Tuesday 19th
May 2015
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| The "calecho" in Montrondo on Saturday afternoon |
Hi everyone
Sorry I’m late
this week. There was just no time at the
weekend to write a post and I haven’t had a moment to myself until right
now. Yes I have been extremely busy and
there is lots to tell you.
I last wrote
on Sunday 10th May, the day we removed the cover from the pool. I promised I would post a photo of my first
dip this year and here you have it. It
was very warm outside as it has been for some time now, but the cold water nearly
took my breath away.
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| My first dip of the year in the pool |
I forgot to
mention that last weekend was VE day (not sure if it was Saturday or Sunday)
and the 70th anniversary of the end of the 2nd World
War. At lunch on Sunday I asked my
Father where he was on that day and how he celebrated it. He told us he was in the Orkney Islands
living in barracks but that there was nowhere to go to celebrate!
On Monday
morning we woke up to the news that there had been another earthquake in Nepal
with a scale of 7.4, thankfully not as devastating as the first one. Immediately at work we extended free calls to
and from Nepal for our customers. As usual on Monday I fasted. Straight after breakfast I went for my walk
too as we have been doing these days as it is too hot in the afternoon. Here I am enjoying it and listening to Spotify
on my fancy headphones.
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| A selfie of me on my walk on Monday 11th May |
I had an
important dental appointment at lunchtime which later I was glad that I had booked
on a fast day as I could only eat cold liquids such as gazpacho
afterwards. I was to have a complicated
implant due to the fact that there is no bone where I need a tooth. The process went well thank goodness but I
had to spend the rest of the day applying ice to my cheek and of course it was
impossible to eat anything.
Tuesday was
busy. I had two meetings in Madrid and
then a lunch with the team from my events agency, QuintaEsencia, the best I
have ever worked with. It was so
hot. We ate outside at a place called
Beker 6.
Meanwhile, all
over the world employees at Nokia were celebrating the company’s 150th anniversary. I would have
loved to be at the celebrations in Helsinki.
It makes me sad to see how the company I worked for from 200 to 2005 went
into decline after being one of the top companies in the world when I worked
there. As I said on Facebook that day; “I owe a lot to Nokia, I had good times and bad and
learned a lot”. The best thing was all
the friends I made. I still have my company badges and a couple of my visiting
cards which you can see here.
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| Badges and my visiting card from my times at Nokia |
That day the company posted a video of the history of
the company. Those of you who only
remember Nokia for its mobile phones may be interested to know that Nokia started
out in the rubber business, then went on to TVs and only latterly mobile phones
and infrastructure. The company is still
in business in telephony infrastructure and after a broken venture with Siemens
has now announced a merge with the French company Alcatel. I somehow think that the Finnish culture is
Nokia’s best asset and mixing with the French or German culture makes it a
totally different company. I at least
have some wonderful memories of those incredible days when Nokia was number one
in the world and no one can take that away from me. It must be like working for Google or
Facebook today.
By Wednesday I had got as much work out of the way as
possible so as to prepare for our visitors and be able to be with them during
their stay without having to worry too much about work. So that day I was up early and shortly after
breakfast I picked roses from the garden for the house and their room. I also made salmorejo, a thick gazpacho
summer soup which comes from Córdoba, one of my favourite cities in Spain. Here you can see it in the making.
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| Salmorejo in the making |
It’s very easy to make. It’s made with peeled tomatoes, bread (fifty
fifty of each), oil, garlic and salt and some water, depending on how thick you
want it. It must be fairly thick. Then you make a topping of grated boiled egg
and grated ham. I think our friends loved it.
Wednesday turned out to be the hottest day of the year
with the temperature soaring to above 35ºc in Madrid. I went to pick our guests
up from the airport and I think both Keith and Lorraine felt as though they had
walked into an open sauna when they stepped out of Madrid airport. If you don’t know, they are friends from
years back. Keith was my boss at
Motorola when he was head of marketing for Europe. Today he heads up his own company in the same
sector.
