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| Suzy with all her worldly goods arriving at their new home in Canada Water |
Hello again
Another week
has passed and it is Sunday again and the time to write the news of our
week. Since I last wrote, the Malaysian
airplane’s disappearance is still baffling the world, although there have been
sightings of debris in one of the remotest areas of the world, some 1.500 miles
west of Australia in the Indian Ocean.
Time is running out as the battery of the black box only lasts for 30
days.
The referendum
in Crimea took place last Sunday and 96% voted for annexation to Russia. Amid
international protest, Russia’s “new Tzar”, Putin went ahead and annexed the
region to Russia. Will this mean another
Crimean War? Possibly. I can only
imagine the Lady of the Lamp, Florence Nightingale turning in her grave.
Meanwhile at
home, Olivia came back on Sunday from Soria.
Very sweetly she brought us back some local almond cake, delicious
butter and honey for her Father. That
day Suzy had been for a picnic to Victoria Park, that lovely park by Buckingham
Palace with her new Czech friend Jane and Argentinian boyfriend Sebastian. Later she biked her way back to Whitechapel
to meet her friends from the flat there.
Suzy was enamoured with Jane’s black lab and sent me this lovely
picture. It is very clear that my eldest
daughter is having a ball in London. Oh
to be young again and be with her there.
I would also have loved to spend the first few years of my career in the
capital of the UK but that was not to be.
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| Jane's black labrador. I would have preferred a photo of Suzy but that's what I got. |
There’s not
much to tell you about Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, I fasted as always and on both days worked
from home as usual and went for two walks.
Wednesday was
Father’s Day in Spain. It was also José
Antonio’s birthday (happy birthday dearest brother-in-law). The girls duly greeted their father as all
children across Spain would have done. I
particularly liked a photo my youngest niece Alicia posted on Facebook where she
is playing beach ball with her Father Isidro, Eladio’s youngest brother. So that is the image I have chosen to
illustrate this topic.
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| Alicia playing beach ball with her Father Isidro - my choice of photo to illustrate Father's Day in Spain. |
That day on
our walk we made an unusual sighting when we came across a lost sheep.
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| The lost sheep on our walk this week |
If you live in
England, seeing a sheep on a walk is nothing unusual. In fact Eladio chastised me for bothering to
take a photo. But for me it was unusual
as we never see sheep on our walk. We do
however sometimes spot wild boar, often see rabbits, even grass snakes and big
birds flying in the blue sky such as hawks.
The day before, we had seen a herd of sheep in the distance so when we
saw the lone lost sheep it was pretty obvious that it had been separated from
its brethren. I wonder what happened to
it as we haven’t seen it since.
Thursday 20th
March was the first official day of spring.
Until that day we have had very warm weather but on that day,
ironically, the temperatures began to plummet.
Thursday was also the UN’s International Happiness day. To mark the occasion the Eurostat, the EU
data agency, published a report on the quality of life in the 28 EU
nations. In the photo below you can see
the statistics. In short Spain has the
highest life expectancy whilst Bulgaria has the lowest. Spain is also one of the “happier” nations
when it comes to satisfaction with life, despite not being one of the richer
ones which goes to show that money doesn’t always bring happiness. Spain also has one of the lowest suicide
rates in opposition to the more satisfied countries like Finland or Sweden
where suicide rates are much higher – now that is a paradox. Basically I think the study just goes to show
how diverse we all are. You can make your own conclusions if you want to read
the study which you can download here.
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| The Eurostat report on the quality of life in the 28 countries in the EU |
On Thursday
Miguel, Olivia’s boyfriend, came from Valencia to stay with her which I am sure
made her very happy that day!
There is lots
to tell you about Friday. At midday we
learned which teams would be meeting which in the Champions League last16. It’s interesting to note that only 4
countries represent the 8 teams, 3 are from Spain, 2 from Germany, 2 from
England and one from France. Quite clearly Spain dominates football. So if you don’t know who is playing who, let
me tell. Barcelona will meet Atlético de
Madrid in the only one country meet, Madrid will play Borussia Dortmund who beat
them last year in the same fixture, Man United will play Bayern Munich, perhaps
the most challenging match of the last 16 and Mourinho’s Chelsea will play the
French, PSG. The first leg ties will be played on 1st and 2nd
April and the second legs one week later.
May the best team win I should say but what I really mean is that I want
Madrid to win.
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| The draw for the Champions League Last 16 took place this week |
But at around the same time the draw
was taking place, a very sad story was developing in Spain. Adolfo Suárez, Spain’s first democratic prime
minister after the Franco regime, was fighting his last hours in hospital. His
son, also called Adolfo Suarez, gathered the press to inform them his Father
had probably only 48 hours left to live.
As I write those words the hairs on my arms stand on end. I admire this man as do most Spaniards. Spain has a lot to thank this elegant and
charismatic politician whose “role in the transition to democracy was second
only to that of the King”. This was said
by the historian Javier Tusell but it is something those of us who witnessed
him in government already know. I will
never forget the image of him in parliament on 23rd February 1982
when it was stormed by the military.
Whilst nearly everyone around him ducked down in their benches he remained
sitting, in danger of being shot. Like
many politicians he was more revered by the public after his time in office
than during it. Sadly before he was even
70 he was diagnosed with alzheimer’s and his son said that in 2004 he didn’t
even remember he had been the Prime Minister of Spain. I well remember his rise to power when I
lived in Madrid for my year abroad during my University studies. I remember him too in government when I first
lived in Spain and he is one of these charismatic politicians who will go down
in history being revered by people from all sides of the political spectrum;
even the far left as in 1977 he very bravely legalized the communist
party.
