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| Suzy enjoying an Irish coffee this weekend in "Dublin's Fair City" |
Good morning everyone
It’s another sunny
Sunday and here I am writing to you again to tell you about my week.
On Monday morning
whilst I was eating my fasting diet breakfast (porridge made with water!) I was
interested to read about this year’s top brands published by Interbrands. Apple
is now the number one brand in the world displacing Coca Cola for the first
time. The Times very aptly put it as “Coke loses its fizz as iPhone and
Google named most valuable brands”. I have always followed the rankings closely
since I worked with Nokia and remember them being the number 6th
brand in the world. Last year they were
still in the top 20 but this year they have plummeted to number 57. Technology is obviously the fastest growing
sector as seven of the top ten brands come from this sector. Apart from technology the main sectors
represented by brands are food, cars, fashion, beauty products and banks. I was also interested to see there were only
two Spanish brands in the ranking but was not surprised to find they were Zara
and the Banco Santander.
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| Apple displaced Coca Cola as the world's number one brand |
So yeah Apple
is number one. Coincidentally I had a
conference call with some communications and marketing people from their HQ in
Cupertino that afternoon. In my mind
whilst talking to these people from this “super company”, I was reminded of how
Motorola and Nokia used to behave in similar conference calls when I used to
work with them. I didn’t want to tell
them that keeping in the number one spot is never forever.
Oli had a far
more interesting afternoon than I did last Monday afternoon. She was to meet up with the presenter from
the BBC, a household name in the UK, she interviewed during her coverage of the
train accident in Santiago this summer.
He had offered to show her around the new Broadcasting House. I wish I could have been with her. For a TV journalist like Olivia, visiting the
BBC must be the equivalent to a Muslim visiting the Mecca. And here she is sitting at the news desk so
familiar to us all. I think it is not
impossible that one day she may really sit there and tell the news but for the
moment it remains her dream.
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| Oli at the BBC newsdesk in London last Tuesday |
After the
visit the presenter offered to take Oli on his motorbike to the Oxo Building
where she was to meet up with Suzy who was supervising her first event
there. Oli didn’t take up his offer. If
I had been in her shoes, I can tell you that I certainly would have.
And here is a
photo of Suzy on her first day at The Oxo Building – her official title is “head
manager of Create in Oxo” (Create being the company she has started working for).
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| Suzy read to go at Oxo this week as taken by Olivia |
This week she
has supervised quite a few events and so far so good. I think she is loving the new challenge. The
girls spent as much time as possible together but of course Oli’s visit
coincided with her first proper week with Create. I have followed their reunion in London
vicariously and would have loved to be with them.
With plenty of
time on her hands, the next day Olivia, continuing her journalistic tourism,
also visited RTVE in London. She went to
see the Spanish correspondent who covers news from England for Spanish TV. In the photo below she is flanked by the
correspondent and the cameraman from the typical backdrop they use when reporting
on news there.
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| Olivia during her visit to the TVE correspondent's office in London on Wednesday |
That was on
Tuesday 1st October. For me 1st
October is a bitter sweet anniversary.
It marks the day my amazing mother, Elena Lloyd née Lieven, died. My Father and I don’t have to say very much
to each other that day; just a look suffices to acknowledge the death of his
amazing wife and my wonderful Mother. On
the bright side 1st October is also the anniversary of my joining
Yoigo. This year is my 7th
anniversary with that incredible company.
Here is a photo of me the day I joined 1st October 2006 which
seems like yesterday, except that since then so many things have happened and
that unknown operator is now the fourth mobile operator in Spain and has just under 4
million customers and continues to do well.
Long may it last.
.jpg) |
| Me on 1st October 2006, my first day at work with Yoigo. This week was my 7th anniversary at Yoigo |
1ST
October will go down in the world’s history as the day of the beginning of the
American Government’s shutdown, something which is affecting the world in many
ways. I am not particularly interested
in American politics, but even I know it is because the Republicans and Democrats couldn't agree on a spending plan (printing
more money I think) for the fiscal year that started Tuesday and that part of
it has to do with the Republicans not backing Obama’s health care plan.
