Monday 30th March 2015
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| On the beach with Pippa on Friday evening - Alicante bay and Santa Barbara castle in the background |
Hi everyone,
It’s Monday
and I’m one day late with my blog post.
But that’s because we’ve been away for the weekend at our flat in Gran
Alacant, Santa Pola near Alicante with little Pippa our new chocolate coloured smoothie miniature dachshund puppy.
When I left
off on Sunday 22nd March “El Clásico” was being played.
Disappointingly Real Madrid lost to their eternal rivals, “El Barça”. Who did win though was Susana Díaz, head of
the Socialist (PSOE) party, in the local elections in Spain’s poorest region
Andalusia. The right wing central
government party (PP) lost many seats as did the left wing party, Izquierda
Unida. These votes went to the upcoming
far left party Podemos which won 15 seats as well as to the moderate new party
Ciudadans which won 9. However Susana
did not get a majority and even though she aims to govern alone, she will need
help from these new parties. The outcome
in Andalusia is supposed to be a reflection of what might happen in the general
elections at the end of 2015 where Podemos is supposed a lot of people’s
favourite. However their 15 seats came
as a blow to them. It is interesting to
note that Susana is heavily pregnant but I doubt she will bother taking much
time off the meagre 3 month maternity leave entitled to Spanish women.
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| Susana Díaz who won the local elections in Andalusia for the Socialist party in Spain |
Meanwhile in
London Suzy was enjoying the last day with her friends from the “manada” who
had been there for a long weekend to visit her and Chati. This is a lovely picture of the girls, Suzy,
Chati, Chati’s sister Elena, Rocío and Carolina at a sign post in London. It says “diversion ends”. In Spanish “diversión” means fun, so the
photo was quite meaningful; the end of their fun.
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| Suzy and Chati with their friends from "the manada" who visited them in London last week. The "fun" (diversión) ended for them on Monday last. |
It’s funny how
in English and in Spanish there are many words which seem the same but are not,
such as “diversion”. Whilst there are
many that look and sound the same and are the same, there are many others that
are not. One of the most common examples is “constipation” which in Spanish
means a common cold or “embarazado” meaning pregnant which seems similar to the
English word “embarrassment”. You would
think “carpeta” would mean “carpet” but no it means a folder. “Éxito” means success not “exit” and “delito”
means a crime not “delight”. There are
some worse ones such as “molestar” which doesn’t mean “molest” but to
bother. I think one of the most common similar
words with a different meaning is “actual”. In Spanish it means “current” or “present
day” whereas in English it means “real”.
Spaniards learning English always get this one wrong. If you think
Spanish is easy when you see so many words that ring a bell like this, think
again, as there are many cognates in these two languages, commonly called “false
friends”. So be careful when you see
one.
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| There are many false friends in English and Spanish. embarazada which means pregnant not embarrassed is just one of them. |
On Monday I
was busy working. One of the things I
had to do was a 30 minute online anti-corruption course. These are becoming commoner in the corporate
world after the high profile scandals that occurred in firms like Siemens,
Lehman Brothers or many banks quite recently.
I was happy to find out I passed with flying colours. Funnily enough just as I had completed it, I
got a call from a headhunter. It was for
a job as head of communications for a Spanish multinational in the consumer
sector which wanted to focus a lot on Europe and the US. I was not interested in working for a Spanish
company because of their corporate culture.
I am so used to working for Nordic companies where the work life balance
is a priority and would not want to work in a Spanish office where hours are
long, the hierarchy is strict and where physical presence counts for more than
productivity.
Olivia was
back on Monday from her week in Cuba with Miguel. Eladio went to pick her up as I was at the
dentist. But I was back for lunch which
I had to make and I was torn between embracing and talking to my daughter and
getting on with the chore. It was only
on Monday that we finally got to see some of the photos of her trip. Internet was not easily available in
communist Cuba and Olivia decided against paying an extortionate price for 30
minutes use and just relax and disconnect.
They had a grand time and Olivia had many tales to tell us; mostly what
we knew that the Cubans lack every day necessities and earn very little. 10 euros a month seems to be a normal salary! She also said there is literally nothing to
buy. They had taken out lots of things to give out and engaged with children on
the streets giving them note pads and pens to their delight.
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| Olivia in her element with children in Cuba |
Whilst in
Havana, they spent a lot of time with my nephew Miguel and his Cuban girlfriend
Claudia who Olivia said was “a darling”.
Here is a photo of the three of them walking the streets of Havana.
