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| The patatas revolconas we ate at De Brasa y Puchero restaurant this week |
Hello again,
Well this week has been full of events, both at home
and abroad. On the international scene,
the newspapers have been full of news of the terrible sinking of the Italian cruise liner, the Costa Concordia by the shores of the Island of Giglio. Some
10 people have died and another 20 or more are missing in an accident, similar
to the legendary Titanic. We have all
become familiar with the name of the captain, Francesco Schettino and his extraordinary
behaviour. He has been accused by the
media of endangering the lives of 4.200 people by coming too near to the island
to salute a former colleague and by apparently abandoning the ship before helping
to evacuate the passengers. Just how can a captain abandon his ship? I always remember the image of the captain of
the Titanic, who did just the opposite, staying at the helm until it sank, not
even trying to save his life. Cruise
holidays are very popular. I have never
been on one and am not very attracted but even if I ever wanted to go on one I
couldn’t as Eladio is a very bad sea traveller, feeling sick just at the sniff
of a ship’s engine.
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| This week will be remembered for the aftermath of the sinking of the Costa Concordia |
Monday started off as being pretty bleak
with ghastly weather. Snow was forecast
for that day, which I would have loved for our walk but all we got were fog and rain here in Madrid which impeded us
from going on our daily walk. That night
we watched a programme on the TV about Spaniards living in Terranova,
Newfoundland in Canada and learned that in this isolated part of the world, its
population has to endure nearly 300 days a year of fog. So I can hardly complain as the rest of the
week was sunny and dry. As I observed
people having lunch outside one day this week, I remembered my Father saying
that his favourite month in Spain is January, it being sunny but not hot. Funnily
enough I later read that Monday 16th January is known as Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. It also reminded me of the famous Carpenters' song: "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"
So it was fitting perhaps that it was on
Blue Monday that the founder of Spain’s conservative PP party, died. The news of the passing away of Manuel Fraga,
a larger than life political leader from Galicia, described in the
international press, as the last of the Spanish dictator Franco’s ministers,
took over as the top news in Spain after the sinking of the Costa Concordia.
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| Manuel Fraga died this week |
On Tuesday I went into the office for a
meeting and then had a lunch appointment with a friend, Ramón who had been,
until recently, a well known TV news
presenter. He is now out of a job and my
mission during our lunch was to pass him on my experience of picking up your
life after losing a job, something that I am very familiar with. My main advice was to think positive and for
him to believe in himself and never give in and that his main job right now was
his own marketing plan to find that job which I know he will if he doesn’t give
up. I wish him a lot of luck because it
won’t be easy in these times of high unemployment in Spain, not to mention that
jobs as TV news presenters do not precisely grow on trees!
If Monday was blue Monday, Tuesday was a red
letter day for us because it was the day my Father walked again with his
stick. If you will remember, until
recently he couldn’t walk because of the bedsore on his heel and latterly he
had been able to do so with a zimmer frame.
So walking with a stick and practically unaided was huge progress. Soon he will be joining us on our weekly
shopping expedition, where I know that what he most looks forward to is a glass
of Rueda white wine with a nice Spanish tapa at the Rio Café in El Bosque.
Just for the heck of it I invited Eladio
later that night to dinner at the nearby De Brasa y Puchero restaurant where we
are very fond of a dish called “patatas revolconas”, This is a Spanish country dish
made of potatoes and a sprinkling of paprika and cooked with pork crackling
that end up as a sort of mashed potato. The verb “revolcón” can translate as “a roll
in the hay” which of course has a sexual connotation meaning quick and
dirty. However there is nothing quick
and dirty about this dish which is absolutely mouth watering. I looked up the translation on google and
came up with “double mashed potatoes”, not quite what it really is but in this
link here you have the recipe. The photo
illustrating this week’s blogpost is of the potato dish we had at De Brasa y
Puchero on Tuesday night.
The days went past pretty normally, with no
trips this week. On Thursday I was
delighted to see Olivia on the television.
She was reporting on the 75th anniversary of Spain’s national
radio station, RNE and on the visit of the Crown Prince of Spain, Don Felipe
and his wife, the ex TVE presenter.
