Sunday 18th November 2012
Welcome Oufa, a general strike in Spain, a chocolate Christmas tree, the
girls in Cubillas de Santa Marta, Oli running in Valencia and other stories.
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| My beautiful girls Oli and Suzy near Valladolid this weekend |
Good morning my friends this sunny Sunday in November.
How has your week been? Mine has been busy but productive I
think.
On Monday our
new living in home help, 29 year old Oufa from Morocco was coming and I had
arranged for Zena, our Ukranian cleaning lady but also friend to come and show
her the ropes. However Oufa (pronounced
“wafa”) rang to say she would be late as she had to go to the Moroccan
consulate. I thought that was rather a
negative sign but had no choice in the matter.
In the end she arrived just as Zena had finished cleaning. The good thing was that Oufa would be
starting in an immaculately clean house which she would now only have to
maintain clean rather than start all over.
I had imagined
she would not eat pork but was surprised to hear she does not eat red meat
because she doesn’t like it and only eats chicken. I then heard that the chicken has to be what
is known as “halal” or permissible chicken.
My knowledge of halal is limited and I get it mixed up with the Jewish
kosher way of eating, so I looked it up and here is the definition: “Halal is
anything that is legal or lawful for Muslims. In terms of meat, this can apply
to what kind of animal is used (not pigs, for instance) and the way they are
killed: an animal must be healthy, the butcher must make a recitation
dedicating it to God, and the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe are cut
with a single swipe from a sharp knife. As with kosher meat, the idea is that
the animal dies immediately and the blood drains away”. So, yes there is a similarity to Kosher as I
had suspected. I, of course respect this
completely but it does pose a problem in that she cannot always eat what we do
and so far I have done all the cooking where meat is concerned, leaving her to
concentrate on looking after my Father, cleaning and ironing which she excels
at.
So far Oufa is
doing a grand job. She is a trained
assistant nurse which is great for looking after my Father. And so far I like her and I think that has
something to do with my maternal instincts – I sort of tend to mother her. But also, that’s maybe because of the good
chemistry. Oufa is sweet, efficient,
discreet and quiet but talks if you talk to her. So far I have found out she was born in a
village near Marrakech and is one of 10 brothers and sisters (7 girls and 3
boys aged from 42 down to 24). Her
mother married and had her first child when she was 15 and her husband was 17
years older. Oufa’s Father who worked
hard to keep his big family, was a trader of sorts but sadly died a few years
ago. Oufa has a boyfriend living in
Paris who works in a shop with his uncle and is thus able to travel to Madrid
occasionally to see her. She keeps in
contact with him and her family with her iPad.
She speaks French and Spanish as well as her native tongue and is keen
to learn English. I told her to ask my
Father, the best language teacher to be found, to teach her and I think they
have already started their lessons. I’m glad to see she is a modern girl. For
the moment she is by far the best living in home help we have had, although
it’s early days. So welcome Oufa and I
hope you are happy with us.
On Monday too
Olivia’s boyfriend arrived to spend part of the week with her here. Next week, they will be working together
again in Valencia. They really enjoyed
the experience last week and Olivia grabs any chance to be sent to Valencia by
her programme and will also be working there over Christmas, although I was
thankful to hear that she will be with us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
On Tuesday I
was up early to go and do a blood test with Suzy, one of the tests we have to
do for our annual gynecological MOT so to speak. I hate blood tests, not because of the needle
but because you have to do them on an empty stomach and I am the sort of person
who wakes up in immediate need of breakfast.
Thankfully there weren’t many people in the clinic and we were soon able
to go the cafeteria next door and have breakfast. My breakfast at home is always dukan – which
means oat bran porridge and coffee. But on Tuesday I changed habits and enjoyed
a toasted croissant and my very favourite breakfast food, a “porra” – sort of
deep fried waffle but sausage shaped. It
sounds awful but is delicious. This, my
friends, was our breakfast. Suzy, being
a healthier eater had toast with olive oil and tomato and fresh orange juice,
something I can’t stomach so early in the morning.
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| This was the breakfast I had with Suzy on Tuesday after our blood test |
On Wednesday
there was a general strike in Spain against the austerity cuts; now known as
14N. It was the second since the new
conservative government came into power and one of many that were held across Europe this week. It didn’t affect me
really, except that my Father’s Daily Telegraph was not printed the next day. It’s difficult to tell how many people took
part and whether it will be affective or not.
