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| Hispano Russian English afternoon tea with our new neighbours on Saturday |
Hi everyone,
I hope you’ve
all had a good week. Mine has probably been the busiest of the year so far, but
it’s also been a lot of fun.
Monday was a
holiday in Madrid, thanks to the local patron Saint Almudena. I spent most of the day working and poor Oli
had to work too for her TV programme as TV programmes are rarely cancelled on
bank holidays.
Monday was
also Armistice Day the day that marks the end of the First World War; the
eleventh day of the eleventh month which ended on November 11th
1918. It was probably one of the deadliest wars in history where 7 million
people lost their lives in the conflict.
In the UK where Armistice Day is linked to Remembrance Sunday, the Tower
of London put on an amazing display, designed by Paul Cummins, called “Blood
Swept Lands and Seas of Red” where there were 888.246 ceramic poppies planted
in the moat to represent the life of every British military soldier who died in
The Great War. When the display comes
down, don’t worry about the poppies as each and every one of them has been bought
by members of the public as a keepsake. There is a wonderful video you can
watch if you haven’t already seen it.
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| Poppies at the Tower of London |
On Tuesday I
had a 10 am meeting in Madrid with some of our PR and advertising
agencies. It rained cats and dogs and
was so cold it felt like being in England hahaha. That morning too we sent out
a press release announcing that Yoigo customers can now enjoy 4G roaming in the
Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. As
I tweeted the news I got immediate response from other tweeters saying yeah
fine but it would be very expensive. I
was happy to be able to reply that actually, no, there is no extra fee for using
4G and our roaming data tariff in the EU and associated countries is only 3.6
euros a day for up to 50mb.
It was on
Tuesday that my interview with PR Noticias was published. It came about after I was given
the award as the best communications director in the Spanish telecoms sector. I loved the headline they used from the
interview: “it is unpardonable that a communications director does not have a
twitter account”. I should have added “and use it”. It's both text and video, the latter making me cringe when I hear my voice.
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| Interview with PR Noticias |
Lately I have
been able to see more of Olivia live on TV as the end of my walk usually
coincides with her programme (Aquí en Madrid – TeleMadrid 19.30-20h Monday to
Friday). So, on Tuesday I saw her
reporting on a nasty case of child abuse but also an interesting one on how the
control centre of the Madrid Metro works.
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| Olivia reporting from the Control Centre of the Madrid Metro this week |
My curiosity
was piqued when I saw a piece of news that day entitled, “the top most powerful passports in the world”. I have always
thought that colour was something to do with the importance of a passport, but
this study had actually based the ranking on the travel freedom each passport
allows (the number of countries they can visit without a visa). You can read the findings in the link above. I was pretty happy to see where my UK
passport ranks – number 1! Here are the
top four positions: 1) UK, Sweden and Finland, 2) Germany, USA, Denmark and
Luxemburg, 3) Italy, Belgium and Holland, 4) Spain, Ireland, Canada, France,
Japan, Norway and Portugal.
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| The three most powerful passports in the world according to the study above. |
On the same
link I found another study, this time about the top 10 most visited countries
and again my curiosity was piqued. Spain
came very high in position number 3, after France and the US! This is the
ranking: 1) France 84.7 million, 2) US 69.8, 3) Spain 60.7, 4) China 55.7, 5)
Italy 47.7, 6) Turkey 37.8, 7) Germany 31.5, 8) UK 31.2, 9) Russia 28.4, 10)
Thailand 26.5. Does it surprise
you? It does me. I would have thought more people visit London
than Paris but I must be wrong.
On Wednesday morning
I had to go into Madrid again this time for a brainstorming session with my PR
agency Ketchum to come up with creative and newsworthy ideas for a special PR
Plan I have been asked to submit. The brainstorming continued over lunch at El
Almirante de Bogavante where we were joined by Cris, Bea and Gloria from my
events agency.
That evening I
also watched Olivia on the TV. That day
she did a lovely report on the story behind the making of this year’s Spanish
Christmas lottery advert. It was filmed
at a modest little bar in the humble neighbourhood of Villaverde, a working
class area on the outskirts of Madrid.
The advert has been a huge success and has gone viral on internet like
many other big brands’ Christmas adverts such as John Lewis, Marks and Spencer’s
or Sainsbury’s (if you haven’t seen the latter they are good). The story is
very emotional; the owner of the bar where the biggest lottery prize has been
won, generously keeps a lottery ticket for a local customer who had forgotten
to buy one. The real bar is called La
Muralla and is owned by a Colombian couple.
You can see the advert here and Olivia’s report on the story here.
