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| Suzy went to Paris with Gabor this weekend |
Hello everyone,
Here I am
writing to you on this wet Saturday morning in January, rather than tomorrow
Sunday when I will be travelling to Stockholm. The week has been very quiet but
there are still many tales to tell.
It was to be a
week without the girls. Of course Suzy no longer lives with us, so really it was Olivia who was missing. She went on Sunday to Valencia to join her
boyfriend Miguel with whom she would be driving to Andorra the next day with
another couple. They were going there to
ski. We weren’t to hear much from her as
roaming from Andorra (a tiny independent state in between Spain and France) is
expensive. However we spoke once and
towards the end of the week I got to see some photos. Here is one I like of her looking the
professional skier, at least in my eyes. They will be returning to Valencia
today and she will be coming home tomorrow but I won’t see her until next
Tuesday when I come back from Stockholm.
Apart from skiing I’m sure she has done quite a lot of duty free
shopping as Andorra is a tax haven.
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| Olivia skiing in Vallnor Andorra this week |
Monday was a
frustrating day in various ways. It was my fasting day of course which doesn’t
always put you in a good mood. My temper
frayed when I had a kafkian type of experience with Smartbox. I don’t know what you think of these
companies that package experiences and sell them in glossy boxes as gifts at
department stores. From the very
beginning I suspected that booking your own trip or hotel is probably cheaper
and it is. I won a “La vida es bella”
box last year but found it so difficult to use, it expired and I threw it
away. So when I won a Smartbox this
Christmas at the office party, I decided to try and use it straight way rather
than leaving it to expire. I tried out
their website at the weekend but it kept crashing. So I waited until Monday morning to ring
them. I must have tried 10 times but
never got an answer. So I went to their
twitter and facebook pages and what did I find? Complaints and more
complaints. I did get an answer there
and was redirected to an email address.
So I wrote an email with my preferred hotel, only to be told it was
fully booked on St Valentines when I wanted to go. I thus suspected that smartbox probably only
have a few, if no vacancies, at most of the more popular establishments at
weekends. I then went on to suspect that
their supposed “customer care team” actually only consists of one poor over
worked rather surly person called Sara.
She finally rang me after I had posted very strong comments on twitter
and facebook. In the end I managed to
get a booking at my 6th choice – as everywhere else was not
available. My conclusion is that these
companies’ profits are based on people buying their “experience boxes” and not
using them. In order to do this they
make it nearly impossible to make a reservation. So when you see these glossy boxes at the
shops and think of buying one as a gift, please think again.
The news that
day was of course this year’s Ballon d’Or award for the best in football. Lionel Messi has won the best footballer of
the year prize for the last 3 or 4 seasons.
His rival Real Madrid’s striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, aka CR7, was
expected to win this year’s prize as the Argentinian was injured at the end of
the last season. And indeed he did and
cried whilst doing so which goes to show just how important the prize is to
these mega sports stars.
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| Cristiano Ronaldo shedding a tear or two at the Ballon d'Or awards this week |
Messi was the
media star of the show though due to his attire; a very unflattering and showy
red suit which had twitter on fire the moment he appeared. In a way I was pleased that a star from Real
Madrid won the award as I was bit fed up of Messi’s domination of the Ballon
d’Or.
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| Lionel Messi in his silly red suit at the Ballon d'Or awards this week |
Much more
important that day though was the story of Spain’s premiere, Mariano Rajoy’s visit to the White House to meet President Obama which didn’t get a quarter of
the media space attributed to the football award. He didn’t actually meet him until
Tuesday. I had read that Rajoy had been
learning English since 2011 in preparation for the visit. We never got the chance though to see whether
he put into practice. The objective of
the Spanish government was to get the blessing of the American administration
on the recovery of the Spanish economy.
Even El País, Spain’s left wing newspaper dubbed the visit a
success. These words from Obama put
Spain in a very favourable light after so much bad news about the crisis: "The economy had undergone some
wrenching difficulties that existed throughout Europe and the eurozone, and I
congratulated the prime minister on the progress that's been made in
stabilizing the economy, moving into growth, reducing the deficit, and being
able to return to the financial markets in a way that reflects sound leadership". The most important problem however, 25% unemployment,
has still to be resolved.
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| Rajoy and Obama talk economics at the White House this week, through the help of interpreters |
But it was
another President, Hollande of France, who was the main focus of the news this
week, due to his amorous affairs. François
Hollande is the most unpopular socialist French premiere ever and the story of
his affairs has only served to make him more so. It could be argued that in France, as in
Spain, most people don’t bat an eyelid at sexual scandals – it is the financial
scandals that force politicians to resign. However the “affaire Gayet” as it is
known, has now become an “affaire d’état”.
You probably already know he was married to his socialist presidential
opponent, Ségolène Royal but was unfaithful to her conducting a secret
relationship with Paris Match political journalist Valerie Trierweiler. When Hollande became President Ms.
Treierweiler became “first lady” with an office in the Elysée Palace and a
number of personal staff. Meanwhile, the
41 year old actress Julie Gayet played the same trick she played on Ségolène
and the couple has maintained a secret amorous relationship over quite some
time now. They were caught out by the
Closer magazine who published photos of Hollande on a motorbike riding to an
apartment, apparently linked to the mafia, for his encounters with Gayet. When Ms. Trierweiler found out she took an
overdose and has been in hospital ever since.
On Tuesday Hollande faced the press where he argued that his personal
affairs were personal and private.
However when faced with the question of which first lady would accompany
him in his upcoming trip to the White House he was stuck for an answer. Meanwhile I read that Ms. Trierweiler’s
greatest concern is having to forego the status of first lady and not accompany
him to Washington. The British press,
who love sex scandals, are having a field day with the story as are the
opposition party in France. One
Jean-Fraçcois Copé, leader of the UMP (right wing) said the conclusion abroad
was that “France is decidedly more gifted at slap and tickle than carrying out
economic reform”. I just loved the
reference to “slap and tickle” haha.
