Sunday 11th January 2014
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| Kings' Day lunch |
Hi everyone,
Well yes
Christmas is over but it wasn’t when I wrote last Sunday. That day I cut my finger whilst chopping
potatoes and even now it is a little difficult to type but it’s getting
better. Of note last Sunday I watched
the end of the 2014 Downton Abbey Christmas special and must admit it was the
best Christmas special ever. I am
missing the characters already and will have to wait more than a year for the
next season. Bereft of anything
interesting to watch I ordered the film Hawking and the series Missing from
Amazon and look forward to watching them when I get a moment, hopefully with
Olivia and Eladio.
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| This year's Downton Abbey Christmas special was the best ever |
On Monday I
fasted for the first time since the beginning of the festivities and I think it
did my body a lot of good. I felt really
detoxed and am now determined to return to 5:2 rather than 6:1. If you are not familiar with the numbers they
refer to the “Fast diet” where five days a week you eat normally and two days a
week you fast on just 500 calories. In the month running up to Christmas I had
been doing 6:1.
I didn’t have
much time to think about food as Monday was a very busy day. After my early
morning walk I went to the hairdressers to redo my roots and cut my very long
hair. In the afternoon I went on a very
funny expedition with Eladio. We went to buy 4 loos and 4 bidets for our
bathrooms in Montrondo. We had finally
found someone who sold new “old fashioned” ones which we think are perfect for the
style of the new house. They only just
fitted in our X5 and now they are all sitting in the garage. They look a funny sight. The guy who sold
them to us thought they were for a hotel!
If you are English you might wonder why we would bother with
bidets. Well the truth is they are a
wonderful invention and after having lived in Spain for more than 30 years I
couldn’t do without one.
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| The loos and bidets in our garage waiting to be taken to Montrondo |
It was on
Monday that I heard from my great friend Sandra who lives in Brussels that the
Bollywood film she had a small part in had finally been aired. It is called PK and
was filmed I think in Bruges. You can see her role here. I just love her voice. Well done Sandra.
It was well
done to Olivia too that night when I and many other people watched her report
live on the Kings’ parade in Madrid, the biggest of all of them in Spain. She must have been on the TV over 10 times
and I was so proud of her. As I watched her impromptu and charismatic
reporting, especially when she spoke to children, I felt guilty that I had
never taken the girls to the Kings’ parade in the capital when they were
small. But as my friend Jacky pointed
out on Facebook: “not to worry she’s enjoying it now”. And she really was as she told me later. You can see the whole retransmission here.
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| Oli reporting live from the Kings' Day parade in Madrid on Monday evening |
The Parades
always take place on the eve of Kings’ day, a magical night for Spanish
children as they receive their presents the next day, just as children in
England receive theirs on Christmas morning.
These days in Spain people give and receive presents on both days, but
Kings’ day is when most are given. At
home, we respect both traditions except that Christmas day is more important
for us than Kings’ Day. So everything
was prepared for this last day of Christmas in our house. In a way it is a great end to Christmas, it
makes it go out with a bang and this year was no exception.
The day
started with a special breakfast all together in the dining room with the piece
de resistance being the “roscón” (kings’ cake) which for the occasion we
toasted. Later we moved to the lounge to
open our presents, just 2 or 3 each but all very much appreciated. I especially liked my jumper and scarf
(bought with Eladio a day or two before haha).
There was even time for a walk in between breakfast and lunch where we
were joined by Olivia and Miguel. It was
a lovely sunny day as it has been for weeks now. Then I made lunch, roast lamb, whilst Oli and
Miguel made a carrot cake which was delicious.
The only thing missing on Kings’ day was Suzy. Meanwhile in London she celebrated with
Gabor. He had invited her out to lunch
that day to a special vegan restaurant in the centre. Her main present to him was a Ryan Air flight
to Copenhagen in the spring. They will be staying with our dear Danish family,
Pernille and Thomas. I made a collage of some of the best photos of the day
here below. The full collection can be
found on this link.
Being the last
night of Christmas, Oli, Eladio and I had dinner in the lounge with the fire
on. Eladio only ever lights it at
Christmas but when he does we love it.
The next day
was Wednesday 7th January and Christmas was officially over. In my mind however I knew it wasn’t as it was
Russian Christmas that day. The Russian
Orthodox follows the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian one and I
remember as a child celebrating it thanks to my Russian Mother. Sadly I did not continue the tradition. There is something luring and mystical about
the Russian Orthodox religion and its church services have probably not changed
since they started. Still when I think
about the few times my Mother and Aunt took us to a Russian church, I get goose
pimples remembering the smell of incense, the chanting in Church Slavonic, the
candles, the icons, the robed and bearded priests as well as the distinctive
cross. Whenever I get the chance to enter
a Russian church as I did when I was in Vilnius in September, I buy a candle,
light it and say a prayer for my Mother, my Aunt and my brother, whilst making
the sign of the cross the Russian way, from right to left, different to the
Roman Catholics who do it from left to right.