But the news
that interested me more that day was to do with young Spaniard’s plights in
London. Obviously that would interest me
as I am British but live in Spain and my daughter Susana is one of the many
young Spaniards who has had to emigrate there because of the economic crisis in
Spain. That day The Daily Telegraph published an article about Benjamin Serra Bosch, a young Spaniard with two degrees who can only find work as a waiter in
London, one of whose tasks is to clean loos.
The newspaper described him as the “voice of a lost generation”.
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| The young Spaniard whose complaints on social media made his story go viral. |
This week too
I read that another young Spaniard, a girl who works, funnily enough, for Apple
in London, managed something pretty unique for these times. Etorne Samanes complained to the same
newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, about their choice of image in a recent article
they wrote about the proposal in Spain to change the clocks to be on par with
GMT, something more natural for this country. The headline is pretty insulting
as you can read here and the original image even more so. It shows a semi naked
fat man resting on his belly. The young
Spanish girl actually got them to change it to a photo of an Andalusian horse
carriage driver also sleeping in the summer heat. I would have loved to read the full letter Etorne
wrote, but could only see snippets from the story ABC, a Spanish newspaper,
published about her feat. She told them
she was fed up of the newspaper’s racism directed towards Spain and invited the
journalist who had written it to visit a Spanish office to see if people really
did turn up in pyjamas and sleep three hours in the afternoon! She also told him that he forgot to add that
after lunch Spaniards go back to work and carry on until far later than their
British equivalents.
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| The photo the young Spanish girl got the Daily Telegraph to change in the insulting article about Spanish inefficiency published in The Daily Telegraph |
Wednesday was
quiet for me, but not for Olivia. It was her last day in London, part of which
she spent with Suzy before going to the airport to catch her plane to
Valencia. She was going to spend time
with Miguel her TVE cameraman boyfriend before coming home this weekend.
Thursday was
my busiest day work wise. It saw me in
the office for two consecutive meetings. They were both about social media and
I was to meet the Community Manager of Samsung and then the Community Manager
of HTC. I don’t go into the office very
often but I love to catch up with some of my favourite colleagues – they know
who they are.
Thursday 3rd
October was the day this week of the terrible tragedy in the island of
Lampedusa. You will all know where it is, as it is a famous landing point for
African immigrants trying to get to Italy.
It is also one of the worst sea routes for them and on Thursday a boat
with some 500 immigrants had an accident whilst lost near the shore. There were only 150 or so survivors in an accident
the ever popular Pope Francis called “vergonha” (shameful) and he is right.
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| Body bags with some of the dead immigrants in Lampedusa |
That night the
news was full of the story but there was another incident which shook the world
too. A woman driving a car with her baby
tried to crash through the security gates of the White House on Capitol
Hill. Shooting took place and panic
overtook the area with the White House being closed and the world looked on
worried another huge American shooting was to take place possibly by
terrorists. It turned out the woman who,
I since read was fascinated with Obama, was unarmed but was shot dead by the Federal
Police. That seems to me to be very
unfair but then I do not know the ins and outs of the whole incident.
On Friday I
had an early morning meeting with my friend Julio. He wanted me to help him with a ghastly
translation of the most technical document I have ever read in my life. It was a study he had written in Spanish on
the profitability or rather lack of profitability in the long run from telecom
operator merges. However it was an
excuse to see him and catch up with his life and also to go out and buy a
birthday present for Fátima, our home help, who was 44 yesterday Saturday. .
Just as I was coming
home Olivia rang me to say she was returning from Valencia that evening instead
of on Sunday night, as she had to attend an important meeting called by the
programme she works for, La Mañana de la 1, the next day. I was delighted to know we would be having
the pleasure of her company this weekend as I sadly miss our girls and the
house seems very empty without them.
That morning
Suzy sent me a song to remind me she was going away with the friends from her
flat in London to Dublin for the weekend.
Of course it was “Molly Malone” also known as “In Dublin’s Fair City”. It is a very famous Irish song I used to sing
to the girls in my repertoire to get them to fall asleep when they were children
and it is a song we all love. I only
ever sang the first verse of the song because that was the only one I
knew. To remind you, the lyrics of that
first verse are: “In Dublin's fair city, Where the girls are so pretty, I
first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone, As she wheeled her wheel-barrow, Through
streets broad and narrow, Crying, "Cockles
and mussels,
alive, alive, oh! Alive, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh,Crying Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".