It is however a warning to the government and to Europe that people are
tired of the crisis and cannot take much more.
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| There was a general strike in Spain on Wednesday |
You often
think that the uprising of people doesn’t make much difference but that is not
true in the case of the evictions – the big news in Spain. Because of the mortgages given out right left
and centre by immoral banks to people who are now not able to pay them because
they have lost their jobs, there have been up to 400.000 evictions in the
recent past and many protests although it was not until 53 year old Amaia Egana
jumped to her death from her fourth floor home in the Basque country as
bailiffs came to turn her out of her home, that the issue, already top news,
went to the top of the political agenda. Thank goodness, now, the government
together with the socialist opposition, are working on a solution to this
terrible consequence of the current crisis.
The worst thing about the evictions is that people are ousted from their
homes and not only lose them but have to continue to pay the debt which of
course they cannot pay. I can only heave a sigh of relief that we paid off our
mortgage some 25 years ago but at the same time worry that with the current
climate our children will probably never be able to buy their own property.
Wow, how life has changed and not always for the better.
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| Evictions are a big issue in Spain at the moment and behind every one there is a personal drama to be told |
On the day of
the General Strike I went into the office for a meeting with my PR agency and
found the roads pretty empty. Later that
day Eladio went to his tutorials at the UNED University and at the first one no
one turned up. However he did have at
least 7 students at the second tutorial.
Meanwhile I
went for the daily walk on my own.
Inspired by Olivia who in turn is inspired by her sporty new boyfriend
Miguel, I installed a sports monitor on my Samsung Galaxy S3 called
Runstatic. Thus for the first time I was
able to see how far our walk is, how long it takes and how many calories I burn
daily. The result is 4.25km in 0.53h and
212 calories. Not bad for a woman my
age, especially as we do the walk nearly every day. For my English friends
that’s about 2.6 miles walked at an average of 3mph.
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| Do you use Runstatic to measure your running or walking? I do now. |
On Thursday my
latest parcel from Amazon arrived, a couple of books but also the dvd of the
film “ Karol, the man who became pope”, I wrote about last week. I had seen it on the TV but missed the
beginning. Eladio wasn’t keen so I
watched it in English on my pc and was disappointed to see that I had ordered
only the first part, not the second, “Karol, the Pope, the man”, the story of
Karol Wojtyla’s life from when he is chosen to be the Pope. I couldn’t find it on Amazon but was
delighted later to come across it on You Tube and watched all three hours of it
in a couple of sessions. It’s amazing how the story has touched me and I don’t
consider myself religious and I am not Catholic. However, he was an extraordinary man. Eladio, who knows much more than I, later
pointed out to me that in actual fact Wojtyla was quite regressive and that the
church had not really benefitted from his time, unlike the more progressive
Pope John XXIII. Be that as it may, I
still found the story fascinating. My
Father enjoyed the film too, the story of Wojtyla’s life before he came
pontifice, yesterday and today. I later
told Eladio that my Mother had always said my Father looked like the man and
that is very true.
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| Pope John Paul II. My Mother always said my Father looked like him. |
In the
afternoon Suzy and I had an appointment at the Quirón hospital to do a breast
scan. I also had to do a mamograph. With the blood test and these test results we
have an appointment with our gynecologist at the end of November for our annual
checkup. The mamograph is quite an unpleasant test where your breasts are
squeezed by a nurse in an awful contraption but the breast scan is less
unpleasant, apart from the cold gel they put on your chest and the ticklish
feeling you get from the device that rubs it.
I asked the doctor who did the scan if everything looked ok and was
happy to hear it was. So it looks like
I’ve got the all clear this year.
Suzy was in a
rush that day as she and Oli were going away that afternoon to spend two nights
with their friends, Elena and María (also sisters) at a small boutique hotel called
Pago de Trascasas in the tiny village of Cubillas de Santa Marta, some 25km
from Valladolid.
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| The Hostal Pago de Trasasas in Cubillas de Santa Marta where the girls spent Thursday and Friday night |
The hotel I
think was part of a winery (bodega) which they visited the next day but
unfortunately for us didn’t buy any wine.
