Sunday 2nd March 2014
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| With our visitors from Yorkshire, Kathy and Phil at the Retiro Park on Friday morning. |
Hi everyone,
It’s
incredible to think that this time last week I was on the train to Barcelona
for this year’s Mobile World Congress and now one week later it is all
over. I have been working on Yoigo’s
activities there for months and now it’s over life feels very flat; as it
always does after big events.
So let me tell
you all about it, as well as the story of the rest of the week which has been
full of activity. I caught the 10.30
fast speed train last Sunday to Barcelona and on the train I met many
colleagues from the Spanish telecoms industry.
My idea was to write my blog on the train but I didn’t get down to it
until nearly the end of the 2.5h journey as I was caught up talking to so many
people. I was most delighted to find
Jesús and Renata were on the train and we had a coffee together in the bar
where we were to find many of the Spanish journalists on the way to the
Congress too.
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| A large Yoigo billboard on the Ramblas in Barcelona welcoming us all to the MWC |
This year’s
congress promised to be bigger than ever, with 20% more “men in black” than the
previous year, some 80.000 people. The
Mobile World Congress is the biggest telecommunications fair in the world and
Barcelona is invaded with the top brass from companies involved in the sector
from all over the world. This year, it
was not just about new mobile phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 which was
launched on Monday. Wearable technology,
like my Fitbit, had a huge presence here as did the social media giants
Facebook and of course the newly acquired Whatsapp.
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| The fitbit stand at the MWC - courtesy of my friend Juana |
The latter who had just acquired 19 billion
dollars from Mark Zuckerberg’s company for a business not worth more than 450
million dollars, announced it would be offering “free” voice calls on top of
its very popular instant messaging service.
Facebook too called for “free” access for customers in emerging markets.
This caused a stir from operators, including Yoigo who have pointed out that
“free” is not free as it is thanks to the huge investments operators make in
building networks that these apps work.
So operators are supposed to invest billions of dollars on
infrastructure for companies like whatsapp or facebook to offer free services?
That makes no business sense. If
operators didn’t spend money on improving their networks, apps like these would
not work and people’s messages wouldn’t be sent. It’s time to rearrange the value chain but
that’s not going to be easy. Just
remember that “free” is never free.
Anyway, I
arrived at my hotel The Renaissance Barcelona near Paseo de Gracia which was to
be the headquarters of Yoigo’s mother company, TeliaSonera all week. As soon as I had checked in I unpacked and
tried to connect to internet on the hotel’s wifi network. It never worked and I don’t know why. However thanks to the great 4G network Yoigo
has in Barcelona, I was able to connect using tethering (sharing my mobile
phone connection) via the “hotspot” on my iPhone.
Very soon I
was on the street again this time to catch a taxi to Badalona where my great
friend Grainne lives. Every time I go to
Barcelona I go to see her and her son Marcel.
She had prepared that quintessential British dish, shepherd’s pie,
except that her oven was on the blink and she had to bake it in her neighbour’s
oven. That didn’t matter, as it was
delicious. It was great to catch up on
her news and talk about the old days, as well as chat on the phone whilst I was
there to her sister Brenda who is a nurse and lives in Manchester. Soon I had
to leave and return to my hotel in Barcelona where I finished last week’s blog
post and published it. The evening was
going to be busy as I had to attend two events, so I decided to have a nice
luxurious bath and rest on the bed watching the BBC World news then go out for
an hour’s walk on the to the end of the Ramblas and back before getting ready
to go out.
The news this
week has continued to be dominated by events in the Ukraine. With the corrupt President Yanukovych on the
run, a new parliament was instated and finally the protests in the Maidan
square are over. However, nearby powerful Russia is not happy with what is
going on and it seems is getting its troops ready to enter the Crimea. Some people think we are on the brink of a
second cold war; I hope not.
By 21h I was
ready to go downstairs to join my colleagues at the TeliaSonera get together
which was taking place in the bar of our hotel.
It was good to greet Anna, Linda, Ingrid, Philip, Urban, Peter, Salomon,
Soren, Mette and many other colleagues.
Just when Anna was making her welcoming speech in walked my old boss
Johan who no longer works for the company.
It was wonderful to see him again as it always is.
I had to leave
soon to go to another party. It was for Spanish press and hosted by
Samsung. However I hardly knew anyone
and it seemed the place was full of local bloggers so I decided to leave nearly
as soon as I had arrived.
