Sunday 28th April 2013
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| Suzy, 29 today! |
Hello again everyone,
What a week it
has been again. Work has consumed a lot
of my time but I have to say it has been enjoyable and very productive. I will have told you many times that work and
leisure converge for me, in that I often don’t distinguish between the two,
getting enjoyment out of both. I also think
the secret of being good at your job is actually liking it and I love mine, the
head of communications (also known as PR) for Yoigo – yes you know what Yoigo
is, the 4th mobile operator in Spain which is 76% owned by the
Nordic (Swedish Finnish) telecoms operator TeliaSonera who recently announced
they will not be selling us and who look forward to helping develop the company
in the next few years.
The first
proof of that decision was the visit of the head of Mobility Services (the
division in TeliaSonera that includes Yoigo in Spain together with their other
operators in the Nordic and Baltic countries) on Monday and Tuesday. I refer to T.K, my boss’ direct report, a
tall and bold man just turned 40 who is actually Finnish. It was music to my ears to hear the familiar
Finnish accent when he spoke English. I
was to take care of the communications activities of his visit which were an
interview with Expansión (Spain’s top financial daily), an after work get
together with the staff and then the coordination of a press release with the
Ministry of Industry when he and my boss were to meet the Minister of Industry,
José Manuel Soria, on Monday to explain Yoigo’s plans to launch 4G (you know
what that is too don’t you? The new
mobile technology that will improve our
experience using mobile phones dramatically with much higher internet speeds
and bandwidth for downloading multimedia of all sorts and kinds. So I was really pleased with the headline of
the press release: “José Manuel Soria welcomes Yoigo’s plans to be first to
market with 4G in Spain”. First to
market is really something special, if you think we are such small fry compared
to the other 3 more established and big operators.
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| The meeting with the Minister of Industry (in the middle) |
Of all three
activities, the interview with Expansión was the most stressful because I had
to translate the questions from Spanish into English and then again from
English to Spanish, as well as all the in between comments. You have to concentrate really hard and your
thoughts cannot wander because if they do, you lose the thread and won’t
remember what the question or answer is.
The questions were tough too I can tell you as the journalist, Nacho, is
a real veteran in telecoms and knows his subject really well.
So Monday and
Tuesday were pretty crazy but everything went well, not least because I had
worked my *** off over the weekend together with Anna, the reliable and never
tiring head of communications of TS Mobility Services. Neither of us knew until the Friday before
what was to be expected of us on Monday and Tuesday! I always think though that I thrive on
challenges where there is a time constraint, like the events of the beginning
of this week.
On Monday
night I was able to relax with all the family, i.e. both girls for dinner, certainly
one of the highlights of the week for me.
On Tuesday in between
coordinating the press release with the Ministry of Industry, I made another
set of fantastic meringues. I was not to
eat any until the next day as on Tuesday I fasted. Usually I fast on Mondays and Thursdays but
the former was out of the question this week as I had to attend a management
team lunch at Yoigo with our distinguished visitor from TeliaSonera. I was the only woman at the lunch, something
I still find rather awkward.
Tuesday was
the day Barcelona was to play Bayern Munich in Germany in the first leg of one
of the semi finals of the Champions League.
My Father and Eladio watched the match together in the lounge.
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| My Father and Eladio watching Bayern Munich beat Barcelona on Tuesday |
I’m glad I
didn’t as I was devastated to hear the Germans thrashed the Spaniards 4-0. It was a very embarrassing result
indeed.
I totally
forgot about the match and the awful result when I watched the third episode of
the Spanish edition of Master Chef.
Eladio is not at all interested or so he says, but he was awake the
whole time, so I think he secretly actually quite likes it.
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| I'm really enjoying Master Chef |
On Wednesday
in between working on my 4G communications plan, I had time to make salmorejo
(thick gazpacho typical of the Córdoba region) and our very favourite “perushki”
(little Russian pies with mince meat, onion and rice – my Mother’s recipe).
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| My perushki |
Olivia much
appreciated the wonderful lunch when she came home late from work. That morning she had been on television reporting
on an initiative for schools to make children aware that some 60 million under
privileged children in the world have no access to education. A red chair in their classrooms is the symbol
of there not being enough chairs for these children to be able to go to
school. I saw the video later of her
report which you can watch here if you click on this link and then fast forward
to 11.33. If you carry on watching, you
will see how Marilo Montero, the main presenter of the programme, actually
congratulates Olivia in public on how well she did the report, knowing exactly
what questions to ask to get the small children to reply properly; not just
saying yes or no. The secret here is that Olivia loves small children.
