Monday 8th April 2013
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| Outside the Fontecruz Hotel near Avila where we were invited on Saturday |
Hello everyone,
I’m one day
late. Some of you will know that this
was because I was cross yesterday. Well
I was but it’s over now, so here I am again ready to tell you the tale of last
week.
I left off
last Sunday, Easter Day. That was the day of Suzy’s moving home before leaving
for her London adventure in May. I was
so looking forward to having her home for some quality family time but it seems
that is not happening. In a way I am
cross with myself for being so naïve and try to remind myself that the girls
are now young women and have their own lives.
That though is no excuse for them not taking part in family life.
On Sunday, the
day I ate too much chocolate, the new Pope Francis gave his first Urbi et Orbii
blessing in St. Peter’s square. This
increasingly popular Pope delivered a passionate plea for peace where he
singled out Syria saying “how much blood has been shed and how much suffering
there must still be before a political solution is found”.
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| Pope Francis at his first Easter blessing last Sunday |
At home in
England, followers of the celebrated University Boat race which first took
place in 1856, would be watching Oxford beat Cambridge in the 6.8km stretch of the Thames in West London, from Putney
to Mortake. For the record I looked up
who had won more times and was happy to read it was Cambridge, my birth town,
who, as of 2013 have won the race 81 times.
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| Oxford beat Cambridge last Sunday at the annual boat race |
England was to
celebrate another sport victory that day, one I had two minds about. David Ferrer of Spain was to meet Scottish
Andy Murray in the Masters 1000 Miami tournament final. Murray won despite Ferrer having a match
point in the tie break. Murray is now
number two in the world, no mean feat for a player from Britain, not exactly
famous for producing great tennis champions, although enamoured with the sport,
albeit only once year at Wimbledon.
On Sunday by
the way it rained all day. It has been
very rainy recently so I wasn’t’ surprised to read later that in Spain where we
usually complain about droughts, March has turned out be the rainiest month
since weather was recorded. On Monday morning Olivia was sent to Valladolid to
report on the flooding of the rivers there and in the surrounding towns. And
that was the beginning of a media adventure, where news of her reporting went
viral on other tv channels and on internet.
At 10.15 on
Monday she reported from the river in a place called Viana de Ciega in
Valladolid. I was not to see it as I was
attending the weekly management team meeting at Yoigo. So I never heard her faux pas on TV. The talk back internal channel did not work,
so she had no idea she was live. She
found herself dressed in a wet suit and standing in the middle of the river
with water up to her waist waiting to interview the mayor of the town and said,
not knowing that she was live, “oh shit the mayor is not here”. This tv piece then was aired on other tv
channels and I think she got some fame out of the incident. You can see the clip with the faux pas here. I think she got out of the situation quite
well and thankfully her colleagues from the programme didn’t give her any stick
for it.
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| Olivia was caught unawares on tv on Monday - this is her at the famous faux pas moment when she said live "shit, the mayor is not there". |
Later in the
morning she reported from the Pesquera River in Valladolid and once again she
did so from the river wearing a wet suit.
Her idea of reporting on the flooded rivers got her into trouble as she
was photographed doing so by local media and apparently the Civil Protection
unit from the town criticized what they said was dangerous reporting on their
twitter. This news spread on internet
and was a bit of a scoop. The silly
thing though, was that she had done nothing dangerous. In the photo it looks like she is in the
middle of the river but if you see the video of the live report (go to 11.30h) you
will realize she is right by a wall and in no danger. Olivia always likes to be as original as she
can and I agree that it is much more visual to report on the flooding from the
river rather than by the river bank. I
alerted my family to the first article and many of them made lots of comments
in her favour. You can read it here. All in all, both activities were
probably good for her personal branding; I mean it’s good to stand out from the
crowd and have people talking about you rather than going unnoticed. I wonder if you agree? You probably do I’m sure.
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| The image that caused the controversy: that Olivia was doing dangerous reporting in the middle of the flooded river when actually she was right next to a wall in the river. |
Monday 1st
April was of course All Fools’ Dy. It is
not celebrated here, the Spanish version being on 28th December, so
I had to enjoy it via internet. Here
there were plenty of pranks. I think my
favourite was one about an airbag for the whole of a Volvo car or possibly the
one about a new product from Google called “Google Nose”. You can read about some of them here if you
missed them.