I asked my husband who is an ex Catholic priest the reason for the
difference and he had no explanation. I
haven’t found one on internet either. If
any of you reading this know the answer do please leave a comment in this post.
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| It was Russian Christmas on 7th January |
That morning
Eladio and I went to the Corte Inglés department store. It was the beginning of the January sales and
the place was packed. We only wanted to
change some presents and buy some for our annual end of Christmas dinner at
Julio’s house on Friday. We also took
the opportunity to buy a new printer as ours has finally died, most possibly
due to programmed obsolescence; something I hate. When we installed our new wireless and wifi HP
Envy 4500 I realized we had been living in the dark ages as far as printers are
concerned. It was very easy to set up
and lovely to be able to print remotely with no cables from our PCs. However from our mobiles only I am able to
print on it. We also have a Samsung
laser jet printer which only works from Eladio’s mobile. I must say printer technology is fine but can
be frustrating. The same applies to TVs,
at least in my case. Thankfully I am
something of an expert in mobile phones but that is because I work in the
sector.
Whilst we were
out shopping, something dreadful was happening in France. Two Jihadist brothers, Said and Cherif
Kouachi of Algerian origin had stormed the offices of the satirical magazine
called Charlie Hebdo in Paris. It is
well known for poking fun at everything from religion to feminism, including
Mohammed. There and then they killed
most of the staff as well as a policeman on their way out. Ironically he was a Muslim. The news stunned the world. This was an attack on freedom of expression. These jihadists who work for Al Qaeda and possibly
IS, attacked Charlie Hebdo in retaliation for their satirical cartoons of
Mohammed. As they charged into the room heavily
armed where the editorial committee was planning the next edition, they shouted
something similar to “you will pay the greatest price for your insults to the
prophet”. What they did was perpetrate
an attack on freedom of expression.
Whether you agree with the magazine’s stance or like their cartoons,
what happened on France’s 9th January was a pure attack on freedom
of speech from fanatical Muslims whose God is against murder. Whilst thousands of gendarmes searched for
the fleeing brothers, the world protested.
People started posting photos with the slogan “Je suis Charlie”. I did too.
Only later did I realise that we were all echoing Spartacus when I read
Dominic Lawson’s article in The Times today and which I quote here: “This rallying cry is presumably meant to evoke the scene
in Spartacus when the Romans demand the eponymous slave leader is handed over
for execution. They ask the captured slaves which among them is Spartacus.
First one and then all of them shout: “I’m Spartacus!”— offering their own
lives rather than see their leader executed”. My friend Adele who lives in France
has a daughter-in-law who is a policewoman in Paris and Carole posted not only “Je
suis Charlie” but “Je suis flic” (I am a policeman) on internet as we are all
mourning the deaths of the staff of the magazine but not the deaths of the
policemen and policewomen who have been killed too. On that same day in another
shootout in Paris a policewoman was killed.
Only later did the French authorities confirm that the attacks were
linked. Meanwhile my friend Adele told
me “the
police know for a fact that all the stations, families of police etc are
targets. They all have to wear bullet proof vests & carry their arms home”. My heart went out to both
women and to all the police in France and around the world who defend us from
terrorism. The story did not end there
as we would find out two days later.
On Thursday I
was up at dawn as I had to be in the centre of Madrid early in the morning for
an interview with El Economista. It was organized
by our advertising agency and was supposed to centre on their advertising
campaign for our company. However they only told me about it the day
before. Thus I had little time to
prepare. The interview, as I predicted,
turned out to centre 99% on the company business with hardly a mention of the
advertising agency. This is the article
which funnily enough came out in a Mexican newspaper, El Universal the next day but which
was also published offline in Spain yesterday.
From the
advertising agency offices I made my way to my PR agency’s offices in downtown
Madrid for a quick meeting with my team there.
It was lovely to see Cris, Gloria, Bea, Miguel and Julia but especially
little Yoigo, the company mascot whose owner is Gloria. Little Yoigo is a miniature chocolate
coloured dachshund and is adorable.