I got back to
my hotel and started communicating with Eladio on whatsapp! who was watching
our favourite programme of the week “Salvados” presented by the a Spanish
journalist, Jordi Evole, who is hugely popular in Spain for probing into issues
that are largely controversial. He had
promised to broadcast a documentary on the Spanish coup (23F) in 1981 claiming
he would “rewrite” the history books. So
some 5 million viewers were stunned to hear that the “operation palace”
revealed that the coup itself and the king’s speech had apparently been staged by
the Government to save democracy and boost the king’s image. At the end of the report, Jordi Evole
revealed it had been a false documentary and that he had done it to prove to
viewers how television can manipulate spectators. Everyone was shocked, me too
and felt confused as an audience to have been duped this way. When I spoke to
Olivia about it this week, she calmly answered “oh but he just did a
“mockumentary”, a TV format that has been used before. Of course she is right, but maybe in Spain we
have never been confronted with anything similar. The first “mockumentary” was the famous Orson
Welles “panic” broadcast, The War of the Worlds. I for one had never heard the term
“mockumentary” and if you didn’t know it either, now you know.
On Monday I
decided to have breakfast in bed as I did every morning whilst in Barcelona,
preferring to enjoy my favourite meal in my room rather than in the dining room
with colleagues.
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| Breakfast in bed is what I enjoy most at hotels. |
I had to do
some work before leaving for the conference and I didn’t get there till midday. The new conference centre called Fira Gran
Vía in faraway Hospitalet de Llobregat is just so enormous finding stands or
halls is a daunting experience. My first
stop is always the NSN (Nokia Siemens Networks) stand. Here I greeted lots of colleagues who I used
to work with there, including delightful Cristina and Paloma.
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| With Cristina and Paloma at the NSN stand at the MWC |
Right across
the way was the Ford stand and here I enjoyed a short chat with Gustavo who now
works for their external communications agency.
He used to head up my team at Ketchum and I still miss him. Next I met up with Julio, my great friend and
ex Nokia colleague and we escaped the hugeness of the exhibition to go and have
lunch in town. It took nearly 40 minutes
in the taxi to Plaza de la Villa by the harbour. Getting to the exhibition and
back is always a big problem as there are never enough taxis for 80.000 people
going to and leaving the fair. One night
a colleague of mine, Linda, told me it took her 2 hours to return to her
hotel! Luckily I never had to go to the
congress at peak times which is always a nightmare. Julio and I enjoyed lunch
at Cal Pinxo after which I walked all the way back to my hotel where I needed a
rest before venturing out for another long walk and coming back to get ready to
go to my own party.
Every year we
host a Yoigo party for our partners, collaborators, shop keepers, press and
anyone close to the company. This means
I get to see so many people I know and have worked with for years. I was especially happy to see my ex
colleagues from Motorola; Jesús, Xavi and Gonzalo and my ex colleagues from
Nokia; Juana, Julio, Paloma, Cristina, Miquel, Marc, Pepe, Carlos and Pepe.
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| With some of my ex Nokia colleagues at the Yoigo party on Tuesday night |
The party
which took place at Ura Restaurant and Lounge was a huge success and went on
until nearly 4 in the morning. You can
see the photos here. I, however, was exhausted and left, the Cinderalla way,
unobtrusively just past midnight.
We had good
news that day from Suzy. She has been
made a fixed employee with her company and will now be working full time as a
fully-fledged employee as the operations and catering manager at Oxo which is
owned by the Concerto Group. At the same
time she had bad news in that the flat in Aldgate fell through as the current
tenant decided to carry on living there.
In a way I’m not that upset as I think it was going to be too small with
no living area for “us visitors”. So now
she and Gabor are looking for a flat to share with other people and are using
what is a called a “buddy up” option to find one. So watch this space. I do hope they find something suitable soon
and can move out of their ghastly accommodation in Whitechapel which they share
with 12 people!
On Tuesday
morning I was up at 06.30 as I had to be at the TeliaSonera press conference
starting early that morning at a hotel opposite the congress. I slept badly that night despite a
comfortable bed, as I have been sleeping badly for about 10 days now. The record according to my fitbit was waking
up 10 times one night this weekend.
Apart from being stressed with the events I was to execute at the
congress I was plagued with a nasty cold and cough which probably contributed
to the bad nights.
The
TeliaSonera press conference hosted by the new CEO, another Johan, Johan D,
went well and the room was quite full of Nordic journalists. There was no breaking news, more an overview
of the company. I was delighted to see
the first slide about Yoigo which was entitled: “Proud owners of the challenger
Yoigo in Spain”, which in fact I had contributed to.
