Wednesday 21st January 2015
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| In hospital on my way to be operated on Monday |
Hi everyone
I didn’t
publish last Sunday’s post for a very big reason. Funnily enough I had written it on the
Saturday from Montrondo so that I would be free the next day for a trip in the
snow up in the mountains and my idea was to publish it when we got back to
Madrid that night, there being no internet in the village. Unfortunately that never happened as on the
trip up the mountains, as many of you know, I fell and broke my ankle. It is only now, on Wednesday, that I am in a
position to edit the post I had written and publish it.
Before I tell
you about my disastrous fall, let me start from where I left off last Sunday.
That day there was a huge rally in Paris against the jihadist attacks of the
Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and Jewish kosher supermarket. It is estimated that in Paris and other big cities
in France at least 3 million people went out on the streets. There were replica marches in other big
cities such as London or Madrid. 50
world leaders attended the rally in Paris.
Everyone who marched and demonstrated did so to show their indignation
of the attacks and to defend freedom of speech.
If I had been in Paris I would have joined, as both Eladio and I did
after the train bombings in Madrid in 20014.
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| The anti terror demonstration in Paris |
That afternoon
Olivia and I watched episodes 1 and 2 of series 4 of Homeland where the CIA’s
main mission is to catch the leaders of Al Queda. It may be fiction but the script is very near
the truth in my mind.
On Monday with
other things on my mind I went on my early morning walk as I always do when
time permits. Every day I see a barking
dalmation which reminds me of my nephew Mario’s dalmation, Trebol, the most
beautiful noble, obedient and peaceful dog I know. I took this photo for Mario.
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| The dalmation on my walk. I won't be seeing it for a while now |
On a lighter
note, that morning I went to do my nails.
Let me explain. More than a month
ago I had them done using what is called in Spain, the permanent method. I’m not sure what that’s called in
English. Gel maybe? In any case it was a huge success but needed
taking off and putting on again as of course my nails had grown. They had not only grown but got
stronger. Now no longer will I ever buy
normal nail varnish again. The only
drawback is the time it takes to remove the permanent varnish; at least 45
minutes and it needs to be partly scraped off.
This is what my nails looked like afterwards. I was delighted with the
result.
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| My "permanent nails" |
On Monday too
you might be interested to know, if you are into football, that Cristiano
Ronaldo, the Real Madrid Portuguese striker, was awarded the Balon D’or once
again. I’m only glad it didn’t go to his
arch rival Leo Messi.
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| Cristiano Ronaldo wins the Balon D'or again |
On Monday
night, Eladio, Olivia and I finally started on Series 2 of The Fall. We had dinner in the lounge watching it but I
couldn’t get Eladio to light the fire for the occasion. As I feared, the fire is now closed until
next Christmas.
On Tuesday
morning the world woke up to see or read the first edition of the Charlie Hebdo
magazine since the massacre. I was
curious to see what would be on the front cover. Well, it was this: a caricature of the
Prophet Mohamed with a tear in his eye holding a poster which says “je suis
Charlie” and entitled “tout est perdonné”.
What is forgiven I ask and who forgives, the Prophet or the magazine? The phrase is very ambiguous. Make what you
want of it. I’m not sure what it means.
In any case more than a million copies were printed when the normal print run
is a meagre 60.000. They shortly run out
and people queued up at kiosks to buy or reserve a copy and another print run
was made. However, not all the newspapers
in the world dared publish the copy of the front cover in fear of more jihadist
reprisals. Well I dare to. And here it is for you to see and for it to
remain in my blog as a reminder of the need for freedom of expression.
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| The first Charlie Hebdo front cover after the attacks |
Tuesday 13th
January was my great friend Fátima’s birthday.
We have been friends since we met at Motorola in the early 90’s and she
joined me at Nokia in 2000. Coincidentally that day we were to have one of our
ex and non ex Nokia girl lunches; thus we also celebrated Fátima’s
birthday. There were 6 of us: Fátima,
Susana, Zenaida, Ana, Juana and myself.
