Sunday 2nd November 2014
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| Me on a walk in the mountains around Montrondo on Saturday morning. |
Hi everyone.
It’s Saturday
evening and I am writing from Montrondo, from José Antonio and Dolores’
kitchen. Everyone has gone now and
Eladio and I are alone and as I have a couple of hours to spare before dinner,
it’s the perfect time to start this week’s chronicle as tomorrow we will be
travelling back to Madrid.
But let me
start from where I left off from last Saturday.
None of the girls were at home on Saturday, Suzy lives in London now as
you know and last week Olivia went with Miguel to spend the weekend in Valencia
where he lives and works as a cameraman for TVE. They had superb weather as we did too. Being in Valencia the obvious choice was to
go to the beach. And here they are enjoying
the sun.
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| Olivia and Miguel enjoying the beach last weekend in Valencia. |
As I told you on
Saturday evening we went to see the film Gone Girl after I had read the
book. For the record it
stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and was directed by David
Fincher. The book keeps going back and forwards in time so it
could not have been easy to adapt to a film. However a pretty good job was done
and I enjoyed it. The truth is though that, as in most cases, the book is
better.
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| We went to see the film last weekend after I had read the book |
Whilst we were
at the cinema the “Clásico” was taking place: a Spanish “Liga” match between
the rival teams Barcelona and Madrid at the Real Madrid stadium, the
Bernabeu. I was extremely pleased to
hear the latter had beaten the Catalan team 3-1 as we left the cinema. I later
read that it had been watched on TV by over 400 million spectators around the
world. I was not one of them but happy all the same.
On Sunday
morning we woke up to what would be a 25 hour day as the clocks went back in
the early morning. The day felt so much
longer and every time I looked at my watch I realized I had an extra hour to
myself. I spent most of the day reading by the pool as
it was so sunny. Here is a lovely photo
of dear Elsa, our faithful Labrador, at my feet.
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| Elsa enjoying the sun with me by the pool this week |
In fact the
weather has been just great all month; this week specially. Most of the days it was in the mid to high
20cs, which is amazing for the end of October.
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| The weather in Madrid has been amazing in October. |
We were
expecting visitors that morning, our new Spanish-Russian neighbours, Julio and
Katya. Katya’s parents had arrived from
Moscow on Friday night and they were coming to see us and meet my Father who
was looking forward to brushing up his Russian.
Unfortunately that was not to be as Katya’s father fell ill and had to
be taken to hospital. I think he has
spent most of the week there but should be home now and I do hope we get to
meet them before they return to Russia.
In the evening
Eladio drove to the train station to pick up Olivia who was returning from
Valencia on the “Ave” (high speed train).
I made dinner for the three of us; a tuna salad which looks like this:
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| My tuna salad, a favourite dish at home |
We enjoyed it
together as we watched the very popular journalist Jordi Evole interview Pablo
Iglesias, the head of the new Podemos party which grew out of the 15th
May “indignant” movement. He is a
teacher of politics from the Madrid Complutense University who wears a pony
tail and has some great ideas to rid Spain of corruption and is gathering huge
momentum. His party is now edging
towards taking the socialist party’s (PSOE) second place in Spanish
politics.
On the topic
of corruption, on Monday a huge embezzlement scandal emerged as the country
heard that local governments in towns in Madrid, León had been caught with
their hands in pots of money; doing what I suspect local politicians do in
nearly every town in Spain; i.e. sign contracts with local companies in
exchange for hefty illegal commissions.
The country is sick and tired of politicians making money on the side
illegally whilst almost 25% of Spaniards are out of a job. It is scandalous and the current government
and opposition party are unable to do anything about it. Meanwhile Pablo Iglesias’ Podemos party gains
more and more supporters.
Tuesday was a
great day. On Tuesday my Father got to
wear some new trousers and shirt I had given him. I thought it was time to throw out his old
M+S and Corte Inglés trousers which we had bought for him quite a few years
ago. Fátima, his carer, was as pleased
as he was and sent me this photo of him in his new clothes. I think he looks so elegant for all of his 95
years!
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| My elegant 95 year old Father in his new clothes |
Tuesday was a
busy day for me. At 12.30 I had a live
radio interview in Madrid with a station called Onda CRO which belongs to PR
Noticias (one of the only two media dedicated to PR and communications in Spain). I was to talk about the prize I got recently
as best communications director in the telecoms sector and also about my work
in communication at Yoigo. The interview
lasted at least 15 minutes and I had the time of my life answering the
questions. I felt so at home and
comfortable with the subject. You can
listen to the interview here (if you understand Spanish). Later I did a video interview which has yet
to be published so watch this space. I’m not sure I liked listening to my voice
afterwards and realize I speak far too fast although I did make a conscious
effort to speak slowly. But once I get
going I do tend to talk like a machine gun haha.
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| I enjoyed my radio interview this week |
It was a
lovely sunny day in Madrid and I had an hour and a half to play with before my
next engagement: a “Chinese” lunch in Madrid.