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| The slide about Yoigo at the TeliaSonera press conference |
Not long after
the press conference I had another press engagement; an interview by Expansión,
Spain’s leading business daily, with the CEO of TeliaSonera. It was my job to translate which wasn’t easy
I can tell you. It never is and all
depends, in my case, on how long the sentences are. I was exhausted when it was over and in need
of rest, but I had to have a meeting with my boss about our press conference
the next day.
My next
appointment was a lovely lunch at Neichel with the girls from my events agency,
Cristina and Gloria and also with Miguel, the only guy who works at
QuintaEsencia. It was great to get away from the busy exhibition and wind down
after the morning’s stressful activities.
In the
afternoon I was quietly working in my room when I saw breaking news on Reuters
about Yoigo. After our interview it
seems the CEO of TeliaSonera was interviewed by the international news agency. The problem was it quoted him saying that
Yoigo was too small to compete in the Spanish market. What it didn’t say and apparently he had
actually said was that the Mother company was happy to carry on growing Yoigo
in Spain. This of course would have
repercussions in our own press conference the next day when we would get
questions, once again, on the future of Yoigo.
I was not happy.
That evening
we had our traditional end of congress dinner for my teams at our press agency,
Ketchum, and our events agency, QuintaEsencia.
We commented on the Reuters article during our dinner at La Venta at the
top of Barcelona but soon wound down and talked about other things.
On Wednesday
morning I was up early. I had to have
breakfast, pack and be at our press conference venue, Casa Paloma, by 9. The address on the invitation was 29 Carrer
de Casanova but when I arrived I just couldn’t see the venue. It turned out to be on Carrer de Casanova 209,
not 29. There was a moment of panic when
we had to alert journalists to the fact.
Thankfully they were all warned and turned up ok at the venue.
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| The Yoigo press conference in Barcelona |
The press
conference went well and had good turnout.
Thankfully there was only one question about the news in the Reuters
article which we answered truthfully that our mother company was keen to grow
Yoigo in Spain. Our news that day was
quite big. We were to announce we had
reached 4 million customers as well as announce a new system of financing
mobile phones, similar to car leasing.
We also announced 4G roaming in Spain for TeliaSonera customers from
Norway and Sweden and more interestingly for our own customers, a new system of
accessing premium services to avoid shock bills from these shark like companies
who dupe people into signing up to fraud services.
Our
journalists all sat on afterwards asking more questions and writing their
chronicles but at 12.30 I had to get away if I was to catch the 13h train back
to Madrid. I left with Carlos and
Cristina who were catching the same train.
Here is a photo of them – notice Cristina’s huge luggage for just 3
days! at Barcelona Sants Station. Ah and you can see the rest of the photos of
our press conference here.
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| Carlos and Cristina at Barcelona Sants Station on the last day - notice Cris' baggage! |
The sweetest
moment for me of the Mobile World Congress was relishing the headlines of media
coverage after the Yoigo press conference on my mobile phone and PC on the
train going back. It is the reward for all the effort I had put into organizing
our activities at the congress; some 150 articles mainly online. So, I could come home feeling pleased if not
a little exhausted. You can see a
collection of my photos of this year’s MWC here.
I came home to
brilliant sunshine in Madrid. I also
came home to visitors. Phil and Kathy, our friends from Keighley in Yorkshire
had come to stay for a few days and had arrived the day before me. Believe it or not they were sunbathing by our
covered pool. So after greeting them and
unpacking I went to join them, over a lovely cup of tea. Eladio went off to this UNED University tutorial
and the three of us went for “our” walk. It was a beautiful evening and a great
way to wind down after the stress of Barcelona.
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| On our walk with Kathy on Wednesday afternoon - it was a glorious evening. |
I was to take
the next two days off work to be with them although of course I was always connected. On Thursday morning we set off to Segovia,
that lovely medieval city which has a famous Roman aqueduct. We were to have lunch at the equally famous
Mesón de Cándido and I had asked my ex cyclist friend Pedro Delgado to book us
a table. I knew we would be guaranteed a
good table and excellent service if he made the booking.
