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| Eladio and I in Yorkshire last weekend (by the I Love You House on the Leeds Liverpool Canal near Keighley Golf Club) |
Good morning
everyone,
You will have
noticed I didn’t post my blog last week but that was because we were away, so
here you have a two week bumper edition.
Let me start
from where I left off, Monday 12th March. Of note that day, it was very warm and Olivia
joined us on our daily walk. We were to
cancel some of our other walks after that as I caught a cold from Eladio and
both of us have been snuffling and sneezing and coughing ever since.
I caught my
cold on Tuesday, the night we went out to dinner with José Antonio and
Dolores. It was to try out a restaurant
for an event which was a nice enough little place but totally unsuitable for
what I had in mind. The good thing about
that night was that we were joined by Sara, our niece, and got to see her new lodgings. At the grand old age of 30 something, she has
finally flown the nest and is now living bang in the centre of Madrid, very near
her workplace, the branch in Madrid that the biggest bank in China opened
recently, ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) where she is
practically the only Spanish employee.
Very bravely, a few years ago, after graduating in Economics, she moved
to China to learn that most difficult of languages which today she is fluent in
and which is, of course, a great asset in her new job. Sara can tell many a funny tale of working
there and the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese nationals.
On Wednesday,
a very cold and grim day, the main news was of the tragic coach crash in Switzerland. The death toll was some 28
Belgian children coming back from a skiing holiday. I can only imagine how that news dominated
the media in Belgium. Awful!
Finally
Thursday arrived, the day of our journey to England. We were going to Yorkshire for a long
weekend. The excuse for going was another
school reunion dinner with some of my fellow class mates from the still, even
today, all girls Catholic Convent School we went to, St. Joseph’s College in
Bradford, West Yorkshire, where I grew up. I left in 1975 and was to see some
of my class mates for the first time since then at our reunion dinner on Friday
night. But more about that emotional
reunion later.
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| St. Joseph's College Bradford, my old school |
We took the
only direct flight to Manchester, newly operated by Iberia and got there at
English “teatime”. Eladio was feeling
pretty lousy on arrival but I didn’t let him complain, telling him strictly
that we both had to be in optimum condition, to find the hired car and make our
way on the frighteningly fast and at times congested motorways to
Keighley. First we had to tackle the M58
(or was it the M59?), then the M60 and finally the legendary M62 which our ex
Geography teacher, Miss Fair, may she rest in peace, used to describe to us as
a “marvelous feat of engineering”. Thus it was certainly not the time for self
pity. My “navigator” application on my
clever little Samsung Galaxy S2 did the job perfectly taking us to our friends’
Phil and Kathy’s Yorkshire semi detached stone house in Utley, near Keighley,
via Halifax in just under 1.5h. It was
the beginning of yet another trip down memory lane.
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| Phil and Kath's house in Keighley |
Our wonderful
hosts were waiting for us with a hot meal of homemade lasagne by gourmet cook
Phil in their oldie worldie cozy kitchen.
I was bowled over by their efforts to make us feel comfortable and at
home, not least by lending us their very own bedroom.
The fresh flowers, fruit and bottled water provided for us were much
appreciated and we felt welcome, comfortable and at home throughout our stay. I
must also add that it seemed the whole four days were an exercise in laughter
therapy. Most of our time with Kath and
Phil and then Amanda, Gill and Simon was spent laughing. Oh how I love and miss,
British humour. I read in an airport
magazine later, the name of which I cannot remember, that it is now making its
way even more into politics, via the likes of London’s larger than life Boris
Johnson or even PM David Cameron and that it is a quality much sought after in
corporate management. I for one would
advocate for more humour in the Spanish corporate world, something usually
frowned upon here, unfortunately.
We spent most
of Friday with our host Phil as Kath was at work. She is an assistant head of year at an
enormous local school and seems to be busy the whole time with all the possible
problems you can imagine that 11 year olds may have. I do not envy her job. Meanwhile the three of us made our way to the
most elegant town in Yorkshire, Harrogate, dominated by the beautiful Stray,
the name of the 200 acres of land that “wraps round” the old spa town.
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| The Stray in Harrogate |
Our
destination was the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Harlow Carr Gardens where
we had been in the summer but were very happy to visit again with Phil. Here,
as everywhere, typical British spring flowers were in bloom: daffodils,
crocuses and the fragile snow drops I remember seeing as a child in Ruskington,
just after the snow had melted.
