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| Oli having breakfast with her friends Gioanna left and Paula right (black stripes) in Soria this weekend. |
Hi again
Well what a
week it has been, memorable in many ways on the news front. We have had marvelous weather and spring is
on the way. So let me start.
This time last
week Eladio was in hospital. Thankfully
it all turned out to be a storm in a teacup and on Monday he was
discharged. They made him wear a halter
(a device worn to measure your blood pressure for 24 hours) as the doctors
suspected his feeling faint was possibly because of a valve in his heart. This worried us quite a lot but the final
diagnosis was that he has a clean bill of health and that he probably felt
faint as he had been standing reading the newspaper for an hour before sitting
down to breakfast. Now he has breakfast
as soon as he is in the kitchen and reads the paper sitting down!
The week’s
news has been dominated by the story of a missing Boing 777 belonging to
Malaysia Airlines. Last Saturday it took
off for Beijing with 237 people onboard and went missing shortly afterwards. There has been no sign of the plane since and
the signals are now turning to a high jacking attempt which probably ended in
the plane crashing into the sea. It is a
very mysterious story and I have been following the news daily.
Tuesday 11th
March was the 10th anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, the
deadliest terrorist attack in Spanish history.
For people in Spain this is like our 9th September. The bombs on 4 packed commuter trains heading
for the Madrid Atocha station killed 191 people and wounded about 2,000. It is something none of us can ever forget
and each and every one of us remembers where we were and what we were doing
when it happened. I was in Segovia with
Anne N and the other members of the Nokia marketing team. We had gone there for a farewell event. I was with Anne when it happened and it was
thanks to her Mother we found out, who had called her from Finland to see if
she was alright. That is a day I will
never forget.
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| It was the 10th anniversary of the Madrid train bombings on Tuesday |
Tuesday 11th
March was also the 3rd annivesary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, tsunami and earthquake
disaster which killed some 16 thousand people in Japan. That is a day that will go down in history as
one of the worst natural disasters ever to happen.
That day I got a phone call from my new (dotted line) Finnish boss Tatu. It was funny for me to receive a phone call
from a number beginning with 358. I
immediately recognised the number as coming from Finland, due to the many years
I worked for Nokia. I look forward to
meeting him and my new team members at the beginning of April in Stockholm.
On Tuesday too I had lunch with a colleague, “A” who has just lost her
job as the communications director with a well-known mobile phone
manufacturer. We had lunch at the only
English restaurant I know of in Madrid, The Bristol Bar. Here we devoured a wonderful plate of fish
and chips, followed by an enormous portion of fruit crumble. There was a lot of advice I could give to “A”
about finding a new job as I have been through the experience twice. We also had a story in common she wished to
discuss with me. The story was not
pleasant and was about a nasty person called Carlos L who had bullied me
terribly whilst at Nokia and then went on to bully her too at the mobile phone
company they both worked for. The
conversation brought back some bad memories but at least we could commiserate
together. I wish her lots of luck and
trust she will find another job soon. My
advice to her was to take her job hunting as seriously as if it were a work
project and to give herself a year. Hopefully
it will take a lot less.
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| The delicious fruit crumble with custard and ice cream I had at the Bristol Bar on Tuesday and again on Saturday! |
On Wednesday I had a conference call with all the “communicators” in our
mother company. When the Swedes or Finns pronounce local names, if I don’t know
the people, I can’t understand who they are talking about. Thankfully I was
later sent a power point with the new organisation chart and now know who is
doing what. It is amazing to see big communication
teams structures in some countries with fewer customers than Yoigo when I am a
one woman show doing communication here in Spain. I really think if you are organised and
efficient you don’t need big teams to do the job. But there you are.
Wednesday was the 25th anniversary of the internet. I can hardly imagine life today without if
although of course I do remember life before the Englishman Tim Berners-Lee invented
a way of using networks of computers to talk to each other.