Lunch this time was at one of my favourite places; La Txitxarrería in
Pozuelo near where Juana works at Microsoft. The only person missing was
Jill. For the occasion Juana brought
some flowers and I managed to smuggle in a birthday cake for Fátima. This is a photo of the cake moment. As Juana remarked later; it is amazing that
we still meet together after first having worked at Nokia some 15 years
ago. All I hope is that we continue to
do so.
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| The ex and non ex Nokia girls lunch last week where we celebrated Fátima's birthday |
That evening
was Eladio’s first day back at the UNED (Spain’s equivalent to the Open
University) where he is a tutor in various subjects such as the history of
education. He was back on time for
dinner with Olivia and I which we had in the kitchen as usual with our dogs,
Elsa and Norah, looking on hoping for the odd crumb. Soon they will be joined
by little Pippa who we expect to be delivered on 28th February when
she will be 3 months old. Suzy, forever
worried about cruelty to animals, asked me whether the “poor little thing”
would be sent in a box by courier. I
assured her the owner, who is from Granada, would be coming personally and
bringing the puppy on the high speed train.
We can’t wait for Pippa to join our household.
On Wednesday
we woke up to fog. So used to the sun it
was quite a surprise. I still went on my
walk although it was very thick. Whilst
on my walk I had a conference call with my Finnish boss Tatu. Later my husband remarked that maybe I should
have been at my desk to which I responded I can walk and work and mobile phones
are for being on the move! We had a good
chat. He’s a great chap to work with and I look forward to our next team
meeting at the beginning of March which will be in my beloved Finland. As it is on a Tuesday and Wednesday, I have
decided to go out on the Friday and spend the weekend with my great Finnish
friend Anne who lives in Salo. For
Monday and Tuesday nights in Helsinki I have booked myself into the hotel I
nearly always stayed at when I worked for Nokia, The Radisson Royal very near
the bus station. P.S after my accident, my trip to Helsinki is a now a question
mark as my surgeon thinks I won’t be up and about by then. Let’s be positive. I hope I will.
It was on
Wednesday when I saw a picture on Facebook of quite a close school friend from
Bradford, Maureen, who is fighting cancer.
Her daughter Jessica posted a photo of her Mother with her bald hair
lying in a hospital bed after an operation with her thumbs up; a sign of her
fight of this illness. Dearest Maureen,
it shocks me to see you like that.
Everyone says you are strong. I
believe so too and wish you a speedy recovery.
I know you are fighting this and have some amazing support from your
family. I just wish I was there to visit
you. All I can do is send you my best wishes
and tell you that I think of you often.
You are very brave and an amazing example. I’m not sure I would want a photo of me like
that but maybe instead of the thumbs I would stick up two fingers telling the
illness to “f” off. I sincerely hope it
does.
Wednesday was
a busy day for me. Apart from work and home chores, such as the weekly
shopping, I had to get things ready for our trip to Montrondo on Thursday
morning. We were to take the bath tub
but the main mission was to meet the builders as it was time to decide all
sorts of details such as where the lights would be, the position of the beds,
the radiators and a host of other details.
We would be joined by José Antonio, Eladio’s brother and I had to take enough
food for the duration; Thursday to Sunday.
There are no shops in the area so I have to be very organized about the
meals there. Thus I drew up a list and
decided on the menu for each day and included some of the essential ingredients
in my weekly shopping which I did on my own this week as Eladio had another
UNED class that evening.
Olivia was
home on time to help Gema (our new home help) and I unload the shopping. We also made dinner together and as we did we
rang Suzy who there and then surprised me by saying she had bought a cheap air
ticket to come for my birthday. It is on
Sunday 8th February and she will be here from the 4th to
the 9th. She made me so
happy. Darling, it’s going to be
lovely. We can’t wait to see you
again. P.S. Suzy came last night, so not
sure when she is going back to London and whether she will still be coming for
my birthday.