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| Monday 1st April was of course April Fools' Day |
But I wasn’t
thinking about April Fools’ Day when I heard on Monday morning the good news
that Yoigo’s major shareholder, the telecoms operator of Nordic origin,
TeliaSonera, who were to announce officially the next day that they had
abandoned plans to sell Yoigo. I had to
keep the news to myself until it was official the next day. I am happy to continue belonging to
TeliaSonera, as there is no better corporate culture than the Nordic one and I
have some experience with others too (Spanish, British, American, French). Also I think it is great for the competition
in the Spanish market to continue to have an agile and low cost challenger such
as Yoigo. On the personal side, it also
means that my working model will continue to be the same and I can tell you I
wouldn’t want it any other way. Yoigo
with its 109 employees and nearly 4 million customers is by far the best
company I have ever worked for and I would not have liked to see it being absorbed
by a global operator which would also have meant a huge change to my status
quo.
On Tuesday I
was relieved when the news went out about TeliaSonera’s decision. Olivia on that day reported again on the
flooding of the rivers at towns like Tordesillas or Toro – you can see the
latter on this link if you go to 12.17h and 13.06h. Once again she did so dressed in a wet suit
from the rivers themselves and the story of her doing so continued to grow on
internet. I should mention, she had expected to come home on Monday and so had
taken no luggage. That proved not to be
a problem as all she had to do was visit Zara and get yet more new clothes!
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| Olivia reporting on the floods |
She came home,
accompanied by her boyfriend Miguel, on time to watch the football match with
my Father, between Barcelona and Paris S.G. where both teams were hoping for a
place in the finals. In the end David Beckham’s new team drew with Barcelona 2-2
at the Camp Nou, not a good result for the Spaniards. They will play again this week, so good luck
to them in the second leg in Paris this time.
Wednesday 3rd
April marked the 40th anniversary of the first call with a mobile phone – well that is if you can call the “dyanatac”, made by my old company
Motorola, exactly that. Ironically today
Motorola is owned by Google and there are something between 6 and 7 billion
users. The phone call was made by a
Motorola employee, Martin Cooper, who I am sure could never have envisaged how
much mobile phones would change our lives or what the smartphones of today
would do or look like. I remember using
a dynatac in the early 90’s before the smaller phones came along. The battery used to last some 20 minutes or
less and the talk time was about half that.
I should also mention that it cost a bomb, so we should not complain
about the price of smartphones today.
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| The first mobile phone call took place 40 years ago and it was made on the Motorola Dynatac by a company employee, Martin Cooper. |
For the record
the said Martin Cooper uttered these words in the first ever mobile phone call
which took place in New York on 3rd April 1973: “I’m ringing you
just to see if my call sounds good at your end”. Motorola went on to do amazing things and it
is sad to see it disappear from most of the countries in Europe, including
Spain.
Wednesday was
also the day Real Madrid played the Turkish team Galatasary in the first leg of
the quarter finals of this year’s Champions League. I am happy to report they won 3-0. Today, Monday 8th April, they will
play the return match in Turkey. I am
confident they will get through to the semi final and only hope they will not
meet Barcelona then.
If on
Wednesday the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first
mobile phone, on Thursday, Facebook, the social media giant, who I am sure
Martin Cooper could never have imagined existing, chose that day to announce
what we all thought would be a “facebook phone”. But we were to be disappointed as in the end
all they announced was what they call “Facebook Home”, a sort of set of FB
applications to be placed on the home screen of the mobile phone – but only on
some Android terminals to start with.
This news, at least for me, was a bit of a flop as I think it will only
serve to accentuate what is becoming known as “Facebook fatigue”. I mean I do not need easier access to the
social network as I am quite happy with what already exists and do not want my
phone dominated by Facebook. I prefer to
access it when I want and not have it shoved down my throat so as to speak.
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| Mark Zuckerberg introducing Facebook Home on Thursday, a bit of a flop I think |
Thursday was
also the day my nephew Juan chose to announce a new blog called “El Calecho” (a
term which in Montrondo which sort of means a cozy gathering) written by him and
his brother Miguel who was living in London till recently and his sister Sara
who lives in China. I have already
linked it to my only blog and am extremely proud of my nephews and niece for
having started this great personal blog where they will be telling us about
their lives and opinions.
On Friday, the
bad weather continued in Spain and Olivia, back in Madrid, was sent off early
in the morning to report on the snowfall in the mountains of the capital, to
Navacerrada. We were happy to watch her
doing so and loved her again for her creative reporting. This time she nestled into an igloo she found
there as you can see in the picture below.
You can also see the report here if you go to 12.15h.
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| Olivia reported on the snow on Friday - in this image she nestled inside an igloo! |
On Friday I
did the food shopping with Oufa as we usually do. I have to tell you what we had for lunch, as
it was very special and not bought at the local shops. It was “pastela”, a Moroccan chicken pie made
by Oufa’s sister Fatima. This is what it
looked like.
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| Oufa's sister's delicious "pastela" |
That afternoon
we were awaiting visitors from abroad.