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| Olivia reporting on the story of how the Spanish Christmas lottery ad was made |
On Thursday I
had a long morning meeting in Madrid with my PR agency. It was a joint effort
session working on the presentation of our PR Plan. Afterwards I rushed to my next appointment in
town, this time with the organisers and jury of which I am a member of the
“Elocuent personal communication Prizes 2014”.
As soon as that was over, I rushed again this time to a lunch
appointment with my events agency where we had another brain storming session,
this time about an up and coming press event. On my way home, once on the
elegant Velázquez Street I spied a beautiful red wool jumper in the H+M shop
window. I just had to have it. Later I thought Olivia would love it too so
left it on her bed as a present. She
wore it the next day and I know I can borrow it anytime from her. It’s lovely to be able to wear each other’s
clothes!
I had to rush
home on Thursday evening to go with Eladio to the Funeral Parlour in nearby
Alcorcón. Sadly my new Russian neighbor,
Katya’s Father had died whilst he and his wife Tanya were visiting them. You
may remember I mentioned they were coming to have coffee with us a week or so
ago. But that was not to be as Victor Sheynin (a famous Russian film director)
aged 75 was very ill and died quietly in hospital in Madrid on Wednesday
night. He was to be cremated here and
his ashes taken to Moscow for a full blown funeral with the Russian film
industry. It was a very sad occasion. As
I commented to Katya, we are never prepared in life for the death of our
parents. R.I.P. Victor. I am glad I
managed to see you for a few minutes last week and to say hello in my faltering
Russian. I am sorry my Father never met you.
To cheer them up Eladio and I invited our neighbours to afternoon tea on
Saturday afternoon.
I cheered up on
the way home when I got a message from Olivia to say she had been allowed a day
off on Monday 1st December to be able to go with me for a surprise
visit to London to see Suzy. Once home I
spent time on my PC buying our tickets.
We wanted to keep this as a surprise but over dinner both Oli and I
agreed it would be better to tell Suzy so that she has something to look
forward to. On the other hand logistically
it would be better all round as Suzy and Gabor don’t have a sofa bed in their
lounge and if we had arrived late on the Friday night, we would have had to
sleep on the floor. Suzy was overjoyed when she heard the news. I am so excited. I realized too that it will be the first time
ever that Olivia and I will be in London together. Great!
Later I heard that my sister-in-law Dolores and my niece Sara will be in
London too the same weekend. That is
quite a coincidence but when I heard that another niece Paula and her boyfriend
will be in London too, I was even more delighted. We shall do our best to organize a family
reunion in London that weekend.
Meanwhile I am mentally doing my packing in the cabin sized luggage Easy
Jet allows you on board and in which you now also have to pack your
handbag. Flying these days is no longer
the joy it was some years ago.
Friday seemed
like a time trial to me as I had so many things to fit in the day. First there was my morning walk, then a
conference call, then a meeting with University students who wanted to interview
me for a project they are doing on crisis communication. Then I had another conference call with
Stockholm this time during my lunch hour!
After lunch I had to do the weekly shopping with Fátima and somehow
squeeze in my second walk of the day before getting ready to go out to dinner
with our friends Ana and Tomy.
The interview
with the students was a lot of fun. We
met in a bar in Boadilla and they remarked that their teacher had said it
wasn’t very professional to meet me in a bar and why weren’t they meeting me
in the company headquarters! Their
answer came when they met me when I told them that I generally work at home and
that these days you don’t need to go to work to be productive. Even so their teacher has insisted on a photo
with me at Yoigo, so I am arranging that on Monday.
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| With the students who interviewed me on Friday |
The group of
students was very sweet, asking me lots of theoretical questions about crisis
communications. I tried my best to tell
them that in the real world we don’t use communications manuals and protocols,
that it’s more a question of common sense. After the
interview I asked them what their impression was and I was told that I had
totally “wowed” them with my real life answers.
I would be interested to see their project.
The highlight
of Friday was dinner out with Ana and Tomy at La Taberna de Elia in Pozuelo. I used to work with Ana at Nokia where she was
head of Legal. Today she works for HP
and is happily married with two beautiful children to Tomy the most entrepreneurial
person I know. Apart from other things,
right now he is immersed in selling and distributing a revolutionary street
cleaner to remove chewing gum from pavements!
Dinner was great, there was so much to talk about as we hadn’t seen each
other as couples for many years, although I had seen Ana at some of our “ex
Nokia girls lunches”. We were excited to
tell them about the building of our house in Montrondo. By the way a lot of
progress has been happening lately and the builders are about to start on the
walls inside. I did a collage this week
to show the back and the front of the house before work started and how it
looks today. We told Ana and Tomy that
we would love to have them as guests in Montrondo when the house is finished.
