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| Oli reporting live on TVE1, so exciting for us. |
Hello everyone,
Here I am this
Sunday morning at the beginning of September writing from my hotel room in
Santander. It’s a bit like here we come
again, because I come every year. Those
of you who are not in the telecoms sector in Spain will wonder why I am here. A holiday perhaps? Unfortunately no, although I’d love one here
especially as the hotel I am staying at, and where I always come, the Santander Silken Río, is right opposite the wonderful Sardinero beach.
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| The view from my room of the Sardinero Beach in Santander, somewhat empty this Sunday morning because of the weather |
But no, I am
here for the XXV telecoms conference organized by Ametic at the UIMP University
which starts tomorrow. Yoigo plays a big role here, not only participating in the conference,
where all the big guns come, with an
ever original and much awaited presentation but also because we host a huge
party for all the participants, some 400 people. This year there is added glamour as the Crown
Prince of Spain, Felipe and his wife, the ex TVE presenter, Letizia Ortiz, will
be making an appearance at the conference.
I have been working on these activities most of the summer and finally
the time has come to execute them.
Normally Eladio accompanies me but this year it wasn’t to be as he will
be tied up next week with invigilating the UNED University exams. I came early today as I had hoped for time
on the beach but unfortunately the weather hasn’t behaved and it is cool and
rainy. Hopefully it will stop raining
later and I will, at least, be able to go for a long walk on the beach. Thus I
have no other option but to write my blog which I’m sure you are happy to hear.
As I am writing I have just received a message from Eladio to tell me that he
is out for a walk with my four daughters, Olivia, Susana and the dogs Elsa and
Norah. I so wish I was with them.
The week was
very exciting in that Olivia made her live debut on TV on Monday and went on to
do more live reports throughout the week which had us glued to the TV, as we
watched her open mouthed with excitement.
I can’t begin to describe what it feels like. I got a short whatsapp on Monday morning to
tell me she would be on TVE1 (Spain’s most important channel) at 12.15 but she
didn’t even mention the topic. Of course
I told everyone I could via Facebook and sms and we all gathered around the TV
in the lounge awaiting the moment. The
topic was to be one dear to her heart as she was covering the press conference
of Pedro Almodóvar’s new film, The skin I live in live, from the Casa de América
in Madrid. She had been told one hour before that she would be doing so. Later on she explained that she took this to be
a test of her abilities and that if she failed it would be very unlikely she
would ever have the opportunity again and would have forever worked as an
anonymous journalist in the TV newsroom. I am
pleased to say she passed with flying colours. You can judge for yourself by
clicking on this link and going to minute 01.53.59. She even managed to have
her photo taken not only with Pedro Almodóvar but also with Antonio Banderas,
who I am sure need no introduction to any of you. I was extremely jealous of course as I highly
admire the Spanish Director and love the looks and personality of Antonio
Banderas. You might find it funny to
know that in Eladio’s family we are known as Antonio and Melanie, because we,
apparently, bare some resemblance.
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| Oli with Pedro Almodóvar, how exciting |
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| And now with the man, Antonio Banderas, my very favourite actor. |
Suzy and I
were so excited we wanted to make or buy something special for lunch on Monday
to welcome Olivia. Her favourite food is
Spanish croquettes so we embarked on making some 40 odd, for the first time
ever – they are tricky and sticky to make - from a recipe in my most trusted
Spanish cookery book, 1080 recipes by Simone Ortega. They
came out perfectly and Olivia was delighted.
We have since gone on to make another batch for freezing, they have
proved so popular.
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| Oli and I in the kitchen making croquettes for Olivia whilst she is on the TV, so proud and happy for her |
On Tuesday
Olivia was sent off at the crack of dawn to the town of Cuéllar in Segovia to
report on Spain’s oldest bull-run. As
she had no time to document what she was to report and of course, knew nothing
about the subject, Eladio and I were asked to do some research which we
presented to her at midnight when she returned from the evening news programme
she also works for as part of her TV journalism Master which thankfully
finishes next week. Again she did a
splendid job, reporting live twice from Cuéllar. You can see it here at minute 08.33 - 10.39
and from 01.53.36.
On Wednesday
she had a respite but on Thursday she was reporting on The Madrid Fashion week (link) and
on Friday on a story about missing babies (minute 33.27 – 34.11).
