 |
| Cooking with the girls on Suzy's last day last Sunday |
Hi everyone
and Happy New Year to you all.
Today is the
first Sunday of the New Year and my first post in 2015. Just one week ago when I left off, it was
Suzy’s last day with us. It was of
course 28th December, Spain’s April Fools’ Day but when my Father
woke us up at 7 in the morning instead of 8 I knew he wasn’t joking; he had
just confused the time on his clock.
Being
“innocents’ day”, from a PR perspective we aimed to play a joke about Yoigo on
our social media pages and even sent out a press release. We were inspired by one of our new images (bananas
and one single pear) and decided to announce that in the New Year Yoigo would
be selling fruit and fiber and even distributing all the bananas from the
Canary Islands! I was glad to see we got
some media coverage and lots of comments on social media.
 |
| Yoigo celebrating the diffference |
But it was no
joke that Suzy was leaving that day and I was determined to make the most of
it. We had our last meal together and we
“girls” cooked it together. The photo
illustrating this week’s post is of Suzy, Oli and I cooking. For the record Olivia made mushroom risotto
which was delicious.
It was no joke
either that day that another Malaysian airplane went missing, Air Asia over the
sea of Java in Indonesia. That was the
main news this week. A few days later
bodies and wreckage began to appear of the more than 160 passengers and crew
who perished last Sunday in an accident apparently caused by extreme weather
conditions.
On Monday
Eladio and I were going to Montrondo to join his brother José Antonio. The idea was to inspect the progress on the
house, spend a few days there and join the rest of the family for New Year’s
Eve in León at Amancio, the restaurant we go to nearly every year.
On our way, as
tradition dictates, we stopped at Rueda, a small town famous for its white wine
in the province of Valladolid, for a plate of Spanish cured ham and a glass of
wine at Bodegas Palacio de Bornos. Here we are enjoying the moment.
 |
| Our stop in Rueda for a little something on the way to Montrondo this Monday |
We were glad
to see some snow on the ground when we arrived and also happy that José Antonio
had arrived the night before, thus warming up his house for our arrival. The men went straight to inspect the building
of the house whilst I quickly made our lunch.
As usual I was to be the cook.
When travelling to Montrondo you have to be very organized about meals
and take all the necessary ingredients as there are no shops in the vicinity. I am so organized I had even made up the
menus for all the lunches and dinners from Monday to Thursday. I think my efforts were appreciated.
Once lunch was
ready to serve, l covered it up to keep warm and dashed to join the men to see
the progress on the house. I had last seen it in November so there really was
something to see and appreciate this time.
It is coming on nicely, especially from the outside. The divisions of all the rooms have been made
as well as the temporary staircases.
Finally it is now beginning to look as though progress has been made and
I can begin to imagine what it will look like when it is finished.
 |
| The house is coming on nicely in Montrondo |
After lunch, I
managed to persuade the brothers to skip their usual siesta and take advantage
of the sunlight as it gets dark at 6pm and off we went for a walk up the
mountains. It was cold but sunny and we
enjoyed walking up the snowy path in our new boots. However there were quite a few patches of ice
and we had to step carefully because the path was very slippery in certain
places.
 |
| Eladio and José Antonio on our walk up the mountains on Monday afternoon |
 |
| Enjoying the snow in the mountains of Montrondo |
We were amazed
to see many animal footprints in the virgin snow as we climbed higher and
higher. At the beginning we thought they
were dog footprints but soon realized they were very big, some even bigger than
a hand. We then began to imagine the big
ones were from a bear and the medium sized ones from wolves. Later I asked one of the villagers who
confirmed that yes indeed there was a bear or even two and a pack of wolves in
the area. The prints were very fresh so
it’s quite obvious the bear must have crossed the same path as us just a while
before. I don’t know much about bears
but did know that in Spain there is only one type, the brown bear or “oso
pardo” which mostly lives in the north of Spain and is an endangered species. I would have thought it would be hibernating
at this time of year but maybe climate change has altered its habits. I later found out that there are 8 types of
bear in the world with variations of some of them, the polar bear being the
biggest.
 |
| Wolf and bear footprints on our walk |
On our way
down we had to walk with greater care because of the ice and as usual, as I
have a tendency to do so, I fell flat on my back. Later Eladio tried to help me as I nearly
fell a second time and whilst doing so he fell too. We didn’t do any damage thankfully and lay
there laughing as José Antonio took a photo of us.
 |
| Slipping on the ice |
We were home
just as the sun had set and were not surprised to read on José Antonio’s
outside thermometer that the temperature had fallen to -6ºc. During the day whilst we were there it didn’t
rise much above 0ºc which meant the snow on the ground never melted.
