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| Paula's surprise birthday dinner on Wednesday |
Hi everyone
Tomorrow
Sunday I am off to Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) and I’ll be
too busy to write this week’s post, so here you have it one day early.
There really is
not much to report this week so this week’s post will be quite short. I haven’t done anything exciting. I think my week could be summed up as closely
following The Fast Diet and making last minute preparations for Yoigo’s
activities at the MWC, the biggest mobile event in the world which happens once
a year in February.
Monday saw me
in the office for a meeting with my PR agency to go over the presentation for
the press conference in Barcelona. I
went in again on Tuesday for a management team meeting and the rest of the week
worked from home.
Eladio went
off each afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to give his UNED (Spanish
equivalent of the Open University) tutorials.
I went on our walk alone feeling guilty about leaving the dogs, Norah
and Elsa at home and in fact crept out so they wouldn’t see me.
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| The view on my walk one day this week |
I didn’t see
much of the girls during the week either.
Olivia would come back from her TV programme when we had finished lunch
and was away most evenings with Suzy. I
missed them I must say.
On Wednesday
they had an important date, the celebration of their cousin, Paula’s 25th
birthday, quite a milestone as far as birthdays go. It is in fact today (happy happy birthday
dear Paula) but as she was going off to Malaga with her boyfriend Pedro this
weekend, the surprise birthday dinner with some of her cousins took place on
Wednesday night in downtown Madrid.
Alicia her cousin and flat mate, together with Pedro, had prepared a
great happy birthday video where nearly all the cousins intervened. You can see it here. It made both Paula and her mother Pili cry
with joy. See what you think. Olivia’s video was even made by the TVE
studios, but I think Paula’s brother, Mario’s intervention is the best –
together with their Dalmatian dog, Trebol, wearing red sunglasses they greet
their sister Paula from León.
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| At the cousin's surprise birthday dinner for Paula's 25th this week |
This week was
my second week on The Fast diet and of course I fasted (or semi fasted as you
can have just 500 calories on fast days) on Monday and Thursday. The worst part of the day is mid afternoon
when your stomach rumbles and the day seems so long until your frugal
dinner. To keep my mind off food on
Thursday I drove to the Centro Oeste shopping centre to return a dress I had
bought at H+M. Of course whilst there I
had a good look at the shops too. This
week my find was a lovely red top from Massimo Dutti, Zara’s up market
retailer.
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| The new red top I got from Massimo Dutti this week |
On Friday
morning my dieting efforts were rewarded as in just 11 days since I started I
had lost 2 whole kilos. It might not be so noticeable on the outside, but I am
fitting beautifully now into clothes that used to be tight.
Friday being
Friday, we went out for dinner and this was the one day of the week I broke my
diet. We decided on Ginos as I had a
craving for pasta. My favourite dish
there is fetuccinne made with green and white pasta and served with strips of
ham and a cream sauce. The accompanying
wine was heaven as was the dessert, pistachio ice cream.
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| My favourite pasta dish at Ginos |
It was ironic
that last night I slept badly after such a big meal, in contrast to sleeping
badly on Thursday night because of hunger.
As we were having
dinner, Olivia had just arrived in Valencia where she will be spending the
weekend with her boyfriend Miguel.
Luckily though, we will have the pleasure of Susana’s company for lunch
today so the house won’t feel so empty.
This week of
course has been the week of Oscar Pistorius’ bail hearing in South Africa. I don’t have to remind you who he is or that
he has been accused of murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on St. Valentine’s
day. You will also know that he is often
called “blade runner, after the film but also because of the “blade” type legs
he uses for competing. I was quite interested in the story but did not expect
to be involved in it as I was this week.
The reason: Olivia had to do reports for TVE1 on the case and I had to
help her with some of the translations. I
should add that she would send me the difficult phrases via whatsapp at about 8
in the morning, demanding an immediate reply. I reminded her later that I am
not at my best before having my morning coffee which Olivia thinks is not a
good trait in my character and she is probably right. I can assure you the
phrases were not easy to translate with a lot of legal jargon but worst of all
were the English type newspaper headlines which are often plays on words and
cannot be translated directly. The name
of the hearing itself was the first obstacle.
We are talking here of his bail hearing whereas the press in Spain were
referring to it as a trial which is not the case. Some examples were “Oscar’s
defense fires on all cylinders”, “Oscar cop under fire” and the one that proved
most difficult for me: “Oscar in bed riddle”.
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| The famous South African athlete Oscar Pistorius at the bail hearing this week |
Last night we
learned he had been granted bail, ironically because the Judge didn’t think he
was a flight risk. The full trial will
now take place and the world will watch to see if his story of manslaughter holds
up or if he is accused of premeditated murder.
Right now I am in two minds as I read and see just how affected he
seems, breaking down and crying throughout the hearing. If he is innocent then he will be suffering
doubly and unfairly and I wonder if that is the case. Right now only he really knows.
In Spain we
have our own big trail going on. It’s
not a murder case but one about embezzlement and it’s big because it involves
the King’s son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin who is married to the youngest princess
the Infanta Cristina. The former
Barcelona handball player is accused of embezzling money through multimillion
euro deals struck with regional governments through the supposedly non-profit
Noos institute he set up with his partner Diego Torres. He organized sporting events for them cashing
in on his royal connections. So far so
good but what happened was that they charged much more than the real cost,
pocketing the rest for themselves. Not so long ago in Spain negative reporting on
the Royal Family was fairly taboo but in 10 years or so this has changed and
now we get to read all the gory details.
I think the real downfall of the Spanish monarchy came when the King
scuttled off to Botswana on an elephant hunting expedition whilst Spaniards
back home were facing one of the worst financial crises in history.
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| Princess Cristina and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin, in deep trouble |
The story has
gone across borders and is no longer a national scandal. I was just slightly surprised to see The
Herald Tribune include the news on their front page, whilst news about Spain is
usually relegated to the back pages. The headline was very graphic and entitled
“a royal mess”. You can read the full story here. I suppose that is the best way to describe this hearing and its repercussions
for the Spanish Monarchy. For the first
time, in Spain politicians, albeit the left wing, are calling for the
abdication of the King. I am sure Juan
Carlos I is having great difficulty sleeping, not to mention his daughter and
son-in-law the ostracized Duke and Duchess of Palma.
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| The Iñaki Urdanarin case was front page news this week in the Herald Tribune |
Today the disgraced Duke will be in
court in sunny Mallorca and the world will be watching, including his
Father-in-law, the King. I wonder
whether Iñaki Urdangarin will be able to get away with an “I’m sorry and I won’t
do it again” which is what the King said after the Botswana elephant episode. I
doubt it.
And whilst that happens, I shall be
getting on with the day, making lunch for the family, going for our walk and of
course packing my suitcase for my trip tomorrow. I shall be catching an early high speed train
and look forward to lunch tomorrow with Grainne and her son Marcel in
Barcelona.
Meanwhile I wish you all a great
week,
Cheers Masha
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