On Thursday I
was up early to pack everything we would need for our stay in Montrondo. Toño and his dog Nuba were at our place by
9.30 and with the car full to capacity, including the bath tub, we left at
about 10. No trip to Montrondo is
complete without a stop at Rueda for a glass of wine and plate of ham with
freshly sliced bread sprinkled with olive oil.
Here is a photo of the 3 of us enjoying the moment.
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| Enjoying a glass of wine and plate of ham and bread at Palacio de Bornos in Rueda on our way to Montrondo |
We arrived in
Montrondo just after 2pm. It was raining
on the way but as we drove from Senra, through Murias de Paredes to Montrondo,
the rain turned to snow. It was cold and
windy too as we got out of the car.
Eladio went straight to our house to see the builders whilst José
Antonio lit the kitchen range and I unpacked the food and made the lunch. I was
so cold I wished I had brought my ski trousers but I hadn’t so had to find a
pair of Miguel, my nephew’s, to go over my leggings which were just not
sufficient.
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| Snow on our arrival in Montrondo last Thursday. |
By the time
lunch was over, the builders had placed the bath tub in our “bedroom”. This is what it looks like, bar the claw feet
which have yet to be installed.
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| The bathtub in its place in our future bedroom in Montrondo! |
We spent the
entire afternoon with the builders, Benito and Recaredo (brothers) going over
countless details. It’s amazing what is
needed to build a house and we are in a new learning process as this is
something we have never done.
That evening
whilst it still snowed and I had missed my two walks of the day, I set about
making our dinner. We put the television
on and that is when we learned that the Belgian police had thwarted various
jihadist attacks in that usually very peaceful country. It seems they were linked to the attack in
France on the Jewish supermarket. These
incidents which seem to be perpetrated by jihadists returning from Syria to
their adopted countries are a new form of terrorism we are not used to. Frightening isn’t it?
I think it was
that night or the next when we heard the Pope talking to the press on a flight
to the Philippines about the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine. I think his comments were not
appropriate. He was responding to a
question about freedom of expression and said that it had its limits and that
if for example his assistant insulted his mother, he would deserve a punch. But surely not to be killed right? His words disappointed me as up until now I
have been a big fan of his.
The next
morning, Friday, we woke up to more snow.
It was so beautiful and wonderful to wake up to.
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| The village with more snow the next morning. It has snowed every day since and after our return to Madrid the village was practically snowed under. |
After
breakfast I went for a walk to Senra and back, some 8km and kept snapping the
camera on my phone. I can’t tell you
just how beautiful it was.
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| My first walk in the snow to Senra on Friday morning |
Eladio spent
most of the day with the builders. I did
too when I wasn’t cooking or on m walk.
In the evening I joined some of the village women on their walk; Salo,
Manolita and Josefa. Afterwards they
took me to have coffee at Lourdes and Agustin’s house, two villagers who have
always lived in Montrondo unlike many others who moved to nearby León or
further afield just visiting the village in the holidays or when they
retire. We had a lovely time around
their kitchen table where I told them all about how Eladio and I met which for
them must have been news and quite funny to hear. I say that because when we met in 1980,
Eladio was still a priest and that was how the villagers knew him. A meeting of people in Montrondo who are
having a good time is called a “calecho” which is exactly what yesterday’s
coffee at Lourdes and Agustin’s was. I
look forward to another one today although I think this time it will be at
Salo’s.
Lourdes gave
me some of her Montrondo hens’ eggs and some “morcilla” (local black
pudding). As egg and chips was on the
menu for last night, they came very much in handy and were much appreciated as
we always say that eggs from Montrondo are the best you can get. But then, you see, we are biased.
These days
here in Montrondo when I am not cooking, walking, inspecting the building of
the house or at a “calecho”, my entertainment, as always is my kindle. I have been reading the end of the second
novel of Tom Rob Smith’s trilogy called The Secret Speech. I am coming to an end and have now downloaded
on limited mobile internet coverage here, the last book called Agent 6. If you are interested in Russia in Stalin’s
times and like a good whodunit, then Tom Rob Smith’s trilogy is for you. It starts with Child 44 which is perhaps the
most chilling of the three books.
