win the title. Today too England will play New Zealand in the final of the Cricket World Cup at Lord's Here of course I am on the side of my country's team.
Our day will be less exciting and another scorcher which you will hear about in next Sunday's post.
Meanwhile my friends, I wish you a good day and week ahead,
Cheers till next Sunday,
Masha