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| Olivia interviewing a little girl in one of her live reports this week |
On Wednesday
afternoon, I was once again stressed and busy, this time because at very short
notice I had to get out a media alert on Yoigo’s launch and sale of the new
flagship phone from Samsung, the S4. I
had little time to react and needed the ok from the communications people at
Samsung as well as the person in charge of terminals at Yoigo. The good news here is that our prices were
the best of the 4 big operators in Spain, so I hope sales of the much
anticipated phone will have gone well when it started selling on Saturday. I
was on the alert and working on this from about 6 in the afternoon until nearly
midnight. So when my boss sent me a
whatsapp the next morning at 9, I was able to tell him the alert had gone out
just before. Phew was what I felt when I
answered him.
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| The S4 went on sale with Yoigo this Saturday with the lowest price in the market |
While I was
busy on the media alert, Real Madrid was playing Borussia Dortmund in
Germany. The match could only be seen on
pay per view channels which we do not have.
My former boss Johan very kindly kept me updated but when I heard
Germany was once again beating Spain with 4 goals to 1, I didn’t want to hear
any more.
I got a bit of
sweet revenge later by watching a film about catching an old Nazi. I posted this on FB and a German friend of
mine, Volker, commented “fair play”. I’m
not sure whether he was being sarcastic or not; judge for your selves.
Unless
Barcelona and Madrid can perform a miracle in next week’s second legs of the
semi finals, it looks like this year’s Champions League final will be between
two German teams, not exactly what fans of football around Europe will be happy about.
Thursday saw
me at the office again, this time for a meeting with Ericsson and Samsung who
will be joining us in a press conference I am organizing for the 7th
May where we will be announcing our concrete plans for the exciting 4G launch
this summer.
That day Suzy
had taken time off from work to help her beloved ex neighbour Elena with her
removal, as she was changing flats and leaving Villanueva de la Cañada for
Majadahonda. Below is a photo of Suzy
with Elena and her sister Chati on the removal lorry full of Elena’s
stuff. For the record, Chati who is an
out of work nurse (in the middle of the photo with sun glasses) will be going
with Suzy to London in May.
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| Suzy with Elena and Chati when Elena moved flats this week |
For the fourth
time this week I was at the office again on Friday. It was for another meeting with the
communications manager of Samsung Mobile and then for another press
interview. The latter was with my boss
and the media was the Spanish news agency, Agencia Efe. I have known the journalist who covers telecoms,
Ana G. for many years and sitting in on the interview with her is like having a
cup of coffee with a friend. That’s the
nice part, the risky part is making sure she doesn’t get news you don’t want
written about as it’s not public yet. As
I write this here, I have just looked to see if she has published the interview
and bingo she has. You can read it here
in Spanish of course.
That morning
Olivia was to be on television at 11.30 about a court case for embezzlement by
Marisol Yagüe during her time at the Marbella Town Hall. I was able to see it later here via video
streaming and you can too if you click here and go to 11.30h. Oli told me later she had had literally 10
minutes to prepare and knew nothing about the case. For not knowing anything I think she did a
pretty good job.
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| Oli reporting on a court case on Friday |
I was to miss
her next report on Friday at 13.10 as I was driving home from the interview at
work. But amazingly these days, you can
watch tve1 live on your mobile via the +24 or rtve.es applications available on
most smart phones. So I parked my car
just before and from the comfort of my seat was able to watch her report. It was about how a group of mentally
handicapped people had collected kilos and kilos of food for poverty struck
families; another great initiative. You can see the report here if you go to
13.10h. I must add here, just how great
it is to be able to watch TV live on your mobile, something, unthinkable of
just a few years ago. Ah and with 4G the
user experience will be even greater.
The photo I took of her reporting was actually a screen shot from my
iPhone and of much better quality than the photos I usually take of her on the
television.
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| Oli's live report on Friday which I saw live on my mobile phone |
This week was
busy for Olivia too, not just because of these reports but also because she was
preparing a video about the Madrid marathon which is being held today. She did a lovely story about a group of
senior runners who have run every edition of the Madrid marathon since it began
and what motivates them to do it. The
video report was shown on her programme on Friday but it was also shown on the
TVE main news and on the TVE sports channel today (teledeporte), something that
rarely happens. You can see it here.
Finally it was
Friday afternoon and the end of the working week. We went for our usual walk with the dogs and
it was cold and windy as it has been most of the week. The treat that day was dinner out. Eladio and I decided on Ginos that night
where I enjoyed a great dish of pasta.
Saturday was
the day before Suzy’s birthday and Eladio and I went birthday shopping for
cards and presents for both our daughter and my Father who will be 94 on 1st
May. Whilst at Centro Oeste and with the
excuse of finding something for Susana, I spied a pastel blue tuxedo liketrouser suit at Zara which I had seen on their website. They only had small sizes so I was very happy
to find that their size M (40) was a perfect fit. I don’t know when I will wear it but right
now it is hanging with pride in my wardrobe, waiting for the perfect occasion.