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| The book I was reading in Montrondo |
Funnily
enough, despite a big dinner of egg and chips and the exciting novel, I slept
really well last night. We woke up to a
new small layer of snow and this time I persuaded Eladio to join me on my
morning walk to Senra. Nuba and Rosky,
Salo’s terrier, joined us and we went through the “Vao” field in front of the
church. Here is a selfie of the two of
us.
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| A selfie with Eladio on our walk through the Vao to Senra and back on Saturday morning. |
The walk was
just wonderful; crisp snow, sun, no cars and beautiful views. We were the first to tread on the new snow in
the “Vao” which is always a great feeling.
I remarked to Eladio that this nearly 2 hour long walk would give us
boundless energy for the day. And it did
and it does. Walking certainly makes me
happy. I think it makes Eladio happy
too, judging by the look on his face in this picture.
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| Eladio smiling on our walk on Saturday in the snow and sun with Montrondo as the backdrop |
My new
equestrian friends from the fields in Murias were no longer here this time but
I came across a beautiful cream coloured horse in a field near Senra. Determined to make friends I took bread on
our walk to give to it when we got to the village. However the horse was very shy and wouldn’t eat
from my hand although it was quite happy to eat the bread I ended up throwing
to it.
On our way
back, just as we came into the village from the fields (the Vao) we came across
one of the villagers, Tomasín, wearing his “madreñas” (typical wooden clogs you
wear on top of slippers when you go out in the rain, mud or snow). He was
clearing the snow. At her doorstep
watching was Manolita. She was also wearing
the same clogs so there and then I got Eladio to stand with the two of them and
immortalize them in this super picture which I wanted for my blog as soon as I
saw them.
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| Eladio with Tomasín and Manolita who were wearing "madreñas" |
Lunch today
which I have been making in between writing this post was broth with chicken
noodles, followed by “cachelos” (big spicy potatoes), chorizo from Montrondo,
lacón (a sort of cooked ham) and Lourdes’ “morcilla” for “the boys”. All in all that’s an awful lot of energy but
I’m not worried as I shall be burning it all this afternoon when I join Salo,
Josefa and Manolita on their daily walk to Senra and back.
They came for
me at about 3.30pm and off I went with them for my second walk of the day. Here is a selfie of the four of us.
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| Another walk to Senra on Saturday, this time with the locals, Salo, Manolita and Josefa |
Funnily enough
this time the cream coloured horse which Salo told me is called Pizarro was much
friendlier this time. Although I had no
bread to offer I was delighted that it let me stroke it. Salo took this photo of the moment.
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| With Pizarro my new friend in a field in Senra |
Once back in
Montrondo we had coffee at Salo’s and formed another “calecho”. Later we were joined by the men, Eulogio and
his father Benito, another José Antonio, Eladio and his brother José
Antonio. As is usual once Montrondo
people get together they only talk about the past which for me is still a bit
of a mystery.
And now
Saturday is coming to an end. The
weather forecast for tomorrow Sunday is snow and my dream would be to be
trapped in Montrondo. However these days
that doesn’t happen as the snow plough will clear the road quite early in the
morning. We shall leave after lunch and
when I am home I will publish this post as unfortunately there is no internet
here in Montrondo for me to do so now.
You see that
was how I thought our time in Montrondo would end; leaving for Madrid after
lunch in the normal way but it didn’t. That morning with more snow the three of
us decided to walk up to the mountains and enjoy the snow and the views. That we certainly did. On our way José Antonio performed what they
call here a “saint”. This is done by
falling into the snow and making an imprint.
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| José Antonio next to his "santo" on Sunday morning on our walk up the mountains |
As we climbed
higher, Javi and his girlfriend came by on his quad. I immediately asked him to take me for a short
ride which he did. It was so much
fun. I loved every minute of it. Here is
a photo of that wonderful moment.
