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| My girlies having a whale of a time in Africa. In this picture with their guide Moses. |
Hi everyone.
It is Saturday and we are all at home but not
for long as tomorrow I will be off to Barcelona for the annual telecoms
conference, the so called Mobile World Congress. That is why I am writing this week’s blog on
a Saturday. So let’s look back at how
the week has been.
Let me start from last Saturday when I forgot
to record that it was Whitney Houston’s funeral in New Jersey. Whilst that was happening I was watching,
along with many other Spanish spectators, the rerun of the marvelous film, The
Bodyguard which brought her so much fame.
In fact her co star, Kevin Kostner, was at the funeral and said that he
had been her bodyguard. If you haven’t
seen the film I highly recommend it.
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| Whitney Houston |
Sunday was quite a highlight in our week. We had visitors for lunch, our friends Benito
and Loli whom we first met when we “lived in sin”, as it was called in the
early 80’s in the Saconia area of Madrid.
We always talk about those days with Benito and Loli and often refer to
them as the happiest days of our lives.
We were as poor as church mice, starting off in our careers but were
ecstatic with joy at our new found independence and life together.
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| Benito and Loli came for lunch last Sunday |
Of note on Sunday, the Real Madrid basketball
team beat Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey. That was a sort of compensation for Barcelona
being a better football team. They are,
indeed, the eternal rivals, as are the two cities.
Sunday was also the night of the Spanish film
awards, called “Los Goya”. The film that
got most awards is called “No habrá paz para los malvados” (there will be no peace for
the evil) with José Coronado being awarded best actor for his part in the same
film. Pedro Almodovar who was attending
for the first time in years, did not do so well for his “La piel que habita”
(the skin that lives) which got three minor prizes. Best foreign film went to The Artist, that
funny French black and white and silent film which seems to be winning awards
the world over and which I, for one, will not be going to see.
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| José Coronado got best actor award at this year's Spanish film awards, Los Goya. |
To wrap up Sunday, that was the day I
discovered and started using the new social network for photos called
Pinterest. I’m not sure I can take
another social network, what with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but time will
tell. A communications colleague, David,
commented on Facebook the other day that a communications director he knows had
warned that social networks were just a passing phase. I’m afraid I totally disagree. They will continue and they will develop and
will not disappear. Meantime, try out
Pinterest and see for yourselves.
On Monday I was in Madrid with Eladio. He wanted to pick up his Father’s 1940s radio
which was being repaired and I was returning a handbag, a wonderful birthday
gift, from that very exclusive shop, Loewe.
It’s probably the only time I have ever been there for something more
substantial than a scarf or a perfume.
The prices are scandalous. The
shop is on Madrid’s most exclusive
street, Calle Serrano, where nobody seemed to notice the crisis or worry about
the Government’s recent labour reform.
After a coffee together, we parted ways as I
had a lunch appointment with Víctor. Víctor
and I go way back, having met when I worked at Motorola in the mid 90’s and he
was in the PR agency which worked for us, Perception and Image. When I moved to Nokia I worked with
Perception and we coincided again.
Víctor is now leaving the agency, he more or less created, after some 15
years there. He is a great professional
and even better sort of person with two qualities that I admire most:
intelligence and a great sense of humour.
No doubt he will continue to be successful at whatever he attempts to do
now. In any case I wish him the best of
luck in this new stage of his career. I
must mention we had lunch at a wonderful new place, for me, called Wagaboo,
where they offer “fun food” with a mix of Asian and fusion cuisine.
On Tuesday the girls were arriving home at
lunchtime but I was to miss it as I had two meetings at work and a business
lunch, mostly for preparations for our participation in the Mobile World Congress
next week. I was only able to get home
at about 6 and greet the very tired and slightly ill Olivia, as Suzy had left
with Gaby to go and choose one of the flats they had been awarded. It was not until dinner that we were all
together. Olivia was falling asleep over
Olga’s excellent tortilla and had to leave us to go to bed as she would have to
be up the next day at 6 to go to work.
My advice to both girls was to add an extra settling in day to their
holidays in the future. It was wonderful
to see them so brown and hear their adventures and see their photos. They have had an amazing experience. You can see their companion Rocío’s photos in this link and judge for yourselves. Ah and here are Suzy's too,
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| The girls in Zanzibar with their friends. From back left to right: Elena and Oli and from front left to right Suzy and Rocío |
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| Oli happy as a sandboy with African children in Zanzibar |
On Wednesday I worked from home. That afternoon Eladio was giving for the
first time a class at the UNED (Spanish open university) via video conference,
something he had been preparing for weeks and had kept him awake at night as
this was so new to him. Well, as you can
imagine, he passed this personal test with flying colours. He went on to do another video conference
lecture on Thursday evening and came home feeling very confident about the
whole process. I was very proud of him.
