Sunday 7th September 2014
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| In beautiful Santander with its lovely flower beds |
Hello everyone,
I can hardly believe another week has already passed
and that summer is nearing its end. I can hardly believe too that once again I
have been to Santander for this year’s annual telecoms conference. Every year I go, I never know whether I will be
going again the following year, so each year I try to enjoy it as if it were
the last. And this year wasn’t going to be different although it got off to a
bad start.
I missed my 09.30 plane to Santander on Monday morning
convinced it was leaving at 10.30. This
is the first time in my life I have missed a plane and I felt a complete
idiot. I was going through security at
09.15 at Terminal 4 when I realized the plane was actually leaving at 09.30, so
started to panic. I had more bad luck as
the security officer asked me to open my suitcase as she thought there was
liquid in it which there wasn’t. Then I
bolted for Gate K95 at the furthest end of the terminal only to see the
boarding gate just shut in front of my eyes as I arrived. I could see the plane on the tarmac but the
ground hostess stuck to the rules and there and then I missed my plane. There wasn’t another one until 8pm but it was
full. So I had no choice but to buy a
ticket to nearby Bilbao which didn’t leave till 11.30. Once in Bilbao I had hoped to take a taxi to
Santander but the fare was astronomical so for once in my life I had to opt for
a bus. I could only get a seat on the
14.30 one and thus didn’t arrive at my hotel in Santander until 16.00h. I felt as if I had spent the whole day
travelling. But finally I was there.
The weather was beautiful, my work was already done,
so what did I do? Yes you guessed right
I crossed the road to my favourite town beach in Spain, El Sardinero. There I grabbed a sunbed and after a quick
bathe I lay and read a new book I had bought at the airport, Khaled Hossein’s
latest novel,” And the mountains echoed”.
He is the author of “The Kite Runner” and “A thousand splendid suns”
both of which I adored. However his
latest novel, also set in Afghanistan, is nowhere near as good, very rambling
with a good initial plot which gets lost along the way and has a very
disappointing end. In a way it is a
collection of short stories and I have never been a fan of short stories.
Despite what I think there are some good reviews of Khaled Hossein’s latest
novel. Getting a bit bored with it I went for the 40 minute walk from end to
end of the lovely Sardinero beach.
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| The Sardinero Beach in Santander, my favourite town beach in Spain. |
Santander is one of my favourite towns in Spain, on
the north coast with wonderful green and mountainous scenery. The seaside town is one of the best kept in
Spain with some superb architecture and beautiful flower beds along the
pavements. Despite there being a ferry
service two or three times a week to Plymouth in the UK, I realized from
comments from a friend on Facebook that Santander is only really known as a
bank in England, not as a town. So let
me explain. The bank is called after the home town of the owner Emilio Botín,
one of the richest men in Spain and father-in-law of world famous Spanish golf
player, Seve Ballesteros. So you would
have thought that thanks to the bank’s branding the town would also be
famous. But there you and I are
wrong. It may be great branding but
there must be something wrong with the marketing if this beautiful town is not
well known outside Spain. Maybe that could be partially repaired as next week
the 2014 Sailing World Championship takes place in Santander. I don’t know much about sailing but can only
imagine Santander being one of the best locations in the world for such an
event.
There was a sea breeze which was quite strong so,
despite the mild temperature of about 24ºc, it felt quite cool therefore at
about 6.30 I headed back to my hotel across the road to have a shower and wash
my hair in what I consider the best water in Spain for that purpose. My hair always looks splendid after washing
it in Santander or anywhere on the north coast really, much better than here in
Madrid. That night I was to be free of any professional engagements so was able
to go out to dinner with my great friend Fátima who was also in town. I walked to her hotel at the far end of the
beach and then we walked back towards the town.
We also walked back again after dinner and my fitbit was extremely pleased
with me that day when it registered I had walked nearly 19km. I think that’s my record.
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| A selfie of Fátima and I in Santander |
Dinner was at La Posada del Mar, one of my 4 favourite
restaurants in Santander which also include Zacarías, La Bombi and De Luz. I am always made welcome at La Posada del Mar
by the owner Tomás and his faithful group of waiters.
On Tuesday morning I was up early as that morning at
the conference it was Yoigo’s turn to make a presentation. I always walk to the lovely conference centre
in La Magdalena Peninsula called “Caballerizas”. Every year you see the same group of people,
top representatives of most of the big telecoms companies in Spain. In a way we all consider this event a bit
like the start of school after the summer holidays. Thus I saw many familiar faces and greeted
many colleagues from my past and present professional life. This year our CEO couldn’t make it to the
conference so our CFO had to take his place.