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| The daffodils at Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate |
We must have
spent nearly two hours walking through the delightful gardens, visiting the
kitchen garden, the scented garden, the rock gardens as well as the gardens in
times gone past, where you can see what gardens were like in Edwardian England
until now. I particularly liked this
little conservatory which I would love to have in our own garden in Spain.
Maybe one day we will.
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| A conservatory I would have liked to bring back from the gardens |
After so much
nature and outdoors, it was time for lunch.
Harrogate must have countless numbers of restaurants, bars and pubs, but
the only place I ever want to go to there is Betty’s Tea Rooms, that wonderful
genteel establishment which serves and sells fabulous Yorkshire fare with a
touch of Swiss flavor which you can read about in the history of the tearooms in the link above.
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| The queue at Betty's in Harrogate. Spot Phil and Eladio! |
We could have
had anything on the menu, as everything is so tempting. However what we all
wanted most was their amazing fish and chips.
Well, after all, we were in Yorkshire which is where they come from I
think.
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| Betty's fish and chips, the best in the world |
We drove back
through the lovely Yorkshire countryside to Keighley and were soon joined by
Katherine and her iPad and IPhone, extensions of herself. Phil referred to both of us as the
“technological lasses”. More like addicted
to capturing our life on camera and posting our activities on Facebook for all
our world to see, something that does not attract Phil or Eladio, although I
must add they always want to know what people post there.
After the
proverbial cup of tea, Kathy and I had to get ready for our school reunion
dinner as we were to be there early in order to decorate the room with all the
stuff I had brought: bunting, balloons, name badges, party poppers, bunches of
sweets, you name it, as well as a dvd of photos of us in the 6th
form in 1974 or 5. You can see that
video here. See if you can spot me or
Amanda.
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| Some of the stuff I took to our reunion dinner |
It was to take
place at Hollins Hall, a country club hotel on Hollins Hill which didn’t exist
when I lived in Yorkshire. However
Hollins Hill is an area I know very well, mainly from the time we lived in
Baildon on Roundwood Road in the mid 60’s before we moved to Heaton Grove. It was on this infamously steep hill that my
brother had a minor cycling accident when he was young. It is also very near where my Mother is
buried in Charles Town Cemetery. At the
top of Hollins Hill, when you reach the town of Guiseley, we used to go the
most famous fish and chip shop in the world owned by Harry Ramsdens, a
Yorkshire landmark that was sadly closed just this last autumn.
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| Hollins Hall hotel where we had our school reunion dinner. |
So as we drove
towards the country club hotel, owned by Marriott, on Hollins Hill, all these
memories were going through my head, as well of course as memories to do with
my school days.
The evening
was amazing. There were 17 of us of who
I remembered or knew well some 8 or 9. People had brought along photographs
which helped jolt our memories a bit, although some of the “girls” were totally
unrecognizable to me. But it was great
to see Eric, Jackie, Maggie, Brenda, Ellen, Amanda, Catherine, Kath of course,
as well as Maureen and the others. Here
is a group photo. To think it was 37
years ago that we left school, I think most of us are looking quite good,
although it is not true that people improve with age, as I’m sure you will
agree.
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| The SJC reunion dinner at Hollins Hall |
Saturday, was,
together, with the school reunion dinner, one of the highlights of our
trip. We drove to the Yorkshire Dales,
the beautiful countryside to be found in Yorkshire and our first stop was the
delightful village of Arncliffe. Here we
walked around the village, visiting the Norman church, taking photos of the
scenery and finally stopped for a drink at the Falcon, a wonderful old
pub. Here Eladio tried the local ale, out of politeness more than anything, but
I’m afraid he is not a beer drinker.
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| With Kathy in Arncliffe by the delightful Norman church |
Our next stop
was Starbotton where we were to meet up with Amanda, Simon and Gill. We had a lunch appointment at the Fox and
Hounds, a typical old Dales pub. The food
was not that great, but we had a whale of a time.
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| By the Fox and Hounds with our friends in Starbotton in the Yorkshire Dales |
Amanda, Simon
and Gill are not newcomers to this blog, but to refresh your memory, I went to
school with Amanda and we were in the same class as Kathryn. It was their first reunion since school, but
not mine, of course. Simon went to the
school my Father taught at, Bradford Grammar School and Gill is his lawyer
wife. In fact they are both
lawyers!