That night, Thursday, the girls had a birthday
dinner with their cousins in Madrid. Our
niece Paula was turning 24. Happy
birthday dear Paula. My contribution was
a packet of party poppers bought recently online at this great page
(Partyrama.co.uk) at ridiculously low prices.
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| The party poppers I ordered from www.partyrama.co.uk |
Meanwhile Eladio and I were watching Doctor Zhivago, one of my favourite films of all times" It was shown on TVE1 and even though we have
the DVD I wanted to watch it once again.
How can I begin to describe why I adore this love story set in the
Russian Revolution with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie made in 1965 under the
direction of David Lean, the same director as for another legendary film,
Bridge over the River Kwai.
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| The incredibly beautiful Julie Christie who starred in Dr. Zhivago as the lovely and troubled Lara |
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| Omar Sharif and Julie Christie as Dr. Zhivago and Lara in David Lean's 1965 film |
It is not just any love story. It is the film adaptation of the book with
the same name written by the Russian author Boris Pastarnak. He won the Nobel literature prize for this
book which was banned in the USSR.
Furthermore, as writer “in disgrace” he was not allowed to travel to Stockholm
to receive the prize.
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| Boris Pastarnak, the author of Dr. Zhivago which earned him the Nobel Literature prize which the Russian authorities forbid him to receive. |
This, of course, made his book even more
attractive in the Soviet Russia. At the
time my parents were visiting Moscow, hosted by the then head of the USSR Writers Union, a man called Alexei Surkov, a poet himself.
I have found literally no reference to him on internet unfortunately and
can now only rely on my Father’s memories of him. In their visit in the mid sixties, my Mother's first to her homeland, he took my parents to his Dacha outside
Moscow. It was here that he gave my
parents a forbidden present, an ancient Russian icon which today graces one of
the walls in our dining room. It had
been hidden away and covered in newspaper and the string marks can still be
found in this pre revolutionary icon. It was not allowed to take icons out of Russia and Surkov had told my parents that if they had any problems at customs to say who had given it to them and to give them his telephone number. Thankfully my parents' luggage was not inspected. Surkov
was famous at the time for being the man who stopped Pasternak from travelling
to Oslo or Stockholm for the Nobel Prize. He told my
parents that he was Boris Pasternak’s henchman, an apt description. It was to
Alexei Surkov that my Mother turned to when she first wanted to publish her
Father’s poetry. Her Father, Prince
Andrei Lieven, had written poetry, just like Dr. Zhivago, I can imagine, and
which my Mother loved since she read them with him as a young girl. Surkov took
one look and pronounced the word: “traditional”. It was obvious that they would not come under
favour with the regime of the time, just as Dr. Zhivago’s poems to “Lara” were
also banned, as you will know if you have read the book or seen the film. The film, amazingly, was made in Spain, in
Soria, Madrid and Salamanca. I can
hardly imagine there would be so much snow here as in Siberia. My Mother loved the film but I always
remember her saying there were lots of mistakes in its making and she was
referring to the Russian religion and customs, something that annoyed her
immensely. I, of course, having been
born in the west, would not notice any of them.
Then of course, there is the wonderful sound track, Lara’s theme which
was a huge hit at the time. My brother
used to play it on the piano, something I can never forget.
So you see, it is probably because of all these
memories, together with my Russian roots that I relate so much to the story and
film, Dr. Zhivago.
Friday was a lovely sunny day. Olivia joined us in our afternoon walk with
the dogs and in the evening we all went out to dinner. The dinner was my belated family birthday
dinner out, as the girls were not here for my birthday. We went to the English restaurant, I have
written about before here, La Pérfida Albión (The Perfidious Albion) in nearby
Pozuelo. Here we girls feasted on fish and chips whilst the men, Eladio and
Gaby, preferred the Lancashire hot pot!
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| My belated birthday dinner last night with Eladio, the girls and Gaby. It was great to be together |
And that was more or less the week. Today Saturday will be spent with the
family. Luckily for me the girls want to
spend the day with me as they have missed me and I will be going away
tomorrow. So I look forward to a nice
family lunch with Olga’s excellent lasaña and to shopping with the girls this
afternoon. It really is great to have
them back.
And that’s it, my friends for this week. More news from me next week.
All the best Masha
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