Our presentation was much more institutional than I would have wanted
but we did get our messages through.
Afterwards my CFO was subjected to many questions from the big group of
Spanish telecoms press present which he answered very competently.
Later Yoigo hostesses distributed invitations to our
80’s party that night which is a party I organize for all the conference attendants
and which is much looked forward to by everyone.
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| Yoigo hostesses giving out our 80's party invitations |
I was free for lunch that day too as was my other
great friend in Santander, dearest Julio, so the two of us had lunch at De Luz.
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| Lunch at De Luz |
De Luz is a beautiful English looking house with a lush
garden, flowers and hedges. It feels
like having lunch at someone’s house, even though it is a restaurant. It’s quite unique really.
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| The De Luz restaurant in Santander, more like a beautiful private home. |
Later Julio treated us both to one of the best ice
creams in town, sold at a kiosk by the beach called Regma. The size of the ice creams is huge so you have
to eat it quickly otherwise it melts all over you.
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| The Regma ice cream kiosk by the Sardinero beach in Santander |
I was free again until the evening so once again spent
time on the beach. The sea was quite
rough and when I bathed in the water I was tossed under by the strong waves.
Once again I walked the length and back of the beach so as to tot up more
mileage on my fitbit.
It was when I was walking into town later that evening
with Carlos and Isa from my PR agency to attend a big dinner I had organized for
some of our distributors, that I heard from Carlos that the IS had published
another video with the beheading of a second American journalist. I was shocked, just as I was shocked at the
previous video of the beheading of James Foley.
Even worse this time, the perpetrator warned the next victim would be a
British aid worker. It is time to fight
back, it is time to stop the tolerance of the west towards these fanatical
jihadists who want to conquer the Muslim world and even reconquer the Spanish
territory, Andalusia which was once invaded by the Muslims centuries ago. So I was glad to read later that 10 nations
have formed a coalition to combat I.S. I
wasn’t happy to learn that Spain is not included in this list as I think it
should. However signs of tolerance here
may just be beginning to wane as Spain announced this week it may prohibit that
most awful and degrading of garments, the burka that covers women’s eyes.
At dinner that night with some of my fellow Yoigo
colleagues and distributors, much of our conversation focused on this new and
barbaric terrorist group but then, as is normal, returned to topics in the
telecoms world. All this was over a most
wonderful dinner served by the waiters at La Bombi under the close surveillance
of César and his brother, the owners of the restaurant.
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| A display of some of the food at La Bombi restaurant in Santander |
After the most delicious dinner, it was time to go to
our own party, the 80’s revival we had organized in the main “tapas” square in
town, Plaza de Cañadío. The party took
place at a street level discotheque called Loft. It was great fun, well patronized and full of
all sorts of fun activities, such as having to sit on a balloon until it
burst. The prizes were popular too.
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| The Yoigo 80's party at Santander this year |
I had an enormous headache that night, probably because
of the white wine at dinner, so surreptitiously made my escape at just past
midnight. I walked back to my hotel in
order to clear my head and of course add mileage to my fitbit. I slept badly
that night after all the stress of the preparations for our activities in
Santander but happy that all had gone well.
The next day was Wednesday and time to pack and leave
Santander once again. You spend the
whole summer organizing your activities there, they take place and suddenly it’s
all over and you get a feeling of emptiness.
This time I was not going to miss my flight and left the hotel early in
a taxi shared with Carlos, Isabel and a colleague, Gaby. We were in Madrid by mid-morning and I was
home for lunch after a quick visit to the office. It was great to have lunch with my Father and
Eladio and to be home again.
Later that night I was to see Olivia and Miguel and we
all had dinner together. Whilst in
Santander I had missed her live on the TV.
It was just lovely to be together again.
It was also good to witness the fact that my Father now seems nearly
totally recovered from his operation. He
really is an amazing old soldier or should I say sailor as he was a Navy
officer in WW2.
On Thursday my fasting was resumed as were my two
morning walks. Later I had to send
reports on the media coverage obtained at the Santander conference as well as
my monthly PR reports for the Board of Administration and our HQ in
Stockholm. Later that evening Eladio and
I went to Ikea just to take a look at kitchens and bathrooms for our “new”
house in Montrondo. It is early days, but we do want to be prepared for when
the time comes. We want country style furniture and will be looking elsewhere but
we did like this kitchen although everyone tells us to be careful about Ikea’s
quality. And here my feelings are
divided. I love the style, the price is
good, but what will the end quality be like I wonder.