Miguel has gone quite native. Disgruntled with the banking world he chose to go
there to take a break and learn the bass guitar. He has now set up a company called Havana Music School for people to learn music in Cuba.
The school also organizes courses for people from abroad. This is the
website. I wish him all the success in
the world.
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| Claudia, Olivia (in the middle) and Miguel her cousin. |
In Havana they
also visited “the family”. Eladio has
second cousins there because Constante the brother of his maternal grandmother,
Licinia, left Montrondo, the family village, to emigrate to Cuba when he was
about 20 which must have been at the beginning of the 20th century. He never returned for economic and political reasons
However, the family remained in contact over the years by letter. Constante’s son Edelberto had two daughters,
Rosa and Licinia. Rosa, a privileged
Cuban who works as a journalist for Cuban State TV, was able to make the
journey back to Montrondo for her grandfather a few years ago. After that some of our family members have
visited “the family” in Havana just as Olivia and her boyfriend Miguel did in their
recent trip to Fidel’s land. I’m sure
Constante would have been happy to know that.
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| Visiting our Cuban family (notice the photo of Fidel Castro on the wall!) |
You may notice
that on the wall in the family’s home there is a picture of Fidel Castro. They are stalwarts of his regime which of
course is to be expected as that is all they have ever known. Hopefully life in
Cuba will improve now that diplomatic ties with the US are thawing, but it will
take time.
Tuesday was a
busy day. I had to attend a management
team meeting at midday. It was only when
it finished that I saw an alert on my phone that a German Wings plane
travelling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf had crashed over the French Alps
killing everyone on board, some 150 people, mostly Germans and Spaniards. The crash was to dominate the news all
week. There seemed to be no explanation
as to why it had crashed just that it had descended rapidly on to a mountain leaving
2 kilometres of debris and remains which proved very difficult to find as the
crash area could only be accessed by helicopter.
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| German Wings air crash scene |
During last
week one of the black boxes was found; the one which records what went on in
the cock-pit – the second one which records technical data has yet to be
found. Very soon we were told by the
French prosecutor that it had been a deliberate action of the co-pilot, Andreas
Lubitz. In the recording the
conversation between the pilot and co-pilot was normal at the beginning until
the latter tried to persuade the pilot to leave the cock-pit to go to the
loo. Once he had gone, Andreas pressed
the descent button and the plane began to descend at 1000 miles per
minute. Meanwhile the Pilot was hammering
on the door begging Andreas to open it. He punched in the code numbers but
Andreas kept blocking the door. The
co-pilot did not take any notice of the emergency calls from the control tower
either. The rest of the story you know now, the plane crashed and all 150
people on board died there and then and not one body has been found intact.
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| Andreas Lubitz the co-pilot who deliberately crashed the plane |
The stories in
the press continue and we all ask ourselves why this successful 27 year old
German could possibly do such a thing.
We will never know the real reason and will only be able to speculate
after finding out that he had quit his flying course when he was training because
of depression and that recently he was seeing a psychiatrist and that he had
problems with his vision. He had hidden the latter from his employer, Lutfhansa
– investigators found torn up sick-notes in his flat – airlines apparently test
their pilots for psychological problems. One ex-girlfriend told the German
press that Andreas once told her he would do something for everyone to remember
him for. I’m sure that never in her
wildest dreams did she understand exactly what he meant. Thanks to his sickness which went undetected
Andreas Lubitz carried out this ghastly dream and not only killed himself but
149 innocent people who are now mourned by their families, friends and
countries. I cannot begin to imagine how
his parents must feel and my feelings go out to them as they do to all the
victims’ family and friends. The horror came home to me one day last week when
I was driving home. I was about to cross
the square where the train station is and there staring at me was a big Spanish
flag at half-mast. Of course it was in
sign of the 3 day mourning period Spain had declared after the air disaster.
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| The Spanish flag at half-mast in sign of mourning for the 50 Spaniards who lost their lives on the German Wings' Air crash |
Indeed
it was a sad time for aviation, for Germany, Spain,
France and for all the families and friends of all the nationalities on board.
Every time there is an air crash I am reminded that my Fathers' sister Gloria,
my aunt, her husband Derek and their three children, my cousins, Jacqueline
aged 12, Michael aged 9 and Anthony aged 7 all died in an air crash in Rijeka (Croatia) on 23rd May 1971, all but one person died. We shall never forget that, my parents never got the opportunity to go out, I
only remember 2 big and 3 small coffins at the packed church funeral in
Ickenham in North London and spending some time in my cousin Jacqueline's
bedroom before the funeral, crying my eyes out and taking some hair from her
hairbrush to carry in a locket on my neck.