It is also the unofficial anthem of
Dublin where I personally have never been.
Suzy beat me to it. She and her
friends found a cheap flight at 40 pounds each, I can only imagine, with Ryan
Air. The photo illustrating this week’s
blog is of Suzy enjoying an Irish coffee in Dublin. The one below is of her London Spanish
Italian family enjoying their time together in Ireland.
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| Suzy with her London Spanish - Italian family in Dublin this weekend |
In the evening over dinner together
at La Txitxarrería in Pozuelo, Eladio and I talked about both girls and how
happy we are that they have the jobs they have.
It’s funny, however old your children are, you are always worried about
something. Well right now I have nothing
to worry about and will take their next steps in my stride.
I enjoyed breakfast with Olivia and
Miguel her boyfriend on Saturday morning as we munched Fátima’s breakfast
delicacies – much nicer than watery porridge!
The news that made Olivia and I most pleased was that Rafa Nadal, Spain’s
top sportsman, was to become number one again on the ATP (Tennis) world rankings. The popular 27 year old tennis
player had been number one twice before but lost the standing 25 months ago to
Djokovic due to injury. He returned to
tennis last February and has won 65 matches out of 68 since then. Today he plays Djokovic in the Chinese Final
but will still be number one on Monday whether he loses or wins. Well done
Rafa.
Whilst Oli was at her programme
meeting, we had the pleasure of the company of Juan and his girlfriend Cristina
for lunch. Juan, who is our nephew, the youngest
son of Dolores and José Antonio and Eladio’s godson, had come to bring me
copies of TV series and films he knew I was interested in seeing. Thanks to Juan I will now know what the world
is talking about regarding the latest in TV series as shortly I will be
watching both Breaking Bad and Homeland.
I look forward to that. Thanks Juan.
Normally they would have been joined
by José Antonio and Dolores but luck has it that this week they are away on holiday. They have gone to Italy to stay with friends who
have a house overlooking Lake Como. This
is a photo of Dolores by the lake; forever photogenic. Hopefully they will come and have lunch with
us next weekend and we will hear all about their trip.
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| Dolores by Lake Como this week |
But Saturday was all about Fátima,
or rather it was Fátima’s birthday. I
encouraged her to go home and take Saturday and Sunday off rather than Sunday
and Monday which are her usual rest days.
I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t and it only transpired later that
day when we questioned her more closely, that apparently Moroccans, according
to her, just don’t celebrate birthdays.
We thought that was very odd but that as she now lives in Spain she
should experience a birthday the way we do at home. Thus of course she had a birthday breakfast,
a card signed by us all, a present and of course a cake with candles. Here she is at the birthday cake moment
looking a little shy but rather pleased.
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| It was Fatima's birthday yesterday |
And today is Sunday and I have come
to the end of the story of this week.
Today has been quiet but nice because Oli and Miguel joined us both for
breakfast and for lunch. The most interesting
piece of news this morning for me, at least, was about a 16 year old American boy, Josh Ruggles, who came to Spain to play the top Spanish Basketball players
in a three point shot competition. No one
could believe he beat all of them, some of them ex NBA stars. But not only that, he even set a world record
by marking 135 three-point shots in five minutes. Watch this space because this, not as tall as
normal, future basket ball player (5’11”) will one day become a household name
in this American sport.
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| Josh Ruggles the 16 year old American boy who beat Spain's top basketball players in a three point shot competition yesterday and who also set the world record by marking 135 three-point shots in 5 minutes |
Sunday lunch today was a superb
Moroccan affair prepared by Fátima before she went. And now I am sitting at my desk alone whilst
the men take a nap – yes the siesta the English newspapers so belittle – and Oli
and Miguel have gone to Fnac (the bookshop) to get guide books for their three
week holiday in November. They have
finally decided on Bali and the Gilli islands in Indonesia which sounds a great
idea to me.
Who knows what next week will bring,
but whatever that may be, I wish you all a great one,
Cheers till next week
Masha
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