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| The kitchen we like from Ikea |
On Thursday my Father’s day must have been brightened
quite a lot when he received a long letter from Susana, handwritten and sent by
post from London. She sent it to him
after his operation and with lovely grand daughterly love and concern. Suzy that was lovely of you! It made me reflect that no one sends letters
anymore. Of course we all have email and
many other ways to connect instantly but there is something much more meaningful
in a letter that these days is now nearly lost.
Friday was quiet.
I went for my two morning walks, worked in the morning and went food
shopping in the evening with Fátima. I
was back on time to watch Olivia on the television. She did several reports that day but the most
shocking one was about a 41 year old woman who is a University music teacher,
who killed her two year old baby and then tried to commit suicide. What an awful story. Olivia later told me the
woman was a manic depressive.
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| Oli and her colleague Lourdes reporting on a very sad case on Friday |
I wasn’t to see Olivia again as she and Miguel went to
Valencia for the weekend where he lives.
All I know is that they went to the beach and then did some clothes
shopping. I can imagine they also went
for a run as they are a very sporty couple.
Meanwhile Suzy nominated me for the ice bucket
challenge. I got quite excited and
started to think when I would do it and who I myself would nominate. Eladio thought the whole idea was rather
stupid as did my friend Sandra who said she would be quite happy to donate but
didn’t want to get wet. I actually now
tend to agree. Also I have learned, as I
suspected, that many people, at least in Spain, are doing the challenge but not
bothering to donate the 10 euros. Maybe
though the ALS association here is Spain hasn’t done enough to promote how to
donate. In the UK all you have to do is
send a text message. I am also seeing
people doing the challenge but donating funds to other charities. So, given all the above, I have decided not
to take up the challenge.
Suzy and I spoke for quite a while on the phone on
Friday and I was pleased to hear she has an interview on Monday and a couple of
other openings coming her way. I am
keeping my fingers crossed for her. Life
in London for the unemployed is not easy as it is such a competitive and
expensive place to live. But I am sure
in the end she will succeed.
On Friday evening Eladio and I went out to dinner to
Ginos where of course we discussed Suzy’s situation and talked about a lot of
other things which are on our mind at the moment.
And Saturday came and turned out to be the highlight of
the week. José Antonio and Dolores were
coming for lunch and to spend the afternoon and evening with us. We hadn’t seen them since we left Montrondo
at the beginning of August and there was lots to catch up on.
In preparation for their arrival I pruned the roses
with Eladio’s help and picked some of the loveliest red ones which I think will
probably be the last of the summer roses.
Hopefully after the pruning we may just get another bloom before all the
flowers in the garden go when autumn comes.
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| Red roses from our garden possibly the last summer roses this year |
As I was up so early everything was ready well before
our guests arrived which gave me time to relax by the pool with my new book
also bought at Madrid airport on Monday.
Yesterday I started on JK Rowling’s new novel, Silkworm, written under
her pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The
occasion was enhanced with a lovely mug of frothy coffee as you can see in the
photo below:
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| A good book and a coffee by the pool, a wonderful way to relax |
I’m not yet hooked on the book, finding it a bit
slow. I suppose after having read I am
Pilgrim any other book will feel the same.
Lunch was to be a simple barbecue but dessert was to
be raspberry syllabub made from a Jamie Oliver recipe with my own finishing
touches. I would hate to know how many
calories each generous portion contained.
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| The raspberry syllabub I made for lunch on Saturday |
Our guests arrived just as Eladio lit the barbecue and
we had a nice quiet lunch outside, if you discount the very annoying flies
which seem to be invading our meals outside at this time of year. Afterwards we spent our time sitting by the
pool reading and talking. Before sunset
we took Toño and Dolores on our new walk which I think they liked even more
than our normal walk. Dolores, like us
before, was tempted with the prickly pears and was later to regret that
decision and had to use my tweezers to remove them.
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| Setting off on our walk yesterday |
Dinner with no flies was more enjoyable than lunch; a
very simple meal of salad, Spanish ham and bread followed by mini chocolate ice
creams (delicious). The house seemed
very quiet when our guests left and being the early birds we are we went straight
to bed. I, as usual, fell asleep with
the television on.
Today is Sunday, it is Fátima’s day off (well today
and tomorrow) and there are just 3 of us in the house until Olivia returns
tonight. I shall be making our lunch
soon and afterwards will be continuing with my book, Silkworm. Then we shall go for our second walk when the
sun is down, after which Eladio will drive to the station to pick Olivia up
from the train station. I shall stay at
home making our dinner.
Tomorrow will be another day and another week. There are no trips programmed so it will be
very quiet. As you know I always like a bit of excitement on the horizon so I
will just have to make do with some routine for a change.
Meanwhile my friends and readers, I wish you all a
great week ahead. Till next time
Masha
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