When I was not
out walking or cooking, my entertainment was my kindle and I was riveted
reading Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, a crime novel set in Stalin’s Russia. A film was made of it and I tried to find it
on Amazon to no avail. Then very happily
I found it for free on You Tube (all this once at home of course) here and look
forward to watching it soon. I have now also bought the sequel The Secret
Speech and hope it is just as good as Child 44. There is no internet in
Montrondo, at least at my brother in law’s house, which for me is very
frustrating and why I cannot spend more than a few days in the village. It is frustrating from a work perspective as
my work depends on internet but also from a personal point of view. Rest assured we shall have internet in our
new house as I consider it a utility as important as water or heating.
On Tuesday
morning whilst my Fabada (Asturian bean stew) was cooking we made a full inspection
of the house and all the “rooms” which are small but will be very
comfortable. We measured them all to see
if the furniture would fit and thankfully it will. What won’t fit in the master
bathroom is the claw foot bath tub we bought at my insistence. However there and then we realized it would
fit perfectly in our bedroom and there it will go!
We had an
early lunch so as the brothers could have their siesta before it got too dark
and we could go on another long walk.
This time they wanted to show me a different path the one that goes up
the mountain called “la peña mala”.
However the track was very difficult to negotiate and felt more like a
path for goats then for people. What I
did appreciate though was the great view of the village from this side of the
mountains. Here is a panoramic view of
our beloved Montrondo taken from there.
 |
| A panoramic view of Montrondo from "la peña mala" |
As the path
was too difficult to walk on we had no other option than to go down to the
village again and take the old path to Murias de Paredes, a shorter walk but
very pretty and more comfortable for me as the terrain is flat.
On Wednesday
morning I decided to go on the walk all the way to Senra and back, some two
hours whilst the brothers pottered around the houses. By the way you might be interested to see the
compound where we all have our houses.
In this photo you can see the converted barn, then our house to the
right, then Pili’s yellow house and far right José Antonio and Dolores’
house. Ours, the stone house, is the
original family house, the one we are rebuilding which as you can see is
something of a “sandwich house”. The
only way of making it bigger was adding a third floor and building a porch and
terrace.
 |
| Part of the Freijo family compound in Montrondo. Our house is the grey stone one on the left. |
On my walk I
was able to download the photos and video I had been sent from my PR team in
Madrid, as the mobile internet signal is a little stronger in Murias and
Senra. They were of a PR activity we had
carried out the night before 30th December, the “pre new year’s eve”
event which takes place to make sure the clock in the Puerta del Sol would be
working perfectly for the 31st at midnight. On New Year’s Eve at midnight Spaniards eat
12 grapes, one for every chime to bring luck for the New Year. In the trial run on Tuesday night we gave out
some 15.000 thousand bags, not of grapes, but of sweets – 11 bananas and 1
pear. The idea behind this came again
from the new image of bananas and one pear, stressing that Yoigo is different
and bringing the difference to the people celebrating with bananas and a pear
instead of grapes. You can see the video here.
 |
| Yoigo's big PR stunt at the Puerta del Sol on the rehearsal night for NYE. |
Just as I was
leaving Murias on the path to Senra I saw three lovely horses in one of the
fields. I was particularly attracted to
this beautiful red horse which came to me immediately when I held my hand out
with the only thing I had available, a piece of chewing gum. I stroked it behind its ears which it seemed
to enjoy and I decided to bring more sweets the next day.
 |
| A selfie with my new friend on the road in between Murias and Senra |
The afternoon
was ours for the having until the evening when we would get ready and dressed
up to drive to León to join the rest of the family for the New Year’s Eve
dinner. We decided our walk would be up
the normal mountain route (Cumbres de Omaña; the path to the highest peak in
the area, “El Tambarón” which is 2.102m high).