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| Adolfo Suárez |
On a lighter note I always found him
physically attractive in the swarthy Spanish way and see a likeness to my good
looking husband, something many people have told Eladio too.
And now on to a totally different
story, about the singing nun, 25 year old Cristina Scuccia from Sicily who
became a sensation this week after performing on the Italian version of The
Voice. 18 million people have viewed her
on You Tube. So if you haven’t seen or
heard her, this is the link to her performance this week. Not quite Julie Andrews, she is charming and
has a great voice, although I didn’t like the song she chose. She has become an instant success story. It is unusual for nuns to become stars but I
think she will. To quote the sweet young
nun, “if you have a gift you have to share it”.
I think it’s her way of evangelizing.
Well good for her. By the way, I
think she is waiting for a phone call from the Pope. I wouldn’t be surprised if he rang her. It’s a lovely story isn’t it?
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| The singing nun Cristina Scuccia |
That night Eladio and I had dinner
at our latest favourite restaurant, La Terraza La Escondida in Pozuelo. Olivia and Miguel meanwhile were celebrating
Elena’s birthday with the so-called “herd” – their group “la manada” in
Spanish. Here is a lovely photo of some
of them which Oli posted on Facebook and I love.
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| Olivia and her "herd" |
Elena is Suzy’s best friend and I
know she would have loved to be there but of course she is in London. Friday night for her would have been a night
of restlessness as the next day she and Gabor would finally be moving out of
Whitechapel where Suzy has lived with 12 other people in cramped and shabby
conditions since she went to live in London 10 months ago.
On Saturday morning, we followed her
move via whatsapp, as she sent us photos of their leaving Whitechapel in a taxi
full of all their worldly goods in London – a few suitcases and bags.
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| Leaving Whitechapel |
Just a little while later they had
arrived at their destination in Canada Water.
Here they will be living in much better conditions in a house shared
with a maximum of 6 people. The house is
in a very nice area and seems bright and clean and new. They have a big double room with private access
to the garden and yesterday they spent all day settling in. The photo illustrating this week’s post is of
the arrival at their new house.
Later in the evening we got more
photos, one of Gabor stretched out on the bed exhausted after the move and
another one of champagne and two glasses which they had to celebrate the move. I am so glad they have finally gone up in
life, as far as property goes and wish them lots of happiness.
While they were in the throes of
their removal, we had the pleasure of the company of Olivia and Miguel for
lunch. In the afternoon I went out with
them shopping to Gran Plaza 2. They
wanted to buy covers for their phones, but it was really just an excuse to go
to Zara and other stores. I had a
successful purchasing period at my favourite Spanish clothes store. I bought a lovely pink long jumper, a blueand white striped long top/dress (Oli said, what another blue and white striped
garment? To which I replied I could never have enough haha) and a pretty light
pink blouse. These are the lovely
garments which I made into a photo collage for you to see.
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| My new clothes from Zara this weekend |
And whilst we were shopping in Las
Rozas, a big demonstration was taking place in Madrid. I followed its development from photos that
José Antonio uploaded on the family whatsapp group as he and his wife Dolores
joined the demonstrators.
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| A photo of yesterday's demonstrations in Madrid taken by José Antonio |
Baptised 22M (for 22nd
March) and also “marches for dignity” some 50,000 people demonstrated in the
streets of Madrid in the early evening.
Thousands of them had been marching from many cities in Spain for
days. The protests were against the cuts
and the extreme conditions provoked by the financial crisis and the protestors
criticized both banks and the government.
We had dinner with José Antonio and
Dolores last night in Madrid, after the demonstrations. As we drove to the restaurant, Don Ulpiano,
in San Bernardo, we came via a tunnel from the Princesa Street towards the
Alberto Aguilera street and on the pavements of the tunnel I counted up to 10
homeless people wrapped in blankets sleeping there as cars passed them like
ours. The image was in stark contrast to
our night out in Madrid with Eladio’s brother and wife. We again mentioned the scene when we got
ready to go to bed in our ample bedroom and commented that we live in a luxury
bubble compared to so many people. Of
course we have worked hard to reach our standard of living but we had all the
right circumstances as children for that to happen, unlike so many unluckier
people in life.
Dinner was lovely and it was nice to
catch up with each other’s news, talk about our children and of course about
Montrondo. We shall be going there
together next weekend and hope that the rest of the family will join us. I think they will. As usual I booked our table via The Fork and
we got a 40% discount on the wonderful food Don Ulpiano served. I’m sure we’ll be going again.
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| Dinner last night with photogenic Dolores and Eladio's brother José Antonio |
And today is Sunday, the sun is
shining although it is cold outside.
Soon we will be going on my first walk of the day and then I will be
making lunch. I do hope we will be
joined by Miguel and Oli again. Tonight
Madrid will be playing Barcelona at the Bernabeu stadium in a “clásico” of the Spanish
Liga but we won’t be watching it as these days these sort of matches are only
available on pay per view tv.
So I will love you and leave you and
get on with Sunday. I hope you have a
great day and wish you all a good week coming too.
Cheers till next time
Masha
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