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| Happy on Javi's quad in the mountains on Sunday morning. My happiness would not last long |
As we walked
down the mountain we were looking forward to homemade lentils for lunch. About a kilometer or so before we reached the
village José Antonio suddenly fell flat on his back. I looked on astonished and thought he was
joking. I was about to take a photo of
him when I fell myself. I fell sideways
and my left ankle twisted and I landed on my side. Some of you know I have a tendency to fall
and am quite clumsy but this time it wasn’t my fault as we had slipped on a
patch of ice under the snow which was not visible. The pain was
excruciating. I wasn’t sure whether I
had sprained or broken my ankle. The
problem was getting down to the village as I could not get up on my feet and
hold on to the two men although we tried.
In the end Eladio walked down and came back with Manolo, a farmer, who
has an old 4wd. He knows the terrain as
does his vehicle and between the three of them they got me into his car and drove
me back to Montrondo. There and then I
was transferred to our car whilst the men packed up the house. We left as soon as we could and drove to León
and went straight to the hospital there.
An x-ray was taken and my worst fears were confirmed, I had broken a
bone. All Spaniards learn the names of
all the bones in the body at school. I
certainly never learned them in England, so when I was told I had broken my “fibula”
(perone in Spanish) I was the only one not to know what it was. Well now I do. It is the thinner of the two long leg bones.
The fracture was at the bottom in the ankle bone which I now know is called the
“talus”. They put my leg in plaster
right up to the knee. When the doctor
started he took out his scissors to cut my thermal leggings but I stopped him
right on time and asked Eladio to look for some older and looser leggings in my
suitcase and made the doctor force the tighter ones off. No way was I saying goodbye to my new M+S leggings.
His diagnosis was that I needed an operation as the bone was broken diagonally
and one part overlapped the other so it would not heal or “weld” properly which
would cause a permanent limp. My biggest
question was how long would I be out of action and the answer was awful: 2 to 3
months!
Being in León
we were in contact with Eladio’s family and soon we were joined by Pili and
Andrés who had left a lunch with friends to come and see me. Thanks Pili
darling.
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| With Pili at the hospital in León with my leg in plaster before I was given the awful verdict |
We left the
hospital clutching my depressing x-rays and drove to Adela’s house (Eladio’s
other sister) who very kindly had made lunch for us. It is high unusual to have lunch so late and
we were literally starving. Everyone was
there to greet me and all the men in the family helped me limp in on one foot
which is not an easy task. But we had to
leave soon as it was getting dark and we had a long drive ahead of us. Normally it takes 3 hours but we had more
excitement awaiting us on our drive back.
Heavy snow began to fall about 80km before reaching Madrid and it took
us an extra two hours to get home. It
was a very frightening experience as cars were sliding all over the place and
you could hardly see out as the snow covered everything including the lights. I
tried to take a picture from the back and this is the best I got.
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| The frightening snow storm on our drive back to Madrid from León on Sunday night |
We finally got
home around midnight and Eladio had to get me into the house using my Father’s
wheel chair. Then I had to climb the
stairs using my backside. I managed to
get as far as my bedroom but could not get up from the floor and had to wait for
Eladio to come and help me. It was awful
to suddenly depend on everyone for even the most basic things such as going to
the loo. You are probably wondering why I
didn’t use crutches. Well we have a set
but I cannot use them as I don’t have enough strength in my arms and in my arms
they would be a danger as I would be likely to fall again. So no,
no crutches I’m afraid.
On Monday
morning the only good thing that happened was that I got breakfast in bed as
you can see here.
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| Forced breakfast in bed at home on Monday morning. |
I had to
decide then which hospital to go to with the results from the one in León. I could have gone privately but in the end rang
the girls’ friend Rocio’s father, Juan, who is head anesthetist at the public
hospital in Alcorcón because I knew he would know the surgeons and I would get
the best care possible. So I rang him
and he told us to be there at midday and we were. Juan was waiting for us at the door of the
Emergency ward and thanks to him we didn’t have to deal with any bureaucracy nor
any paper work or queuing. They
immediately sent me for another x-ray and then he introduced me to one of the
orthopedic surgeons who was a darling and insisted on practicing his English on
me. He said I had to be operated on
immediately as the bone was displaced and there and then embarked on removing
the plaster which was no mean task. The
worst thing I heard that day was when he confirmed that it would me take me two
to three months to be fully fit again.