There seemed to be even more ice than the on our previous walk and this
time we were to fall again. Just look
how treacherous some of the path looked and how we had to walk on the side of
the ice to continue.
 |
| Eladio helping me steer past the ice on the path in the mountains |
Just as we got
to the bear and wolf foot prints Eladio thought we should turn round and walk
back. I think he was worried we might
see them but we never did. It was on the
walk down that I fell, this time hurting myself quite a lot. I hit the side of my face and my knee. I then had to walk down hanging on to
Eladio’s arm. When we got to the fork in
the path where you either take the gentle path called “el retorno” back to the
village or the steeper one called “la cuesta de la bidulina” we had to decide
which one would be easier. So Eladio being a galant husband walked down the
latter and we watched from above as he fell flat on his back just by the spring
“la Fuente de Antón”. I commented to
José Antonio that that was not the path to take. When we returned, via “el retorno” and got
home, poor Elaidio’s hip and lower part of his back was inflamed. The next day he would have a bruise which
covered most of his back. Thankfully he didn’t break anything. I must admit we were a little adventurous
going up the very slippery paths with wolves and bears in the area. On the bright side they were beautiful sunny
walks in the snow and wonderful exercise with the best air in the world for our
lungs.
Thankfully
Eladio was ok enough to go to León that night, so the three of us got ready and
left Montrondo just before 8 in the evening as it would take us at least 1.5
hours to get to León, as the roads are dark and very winding. Nearly everyone was at Amancio when we
arrived. However I had to stay in the
car for a while to send some emails which I couldn’t send from Montrondo due to
the lack of mobile internet. In León
Yoigo’s 4G was working perfectly and by 9.30 I was in the restaurant with all
the family.
This year
there were only 16 of us around the table which is probably the lowest number
ever. There have been times when there
were nearly 30 of us. In any case it was
a lovely meal and great to be with the family.
 |
| NYE dinner with part of the family in León |
Just before
the chimes I rang Olivia quickly to wish her a Happy New Year. I did not have the same luck with Suzy as the
lines were busy. Later I was happy to
know she had spent the evening in the company of her closest Spanish friends in
London such as Mónica and Chati. Here is
a photo of the 3 of them together.
 |
| Suzy celebrating NYE in style in London with her Spanish friends |
She told me
they had organized a dinner at Chati’s house and she had bought crackers. At
about 10 they went to a pub to celebrate and at 11 o’clock English time and 12 o’clock Spanish time they went out
into the street to eat their 12 grapes listening to TVE which I thought was a
lovely thing to do.
It’s funny but
my year ended in León and began there as it has it has nearly every year since
we were married. We left the restaurant
at past 1 in the morning and didn’t get to bed in Montrondo till after 2 which
is terribly late for me. On 1st
January 2015 I woke up at 9 am and after breakfast as the brothers cleaned the
house ready to leave at 12, I went on my last walk to Senra and back. This time I carried a pack of sugar free
polos to give to my new equestrian friends.
Really I should have taken lumps of sugar or bits of bread but I didn’t
have the former and didn’t think of the latter.
As we left the
house just after 12 I asked Eladio to stop the car for me to say my proper
goodbye to the horses. This time José
Antonio joined me whilst Eladio took photos of us. As soon as I approached the fence, all three
horses came to enjoy the polo mints from our hands.
 |
| Saying goodbye to my new equestrian friends in Montrondo with José Antonio |
On our way home we stopped at the Parador in Benavente
where José Antonio treated us to lunch.
As usual we enjoyed the chick peas from Fuentesauco “garbanzos”. Here is a photo of the two brothers at the
Parador.
 |
| The two brothers enjoying lunch on New Year's Day at the Parador in Benavente |
We were home
by 6 and glad to see that everything was in order at home. You see it was the first time we were leaving
our new home help Gema alone at home with my Father. Thankfully she passed the test. She has now been with us for a month and will
be staying on permanently, however long permanent means for a maid in our
house. We enjoyed dinner with Miguel and
Olivia and we also had time to call Suzy and wish her a happy new year. She sounded in good spirits.
On Friday we
thought it was time to go to Ikea and order all the rest of the furniture we
need for the new house in Montrondo. We
have already planned the furniture for the kitchen/dining and lounge area and
needed some furniture for the 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The task ended up taking till past 4 in the
afternoon and giving me a migraine in the process. We came home and all I could do was to lie
down in bed, take more pills which wouldn’t help and breathe in tiger balm. The
next day I read in the facebook forum for the 5:2 “fast” diet that a possible
remedy for migraines is salt. I read
this article and shall certainly be trying it out next time I have a strong
headache.
I was a bit
better by 7 pm so we went to do the food shopping. I must say I miss doing the shopping with our
previous home help Fátima as she took care of everything especially loading the
car, unloading it and putting everything away once back home. Because of my headache we skipped on dinner
out on Friday night and just went to bed early.