Later that day
I got photos of the second company mascot which is still too little to be
separated from its Mother. So here and
today I proudly introduce you to “Pippa” (or Pipa in Spanish) who will live
with us. I can’t wait for the day she
comes and see how Elsa and Norah get on with her. I predict they will both vie to be her
Mother.
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| Introducing you to Pippa |
Finally on
Thursday afternoon Eladio and I had some spare time to take down the Christmas
decorations a task I hate. It takes so
long to put them up but a very short time to take them down. Now they are safely tucked away in one of our
store rooms until next year.
Friday saw the
end of the jihadist attacks in France.
Not only were the two brothers found who had taken a hostage at a print
works in Dammartin-en-Goële near Paris, but the same killer of
the policewoman on 9th January, another Jihadist called Amedi Coulibaly
stormed a Jewish kosher supermarket where he took hostages many of whom were
women and children. Both sieges ended in
blood when French Special forces burst into both locations. The terrorists were all killed and very sadly
4 of the hostages too, although they were killed before the forces entered the
premises. All in all the horror attacks
in France this week cost the lives of 17 people. My friend Adele called it
France’s World War III and I tend to agree.
Meanwhile in
other countries in Europe governments raised the safety levels. The head of the M15 in the UK spoke of at
least 3 thwarted attacks in London. Here
in Spain one of our top members of government told the country that Spain was
one of the safest countries in the world.
Has she forgotten our 11M (the Madrid train bombings)? It may be the end of the attacks in France,
but I think there will be more. I dread
to think where and when.
However life
continues and I was pleased to see one of my Amazon purchases arrive. It was a dvd, season 2 of The Fall. We shall be watching that this evening; i.e.
Eladio, Olivia and I. I will try and
persuade Eladio to put the fire on but I doubt he will as he cleaned the fireplace
yesterday.
That morning
Eladio and I made a quick trip to our local shopping centre. I needed to get a last minute present and we
had a couple errands to do. I decided to wear the jumper and scarf Eladio had
bought for me for Reyes. This is
it. Do you like it? When I asked Olivia whether she did, she
commented it was for “oldies”. I don’t think it is. Do you?
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| Wearing my "Reyes" new jumper and scarf this week - at my desk at home |
Friday evening
was the second highlight of the week after Reyes. It was the annual post-Christmas dinner at
Julio’s house. We used to go with my Father and the girls but now it is just
Julio, Fátima, Eladio and I. It was a
great dinner as it always is. The food
was super, especially Fátima’s mother’s tortillas and Julio’s mother’s chorizo
and the company even better. The piece
de resistance at Julio’s dinner is always the roscón with cream. Then we pulled the crackers which I had
brought after which we gave out our presents and toasted with cava. The routine of this dinner never changes and
I hope it never will. Long live post-Christmas
dinners with Julio and Fátima! Here is a photo of us all enjoying the
dinner.
Yesterday
Saturday was another busy and productive day.
It started with a walk after which I prepared our lunch. The walks in the morning are cold and frosty
but very sunny as you can appreciate in this picture.
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| On my cold frosty but sunny walk on Saturday morning |
Then Eladio
and I went to Centro Oeste once again. We needed a
new orange juice maker as ours had gone wonky; another issue of “programmed obsolescence”
or perhaps overuse as we make 4 or 5 glasses of juice every morning? We were home on time for another walk before
lunch. With both walks out of the way in
the afternoon, I enjoyed a quick siesta after which I spent some time
downloading Homeland Series 4. We decided
to go out to dinner yesterday night after great recommendations from Olivia and
Miguel of a new restaurant they had found on The Fork, El Zurito in Pozuelo,
which offered 30% discount. In my favour
it also accepts luncheon vouchers. So
off we went and were not disappointed.
It is a great new find and the food is super. Here is a photo of us both enjoying our
dinner at this new restaurant.
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| Dinner at El Zurito with Eladio last night |
Meanwhile in
London, Suzy was also out, but she was in Clapham Common. Olivia and I had spoken to her earlier and
she told me she would be going out with her flatmate Stefania to the pub where
Gabor works sometimes. I grabbed this
picture of the three girls out together from Stefania’s Facebook page as it is
the only one I have of Suzy this week and I always want to include her in my
blog. Hope you had a great evening
sweetie.
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| Suzy at Clapham Common last night with her friends |
And today is Sunday
and it another sunny and frosty day. When
I have finished writing this post I shall be going for my second walk, then
making lunch and hopefully in the afternoon will be starting watching Season 2
of The Fall with Olivia and Eladio. I
will tell you next week whether Eladio lit the fire or not.
So, that’s it
for this week folks. Wishing you all a
great week ahead, see you next week,
Cheers Masha
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