We can never forget just as the families of the victims of the German
Wings’ crash will never forget either.
I came home
from the office to go back an hour or so later for an interview with a
journalist who writes for the Catalán daily newspaper, La Vanguardia. 17h came and he hadn’t arrived. I rang him to
find out he thought the interview was the next day but was kind enough to leave
his house and he arrived at 17.45. Thus
I didn’t leave the office until 6.30 and because of the traffic I didn’t get
home until 8 pm. I was thanking God all the way that I don’t have to face the
traffic every day as I work from home.
On Wednesday I
had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon, 2 months after the accident when
I broke my ankle. He was pleased with me and said my recovery was remarkable
and wished other people recovered as well and as quickly as me. There and then he told me I should no longer
use my crutch and he gave me some exercises to do with my foot. So I walked out of the hospital holding the
crutch in my hand and feeling great. I
had told him I was already doing an hour long walk a day and from now on they
are getting even longer. My foot still
aches and is a bit swollen at night but less and less so.
I was very
busy that day working with the media.
Yoigo has been in the limelight recently as since the Orange Jazztel
operation, in order for the European Commission to approve the merge, the
latter have to make concessions; i.e. free and sell some of their duplicate “remedies”.
That is EU and technical jargon meaning networks and frequencies. There had been stories that Yoigo may want to
buy some of the “remedies” and on the day of the interview with La Vanguardia I
managed to get a statement from our mother company confirming our interest and
talks with the commission. I sent out
the statement individually on Wednesday morning to journalists in the telecoms
market who had been writing the story and boy were they interested. Thus the next day we were mentioned in nearly
all of the main newspapers. These “remedies”
would enable us to compete on equal terms with the big three: Telefonica,
Orange and Vodafone.
It was on
Wednesday that Laura and Cristina came to dinner. Suzy and Oli were at the
Scouts with them since they were about 7 years old. In Spain there is no Girl Guides and Scouts;
it is all one gender association. There
are branches like the Brownies or Cubs but when the Scouts meet in Spain all
ages are generally all together. I hadn’t
seen Laura for many years. As to Cris,
probably since the last year the girls were with the Scouts. Oli has kept up mainly with Laura who lives
in Barcelona and is now 6 months pregnant with Maya.
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| Olivia, Laura and Cristina |
We had a great
dinner together in the dining room exchanging stories and remembering what for
us were the girls’ scout years. The only
person missing was Suzy of course who would have loved to have been with us.
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On Thursday I
fasted as I did on Tuesday. It was also
the last day I went to rehabilitation. I
have two sessions left but have decided not to bother. The centre I went to came highly recommended
but it was very crowded and I felt as though the staff there were not
interested in my recovery. When I told
the rehabilitation doctor about the exercises the orthopedic surgeon had
recommended on Wednesday he told me they were useless. I think that was my deciding factor. Plus a few weeks previously I had commented
to one doctor at the rehabilitation centre that my foot got swollen in the
evenings. He replied that it needed to
be looked at although he didn’t bother.
I then told the other doctor who is his son, the same thing to which he
replied that it was normal. So who was I
to believe? I can only hope the magnet
therapy sessions have helped as well as my daily walks. But I must say I am disappointed with the
physiotherapy centre which came so highly recommended.
In the
afternoon I had to be at the office again.
This time it was for a video shooting.
The Samsung Comms director came with a big crew to interview our head of
terminal strategy on her opinion of the new Samsung Galaxy S6. It was to be viewed at their upcoming Spanish
launch in Valencia on 9th April.
I am a bit disappointed with my S5 since I downloaded the new software
it has become incredibly slow. Also the battery life is now shorter. I hope it won’t be long until I can get my
hands on the new S6. Driving home again on Thursday afternoon took 1.5h because
of the traffic. I had to do the weekly
shopping afterwards so was in a rush and a bit stressed. We were going to Santa Pola the next day and
I needed to leave food in the house.
Friday came
and I packed everything we would need for the weekend in Santa Pola. Oli and
Miguel were originally going to join us but backed out at the last moment as
they wanted to go to their friend Elena’s birthday party. We were going as the
forecast for the first time in weeks was good and also because we hadn’t been
to the flat since we were last there with our friends Jeffer and Sandra in July
last summer. We took Pippa with us, wondering how she would take to a long
journey in the car with us but most of all because I was dying to go for a walk
with her on the beach. We stopped at
Albacete at the Parador to have lunch.
