Sunday 30th September 2012
When it rains it pours, controversial
pictures of Spain, anti austerity protests in Madrid, a goodbye dinner, Apple
says sorry and other things.
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| A great pic of Gloria (blonde), Cris (brunette) and I taken by Robert just before the goodbye party on Tuesday |
Hello everyone,
The week the
weather has been wet and awful. The
beginning of autumn certainly made its mark. We came back last Sunday from 30ºc in Campello,
near Alicante, to 17º and rain in Madrid.
It was the first rainfall I can remember in months. The problem here is that it hardly ever rains
but when it happens it does so with a vengeance. And this week it didn’t just rain, it
literally poured and caused floods in many regions. I’m not sure if it’s true
that “the rain in Spain falls mostly on the plain” as the worst hit areas were
the south of Spain. Tragically 10 people
died in Malaga, Almeria and Murcia which are usually very dry areas.
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| It didn't just rain but it poured and caused awful floods in the south of Spain this week with 10 victims. |
Monday saw me
in the office where I met up with Gustavo who wanted to interview me about my
memories and experiences with the Motorola cycling team, after a post I wrote
recently when I learned that Motorola was closing down in Spain. The interview
is for the popular cycling blog “El tío del mazo” he writes together with other
cycling fans. I look forward to seeing
the published interview.
Cycling was
much in the news this week. Last weekend
the Belgian cyclist Gilbert won the men’s road race in the Cycling World
Championship and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde came third. In Spain this was not much celebrated as this
country is far too used to more spectucular victories from the likes of Pau
Gasol, Rafa Nadal, Fernando Alonso, Alberto Contador and other great Spanish sports
figures. On Wednesday Alberto Contador
went on to win his first ever one day race in the UCI World Championship, in
the Milan – Turin race. And on Saturday,
“Purito” (Joaquim Rodríguez), his rival in the recent Tour of Spain, won the last race of this championship in the Tour of Lombardy, putting him in the top
spot ahead of Bradley Wiggins. So, yes,
Spanish cycling is doing well again. But
for me, it is nowhere near as exciting as when Pedro Delgado or Miguel Indurain
were racing. Also cycling since then has
become somewhat tarnished with all the doping scandals. This is what I had in mind when I said to
Gustavo in the interview on Monday that I would no longer recommend corporate
sponsorship of this sport which once did a huge service to Motorola. Indeed it served its purpose of enhancing
awareness of the company and mobile telephony in Europe but if I were to launch
a brand today, I would certainly not consider the sport of cycling, however
dear it is to my heart.
On Monday, the
New York Times, that most prestigious and universal of international newspapers,
published a series of photos entitled: “hunger on the rise in Spain”. As if we
didn’t already have a bad image abroad because of the crisis, these photographs
have added insult to injury in that they will have done even more damage to how
the country is portrayed outside Spain than before. They caused huge controversy in social and
other media. Take a look for yourself if
you haven’t seen them.
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| One of the controversial photos in the NYT by Samuel Aranda. |
I myself thought
they were a little biased. After all, surely people here are not hungry? Or are they?
Maybe they are if 25% are unemployed and maybe I just don’t see them
where I live. The author is a Spanish photographer, Samuel Aranda. I have written about him before, when he won
the World Press Photo.
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| The photo by Samuel Aranda which won the World Press Photo this year. |
I then googled
him and found a very “touché” twit where he defends the publication of the
photos. This is what he says in Spanish:
“a los críticos les animo a que se den una vuelta por los barrios humildes”
which roughly translated means: “to my critics, I would encourage them to go
and visit the poor (humble) neighbourhoods. After all it must have been in
these areas where he took the controversial photographs.
On Tuesday,
there were huge protests against the austerity measures of the government and
the event was then coined 25S (25th September). It was mostly lead by a group of people who
call themselves the “indignant”. They protested around the Spanish parliament
and there were some very ugly scenes.