Wednesday was also the first anniversary of Pope Francis, that
revolutionary, at least in attitude and style of living, very popular
Argentinian Pope. I am a great fan of
his but as I wrote to my own parish priest recently, Brandon J, I very much
doubt he will make a difference where it matters: women being admitted to the
priesthood, priests being allowed to marry, contraception, etc, etc. In any case on Wednesday Pope Francis was big
news. He is by far the most popular Pope
ever and that is good for the Catholic Church, whether you like it or not.
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| Pope Francis on his 1st anniversary this week - true to his style, getting off a bus and carrying his own briefcase |
I reflected on all these things as I went on my two walks every day of
this week. The walks have been heavenly
because of the weather and I have walked past so many signs of spring that have
lightened my step. I specially love the blossom on the trees at this time of
year.
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| Blossom on my walk, the sure sign spring is on its way |
As I walk on my own on the second walk of the day (Eladio comes once with
the dogs, mainly in the mornings), I enjoy listening to music on Spotify. I have come to realise that much of the music
on my lists is music I listened to in the 70s and 80s and it was music my
brother George also liked or played, so I have thought much about him during my
walks this week. He is dead, that is a terrible
fact, but he lives on in my heart. When
I listen to Carole King particularly I remember him playing “Tapestry” on the
piano. Oh George, how terrible that you
went but how wonderful to have you in my thoughts when I walk in the sunshine
in the afternoons.
Thursday of course was my second fasting day of the week but I tried not
to think about the hunger pangs when I went on my two walks that day.
On Friday, when I particularly enjoy my breakfast after a fasting day, I
read that Tony Benn died aged 88.
Today’s generation won’t know who he is but I remember him clearly from
when I was a teenager. A difficult man
to describe, he was a sort of left wing national treasure. He served under Harold Wilson and was possibly
one of the most radical Labour politicians in English history, after Michael
Foot. He is most known perhaps for
giving up his hereditary peerage but I remember him particularly for backing
the miners’ strike in 1985 and being a huge annoyance to Margaret Thatcher. He will be remembered also for his amazing
rhetoric, for constantly smoking a pipe, but perhaps I remember him most for
his incredible ability to drink copious amounts of tea. He claimed once that he
drank one pint of tea per hour. He must
have had a huge bladder I’m sure. Neither his smoking nor his tea drinking seem
to have hindered his health in old age lucky him. RIP Tony Benn. My parents never liked you but I secretly
admired you as I imagine many people did.
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| RIP Tony Benn |
The other piece of news that interested me that morning was the
publication of a study by the AIS group on the richest and poorest towns in
Spain. It turns out that 8 of the 10
richest towns in Spain with over 10.000 inhabitants are in the Madrid area and
that nearby Boadilla del Monte, where we lived for 18 years, is the
richest town in Spain based on income per capita. The average salary per person in Boadilla is
apparently 2,910 euros/month.
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| Boadilla del Monte the richest town in Spain |
Where we live now is the 5th richest town. Quite amazing to know and now, in a way, I
feel I must be living in the Spanish equivalent of Surrey, one of the richest
areas in England. If you look at the map
below you will see that as in most countries there is a north south divide, as
the richest towns in Spain are all located in the centre or the north.
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| Map of the richest and poorest towns in Spain |
On Friday Olivia took the day off work and went to Soria for the
weekend. She is staying at a rural hotel
in Valdelinares with her TVE master friends Giovanna and Paula. I think they have had great weather. The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of
her enjoying breakfast on Saturday morning with her friends. I do hope she comes back relaxed, refreshed
and happy. She has just posted a great
picture on Facebook of the three of them at the natural park area we also
visited and loved when we went to Soria; Cañón del Río Lobo. Beautiful Oli, thanks.
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| Olivia with her friends Paula (left in blue) and Giovanna at Cañón del Río Lobo in Soria today |
On Friday too, there was news from Suzy from London. Missing both my girls, it was lovely to talk
to her two or three times this week. On
Friday she was going to see a flat Gabor had liked and it was being kept on
hold for them if she liked it too. The
flat is in Canada Water (Southeast London) in the Docklands area which is
apparently becoming quite a genteel area – not like in the past. It is on the Jubilee Line and only 4 stops
from Waterloo near where she works at the Oxo building. As soon as Suzy saw it she loved it and they
will be moving in next Saturday. Nothing
will be stopping them this time, I hope.