After the
lunch, a walk was in store for us, a wonderful walk in the Dales in the lambing
season, from Starbotton to the picturesque village of Kettlewell and back.
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| Picturesque Kettlewell as seen from our walk from Starbotton |
Map in hand,
Simon guided us through fields and over stone walls and across endless number of age old styles and
by the river Wharfe. We must have done
just over 4 miles but stopped in Kettlewell for a cup of tea at the Blue Bell
Inn to refresh before walking back by the river to Starbotton.
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| With Kathy and Amanda crossing one of the styles on our walk in the Dales |
Here we parted
but were to meet again later at Simon and Gill’s for a fantastic evening and
dinner together. We went home for
another cup of tea and to change before making our way to their house in
Sowerby Bridge. We all concentrated in
Simon and Gill’s huge and cozy kitchen where a lot of wine drinking went on, while
they prepared a simple but delicious meal of roast chicken and salad and the
most English of desserts: “bread and butter pudding”. It was a fabulous end to a glorious day and I
have to admit we ate and drank, talked and laughed endlessly until we could no
longer keep our eyes open. It must have
been 2 in the morning when we got to bed, but a great day and night was had by
all. I was so glad too that my two sets
of friends who were meeting for the first time hit it off so well. I need not have been hesitant and should have
known that they would get on “like a house on fire” to use the proverbial
quote.
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| Pre dinner drinks in Simon and Gill's kitchen |
The next day
was our last day but one and it was to be nearly as full as Saturday, if a
little quieter. We had breakfast late –
thanks Phil for the great croissants, orange juice, fruit, toast and pain au chocolat
which I couldn’t resist, after which we all got ready for yet another long and
much needed walk. This time it was to be
local. We crossed the Skipton Road to
the Keighley Golf Club where we had to look out for “passing shots”. But we were not going to play golf as our
destination was a fabulous walk on the Leeds Liverpool canal, some 4 miles or
so in the direction of Silsden. We were to go past
what Phil and Kath call the “I love you house”. They call it that because many
years ago, on a walk with his Mother, Phil spied the words written and dug into
the garden. Imagine! The photo illustrating this blog was taken by
Kath and is of Eladio and I by the “I love you house”, a photo I am very
pleased with. The walk on the canal was
accompanied by great weather too which made the walk even more pleasant.
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| On the walk by the canal with Kath and Phil |
We took photos
of everything and I especially like the close up taken by Eladio of this drake
on the canal. Just look how luminous the
green feathers on its head are. Pretty
good I thought.
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| A beautiful duck on the canal and a great picture taken by Eladio |
I mentioned
earlier that it was the lambing season and there was lots of evidence of this
too on the walk on Sunday. So,
naturally, I took many photos also of the sheep and their young offsprings, like the one
below.
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| It was lambing season when we were in Yorkshire last week |
Sunday was
Mother’s Day in England and when we got back from the walk, there waiting in
the street to greet his mother, armed with a card and flowers, was Tom, one of
Kath’s four sons.
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| Tommy Lee, Kath's footballer son bringing her flowers on Mother's Day |
Tom Lee is
actually the goal keeper for Chesterfield FC, having joined the Manchester
United football school when he was young.
He even shared a room with Gerard Piqué!
As I write today Sunday 25th March, believe it or not, he is
playing for his team at Wembley, against Swindon Town in the final of the
Football League Trophy (between the 1st and 2nd Division
football teams in the UK). Phil and Kath
went up to London this weekend and will be biting their teeth from now until
the end (Chesterfield is leading so far).
Kath must be such a proud mother to see her son play at Wembley that
icon of world football. Here is a great
photo of her with Phil at the pre match lunch posted earlier by her on
Facebook.
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| Phil and Kath at Wembley today |
Tom joined us
for an impromptu lunch of the Spanish wine, ham and chorizo we had brought with
us. It was accompanied by Phil’s
delicious homemade bread, after which Eladio was in dire need of a siesta.