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| Our house in Montrondo from the front and back - above as it is now and below as it was when we started. |
We promised
when we said goodbye that we would meet again soon and not leave it as many
years as last time. I sincerely hope
that is true.
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| Dinner with Tomy and Ana on Friday was one of the highlights of the week |
Meanwhile in
London Suzy was having a night out on the tiles with two of her ex Spanish flat
mates, Chati and Mónica.
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| Mónica (left) Chati (in the middle) and Suzy (right) having a night out in London on Friday |
They went to a
Spanish place called Sevilla Mia in Tottenham Court Road and I was pleased to
see Suzy say on Facebook the next day that she had no voice left. I’m so glad she had a good time. I certainly look forward to a good time with
her when we go in two weeks’ time.
Saturday was
busy but a great day. I left Fátima to
make our lunch and escaped with Oli on a shopping expedition to Centro Oeste in
Majadahonda. Oli indulged in two coats
and a few tops whilst I only got a jumper, surprisingly from Pull and Bear
where I never buy anything.
In the
afternoon our neigbours were coming for afternoon tea which was to be a
Hispano, Russian and Anglo affair. My
Father was much looking forward to the occasion and was ready and sitting in
his wheel chair in the lounge half an hour before they came. To entertain him I
lent him my kindle to see if he could manage to read on it. He was which
pleased me surprisingly. Here is a lovely
photo of him with my kindle.
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| My Father trying out my kindle whilst waiting for our visitors to arrive for afternoon tea yesterday |
Soon Julio,
Katya, her Mother Tanya and their very well behaved boys Fiodor and Ivan aged
11 and 7 respectively arrived. Russians
never come empty handed and in they walked with a cake, a box of chocolates and
some Russian fridge magnets (little do they know I have a collection of fridge
magnets!). The photo illustrating this post which was taken by Olivia is of all
of us together at our house yesterday. It
was a great opportunity for my Father to practice his Russian of course,
although as he is very hard of hearing he couldn’t join much of the
conversation. I tried to involve him as
much as I could and when the boys were eating the raspberrries and bilberries I
tested my Father’s Russian by asking him what “bilberry” was in Russian. His answer was “chernika” which was right
according to our guests although apparently there are two names for the small
and larger varieties. Really his memory
is amazing and is perhaps the secret behind his ability to learn so many
languages. He is fluent in English,
Russian, French, German, Norwegian and latterly Spanish; something very unusual
for a British person I should add.
There was so
much to say, so many things to learn about each other but I suspect we have
neighbours who will become our friends. You
may be interested to know that they are TV advertisement producers and that
they met on a set in Andorra. I
sincerely hope Katya and I, who are now linked on Facebook, can become good
friends. It was so exciting for us to
have Russian visitors. It reminded me of
my darling Mother Yelena Andreivna who I would have died for to be with us
yesterday. I told our neighbours part of her story, the most poignant part
being when she left Bulgaria in her early 20’s to escape to Germany during WW2
and said goodbye to her beloved Father, Andrei Lieven whom she was never to see
again. On my walk this morning I shed a few tears for my Mother. One day I promise I will write her story.
To add a fun
note to the story of the afternoon tea, when our neighbours left, we went out
into the street to see them off.
Meanwhile Elsa and Norah our dogs managed to get into the lounge and
polished off half of the leftovers! Trust them.
Fátima told me later that Norah was the culprit. She usually is hahaha.
Today is
Sunday and it is sunny and clear. At
breakfast I looked up a book Tomy had recommended about a Muslim from Iraq who
had converted to Christianity and all the problems that entailed. The book is called “The Price to Pay” by
Joseph Fadelle and is now downloaded on my kindle ready for me to start reading
this afternoon.
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| The next book I will be reading on my kindle |
Before my
morning walk I had to work on final touches of my PR plan and then come home to
write this post. Luckily again for me,
Fátima who has left for her two days off, has prepared our lunch which will be
a Russian dish (glupsy – stuffed cabbage in tomato sauce) one of Olivia’s
favourites.
Meanwhile in
London, Suzy just sent me a photo of her Czech friend Jane. They had just made a vegan cake together with Gabor. I am a little upset that Suzy has now gone
from being a vegetarian to being a vegan but can only respect her decision.
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| Suzy and Jane this morning |
Next week
promises to be busy too with lots of trips to the office and meetings, one with
the students for a photo with me at Yoigo tomorrow.So, I shall
leave you now to go and have lunch with the family.
Hope you
enjoyed the story of this week and “see” you again next Sunday. Cheers till
then
Masha.
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