Amazingly it is right next to Los Alamos the NATO jet fighter pilot
school where the F16 accidents happened a couple of months ago. We could see them flying in the sky above us
making amazing manoeuvres.
Dogs normally are not allowed in restaurants, which is understandable
but the Parador relaxed rules and let us have her with us on the terrace where
we were to eat alone.
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| Eladio with Pippa on the terrace at the Parador in Albacete |
They were
incredibly slow serving. We must have
been there for more than 2 hours, thus we didn’t get to our flat in Gran
Alacant till 5.30. As soon as we were
settled in we rushed down to the beach with little Pippa. The sun was still shining but we knew we only
had another hour of light. We certainly
made the most of it. Here is a lovely
photo of Eladio with Pippa on the beach
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| Eladio holding Pippa - her first time on the beach last Friday evening |
She, by the
way, shies away from water. It was her
first time out alone with us and we let her off the lead immediately. Throughout the weekend on all her walks, she
never went far away from us and always came when we called her.
That evening
we had hoped to go and have dinner at our local favourite, María Picola on the
road to Elche from Santa Pola but when I rang to reserve a table there was a
taped message saying it was closed. I
only hope it opens again soon. In the
end we decided just to cross the road and go to the local Indian, The New Royal
India. Here we were greeted by the owner
a young Sikh from the Punjab who spoke perfect Spanish. He remembered us from last time. After our
chicken tika masala and lamb korma he came to have a chat which is when he told
us he was a Sikh. Amazed not to see him
wearing a turban or long beard he told us that was because he thought it wouldn’t
be accepted in Spain. I thought about
what he said and then realised that he was right; Spaniards would find it funny
and he would feel very strange himself. I
did point out to him thought that they would probably accept it as Spaniards
are not particularly racist; something he totally agreed with. I was happy to
hear that. Of course you see many Sikhs in turbans in England. I remember turbaned and long bearded Indians
driving buses in Bradford in the 60’s but that is because there is safety in
numbers and in Spain there must be very few Sikhs. Another thing you don’t see in Spain is women
in fully covered burkas. To tell you the
truth I hope I never do.
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| The curry house opposite our flat, New Royal India. |
We were a bit
worried Pippa might bark when we were away.
I made her a makeshift bed out of one of the drawers in Olivia’s
bedroom. Inside I put a soft black towel and some of her toys. We were home quite soon and as we approached
our flat, we didn’t hear her making any noise and as we walked in there she was
lying in her new day bed. You see her night bed is with us. As Eladio commented, we are now 3 hahaha.
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| Pippa in her makeshift bed in our flat in Santa Pola |
On Saturday we
had breakfast on our sunny terrace as we would have our lunch there that day
and breakfast on Sunday.
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| Breakfast on our terrace at Santa Pola |
After
breakfast I went to Quicksave, the British supermarket opposite our flat. There I stocked up on more hot cross buns, an
Easter egg for my Father (in case Bettys’ don’t come on time) and some more
chocolates for him. I also indulged in a bag of my favourite sweets, “humbugs”.
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| Quicksave, the British supermarket across the road from our flat. |
Not wanting to
miss the wonderful weather we went down to the beach again. It was a lovely sunny day but the beach was
quite empty and there was no problem parking. I suppose that at Easter it will
be a lot more crowded. Pippa turned out to be quite the sensation with people
stopping to look at her or try and touch her.
She didn’t mind but doesn’t go up to people, preferring to stay close to
us. What is very comforting is that she
doesn’t run off, so it’s quite safe to let her loose. We saw lots of dogs on the beach that
day. However we were told by another dog
owner that apparently it is against the local law. We never saw a sign forbidding dogs but are
very aware that more and more beaches are being closed to them which is such a
shame as there are few things more enjoyable than going for a walk on the beach
with your dog.
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| Eladio with Pippa walking faithfully behind him on the beach on Saturday morning |
We had lunch
in the flat. I had taken some duck legs to heat up which I served with steamed
potatoes and asparagus. It wasn’t the
greatest lunch on earth but having it on the terrace made it extra
special. Later Eladio had a siesta and I
decided to sit in the sun in the garden by the pool as by then the sun had left
our terrace and I just didn’t want to miss the good weather. Later the three of us took 2 deck chairs down
to the pool where we were the only occupants.
We then decided to go on a walk to the light house on the cliffs. Later my fitbit told me we had walked 14.5km
all day Saturday which is a lot for my ankle but also an awful lot for a tiny
sausage dog like Pippa. We got there
just as the sun was going down and the views were spectacular. Here is a photo of me with Pippa in my arms
and the island of Tabarca in the background.