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool
drinking tea and then wine. Afterwards
Salu, our home help, made us dinner outside which was to be my salmorejo, salad
and ham followed by our proverbial fruit salad which we have every day and
which consists usually of raspberries, blackberries, bilberries, mango, papaya
and pineapple, often eaten with meringue shells I buy online. Here is a photo
of our friends and I at dinner that night, taken by Eladio. Needless to say we
ate all our meals outside whilst they were with us at home in Madrid as the
weather was so wonderful.
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| Dinner with Keith and Lorraine on their first night with us. |
The day did not end well for Real Madrid who lost to
Juventus in the semi-finals of the Champions League. We would have watched it with Keith and
Lorraine if it had been on TVE but as it was only on Canal Plus (ppv) so we
were not able to. Now I know the result
I’m rather glad we didn’t.
There was to be no tourism in Madrid
during their stay – they have done that before, so they just went with the
flow. Going with the flow meant joining
us on our morning walks of course. Keith
joined us actually whilst Lorraine stayed behind enjoying a leisurely breakfast
and talking to my Father.
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| On our walk on Thursday morning. Photo taken by Keith. |
After the walk I had to go to the
office to get my corporate email installed in my new and lovely, I must say,
Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I took Keith and
Lorraine with me and I think they enjoyed the visit to Yoigo. From there we
drove to Centro Oeste, our local shopping centre in Majadahonda, where I was
determined to kit Keith out with nice casual Spanish style men’s summer clothes
from Zara. Eladio joined us later and
guess what, they both tried on and bought these two same outfits.
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| Fun at Zara with Keith and Eladio |
In the afternoon, continuing with “our
flow”, I took our friends to do the weekly shopping at Mercadona and our little
supermarket in El Bosque. Apart from
food for the week I needed to get provisions for our weekend in Montrondo where
you probably know there is no shop or nowhere near to buy food or even eat out.
That evening we went out to dinner
to Zurito and were joined by Olivia. I
think our friends were as impressed with the food as we are. I booked our table via The Fork application
and got a 30% discount. Here is a photo taken
by Olivia of us at the restaurant in Pozuelo.
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| Dinner with our friends at Zurito on Thursday night |
Friday 15th May, “San
Isidro” (Patron saint of Madrid) was a holiday in Madrid. However for me the date will always be
ingrained in my mind as being the day my brother George died. He died aged 46 on 15th May 2001
and will forever be remembered by me.
How could I forget? I mentioned to our friends that when I am next in
London I must visit his grave. They asked me where he was buried and all I
remembered was that it is at a cemetery in Finchley. Since then I consulted my
blog entry in August 2012 and have now recorded that he is buried at the St.
Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley in row 1X and grave number
192. Below is a picture of his grave.
With him his wife Sanya Lloyd buried too after she died, also aged 46, in very
sad circumstances, in 2008. Here is the photo I took of their grave which I
visited with my friend Sandra in 2012.
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| George and Sanya's grave in London |
On the bright side it was Eladio’s
youngest brother Isidro’s birthday. He
is 17 years younger than his oldest brother.
Happy birthday Isidro.
But there was good news on Friday
for the family. Suzy, who this week has
been in London already 2 years, let us know she had landed a job with a company
called Planet Organic. It is a British
company that has a chain of wonderful organic food stores, just up Suzy’s
street as she is a vegan. She will be working as a nutritionist I think in
Tottenham Court Road. Good for you Suzy;
you are now taking a step in the right direction and I wish you lots of luck.
As it was a bank holiday we had
decided to take our friends to Montrondo and share our village with them. José Antonio and Dolores had kindly lent us
the use of their house for which we were very grateful. We left, with Pippa of course, at around 10
and were at Rueda at about 11.30. If you
are a follower of this blog, you will know we always stop there at a winery
called Palacio de Bornos. Rueda, is, as
you probably know, an excellent white wine growing area. Here we sipped their superb “verdejo” grape
wine accompanied by a plate of ham and “lomo” with bread smothered in olive
oil. Afterwards we indulged in their
superb white chocolate with almonds.