Olivia tried to ask her a question but just as the Princess was about to
reply, a body guard lifted Olivia literally into the air and out of her
sight. That must have been an unusual
experience for Olivia. I managed to take
a photo of Olivia on the TV and in the same screen shot you can see the Prince
and Princess. Funny to think that if she
hadn’t married the Prince they may have ended up as colleagues working for the
same TV station. You can see Oli’s live
report here at minute 13.50h.
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| Olivia reporting on the 75th anniversary of RNE and the visit of Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia |
It was on Thursday when I finally got on
the dreaded scales, weeks after Christmas had begun. I was a little worried they would tell me a
sorry story but got away with murder actually, only having put on just under one
kilo over the whole Christmas period. To
get rid of the extra weight I immediately did two days of the strict pure
protein intake, from the Dukan diet but actually they didn’t budge.
Friday was the highlight of the week.
Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and his wife Dolores came to see us in
the afternoon, bringing Nuba their sweet mongrel dog with them. I suspect they come more often these days so that
Nuba can enjoy the outdoors. Whatever
the reason, it makes us happy to see them now more often than before. So off we went for the walk with the three
dogs. Norah is always on a lead as we
suspect she would run off after rabbits or motorbikes and never come back. However, it was such a lovely sunny afternoon
and at José Antonio’s suggestion of letting her loose, we did so. We were
surprised at how well she behaved, coming back each time we called her, and
were delighted that she could go free.
I had booked tickets later for the new Millennium film by David Fincher, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Equinoccio leisure centre in Majadahonda. I am a great fan of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy
and had my doubts that the American version of the film would be as good or
better than the Swedish version. So what
did I think? Actually, that it was just
as good; equally entertaining.
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| We went to see the new version of The Girl with the dragon tatoo |
Afterwards I had planned for us to have dinner at our all time favourite
restaurant at Equinoccio, La Alpargatería, so was very upset to hear earlier
that it had shut down. How could they
shut down the restaurant we go to most? The last time we went was in December
and here for the records is the photo of us there. Little did we know it would
be the last time. Goodbye La
Alpargatería we shall dearly miss going there and eating at table number 7.
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| We were upset to hear that the restaurant we go to most, La Alpargatería has shut down. This photo was taken on our last visit there in December. |
As La Alpargatería had closed down, we opted to take José Antonio and
Dolores to De Brasa y Puchero, mostly for them to try the “patatas revolconas”.
However I think having that dish twice in a week, is more than enough for a
while now.
Yesterday, Saturday, was a nice quiet sunny day and the girls had guests
for lunch. Juli and Rocío, in fact,
spent most of the weekend here. Olga had
made a delicious lasaña and whilst it was cooking the girls and their friends
were actually sunbathing outside by the pool.
See what I mean by good weather?
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| The girls and their friends with Norah enjoying the sun on Saturday. |
Later that day was to be Norah’s biggest adventure ever and a huge scare for
us as we nearly lost her. As she had
behaved so well loose on the walk with José Antonio and Dolores the day before,
we decided to let her loose again.
Everything was going fine until a cyclist crept up behind us, too late
to put the dogs back on their leads.
They immediately ran after the cyclist who I tried to warn in
advance. The dogs disappeared into the
distance, only Elsa returning. We
carried on down the path which leads on to a road right by a motorway and Norah
was nowhere in sight. Eladio stayed on
the road to look for her and I went back the way we had come taking Elsa with
me. I rang the girls for them to pick us
and help us look for Norah. Both of them
were busy either dyeing their hair or showering so dear Juli and Rocío came to
our rescue. To add to the adventure Juli’s
car was not fit for off road driving, he was running out of petrol and Rocío
didn’t have time to change out of her pyjamas!
Just as they picked me and Elsa up I had a phone call. Thanks to the tag on Norah's collar, an honest man
called me to say he had found her on the M50 motorway at the Boadilla exit and
that she had got into the car with him and that he had driven her to his home in
Leganés, miles away. She had nearly been run over by the car in front of him!!
We went to fetch her in Juli's car and the family, who had already fallen in
love with her, gave her back. You can't begin to believe just how happy and
relieved we are. Needless to say Norah
will never be let off her lead again when she leaves the house. As my friend
Adele said on my Facebook wall: “all’s well that ends well”. Indeed that is true.
Today has been a quiet family day with
both girls at home. The week coming up
will be busy for me and them of course. That’s
it then my friends for this week. I hope
you all have a good one.
Cheers till next time.
Masha
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