Andy was coming with his teenage football fan son, Daniel and his
daughter Charlotte who is learning Spanish in Madrid. You will remember, if you follow this blog,
that Andy and Charlotte came to stay when he brought her out to Madrid at the
end of January. We served afternoon tea
and my Father, who had taught Russian to Andy who now lives with his family in
France, near Geneva where he works for the UN, joined us of course. It’s always nice to host someone important
from our past like Andy. Later we took
him on our walk with the dogs and he commented just how cold it was; something
rather unusual for this time of year here.
At dinner, which to my chagrin the girls did not attend, Andy and his
children tasted the pastela and other more Spanish culinary delights.
On Saturday
morning, Eladio I were leaving quite early as I had been invited to an “open
doors” event for communications people at the Hotel Fontecruz just outside
Avila. I don’t often go to events like
this but when I saw the invitation I couldn’t resist.
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| The invitation I couldn't resist |
Feeling
slightly guilty about not hosting Andy and his family for more time, I decided
to put on a fabulous breakfast. Thus I
got up early to go and buy fresh mini croissants and the quintessential and
favourite Spanish breakfast fare: “chocolate con churros” (thick hot chocolate
drink and donut sort of fritters).
Knowing I would be fasting the following Monday and Thursday I’m afraid
I slightly over indulged. Below is a
photo of Andy, Charlotte and Daniel enjoying the breakfast.
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| Andy, Daniel and Charlotte at breakfast on Saturday morning |
We left
shortly afterwards and arrived at the Hotel which is sort of in the middle of
nowhere by midday, just on time for the presentation and tour of the
hotel. Eladio preferred to skip on the
professional part of the stay but joined us all for lunch at 14h. The group of communicators and marketers
invited, included their partners, so at lunch I counted about 40 people around
the tables.
Lunch was
great but far too heavy. It included one of favourite dishes, one I have
mentioned often before on this blog: “patatas revolconas”. This is the dish we enjoyed at the Hotel
Fontecruz on Saturday near Avila.
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| The delicious "patatas revolconas" at the Hotel Fontecruz Avila |
Afterwards,
feeling far too full and with a little too much wine to be digested, we fell
asleep until it was time for the next item on our agenda, a session in the
hotel spa. The spa was ok as far as
hotel spas go but the water in the Jacuzzi type pools was a little too cold as
was the sauna a little below my preferred temperature. But it served to wake me up properly from my
stupor. We were then in desperate need
of a very long walk, if only to be able to face food for dinner. Luckily it didn’t rain but it was awfully
cold outside. We found a charming
farming path that actually led to the town which in the end we never visited as
we have been to Avila quite a few times and our objective was more about
relaxing at the hotel than touring the town. Below is a photo of my very
attractive husband on the walk which was just under two hours and brought us
back to the hotel feeling a lot better.
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| My good looking husband on the walk near Avila on Saturday evening |
We decided
against a heavy meal out at some fancy restaurant in Avila, preferring a simple
meal via room service. And this is just
what we did, falling asleep earlier than planned whilst trying to watch The Day
After on the tiny old fashioned TV in the room which had dreadful reception.
We were up
early feeling relaxed and refreshed. We
were also the first into the dining room for breakfast. And very soon we were on our way home. We took the scenic route via El
Escorial. We stopped at a vantage point
on the way to capture the view of the amazing monastery built by Philip II of
Spain. You can’t see it very well on the
picture, but the backdrop of snow clad mountains only served to enhance the
view.
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| The view of the El Escorial Monastery on our way home from Avila on Sunday morning |
Here you can see
the rest of the photos of our stay at the Hotel Fontecruz, which of course was
one of the highlights of our week. The rest of the day at home was a bit of a
damper after the excitement of the week.
Thankfully, today, I am feeling more positive.
And today is
Monday and I can only end this blogpost by reflecting on a huge piece of news
that happened this morning. Incredibly
the Iron Lady, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, born Margaret Roberts, the daughter
of a grocer from Grantham and the first and only British Prime Minister, died this morning, aged 87 after suffering from a stroke. She was PM of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990
and very much a part of my life there as a teenager. She is and will go down in history for being
one of England’s most charismatic political leaders, in league I would dare to
say with the likes of Sir Winston Churchill.
Not long ago I read her daughter Carol’s story, “A swim on part in the
gold fish bowl” and wrote about it on my blog here. She was an important part of my formative
years and governed in exciting times and I will never forget her. RIP, goodbye Margaret Thatcher.
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| RIP Margaret Thatcher |
And that my
friends, is that for this week. I wish
you all the best and thank you, as always, for reading my blog and being
interested in what is really, quite a mundane life.
Masha
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