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| François Hollande and his women . He's 59 and if he wasn't the President of France neither of them would have even looked at him. Oh for the power of men in high positions. |
On Wednesday
in between being busy with so many preparations for our participation in this
year’s Mobile World Congress, I did the cooking that day. We had decided on fish and chips and I was
determined to make this dish the way it is served in England. Usually we bread our fish but this time I
found a great batter recipe made with beer and also decided to make mushy peas
out of some fresh peas I had. The latter
should be made with dry peas but they are difficult to find here. The recipe for the batter was 400 grs of
flour (put in the fridge an hour before), two teaspoons of baking powder, a
pinch of salt and 550ml of very cold beer.
You have to mix it just before you are going to deep fry the fish. The other secret is that the oil must be very
hot and not to put in more than 2 fillets of fish in the frying pan at the same
time. This is what my dish of fish and
chips looked like made the right way. My
Father, Eladio and Fátima loved it. I ought to add that Fátima who is Muslim
cannot consume alcohol but I persuaded her that alcohol that has been heated
loses its substance. I do hope I am
right.
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| I made fish and chips the traditional way this week |
Whilst we were
having lunch, I gathered from Suzy that she was flat hunting in London. She will be moving out with Gabor as soon as
they find somewhere suitable. She told
me in a conversation the next day that they may well be joined by a Czech
colleague from work called Jane who, by the way, has a well behaved black
Labrador. I do hope they find somewhere
soon as they can no longer stand living in the ghastly accommodation they share
with 12 people in Whitechapel.
The next day,
Friday, Suzy and Gabor were off to Paris on the Eurostar train to spend the
weekend. It was his Christmas present to
her – how romantic! Later I heard they
missed the train as Suzy had left her passport at the flat but luckily were
allowed on the next one. Suzy was tired
as she had only slept a couple of hours that night – coming home late from a
work event and getting up at 4 in the morning to catch the train – but ecstatic
at being in Paris with Gabor. She sent
us some photos on the family whatsapp and I chose the one of the two of them by
the Eiffel Tower to illustrate this week’s post. Here is another; a “selfie” (yes that word again) they took by
the Arch of Triumph.
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| Gabor and Suzy in Paris yesterday |
Friday was the
highlight of this week really. Food for
lunch was good again. Fátima had frozen a Moroccan “pastel” (chicken pastry
with almonds) she made at Christmas and we decided to have it yesterday. This
is what it looked like. I remarked to Eladio that it’s a bit like a savoury
sort of baklava; delicious.
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| Fatima's Moroccan pastela chicken and almond pie we had yesterday |
Eladio wanted
to see the film The Physician so we went to the cinema that night. I was vaguely interested in what I thought
would be a “doctor” type film (I’m a sucker for hospital series) but was put
off because it was in medieval times; an era I never really liked. I couldn’t understand why Eladio would want
to watch a film based on a bestselling novel by Noah Gordon. However he explained that what interested him
was the figure of Avicenna, who in the film is the mentor and teacher of the
main character Robert Cole. Neither my
Father nor I had ever heard of Avicenna or Ibn Sina, but Fátima our Moroccan
home help had. So through the film and some
internet research I have learned who he was.
Ibn Sina was a Muslim philosopher and doctor of the 11th
century who was born in Uzbekistan which then belonged to Persia (Iran
today). He is the author of the Canon of Medicine, considered one of the most famous books in medicine. He finished writing it in 1025 and amazingly
it was still in use in the 18th century in Europe.
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| I learned who Ibn Sina was this week |
Eladio was
disappointed at how Ibn Sina was portrayed in the film but actually the film is
not about his story but about how a young English boy travels to Persia and
pretends to be a Jew and learns medicine under him. I thought it was fascinating.
Afterwards we
had dinner in nearby Pozuelo at another restaurant I had booked via The Fork
(El Tenedor) called Gecko Food and Drinks which offered a 30% discount. However
when the bill came there was no discount as apparently they only apply it if
you have two first courses and two second courses! I am still looking for the small print on the
website! These days Eladio and I can
only share a first and second course.
The older you get the less you eat, even though we both consider
ourselves “very happy eaters” hahaha. I
should add that we won’t be going to Gecko again.
And today is
Saturday. There is not much to
report. Eladio bathed the dogs this
morning and they look lovely. I’m not
sure they agree though. They both
apparently don’t like their baths but sit there and don’t move throughout so I
suspect that they might actually enjoy at least the rubbing soap part. Here is
a photo of Elsa our nearly 3 year old golden lab in the middle of her bath.
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| Elsa having a bath this morning. |
I have done
the cooking again and, at Eladio’s request, we will be having “cocido
madrileño” (a two course dish - soup made with the broth followed by chickpeas, veg and all sorts of meat) for lunch.
Then there will be a short siesta and a long walk with the dogs.
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| Cocido madrileño, a wonderful winter dish. |
Tomorrow is
Sunday and I will be off to Stockholm which will take me most of the day as
there are no direct flights or only two a week at inconvenient times. I am
looking forward to seeing the snow and going for a walk to the little island of
Skeppsholmen when I arrive in the early evening. On Monday we have a long meeting with my
fellow communications team members all about our participation at this year’s
Mobile World Congress. You will read all
about my trip to Stockholm in next week’s blog post.
Before I sign
off, I just want to share with you a picture I found extremely funny of two
twins about food. I hope you like it as much as I did. I think I will keep it in my phone if I ever
need cheering up.
On that funny
note my friends I wish you a great week ahead,
Cheers till
next time,
Masha
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