We went the
scenic way, over the mountains rather than on the motorway. I was eager
to show my friends the snow there but was not sure if there would be
any. We were in for a surprise as the
snow was piled up and there was nearly a blizzard when we arrived at the Puerto
de Navacerrda (mountain pass) where people from Madrid go skiing. Who could
believe that there could be so much snow just 50km from Madrid when our friends
had been sunbathing the day before? The mountain pass is 1858 metres high and
the highest mountain in the Guadarrama mountain region is Peñalara which is
nearly 2.500 metres high. I can only
imagine that’s quite a lot for them as the highest mountain in England, Snowden
is just 1.085 metres. It felt like we
were in Siberia not in sunny Spain.
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| At Puerto de Navacerrada 50km from Madrid on Thursday morning with Kath and Phil. It felt like Siberia |
We got out of
the car to go for a walk or climb up to where people were tobogganing, but
Eladio, who really wanted to get back into the comfort of our car, suggested we
go and have a cup of coffee. In fact we
preferred a cup of hot broth to coffee and here Kathy and I spied a winter
sports clothes shop where I bought myself a pair of boots for the snow. We started on our walk and I was happy with
my boots but Eladio pointed out that no one else had suitable footwear so we
turned back and got into the car. As we
drove down the mountains the snow began to disappear and the rain made its
appearance. We stopped next at the
pretty little Royal town of La Granja de Segovia where the summer royal palace
is. Built by Phillip V in 1721, it
resembles Versailles as do the gardens.
Here we walked around the gardens and took pictures of the cascading
fountains which unfortunately were not functioning.
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| At The Granja de Segovia Palace gardens on Thursday morning |
We drove on to
Segovia and parked right by the aqueduct.
We had an hour until lunch so took the time to show our friends the
aqueduct, the Cathedral and the Castle (Alcázar). These are the three main things to see in this
lovely and partially walled city.
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| By the aqueduct in Segovia |
We were warmly
greeted at Casa Cándido by the original owner’s grandson also called Cándido
and led to a table by the window overlooking the square and with views of the
aqueduct. This beautiful restaurant was
opened in 1786 and its most celebrated dishes are suckling roast lamb or pig.
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| Casa Cándido in Segovia |
We decided to
order both. Just for us, Cándido’s
Father, Alberto, did the suckling pig ceremony for us, wearing a medal which
made him look like a lord mayor. We were
duly impressed as were all the other people dining around us. At the end of the ceremony Alberto cut the
roast suckling pig with a plate to show just how tender it was and then threw
the plate on the floor to the amazement of the diners.
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| The special ceremony put on for us when we were served the suckling pig at Cándido |
After lunch we
drove home as Eladio had to leave for his early evening tutorial. This gave me time to have tea with my guests
and to make our dinner. For the record I
made a delicious broccoli and asparagus soup served with the last of my home
made croquettes I had made and frozen for Christmas. It was wonderful to be joined by Olivia that
night for dinner as I had hardly seen her since I came back from Barcelona.
Friday was
Kathy and Phil’s last day with us so it was fitting we took them to Madrid.
They wanted a walk in the Retiro Park and a visit to the Plaza Mayor. We drove into Madrid and found it difficult
to park by the Retiro so Eladio left us in the street and went off to
park. We presumed he would come back for
us but he didn’t. He had us stranded in the street ringing him to no
avail. Finally he picked up the phone
and told me he was already in the park by the lake and had thought we would
make our way there. That is my Eladio
always presuming things that have not been agreed. So off we went to meet him. I have to admit I was a little cross but had
to shrug off the feeling as it was such a lovely day and I wanted to enjoy the
beautiful ornamental park with our friends.
The Retiro is Madrid’s biggest park and was built in the 16th
century by the Royal Family. It became a
public park in the late 19th century.
We were
approached by a fortune telling gypsy and as I was now in a good mood I got
trapped with her blarney. For 10 or so
euros she told me I was a person who liked to earn money and spend it, that my
husband loved me but another man pined for me and that I would have two
grandchildren. Kathy got ensnared too
and was told nearly the same things; so she was obviously making everything
up. However it was a bit of fun and
added colour to the day.
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| With the gypsy in the Retiro park on Friday morning |
We walked all
around the lake, only stopping for a cup of coffee at the far end of the
lake. Showing the park to our friends I
noticed things I had never noticed before and was very impressed with the
beautiful monument to Alfonso XII which is surrounded by statues of lions and
mermaids. We used to take the children to the park on Sundays when they were
small and they would climb the lions but I never noticed then just what a
wonderful place it was.
From the
Retiro we took a taxi to the Puerta del Sol. The first thing we did there was
to show our friends the famous symbol of Madrid there, the statue of the bear
and “madroño” tree.