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| At sunset on the cliff by the lighthouse with the island of Tabarca in the distance |
Here is one of
Eladio and Pippa with the lighthouse behind them.
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| Eladio and Pippa on the cliff by the lighthouse overlooking Alicante Bay |
The walk back
was arduous mainly because I was wearing converse shoes without socks and I was
getting a blister on my big toe.
It was when we
got back to the flat I read that Javier Fernández, a 23 year old Spaniard from
Madrid, had just become Spain’s first male figure skating world champion. He is Spain’s only famous ice skater and we
were happy enough with his two European titles, but wow to win gold at Shanghai
this weekend increases Spain’s fame in different sports from football and
tennis. You can see his performance heredone to the sound of the Barber of Seville; not a tune I would have
chosen.
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| Javier Fernández, Spain's new ice skating hero. |
It was on
Saturday night we decided that dinner had to be at no other place than Darby’s
Chippy in Gran Alacant. I have written before
about this fish and chip shop we go to every time we are at our flat. The fish and chips there are made with the
real English equipment – from Leeds by the way – and served by John Darby and
his wife who, I guess from their accent, are from Glasgow. Mr. Darby is a fan of my blog and always
welcomes us very warmly. I ordered a
normal portion and Eladio ordered a big one. Well you should have seen the
size; ginormous. Eladio, being a Spaniard, removed most of the batter which as
I commented to Mrs. Darby is fish and chips main attraction. Eladio admitted he liked the batter but
preferred the fish. For me it is the
other way round. For a Brit like me
brought up in Yorkshire but living in Spain I crave at times for real Fish and
Chips like in England and Darbys’ Chippy is the only real one I have ever seen
in Spain, thus the reason we go every time we visit our flat. Here is a collage
of photos of our dinner there that night.
If you are reading this John Darby, thanks for the lovely meal.
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| Fish and Chips (with mushy peas!) at Darby's Chippy in Gran Alacant |
On Sunday
morning we were up one hour later as the clocks had gone forward to Summer
time. After breakfast on the terrace we
decided to clean up a bit, pack the car and go down to the beach for one last
walk before heading home. It was another beautiful sunny day. This time the
thermometer marked 25ºc and I would have loved a whole day on the beach. But we had to go home and I hadn’t brought my
swimming costume.This is a
photo of me on our last walk on the beach this weekend.
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| My last walk on the beach on Sunday morning |
We left just
after midday and stopped for lunch at Los Morales, a new favourite of ours some
175km from Madrid. Unfortunately we couldn’t take Pippa in with us so she had
to stay in the car in her transporter. We were worried she would be upset or bark but
when we returned she was just fine. We
let her out for a little walk before we got into the car again to drive
home.
We were home
just after 5 and after we had settled in, guess what we did? Yes, you are right. We went on our walk with
all three dogs. My fitbit was pleased
again and so was I. That evening Olivia
and Miguel returned. It was great to see them.
Miguel, apart from being an official cameraman for Spanish TVE
understands TVs quite well as you can imagine.
We needed his help as TV channels are changing in Spain as from 31st
March as the old bands will be allocated to 4G by a new rule from The European
Commission. We had rescanned our TV but
many of the new frequency channels didn’t get the signal. Miguel tried to fix
our problem and in the end we were able to see all the channels except two,
Antena 3 and La Sexta. This morning an
antenna man came and estimated 600 euros to change the orientation of the
antenna but not guaranteeing it would work.
Meanwhile Eladio rang the local community office to hear that the
repeater in the area needed fixing and we shall have to wait a few days. Channel changing is always a bother and an
expense for TV viewers. Thank you Brussels for this change and having to pay
for another TV man for nothing. In any
case I think Miguel did a better job than him.
And today is
Monday and I am fasting. It will be a
quiet week as far as work is concerned.
On Wednesday we shall be off to spend Easter in Montrondo with the
family. Unfortunately we shall not be
seeing much change to the house since we were last there at the end of January
when I broke my ankle. Our builders
haven’t been since then. It seems they are working on other houses. Their excuse is the snow but the snow only
lasted 2 weeks and don’t tell me they couldn’t have shifted it away from the
path if they really did want to get on with the house which previously they
told us would be ready by Christmas, then by March and now we don’t know
when. We shall be going to decent
weather there; i.e. no rain or snow forecast but the maximum temperatures
forecast are 12ºc a far cry from those of Alicante where it will be sizzling
this week.
Meanwhile I
wish you all a Happy Easter.
Cheers till
next time,
Masha
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