So I decided to walk to the restaurant, “Ten con Ten” which was quite a
distance. On my way I passed our old
house in Madrid where Eladio’s brother, José Antonio, and his wife Dolores
live. They were leaving for Buenos Aires
the next day on holiday so I rang the bell and up I went to see them and wish
them a good journey. Both my nephews
were there too; Juan and Miguel. I was
invited to lunch but had to decline and told them I was actually having lunch
with their daughter Sara and two Chinese girls.
That was sort of funny.
You are
probably wondering why I was having lunch with Sara and two Chinese girls. Let
me explain. To start with my niece who
works for the Bank of China in Madrid is very proficient in Chinese as she
lived and studied there for over 2 years.
A while ago I introduced her to Lisa W who heads up a Chinese firm in
Spain similar to a chamber of commerce.
I knew Lisa from having appeared with her on a TV programme a few years
ago. The other Chinese girl is Gia, a friend of Lisa’s and colleague of mine
who works for ZTE the Chinese phone company.
I thought she would be another good contact for Sara to practice the
language with. When I got to the
restaurant all three of them were chatting in what I suppose was Mandarin. I was delighted to hear from Lisa and Gia
that they were very impressed with Sara’s knowledge of their language.
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| Lunch with Sara, Lisa and Jia. |
Lunch with
these young girls who are not much older than my daughters was a sheer delight
after the radio interview experience. I
was able to relax with them and enjoy the meal which I can tell you was superb
as Ten con Ten’s cuisine is one of the best in town.
Meanwhile in
London Suzy was continuing with her temporary counselling job in nutrition at
Apple’s headquarters. Do you remember I
told you she had counselled an employee called Angel who was an ex colleague of
mine at Motorola? Well they arranged to
meet and he invited her to lunch this week.
I never got a photo unfortunately but here is one of Suzy counselling at
the offices where he works.
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| Suzy working as a freelance dietitian in London this week |
Wednesday was
a quiet day. The only thing of interest I did that day was go into Madrid again
to site inspect more venues for our Christmas party. I’m still not sure where it is going to take
place but have a vague idea. Fortunately
there is still time to find the perfect location.
Thursday was a
very busy day as it was what I call a press release day. That morning we were announcing to press and
customers that we will be opening our 4G network to prepaid customers from 3rd
November. That is quite a first as most operators only offer 4G to postpaid
(contract) customers. A press release
entails quite a lot of work, the most important being that everyone involved inside
the company, mainly the legal department, is ok with the wording. Then it has to be uploaded to our press page
so there is a link to the document.
Finally the release is sent out to the media but then I get hands on and
email every journalist to remind them of the news. The next part in the communication chain is
posting it in on our social media pages.
Then you wait to see the reaction; i.e. followers’ comments on the
company’s posts and most important of all, the online media coverage. The next day you hope for some offline
(written newspapers) coverage but in the end what counts today is the online
media. In between all this you must not
forget the most important public of all; your own employees and send out an
internal release. There is nothing worse
than an employee reading company news in the media and not having been informed
previously. In my mind employees are the
most important ambassadors a company can have.
That very same
day a consultancy firm called Iteligent published a report on the online
reputation of 6 operators in Spain. I
was stunned so see that Yoigo had the best online reputation. Measurement comes
from positive and neutral mentions in forums, blogs and social media. We come first even if only just. I think this
is our reward for all the efforts we put into online communication. Part of it helps that I am a bit of an online
addict which I’m sure you are aware of!
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| I was happy to see Yoigo has the best online reputation of all 6 operators in Spain, - although only just! |
Friday came
and Eladio and I were off to Montrondo for the All Saints’ Day weekend. In most of the western world people would be
celebrating Halloween, a festival I detest and see more as a US invention that
has permeated other cultures and for me it was not the culture I was brought up
on. In England when I was a child we celebrated
Guy Fawkes’ Day or bonfire night with fireworks on 5th
November. Our equivalent to Halloween
was Mischief Night on 4th November.
All Saints’
Day in Spain (1st November) is the day people remember their dead
and take flowers to their graves. The Spanish
way of doing this was well portrayed by Pedro Almodóvar in the film “Volver”
with Penelope Cruz. The scene at the
beginning of the film shows the women of the villages sprucing up the graves in
the cemetery and placing flowers on the graves of their loved ones who had
passed away. We were going to Montrondo
to do precisely that, to take flowers to Eladio’s Father’s grave in the little
cemetery in the family village.
However our
main mission was to see the progress on the house we are restoring and which we
hadn’t seen, apart from in photos, since we were last there in August. We were going to stay alone in José Antonio
and Dolores’ house and would be joined by some of the other members of the
family on Saturday for a family lunch together.
Eladio and I set off at about 11 with a carload of food (no shops in the
area) and luggage, boots and thick anoraks expecting rain which was the
forecast. It turned out to be wrong and
we have cool temperatures but beautiful sunshine since we got here. As is the custom we stopped on the way at
Rueda (a wonderful white wine growing area in the province of Valladolid) for a
glass of their delicious wine and plate of ham.
Here is a photo of me happily tucking in.