They will be sharing with 3 other people (two Italian boys and one
Spanish girl). The flat looks lovely,
new, refurbished and has all the mod cons.
Their room has private access to a garden, there is wifi, the bills are
all included and most importantly a cleaner is too. This is a photo of the house from the outside. I am so happy for Suzy and Gabor.
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| Suzy's new house in Canada Water |
On Friday I had lunch with my great friends Julio and Fátima. It was a belated celebration of Fatíma’s and
my birthdays which were in January and February respectively. We chose our favourite place, El Buey in
Boadilla del Monte (yes the richest town in Spain hahaha). It was a great lunch except that Fátima
arrived 2 hours after the agreed meeting time (2.20h). She is always late but always has a valid
excuse. Julio told me to hold my tongue
and not tell her off, so I reluctantly agreed as I just hate a lack of
punctuality. Anyway, she was forgiven
and we exchanged our presents. I got
what I wanted, a lovely red handbag from Zara.
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| My belated birthday present from Julio and Fátima |
Yesterday Saturday I got in two walks as I did every day this week. They must have helped to work off the copious
meals as for lunch I made “real” fish and chips and for dinner we went out
again. Dinner yesterday night was once
again at the English restaurant, the Bristol Bar and it was with our friends
Pedro and Ludy; Pedro being the famous Spanish cyclist and TV commentator Pedro
Delgado. Eladio thought the place was a
bit noisy and he didn’t think the food was up to much. We had roast beef with all the
trimmings. It certainly wasn’t the best
I’ve ever had but as I love that dish so much I wasn’t complaining. It was
great to see our friends again and we chatted a lot that night about TVE which
Pedro knows very well and where Olivia works.
It was thanks to him she first got an internment there and for that I am
forever grateful.
Of note on Saturday the US marine Glenn McDuffie famous for kissing the
nurse in Times Square on VJ day in the iconic photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt on14th August 1945, died last Sunday
but I read about the news yesterday. The
photo often called “the kiss” is so famous you will recognise it immediately. I was interested to read he was changing
trains on his way to meet his girlfriend when he heard Japan had
surrendered. When he got out of the
subway he was so happy and when he saw the nurse standing there he just went over
and kissed her. The nurse was Edith
Shain who worked in a hospital nearby and who died in 2010.
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| The sailor in this iconic WW2 photo, Glenn McDuffie died last week |
Today Sunday has been very quiet so far. Again we went for a walk this
morning in the glorious pre spring sunshine and when we came home I spied our
cat Phoebe perched on top of the gate.
In fact we found out recently that her “house” is the layer of tiles on
top of the gate. I love the photo for its
colour and have named it “spot the cat”.
Can you spot Phoebe?
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| Phoebe our cat enjoying the pre spring sunshine outside her "house" - the row of tiles on the gate post |
Today will go down in history as the day of the illegal referendum in the
Crimea for the population to vote whether they want to belong to Russia or
remain in the Ukraine. This issue, more
than the missing Malaysian plane, has dominated the international news this
week. It may be so that Crimea used to
belong to Russia but who is Putin to invade another country with the whole
world against him? We shall know the
results today or tomorrow which if the Russians win will be devastating for
international politics.
On a much more pleasant note, my last piece of news today is about the
best place to live in England. At lunch
just as my Father was asking me once again what Facebook and Twitter were, I
read an article posted by a school friend, Geraldine, on her “wall” (difficult
to explain what that is to my Father).
She had posted a story from the Sunday Times which was publishing the
results of a survey on the best places to live in England. I was very interested to know the winner and
very full of praise when I heard it was my beloved Skipton, also known as “the
gateway to the Dales”. I would also have
been happy had the best place been voted Harrogate, Ilkley, York or even
Gargrave, all wonderful towns in ”God’s own country” Yorkshire. I was also
pleased to read that another town I love in England, Falmouth in Cornwall, came
fourth.
And now I have come to the end of this week’s tales and news. Wondering what next week will bring, I wish
you all the very best. I hope you have
enjoyed this week’s post. Cheers till next time,
Masha
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