Later Phil
shoved Kathryn and I out of the kitchen whilst he prepared a secret gourmet
dinner. Kath’s boss Joan and her husband
David had been invited and everything had to be perfect. They are great fans of Spain as they have a
house in Nerja and have been trying to learn Spanish for a few years now. Dave was delighted to practice his Spanish
most of the evening with Eladio who is always a willing teacher. We had a great night, mostly talking about
education, me being the only odd “girl” out, but I didn’t mind. The conversation was mostly about how things
have changed so much in the UK and in their mind rather for the worse. They
used a few expressions I wasn’t familiar with and Phil remarked, correctly, that
I was a little out of touch. They were
referring to chavs and other similar terminology which of course didn’t exist
when I left the UK in the early 80’s.
So I wasn’t the only person to be learning new vocabulary that night
after all.
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| Eladio with Joan and David on the last night at Phil and Kath's, what a great dinner |
Phil’s cooking
was fantastic. He made a sea food
platter to begin with, followed by beef cooked in beer. The dessert was my favourite, rhubarb
crumble. Again a new word for Eladio which has no translation in Spanish I’m
afraid.
And so as the
evening came to an end and Joan and David left, we had to say goodbye to our
hosts as of course they would be up very early in the morning to go to their
respective schools. We couldn’t thank
them enough for their hospitality and look forward to hosting them again in our
house very soon.
Monday was our
last day and we were determined to squeeze as much in as possible before our
flight back to Madrid in the early evening.
After packing and locking the door of the house, we got into our little hired car and headed to
Sainsburys in the centre of Keighley. I
wanted to get some essential British produce I can’t get at home or even
online, such as disposable kitchen wipes which I bought in copious
quantities. Afterwards we decided to go
to Bradford, the town I lived near in my formative years. As I always write here, it is probably the
ugliest town in England, but still it is home to me and I always have the need to go back there, like the criminal to the crime scene I suppose. We parked in the dirty multi storey car park
near Morrisons (yes the first Morrisons store that was built by Sir Ken, Amanda’s
old neighbour) and walked towards Darley Street. Here I wanted to go into Boots and then Marks
and Spencers. I got this great little
blouse as well as some basic cotton tops.
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| The blouse I bought at M+S in Bradford on Monday |
It was strange
walking down the most commercial street in Bradford and seeing the familiar
shops and banks, except that the Halifax Building Society is now the Spanish
owned Banco Santander.
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| Shopping in Bradford on Monday |
We wanted fish
and chips for lunch but I had no idea where to go, so asked the assistant in
M+S. An American girl student who I
couldn’t imagine why would be in Bradford of all places, recommended the In
Plaice on Sunbridge Road in Centenary Square next to the Town Hall. Erected in 1873 this A Listed building is
Bradford’s most famous monument and is built in a distinct Venetian style. Funnily enough I have never been inside it
but I do know that Bradford would just not be the same without it, as it wouldn’t
be the same without all the Victorian and Industrial revolution buildings and
factories, now turned into museums or flats.
These are Bradford’s saving graces.
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| Eladio by Bradford's landmark, the Town Hall, now called the City Hall I think. |
The fish and
chips and mushy peas were not as refined as Betty’s but very good in any
case. The establishment very “Yorkshirey”,
as you can see from the photo below.
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| The In Plaice where we had our lunch in Bradford on our last day |
Soon we were
walking up Sunbridge Road and to the multi storey car park to get our car and
drive to Manchester Airport. We had lots
of time to kill at Terminal 3 but I was very disappointed with the shopping on
offer. It was so bad even I, an airport shopaholic,
was not tempted to purchase anything. We
were not home until after 11 in the evening, so there was only time to unpack
and go to bed. Monday was Father’s day
in Spain, but for Eladio, it passed uneventfully.
On Tuesday I
was back to full speed with my work, the Yorkshire trip happily tucked to the
back of my mind. I had brought my Father
lots of English goodies back, biscuits from Betty’s and plenty of Turkish delight
and walnut whips, his favourite. The
girls got their favourite too, jelly babies, a tradition my Mother started when
they were small.
Suzy had had a
great weekend herself. I must mention
she went away to Salamanca with her girlfriends for a weekend hen party for Caju
who will be marrying this month. Here is
just one photo of a great moment when they went laser fighting. They must have
had a huge laugh all weekend, judging by this and other photos.
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| Suzy had a great time at a weekend hen party in Salamanca whilst we were away |
Oli, meanwhile
had Paula, her cousin to spend the weekend with her. I heard they had a heavy clothes shopping
session in Madrid beforehand, just what they both like best. I would have loved to have been with them but
that will have to be next time.