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| By the bear and madroño tree in the Puerta del Sol |
The other
thing to see in the Puerta del Sol of course is the kilometer 0 from where all
roads are measured in Madrid.
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| Kathy and Phil by the Kilometre 0 sign in the Puerta del Sol |
From here we
walked to the Plaza Mayor stopping in the street for Kathy to buy a fake
Carolina Herrera bag from an illegal immigrant from Senegal who allowed us to
take a photo with him
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| Buying a fake bag from an illegal immigrant on the streets of Madrid. |
From the Plaza
Mayor we walked to the Cathedral of Madrid, La Almudena and finally to the
Royal Palace where we stopped for photos at the Plaza de Oriente. By then it was time to take a taxi back to
the Retiro and pick up our car and drive home for lunch.
Fátima, our
home help, had made a delicious dish of stuffed cabbage which was followed by
our typical dessert, a sort of Eton mess made with meringue nests, strawberries
and raspberries and ice cream. A siesta
was in order afterwards but not for long as we wanted to go for a walk with our
friends and the dogs in the woods in nearby Boadilla.
We took the
dogs in the car and as they are not used to it they struggled in the back. Thankfully they behaved better on the way
back. The walk was wonderful as it
always is, with lots of footpaths to choose from and not many people
around. What with our walks in Madrid in
the morning and the walk in Boadilla in the afternoon my little fitbit
registered over 12km walking that day!
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| On the walk in Boadilla on Friday afternoon |
In the
evening, Kath and Phil’s last night with us, we had booked a table at our
latest favourite place, La Terraza La Escondida, in nearby Pozuelo. As always we shared the house salad for
starters and my friends and I shared a great plate of medium rare steak for our
second course. They agreed the restaurant was lovely with its open fire and
friendly staff.
And the next
day was Saturday and we all had to be up early to go the airport for our
friends to catch their 10.30 flight to Liverpool. Their stay with us was lovely but all too
short. You can see the rest of the photos of their visit here. When we came back home, the house felt flat without them. Also it rained and we were robbed of our
walk, so yesterday was definitely the worst day of the week.
But it wasn’t
the worst day of the week for Suzy in England.
She had gone with Chati to spend the weekend in Devon with Sandeep,
Oli’s Indian friend from her Erasmus year in Cornwall. Sandeep lives in Plymouth
where he works as an editor for a production company.
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| Suzy and Sandeep at his flat in Plymouth this weekend |
She sent me
lots of photos of what looked like a day trip to a very beautiful area: Noss
Mayo, some 6 miles from Plymouth and apparently one of the most unspoiled and
beautiful villages in Devonshire. She
was ecstatic with the countryside which didn’t surprise me.
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| Sandeep, Suzy and Chati near Noss Mayo in Devon yesterday |
Saturday was
very quiet as I said but to cheer ourselves up after our friends had left, I
booked seats at the cinema to see Philomena.
This is a film starring Judi Dench and is based on the book written by
Martin Sixsmith (graduate in Russian and BBC journalist) who wrote the story of
Philomena Lee; a single mother in the 50’s in Ireland who was forced to give up
her son for adoption. The story is about
her search for her son, the story of many single mothers who were treated so
badly in Ireland by the church who considered them sinners and literally sold their
children and sent them as far away as America and made them work for years to
“pay” for their stay at these cruel residences.
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| The poster of the film Philomena we saw last night |
The film was
very good but towards the end I had a terrible coughing fit and we nearly left
the cinema but I did my best to watch the film until the end. Afterwards we rushed home for me to take some
cough mixture and also a hot drink of lemon water spiced with honey and
whisky. That together with some
anti-cough pills helped me get through the night thank goodness.
Today is
Sunday and it has been another quiet day.
I had breakfast with Olivia but at midday she had to go off to work to
do Sunday duty, preparing tomorrow’s programme. She has just sent me a Whatsapp
message to say she is very bored together with a picture of a rather empty
newsroom. She’ll feel better tomorrow
when her boyfriend Miguel comes to stay for the week. She will be taking a couple of days off and
they plan to go Navacerrada to ski.
Nice.
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| Oli doing Sunday duty in a very empty TVE newsroom today |
Tonight of
course will be the Oscar’s. I wonder if
the two recent films we have seen, 12 Years a slave and Philomena will get
awards. I think they deserve them. We
will know tomorrow morning.
And now my
friends I have come to the end of the tale of this week. It is now time to publish this post and then go
for our walk with the dogs, as always. I
wish you all the best,
Till next time
Masha.
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