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| Enjoying a glass of wine and plate of ham in Rueda on our way to Montrondo on Friday |
We decided to
have lunch in Pandorado, a small village not so far from Montrondo. I love the name which in English means
“golden bread”. We ate at a little
restaurant called Rhesty which was ok but not as good as expected. We had a very light lunch and arrived in
Montrondo at around 3pm. We went
straight to the house to see what work had been done since we last saw it. The builders started on 20th May
but we know they are building other houses in other villages so progress has
been a bit slow. However we really liked
what we saw. Here is a collage of the
front and back of the house and some of the inside.
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| A collage of shots of some of the progress on the house in Montrondo |
Later the
builders came (3 brothers called Benito, Recaredo and Santiago) and we must
have talked to them about details of the house for at least 3 hours. We are
satisfied with the quality and how they are going about restoring the old
family home. Eladio made them promise it
would ready to live in at the end of March.
I don’t know if I believe that. Only time will tell.
It was nearly
dark when we finished inspecting the building and only then did we start on
unpacking and heating the house. Whilst
we were in the middle of it, Eladio’s sister, Adela and his Mother, Ernestina
arrived. Later we had dinner at Adela
and Primo’s cozy little house and enjoyed time together talking until quite
late.
On Saturday
morning, as is now a tradition in the mornings when Adela and I coincide, we
went for an early morning walk to Murias and back. Everyone else would be arriving
at about midday. After breakfast I
prepared the first course for our lunch as well as two desserts. Then Eladio and I decided to go on a walk up
to the mountains and enjoy the autumn colours in the sun. It was a superb day. As is usual when you leave the house you
always bump into the villagers; people from Eladio’s past. Two neighbours were on their way to the
cemetery to put flowers on their parents’ grave, I assume, so we stopped for a
chat and I got a great photo to illustrate what All Saints’ Day means in
Montrondo and Spain.
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| Eladio with some of the villagers in Montrondo on All Saints' Day |
We went past
the village common known as “el campo” here and also greeted another neigbour,
Ulpiano. He went to school with Eladio
but never left the village and is a farmer here. His eggs and potatoes are renowned in the
area. Here is a great photo of the two
of them.
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| Eladio with Ulpiano who he went to school with in Montrondo. |
We walked up
the hill and took a different path to the usual one; thankfully less steep,
passed a corner called “el retorno”.
From here you have great views of the village. We both took loads of photos and were happy
to see that we could just spy our house being built. Can you spot it?
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| Beautiful Montrondo with autumn colours |
The autumn
colours and sun made the walk just a delight and I wanted to take photos of
every scene there was, such as this great one of Eladio:
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| Eladio on our walk in the mountains on Saturday morning |
We got as far
as “el abedular” (cluster of birch trees) and were delighted to see horses
grazing free in the fields. I just
wished we had had some apples or carrots to give them. There was one beautiful dark horse on its own
in a field and I spent at least 15 minutes coaxing it to come and touch my
hand. I was so happy when it did. But it
didn’t bother with Eladio when he tried as by then it realized we had nothing
to offer. Today we are taking up a bag
of apples from the trees near our house.
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| Eladio with "my horse" |
We were back
in the village at about 1pm and happy to see Pili, Yoli, Isidro, Alicia, Laura,
Alejandro and Carolina had arrived.
Lunch was to be had at Adela’s house and she was making roast lamb for
us all. After lunch it was the perfect
time to walk to the cemetery to place flowers on my father-in-law’s grave. Here are just some of us on our way.
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| On our way to the cemetery on All Saints' Day in Montrondo |
Once there we
all gathered around Antonio’s grave and I took a photo which you can see
below. It was very much an “Almodovar”
moment in time as it always is on 1st November, All Saints’
Day.
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| By my Father-in-law's grave in Montrondo on All Saints' Day |
Some of us
later meandered down to the river and across fields, some of which belong to
the family but very soon the family gathering was over and we were left alone
in the village. It was too early to have
dinner, so off we went up the mountains again on a different walk to a place
called “los secretos. That day I must have walked over
15km. We walked down to the village
again planning to relax and read in the house before dinner but I used the time
to start this post as you know. Later we
had a quiet dinner together before it was time for “early to bed”.
This morning I
was up earlier than Eladio as usual and went on the morning walk to Murias and
back on my own. Here you have a selfie
of me to prove it. I so wanted to show you
the lovely autumn colours on the old village path.
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| A selfie on my walk this morning |
I came back to
enjoy breakfast with Eladio and we have decided to stay for lunch. After finishing the text of this post (can’t
upload it until I have internet at home in Madrid), I shall prepare our lunch
(lamb curry!) and then we shall go up the mountains again, this time with a big
bag of apples for the horses.
We shall be
leaving after lunch and of course will arrive home after dark. It will be nice to see my Father, Oli and the
dogs and to sleep in our own bed although I must say the bed we sleep in at
Toño and Dolores’ house is extremely comfortable.
The week ahead
promises to be busy. On Wednesday I
shall be off to Barcelona on a site inspection trip and look forward to seeing
my dear Irish friend Grainne. “Bit of
craic” as she would say!
Meanwhile I
wish you all a great week ahead. Cheers
till next time
Masha
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