Yesterday was
Saturday and I woke up headache-free thank goodness. I was full of energy and our morning was
particularly productive and efficient. I
was up at 7.30, had my breakfast and went for my hour long walk, after which I
prepared lunch whilst Eladio washed both dogs.
We then went out to buy lottery tickets for the next big Spanish lottery
called “El Niño” (the child) which is drawn on 5th January and which
actually gives more prize money than the Christmas lottery “El Gordo”. Whilst Eladio was buying the tickets I went
to the post office. When he told me
later he had spent 280 euros I was aghast.
We could win a fortune but of course we won’t. However dreaming is free so this morning on
my walk I thought about what we would do if we won a million euros!
After buying
the lottery tickets we drove to Centro Oeste shopping centre to buy a new
coffee machine and also buy a present for each member of the family for Kings’
Day on 6th January, the last festive day of the season. In Spain “Reyes” is just as important or more
than Father Christmas and Centro Oeste was packed.
In the
afternoon I finished Child 44 and then after our second walk I decided to start
on the Downton Abbey Christmas special 2014 which had arrived the previous
day. I would have preferred to binge
watch it but I had to make dinner so now I have the second half to look forward
to watching this afternoon.
Suzy meanwhile
was biking her way around London with Gabor and friends. I’m not sure where they went but judging from
the pictures the bikes were hired in the centre of the city. They were lucky with the weather and must
have had a great time.
 |
| Suzy cycling with Gabor and friends yesterday in London |
And today is
Sunday and to quote my Father “blog day”.
As soon as I finish this post I shall start making lunch for everyone
(English fish and chips today!). In the
afternoon you will not be surprised to know I will be going on my second walk
and will be joined by Eladio and the dogs.
I must also
mention that today I found out that my friend Javier, who is an avid reader of
my blog, has published a book which as soon as I heard, I bought for my
kindle. It is entitled "Apósteles Intrépidos: Jóvenes que (además) creen en Dios" (intrepid apostles: Young people who, also, believe in God) and is dedicated to his youngest daughter who
just recently announced to her parents that she did not want to be
confirmed. I shall be reading it with
great interest. Well done Javier, I’m
very proud of you.
 |
| The book my friend Javier has just published and which I shall be reading very soon |
So I have
finished telling you about this week, but I haven’t quite finished this post.
As it is the first post of the year, I would like to make a quick reflection
and summary of what this year has been like; my farewell to 2014 which all in
all has treated us very nicely.
As I said
earlier, 2014 as always started in León with Eladio’s family. The year will be remembered in the news for
the Ukraine issue, the Islamic State, Ebola in Africa and its repercussions in
Europe as well as the silly ice bucket challenge. In football terms it was the year Real Madrid
won “la décima” (the tenth time it won the Champions League).
For me it will
be remembered for some significant birthdays.
Suzy turned 30, my Father turned 95 and Eladio, my gorgeous looking husband
became 70 in September which seems unbelievable as he doesn’t look a year older
than say 55! In 2014 perhaps our most exciting project was starting the
rebuilding on the house in Montrondo. It
will also be remembered for quite a few trips; two to Stockholm, one to
Lithuania, two to London to be with Suzy, as well as visits to Santander and
Barcelona and days away with Eladio to Soria, Santiago and Doñana. We also entertained friends from abroad.
Kathy and Phil came to see us in March, Adele and Sandie and their partners
came in May and Keith and Lorraine came in June. The summer was super with time spent in Santa
Pola with our friends Sandra and Jeffer and in Montrondo. 2014 was also the
year Olivia changed jobs, leaving TVE after 8 years and joining Aquí en Madrid
a programme made by Boomerang for Telemadrid. It was the year the King of Spain
abdicated and Olivia had the privilege of reporting on the story the very day
the new programme went live. It was the year of our 31st wedding
anniversary, the year my Father had a tumour removed from his bladder
successfully and on a professional level it was the year I was voted best
communications director in the sector. All in all it has been a good year. I can only hope that 2015 will be just as
good. I do not want to be greedy and ask
for anything more. I know I am a lucky person living a wonderful life and
should not ask for more. If I had to ask
for anything it would just be health. If I could squeeze in another request it
would be to finish the building of our house in Montrondo in a satisfactory way
but I think that is a given.
So my friends,
all that remains now is to thank you for following my life, for reading my
posts every week and of course to wish you all a great 2015.
Cheers till
next week
Masha
No comments:
Post a Comment