There has been talk of police in plain clothing amongst the crowds who
have been accused of sparking the violence, but as in all these types of
demonstrations I suspect the violence is often caused by troublemakers who join
them just for the sake of havoc.
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| The demonstration on 25S this week |
The riots have
continued most of the week, including Friday when the Spanish government
announced the budget for 2013, one of the most austere in recent years. Some
Spanish newspapers reported that at least half of the cuts had gone towards
paying the enormous national debt.
Meanwhile,
Spain’s troubled and worried President, Mariano Rajoy was in New York attending
the UN General Assembly where he also had to defend the recent cuts his
government has made. And whilst some of his
countrymen were surrounding the Parliament in Madrid he was caught unawares and
photographed smoking a cigar in Manhatten.
The photograph was taken by Jonan Basterra. All it needed was for the photographer to
upload the photo to his blog and internet did the rest. It was soon a trending topic and a very negative
one at that. This turned out to be
another controversial photo to add fuel to the fire of discontentment in Spain.
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| Spain's President Mariano Rajoy caught smoking a cigar in New York in sharp contrast to the anti austerity protests going on in Madrid. |
Later in a
press conference in New York, Mr. Rajoy praised the “large majority” of
Spaniards who, although they have to suffer similar sacrifices, did not go out
on the streets to protest. I thought of
myself and many others who didn’t join the demonstration and sincerely believe
that even if they didn’t protest that doesn’t mean they are happy with the
situation or approve the measures the government is taking or is not taking, as
maybe the case.
So no, on Tuesday
I was not at the demonstration. I was attending a goodbye party. It was for the
two Johans, our Swedish CEO and CTO who were leaving Yoigo after 6 years since the
start up. They were very much the heart
and soul of the company, and it will be impossible to fill their place. But they have gone now and we will manage,
although we will always miss them.
The dinner
took place at a restaurant called Filandón, very far from where I live. It’s a wonderful venue, a sort of mansion
with a country flare or theme, set in big grounds just outside Madrid on the El
Pardo road. We had decorated the room where the dinner took place for the staff
of Yoigo and distributors. As the two
Swedes are joining Orange in Switzerland the girls from my events agency, QuintaEsencia,
had made two life size cut outs of them dressed in what I thought was to be the
Swiss National dress. It turned out we
had made a mistake, by dressing them in lederhosen. This is a misconception as apparently lederhosen
come from Austria. In any case, it added
a lot of colour and fun to the event; although I’m still rather cross with
myself for making such a silly mistake.
We used a
photographer called Roberto or “Rober” for the occasion and these are the photos he took. He catches people
unawares and the results are more of how people are enjoying themselves rather
than posing. However, one photo is a
pose, as it is of the group of us attending the party. Group photos cannot be any other way.
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| The group photo at the goodbye party on Tuesday at Filandón |
The food was
good but rather too rich. I’m not used
to big dinners or drinking much wine, so I’m afraid I got a migraine during the
night. It was one of those awful
episodes I have a few times a year, when the migraine only subsides after you
have been sick. That thus was not a good
end to the night. Also as I left the restaurant at midnight in the dark and
pouring rain, the first to leave – always the Cinderalla these days – I bumped into
a car whilst reversing out of the car park, despite the camera in my car. So I left my card with my number plate
written down by the door of the car I hit. Luckily the damage was very minor
and I had only slightly broken one of the headlights. As I drove home I I wondered if the car in
question belonged to anyone from the party.
Later when I sent an email with the link to the photos of the party to
the attendants, one of our distributors, David, wrote back to say it was his
car I had hit. I was very cross with
myself for the “accident” as I hardly ever have one but thankfully the damage
to my car was very slight, with just a minor bump on one side.
The week,
apart from Tuesday, was very quiet.