On Wednesday,
the official start of Spring, believe it or not it snowed in Madrid. I woke up
to this scene in our garden. Later it sleeted and turned into rain which
actually was a huge blessing as I think it hasn’t rained here properly since
before Christmas and there is much news of the drought in the papers.
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| Believe it or not it snowed here on Wednesday 21st March, the first day of spring. |
The week was
short thanks to Monday being Father’s day and soon it was Friday. That night we
had another date in town with José Antonio and Dolores. We went to a modest little place near where
they live and where we used to live. It
was called El Rincón Murciano (The Murcia corner). Surprisingly there was no rice on the menu
but the food was good.
And now I have
reached yesterday, Saturday, a glorious sunny day. Eladio took the opportunity to sew some grass
on the back lawn, as you can see in the picture below.
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| Eladio sewing grass in the garden yesterday |
We had a
Ukranian married couple to spread the fertilizer come manure on the lawn and
that took them until well after lunch.
It was funny to notice the young Ukranian wife, who confessed it was her
first time, doing the heavy job with a typical Russian kerchief on her head.
Meanwhile the
girls and I escaped to the Tres Aguas shopping centre with the excuse of
needing to buy some basic t-shirts. I
ended up buying this lovely green checkered blouse which Eladio remarked this
morning looked like a table cloth. I suppose he is right. You will have noticed I have a thing about
striped and checkered clothing.
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| Another great blouse, this one from H+M with the girls on Saturday |
I have done
quite a lot of shopping this week, but all of it, apart from Monday in
Yorkshire and yesterday in H+M, was online.
So what did I buy you might wonder?
In the first place, seeing so many chocolate Easter eggs whilst in
England, reminded me I should stock up.
Being a huge chocolate fan myself, not to mention my sweet toothed
Father and girls, I decided to splash out on something luxurious. And I found this amazing creation on The Chocolate Hotel website which will soon be with us, along with a wonderful box of
chocolates I couldn’t resist on the same site.
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| I ordered this amazing Easter Egg from the Hotel Chocolate website this week |
My other
online purchase was also inspired by our trip to England. I noticed Phil using similar mixing bowls for
making his bread to two I have inherited from my Grandmother. So I started investigating online and found
out they are called Green's Gripstand mixing bowls. I had an amazing find on a site called Your Vintage Life where they were selling two 10.5 inch replicas of my Grandmother’s
for the ridiculously low price of 30 pounds each. Needless to say I grabbed them
immediately. When you see this picture,
if you are English, you will know exactly what I am talking about as you
probably will have one at home or if not you will have seen them in countless
British homes.
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| Recognise this very British Green's gripstand mixing bowl? |
Of importance
yesterday of course was the fact that the clocks went forward one hour for what
is known in England as “British Summer Time”.
That meant that we got one hour’s sleep less but that didn’t really
matter because we go to bed early and get up early anyway.
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| The clocks went forward on Saturday |
And today is
Sunday and I have come to the end of this bumper edition of my blog. Today there is not much to mention, apart
from the fact that it has been another sunny and glorious day. It was even hot enough for Suzy to sunbathe
by the covered pool, no doubt with the aim of keeping up the tan from her recent
trip to Africa. Of note today, I made
cheat Siberian pelmeni (a Russian dish similar to ravioli and eaten with Smetana,
sour cream). Susana had been to a
Russian shop in Madrid and brought home a huge packet of frozen pelmeni. It
is my Father and my favourite Russian dish and Suzy’s too. This is what it looks like and I can assure
you it is delicious.
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| Siberian pelmeni with smetana (sour cream) |
Now I have
come to the end of my blog. You may well
be wondering how Kathy’s son Tom Lee got on at Wembley. Well I am delighted to tell you his team
Chesterfield F.C. won the Football League Trophy. And now I am posting a photo of the proud
Mother and Son savouring the moment during the match after drinks. They must be ecstatic. Well done both of you,
I’m so happy for you.
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| Happy mother and son, Kath and Tom savouring Chesterfield's victory at Wembley today |
It’s also well
done to Spain’s Formula One double champion Fernando Alonso for garnering victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix for his Ferrari Team today. Another great win for Spanish sport.
On that happy
note, I leave you until next week.
Hoping yours is a good one,
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