Oh my God, I could only think of no more walks and how I was going to
manage as I am such an active person, of not being able to go to Finland or to
the Mobile World Congress and a host of other things such as driving or going
shopping.
Meanwhile,
unlike other patients, I was allowed to have Eladio by my side the whole
time. I was then taken to the recovery
room as there were no beds available and there I was treated like part of the
family. The photo illustrating this post
is of me being taken there. The operation took place at around 18h and I was given
an epidural which meant I was awake the whole time. It was Juan’s friend, Chozas, the head
orthopedic surgeon who operated. Basically a metal plate was put in place with
a series of screws to hold the fibula in its position. I saw the x-ray afterwards and this is
exactly what it looked like. Later we
were told the operation was a success and that I had good bones. I was pleased to hear that.
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| The x-ray after my operation looked like this. |
I didn’t feel
much and seemed to recover quite well.
Olivia joined us when she came back from work about the time I was
finally given something to eat. You
cannot imagine how thirsty and hungry I was.
In Spanish hospitals a relative nearly always accompanies a patient all
day and all night but I sent both of them home knowing they couldn’t help much
and that they needed to sleep. Later
that night in bed the pain in my ankle overcame me despite the pain killers I was
being given. A further complication was
that due to the epidural I had no feeling in the lower part of my body so I
couldn’t urinate although I wanted to.
Thus I had to have a catheter; something I wouldn’t wish on my worst
enemy. On top of that I had to bear the dreadful
snoring of the other woman in the room. Conclusion: I didn’t sleep a wink and
had the most uncomfortable night of my life.
All I wanted was for day to come and for the night to be over. Later I heard that Monday 19th
January is called “blue Monday”, i.e. the most depressing day of the year. It certainly was for me.
In the morning
Olivia and Eladio came to spend the rest of the time with me. I was supposed to be going home but had to
wait for an x-ray and to be discharged which seemed to take all day. Meanwhile the pain was awful. Finally at about 4 in the afternoon we were
able to go home and had to go through the same palava using my Father’s wheel
chair. Again I had to climb the stairs
on my backside. But once in my bedroom I
had the great idea of using my computer chair which has wheels. So with my good leg I can stand up and
transfer myself from the bed to the chair.
Wow it was a glorious moment when I realized I could go to the bathroom
myself! But I was not in good
shape. I had a terrible headache, I was
very tired from not sleeping the night before and my ankle was in agony.
The only thing
to brighten me up was to know that Suzy was coming last night from London to be
with me. When she came our embrace was
long and emotional as you can imagine.Thankfully
last night I slept really well and woke up headache free and with a bit less
pain in my leg. Darling Suzy brought me
breakfast in bed and I felt so much better.
She helped me have
a shower, I washed my hair and set up my office on my bed, getting up to speed
with my work. I must say I have been overwhelmed with messages and call from
friends. I even had my first visitor
today, Katya my neighbor. Thanks for
coming sweetie it was lovely. As the
pain has receded, my outlook has improved and I have decided this is not going to
break me. I shall have to put up with my
lack of mobility the best I can and be patient. At lunch I decided to go downstairs to join
the family. Gema had cooked an enormous
meal of Moroccan couscous which was delicious.
But I only ate a small amount.
Now that I cannot go for my walks I shall have to be very careful with
what I eat. I refuse to lie in bed
getting fat!
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| Suzy bringing me breakfast in bed. Sorry the photo is not vertical the problem lies with blogger |
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| My way of tackling the stairs! |
Wishing you
all the best, more from me next Sunday,
Cheers till
then
Masha
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