As you can see, her subjects are very varied. She comes home exhausted from the
stress. Her conclusion is that 90% of
what comes out on TV is a lie but I think that is a bit exaggerated. Her descriptions of the logistics of each
live report are hair-raising. She goes
out to a location with a cameraman, a technician who is also the driver of the
satellite vehicle and a person from production who, according to her, is as
junior as she is but says that responsibility for everything lies exclusively
with her. Thus she has to choose from
where they will film, never an easy task and then she has to coordinate with
the TV studio to agree on what to say and what they will ask her during the
report. She gets phone calls right left
and centre and coordination and timing are crucial. She gets a cue and can
listen in to the programme when she’s about to talk but sometimes things fail and
she cannot hear and things become tricky. I cannot begin to imagine her level
of adrenalin and am amazed at how well she improvises when asked a sticky
question. She told me that for the last report at the Courts on the case of the
lost babies, she was aware of the cameras from all the other channels, Tele5,
Cuatro, TeleMadrid, Antena 3, all with veteran journalists and there she was,
little Oli, the youngest of them all, yet representing the most important
channel, TVE. I think for a moment she
was even impressed with herself; although she is overall far too critical. But
then of course, she sees all the faults that we don’t see. I am very impressed with how well she has done
so far and appreciate, probably much more than her, what a great experience
this is for a budding journalist. I can
only wish her luck and say well done Olivia; certain of one thing, she has the
talent to be a TV presenter or reporter.
Olivia’s live
reporting was very exciting but the week was not to be without unfortunate
events. Grandpa was slowly on the mend
after being in hospital and even ventured out of the house with Eladio on
Monday to do the weekly shopping. On
Wednesday Suzy asked how he was as it was a week since he was discharged from
the hospital. He said he was better but
then showed us his ankles which had swollen slightly again. So Eladio made another appointment with the
doctor who prescribed slightly stronger medication as well as sleeping
tablets. This I think was his downfall
as on Thursday night he got up to go to the loo at four in the morning feeling
very drousy and shaky on his legs. The
dear man fell and then lay on the floor for half an hour before being able to
reach for his alarm. I was the first one to reach his room and it was a sorry
sight for my eyes to see him lying motionless on the floor. He had hurt his ankle and was unable to move. Between Eladio and Olga they managed to put
him into bed. The next day we took him
with great difficulty by car to the clinic where he had an x-ray. The damage is a sprained ankle, not very much
for what it could have been, but enough to make him bed ridden for the next
week or so. We are taking great care of him and Olga has come into her own with
her previous experience of looking after an elderly gentleman. She is wonderful with him, washing and
shaving him; something which would have been difficult for me. I wish him a quick recovery of course as I know
that he must hate to be bed ridden.
That night I
was unable to sleep after the fall, worried but also afflicted with a terrible
migraine. I was up at 6, because the
only way of helping my poor head is with a hot shower and some breakfast in my
stomach. In any case I had to be up
early to be at the office for a management team meeting and a subsequent
meeting with our PR and events agencies on the last minute details of our
activities in Santander. Quite a few
changes were made which meant I had to work over the weekend and even go into
the production agency’s office on Saturday until the original and rather
ambitious presentation was finalized satisfactorily.
Even though I
was exhausted on Friday I was determined to go and see Almodóvar’s new film, The skin I live in, the one Olivia reported on during the week. As Olga was at home to look after my Father,
Eladio and I were able to go to the cinema and then out to dinner, activities
our bodies and souls seemed in great need of that day. So what did I think of the film? Many things really, it’s difficult to
describe. I didn’t used to be a fan of
Almodóvar, finding his films all a bit weird but now they fascinate me and I
was interested to see how the new film would compare to the others, especially
because the genre was different, The Skin I live in being rather more a horror
story. This is what I put on my Facebook
status yesterday after having seen it: “
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| The poster of Almodóvar's new film with Antonio Banderas and Elena Amaya, The skin I live in. |
This week's blog is quite something. Good for Oli. Hope my Oli achieves as much... Reading it has made me very hungry, but then it always does! Will try the croquettes. Hope your Dad is recovering well from his fall. Give him my best. Andrew
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