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| The pastel blue tuxedo like trouser suit I bought from Zara on Saturday |
Back home, frantic
cooking was going on for a pre birthday lunch Suzy was preparing for some 15 or
so of her closest friends – mostly her girlfriends. Here you can see Suzy
cooking with Oufa our Moroccan home help. Copi was around to help as was Juli
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| Oufa and Suzy cooking on Saturday |
Meanwhile Oli
had gone to the train station to pick up Merce who was coming from Yecla in
Murcia. Her visit was a surprise for
Suzy. In this video you can see how
Merce is hiding in the garden hut and how Olivia and Juli tell Suzy to go in
and that there is a present for her inside. Suzy’s reaction was vintage Suzy
and priceless.
Anita had another
surprise for Suzy for her birthday lunch yesterday. She had made one of her amazing creative
cakes. Suzy has had a fixation with
mermaids ever since she watched the Disney version of the Little Mermaid when
she was a girl. So Anita decorated the
cake with a replica of Suzy with her red hair and a mermaid body, as well as
countless other little symbolic things such as the Union Jack – as she is going
to leave Spain to live in England next month.
This is Anita with her cake creation before Suzy saw it. I really think she could make a living out of
creating cakes – what an artist.
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| Anita and the amazing cake she made for Suzy |
We left the
girls to their own devices, praying they would clear up afterwards (and they
did) and we ventured out for our walk and wow was it cold. The good weather has gone and it seems winter
is on its way back.
With time on
my hands in between coming back from our walk and dinner, I decided to watch
the first episode of series one of The Paradise, which I had ordered from
Amazon after recommendations from my sister-in-law Dolores. This new BBC series, based on the novel Au
Bonheur des Dames by Emile Zola is about the creation of a luxury department
store called The Paradise in the north of England at the end of the 19th
century. Dolores was right to recommend
it, it is right up my street and I shall be watching episode two after
publishing this and going for our walk.
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| Joana Vanderham who plays Denise Lovett in The Paradise |
And today,
Sunday 28th April is my first daughter Susana’s 29th
birthday. She was born on 28th April 1984 at the Clínica San
Francisco de Asis in Madrid at around 5 in the morning. I have just unearthed a photo, the best one I
could find of me and her just after she was born. I look awful but I suppose that’s because of
just having given birth.
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| Me with Susana a few hours after she was born 29 years ago |
This morning I
woke up early to prepare her birthday breakfast. Whilst laying the table and going out to buy
croissants and churros, my mind went back to when she was born and how 29 years
ago at this time in the morning she would have been just a few hours old and
how happy and amazed we were to have her.
She has made us happy and sad, made us laugh and get cross, wonder at
her, enjoy her company, get exasperated with her and be proud of her ever
since: feelings I suppose most parents have of their off springs, but mostly
she has brought us joy. Suzy is charismatic and loving and usually quite easy
to get on with. She has bags of personality and charm and mostly is very popular
with her friends and colleagues.
Professionally things are difficult for young people in Spain these days
with so much unemployment and this has spurred her on to finally make the move
she has already really wanted to do, to up and leave everything and find her
fortune in England. She will be going in
the middle of May and of course we will miss her, but on the other hand it’s a
great opportunity and I have no doubt whatsoever that she will land on her
feet, just as I did when I came to Spain to find my own fortune in 1982. I certainly did find my fortune, marrying
Eladio and having our wonderful girls as well as finding success
professionally, although it took a few years.
This is us at
breakfast, a fine feast to celebrate Suzy’s birthday today.
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| Suzy's sumptuous birthday breakfast this morning |
We were to
celebrate again at lunch, although I, at least, was not at all hungry. There was another cake, this time made by
Oufa and it is a masterpiece, tasting wonderful. Here is Olivia bringing it in with the
candles lit for Suzy to blow out.
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| Oli bringing in Suzy's birthday cake at lunch today |
The photo
illustrating this week’s blog is of Suzy blowing out the candles and making a
wish – probably to do with her London adventure. The one below is of her with Merce, the girls’
friend who made a surprise visit from Murcia to join Suzy’s celebrations this
weekend. Merce commented at lunch today
that she has known the girls for half their lives as they first met in their
mid teens when we bought the apartment in Santa Pola and where her parents had
an apartment too. How time flies!
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| Suzy with Merce at the family birthday lunch today |
And now as I
write, the girls have gone and our big house feels empty. Suzy took Merce to the train station and Oli
has left for the North of Spain with her TVE crew. The forecast is for snow in the north of
Spain next week and Oli will be the programme reporter on the weather in that
area, something she is quite familiar with.
When the TVE car came for her, together with her 23 year old producer
colleague, they had no final destination.
Maybe they will go to Santander, Asturias, León, Rioja or Navarra. Hopefully we will hear from her later and
find out. Anyway, she has gone to do
what she likes best; going offsite with the TV crew to do live reporting. We look forward to watching her next week and
if I am busy or away from home, I know now that I can watch her on my mobile phone. Doesn’t technology rock?
And that my
friends, is the end of the story of this week. So I will love you and leave you
and wish you a great week ahead.
Till next time
Masha
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