Norah who fell ill this week.
Hiya again
This week was St. Valentine’s but it was also my brother George’s birthday except that he has not been here to celebrate it since 2001 when he died aged 46 of melanoma. I can never let this week pass without thinking of him and on the 12th February he was in my thoughts all day. I remembered especially how we used to celebrate our birthdays when we were kids and how my grandmother would always send us a cake, except that it always arrived after my birthday! But we used to love the birthday cards with the one pound note in them.
The girls have been away, Oli to Amsterdam with her school friend Miad and Suzy to London with Gaby. It was Gaby’s first trip abroad and his first trip on a commercial aeroplane. They both went for a well deserved break and will be home tonight. Only Oli will be joining me tomorrow in Barcelona as Suzy has to contribute to a team project to be given in this week. This will not make Oli very happy.
On Monday dear little Norah, my two month old birthday puppy fell ill. She was sick with a bad stomach and would not eat. These were the sure signs of that deadly puppy disease, parvo virus, one we know so well from our times as breeders. We immediately took her to the vet and our suspicions were not unfounded as the test turned out to be positive. I read later that this virus is the cause of 75% of puppy deaths so it is a disease to be taken very seriously. Norah had obviously contracted the virus before we bought her as the incubation period is between 7 and 14 days so the breeder is responsible for the veterinary costs. Luckily we had caught the disease on time and within 3 days of hospitalisation, Norah was on the mend. She came home on Thursday and after intense convalescent nursing, she seems completely recovered. We are all absolutely nuts about her, except my poor Father who is not to keen on having to shoo her away whilst he tries to make his breakfast in the morning! Today I gave her a second bath and she looks simply adorable. I am going to miss her in Barcelona.
As I said at the beginning this week was St. Valentine’s. I didn’t really expect any flowers from Eladio but was secretly hoping he would as last year he had broken our life time record by giving me a bunch for the first time. That was when we came to pick me up at the airport from Barcelona. But no, this was not to be. However he did reserve a table at a surprise restaurant. It wasn’t difficult for me to suss out which one it was as he had used my phone contacts to look up the number. So, yes, he took me to La Leyenda. It never was my favourite place, perhaps because of some negative connections, such as my farewell dinner when I “left” Nokia. However the cuisine has improved dramatically and we got a very nice corner table and so enjoyed our quiet St. Valentine’s dinner together. St. Valentine’s is supposed to celebrate love and so we celebrated ours, the cornerstone of our lives and upon which everything else is built, our family, our home, our whole existence.
Talking about love, on Friday Eladio and I went to see the much acclaimed film, “The Reader” with Kate Winslett, Eladio’s favourite actress. I rather liked the young boy who played her 15 year old lover actually!!! I much preferred this to “Revolutonary Road”. It is a torrid love story set in Germany in the late 50’s and has a Nazi angle which are two very strong ingredients for a film.
And as this week is coming to its end, here I am on Sunday afternoon writing from my seat on the high speed train to Barcelona, the so called “Ave”. It is the first time I have taken it as I have always travelled by air on the shuttle or “puente aereo”. It takes 2.40h so is very fast. The added comforts, of course, are the absence of the ever increasing stifling rules of air travel, the fact that you can get on 5 minutes before departure and of course, getting off in the middle of the city.
I am going to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, the biggest global event in the telecoms industry. I will be quite busy there going to press conferences, etc but will have time for networking which is what I and probably everybody else, likes best about going. I have also planned a reunion dinner party on Wednesday night for my ex Nokia Network colleagues. I have asked them all for photos and they are most intrigued. But more news about that in next week’s post.
And this is where I end this week’s post. Cheers and have a good week,
Masha
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