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| The girls with their friends Elena and Maria (also sisters) at the winery in Cubillas de Santa Marta on Friday |
They took lots
of pictures of their visit, my favourite being one of my two daughters at the
wine tasting they went to, the one which illustrates this week's post.
Before coming
back they also met up with JM, a childhood friend who they have known since
they were very small in Montrondo. He
lives in Valladolid and there they joined him for tapas and a short visit of
the very elegant Castilian town where some say the best Spanish is spoken.
Meanwhile we
were left alone and on Friday morning I took Oufa to do the weekly shopping
with me. I also invited her for a coffee
and we had a nice moment chatting together. When we got home I was surprised to
find a parcel I was not expecting had arrived.
It was from the girls at my events agency, QuintaEsencia who had sent me
a wonderful milk chocolate Christmas tree.
They had suggested for this year’s Yoigo present but it wasn’t chosen.
It was an immediate success at home, as you can imagine. This is the picture I took of it which got
lots of favourable comments from my friends on Facebook. I can assure you it tastes just as good as it
looks.
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| The milk chocolate Christmas tree we are already more than half way through |
On Friday too,
Eladio and I went out to dinner as we do most Fridays. This time we went to Gobolem in Las Rozas
which is the venue I have chosen for the ex Nokia employee dinner I am
arranging on 4th December. The
numbers are growing and it looks like we might even be more than 60 people.
Gobolem was the only restaurant in the area which would serve us a buffet
dinner which I think is the most appropriate format for so many people and we
shall have the whole place to ourselves.
Martin, the owner, welcomed us warmly and we chose the menu with him as
we went over the details of the dinner.
The dinner was good and we were pleasantly surprised when at the end
Martin said the dinner was on him.
Saturday was a
rainy day. It rained all day and finally
stopped in the late afternoon permitting us to go on our walk with the
dogs. After the walk we had a date at
the cinema as I had bought tickets online to go and see the new James Bond
film. Truth to tell I am not a great
Bond fan and would far have preferred to see the new José Luis Cuerda film,
Todo es Silencio “all is silence” but being a more obscure film there weren’t
many places to see it or if there were the showing times were inconvenient for
us. So, no I am not a great Bond fan but actually enjoyed every moment of the
action packed Skyfall, shot in Istanbul, London, Shanghai, Macao and Scotland and
starring not only Daniel Craig but also Judy Dench and Javier Bardem. Both
Eladio and I commented later over dinner at Ginos that we had enjoyed it
immensely. If you haven’t seen it yet,
you can whet your appetites by watching the trailer here.
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| Loved the new James Bond film |
And today is
Sunday. The first news of the day came
from Olivia who as soon as she had returned from Valladolid went off to
Valencia with Miguel last night. They
were to be running the 10km parallel race to the Valencia marathon this
morning. I told you Miguel is sporty and
he is obviously having a big influence on Olivia’s new found love of
sport. If last week it was swimming in
the sea, a few weeks ago it was paragliding, today it was marathon running and
I wonder what it will be next time.
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| Oli and Miguel just before the 10km race started this morning in Valencia |
When they had
finished the race Oli rang me to say she had done it in just under an
hour. I later looked up the results of the
race and saw that the best women’s time was about 32 minutes and the best men’s
time was 29. I asked what Miguel’s time
was and was pleased to hear he ran to join Olivia rather than compete. A nice
gesture I think. Who knows, maybe they
will both take part in the full marathon next year.
Today being
Sunday Oufa would be working until midday and tomorrow will be her full day
off. So I made the lunch whilst she
cleaned and then I drove her to the station.
Meanwhile Suzy came home and we had lunch together but without Olivia of
course. We were supposed to be having a
healthy meal but I’m afraid none of us could resist a piece of the wonderful
chocolate Christmas tree. I just hope we finish it soon and there are no more
temptations until Christmas.
As I am
finishing this week’s blog post, David Ferrer has just beaten Berdych in the
fourth match of the final of this year’s Davis Cup being played in Prague
against the Czech Republic. So far the
teams are equaled and it will be difficult for the Spanish team, robbed of Rafa
Nadal, to win their sixth trophy also known as the “salad bowl”. I’m keeping my
fingers crossed as I sign off here my friends and I hope you are too.
Cheers
everyone until next week.
Masha
