Camino and the Goya film awards, birthdays, a birthday puppy and a family celebration.

Nora, the birthday puppy
Hi again

This week’s blog post starts with a mention of the Spanish “Goya” film awards, as one of my favourite films, Camino, got 6 awards including the most important ones such as, best film, best director (Javier Fesser) and best actress as well as best supporting actor, and best new actress, the stunning 12 year old Nerea Camacho. In his speech Javier Fesser said that his family was built on love, affection and a good temper, three things that were also fundamental to his job. How true I found his words.
Nerea Camacho receiving her Goya.
This week has been dominated by our new puppy Nora. I had lunch with Fátima and Julio on Monday and Fátima showed me the photo of her sister’s new beagle puppy. We used to have beagles and in fact were breeders for some years until Eladio’s job changed and we could no longer cope. Since then we have only had cats and are now the proud owners of Joe and Phoebe. The girls have always campaigned for a new puppy and up till now we resisted. Until, I saw that photo.

One thing led to another and the three of us persuaded Eladio that it would be great to have another beagle and as my birthday was coming up (today), what better present could there be than a puppy. As soon as Eladio agreed we searched the Segunda Mano website and soon came up with beagle puppies for sale. It took just a few phone calls and one visit the next day to a breeder nearby to find Nora.

And voilá Olivia and Eladio came home on Tuesday morning with an adorable 2 month old tricolour beagle with whom we all fell in love immediately. It took a few days to agree upon a name and now it or she is finally called Nora.
Nora on Eladio's shoulder
You can see her here on her first day at home in a video I uploaded to You Tube. You will notice she was called “Lucy” on the first day. Nora is hyperactive but lovely. The cats, of course, are petrified and disappear for hours on end and hide at the other end of the house. It will take time for them to be friends but that is our hope. I am taking endless photos of her, although she is a very slippery subject as she moves so fast and so often. You can see a small selection here.

The weather has continued to be wintery and, according to what my Father has read, it is the coldest winter in 60 years and believe it, as my Father is a weather expert. We didn’t get the snow that fell in London, but we did get quite a snow storm on Friday evening just as we were taking Nora to the vet. The snow stayed for one day only, but enough to make snow balls and throw them at Eladio on our daily walk.
It snowed on Friday again.
We have recently installed yet another DVD in our house, this time for the TV in our bedroom and we used it for the first time this Friday to watch the Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Javier Bardem, Scarlet Johansson and Penelope Cruz. These 3 people are what are known as “beautiful people” and it’s very nice to see them on screen in Barcelona but the storyline is absolute rubbish and the music rather irritating.

I got a friend request from Katya on Facebook on Thursday. Katya is my cousin Sophie’s (or Zuka) daughter whom I think I have only met once or twice in my life. It was such a surprise and lovely to be able to "see" her and her family, including my Aunty Valya in her albums.

Then on Friday I got a surprise phone call from my Aunty Valya who is Zuka’s Mother, the wife of my Mother’s brother Nicolas, or Dyadya “Kolya” as he was known. I hadn’t spoken or seen my Aunty Valya since 1999 when my Mother died. Unfortunately the news was not good as she was ringing to let me know that Masha Stachovich, my Mother’s first cousin and mother of my cousin in Paris, also Masha Stachovich, had died the night before of respiratory problems. I had met her once a few years ago in Paris and found her to be a lovely aristocratic elegant and gentle woman who spoke beautiful English. I know very well that my Mother and her were very close and kept up correspondence for many years. In fact when I met her my Mother had already died and for me the encounter was deeply emotional. My thoughts are with you dear Masha and girls.

Saturday was a very happy day as Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and family came for lunch to celebrate Juan’s and my birthday which is actually today. We hadn’t been all together for more than I can remember; possibly over 2 years. Sara lives in London and we see her even less. But finally we made it and they were coming for lunch. I made a very typical English meal of roast beef and all the trimmings, including Yorkshire pudding!
José Antonio and family. It's not often you can photograph all five.
The table laid for the family celebration
Unfortunately Dolores and Sara couldn’t come until really late and by then Oli had to leave for work, so we never actually got to be all together. After lunch, the “kids” (aged between 23 and 30!) all went their own ways and Dolores, José Antonio, Eladio and I spent the afternoon together, talking about India, going for our walk and having tea in the candle lit lounge to a background of Indian music. Later in the evening we went to Mood in Majadahonda for dinner which proved popular with us all. You can see some of the photos of yesterday here.

And today, Sunday, was my birthday. Wow, 52 and going strong. The day has been very quiet and spent with the family and my new birthday present, Nora. It’s amazing how times have changed the way people send birthday greetings. I got some phone calls, text messages, emails as well as greetings on Facebook from many people I know but I also got them from entities such as my bank, my cinema club card, Cortefiel (a clothes’ store), the FB “team” which of course is part of how society works these days but it is a bit strange and rather impersonal. You are sent these messages via some anonymous server because you are on all these entities’ lists and it’s the cool thing to do these days. Funny! I am however very grateful to all the people who rang and sent messages. I love receiving birthday greetings.

This week promises to be another one of preparations, this time for the Mobile World Congress coming up in Barcelona on 16th February and to which I am much looking forward to going. The girls will be off travelling, Suzy to London on Wednesday and Oli to Amsterdam on Thursday. The three of us will then meet up in Barcelona on Monday 16th and will make our very own Olivia, Susana and Masha Barcelona film which promises to be fun.

Cheers till next week
Masha