Friday was perhaps the highlight when Eladio and I went out to
dinner. We had seen in the afternoon
when we went to Decathlon to change the clothes Oli and Suzy had bought their
Father for his birthday, a TGI Friday had replaced the Alpargatería which
closed down a few months ago at Equinoccio, the leisure centre in Majadahonda. Not having been to one for ages and attracted
by the idea of their fabulous onion rings, we decided that would be the place
for our Friday night dinner. “Fridays on
Friday”, as I said to Eladio. We weren’t
happy with the choice though, not because of the onion rings which were up to
standard, but because the service wasn’t.
They took nearly an hour to serve the first course and then nearly
another hour to serve the second by which time we were no longer hungry. Add the slow service to the very loud ambience,
we both agreed as we left that we would not be going back.
Friday was definitely the
highlight of the year for Apple as sales started for its new iPhone 5. The papers reported huge queues which I wasn’t
sure whether to believe or not. And I
say that as when at Nokia we launched the “NGage” games phone with a lot of
hype, I staged a queue at a Nokia shop in the centre of town and invited the
press for them to see just how popular the product would be. When I say “staged”, I mean I actually paid
people to queue. When I did that, I did
so through an agency that provides queues for the likes of El Corte Inglés (big Spanish department store) when sales
start. So now when you see big queues on
the television at the beginning of sales days, think too that they may not
always be for real. Whether or not the queues for the iPhones were real or not,
the product is sure to be out of stock soon, as the company does not have
enough to satisfy demand.
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| The iPhone 5 queue at Covent Garden in London on Friday. I wonder just how many of those young people in the queue can afford one. |
The iPhone
will sell, for sure it will, and despite what has become known as the “mapplegate”
issue. You will have heard that the new operating
system (iOS6) for the iPhone includes its own maps application, not the widely
used google maps. It has been a disaster
since its launch, with many towns missing or misplaced geographically and other
glitches. So on Friday, coinciding with
the sales launch, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, actually went out and said sorry, a
sort of first for Apple and ironically even encouraged customers to use its
rival Google Maps. But it took the
company nearly two weeks to do so. An
issue like “mapplegate” could be the beginning of a downfall for any company
but not yet for Apple which is still in the sweet spot. Apple faced another PR issue this week with
huge criticism resurfacing on how employees are treated or rather mistreated in
the Foxconn factories in Chine where the new phone is assembled. With a few
more issues like this it could be the beginning of the end. Companies who reach the top don’t often stay
there, so watch out Apple and learn from companies like Motorola or Nokia who
are no longer there. No doubt Samsung
will have enjoyed the show and Google too of course.
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| The latest iPhone maps application gone wrong. It thinks Berlin is in the Antarctic. |
Saturday was
just as wet and cold as the rest of the week, so I decided it was the day to
make the first cocido of the season. This is a heavy Spanish dish which varies
in different regions in Spain and is always eaten in the winter and at lunch rather
than dinner. My speciality is the cocido
madrileño (cocido from the Madrid area).
It is a sort of stew cooked with chickpeas, meats and bones of all types
to which you add vegetables cooked in a separate pot, mostly cabbage, carrots
and potatoes. When everything is cooked,
you drain the ingredients and then mix the vegetable and meat broth together to
make a clear soup to which you add vermicelli (thin short noodles). The first course is the soup and the second
course is the solid ingredients served separately. For you to better understand what the
finished “cocido madrileño” looks like, here is a photo of me making this dish
back in January 2010.
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| Cocido madrileño |
Cocido can
only really be made if you have a lot of guests and on Saturday both girls came
and joined my Father, Eladio and I and they were accompanied by their friend
Juli and Olivia’s boyfriend Miguel. For me it was another of our cherished
family lunches.
In contrast,
today Sunday, it was just “the oldies”, Eladio, my Father and I for lunch.
Sunday is nearly always a quiet day and today has been no exception. Thankfully though the sun finally made its appearance
and the forecast for next week is sunshine nearly every day with temperatures
in the low to mid 20ºs. I think we will
be having what is called here, “el veranillo de San Miguel”, an Indian summer
being perhaps the nearest equivalent.
So wherever
you are, I hope the sun shines for you too and that you have a good week.
Till next time
my friends.
All the best, Masha