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| Ham and lomo and bread at Palacio de Bornos in Rueda on our way to Montrondo |
We were in Montrondo by about
14.30. We had expected rain but the
weather forecast people got it wrong again, thankfully and the sun was
shining. It was warm and got even warmer
on Saturday and Sunday. Whilst Eladio
inspected the progress of the house and spoke to the builders, Lorraine, Keith
and I brought our luggage and bags of food up to the house and started making
lunch. Salo had made us lentil stew
which we began to eat at about 15.30 as we were not at all hungry after the “pit
stop” in Rueda.
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| Building the chimneys on the house in Montrondo |
After lunch we showed our friends
around the house. Quite a lot of
progress has been made since we were last in Montrondo in March. Eladio was delighted to see the three
chimneys on the roof. I was more impressed with the tiling in the bathrooms and
kitchens. This week the Ikea people will
be going to measure the kitchen and if all things go well the house should be
ready by 1st August. Whilst
Eladio continued talking to the builders I took the opportunity to show our
friends part of the village, mostly “el campo”, the church, the graveyard and
the belfry where I dared to ring the bell to Keith’s aghast.
Being in Montrondo we submitted our
friends to countless walks and I hope we didn’t tire them out too much. The
village was at its best it being May.
Everything was green and wild flowers coloured the scenery in a
spectacular way; especially the yellow brum and purple heather.
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| Colours at this time of year in Montrondo |
So we decided to take them up the
mountains. However on our way past “el
campo” – the village green – we got curtailed talking to villagers which is
what always happens in Montrondo. One of
them, Ulpiano, invited us in to see his hens and rabbits. Here he is with his Mother rabbit which is
gigantic. Unfortunately it doesn’t have
a name and lives in a cage unlike the hens which run loose and got Pippa very
excited.
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| Ulpiano showing us his rabbits |
We walked up the mountain path where
I had fallen and broken my ankle at the end of January but there was no danger
without the snow and ice. Just in case
we took the easier route up called “el retorno”. As I told our English friends, every nook and
cranny has a name in Montrondo. At the
top of the “retorno” there is a great view of the village. Here is a photo of Lorraine, Keith, Eladio
and Pippa. Here she is in his arms for
the picture but I can assure you she is a valiant little dog as she walked all
the way and back with us and we must have walked at least 10 km.
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| Eladio with Pippa, Lorraine and Keith by El Retorno overlooking the village of Montrondo |
We walked up to “el abedular” (the
birch tree place), past the view of the summit of the highest mountain in the
area, “el Tambarón” and as far as “la canalina” – a little spring where you can
place your head between the rocks and literally drink the fresh water from your
mouth.
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| Elado by the "canalina" spring in the mountains of Montrondo. |
The walk was spectacular, the
weather fabulous, the scenery beautiful and all in all I think we must have
burned all the calories we consumed at Rueda and at lunch.
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| On the walk in the mountains with our friends from England. |
So believe it or not we were
actually hungry for dinner. Again Salu had come to the rescue and had made us a
Spanish tortilla for dinner. We went to
bed exhausted but happy and all had a great night’s sleep.
On Saturday I was up before everyone
else and prepared their breakfast. Here
are our friends with Eladio enjoying it.
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| Breakfast in Montrondo on Saturday morning |
We then took them on a walk to
Murias, the next village, but of course first we went past Adela, Eladio’s
sister’s house in “Los Palacios” (the palaces) and greeted her, her Mother and
Primo her husband.
The milestone we pointed out to them
on the way was the one and only “peña de Dios” (God’s rock) which is the half
way point between Montrondo and Murias and where I nearly always take
photos. Here is one of Lorraine on the
rock itself.
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| Lorraine by "La Peña de Dios" with Pippa at her feet |
On our way back we stopped at Los
Palacios for a coffee. Well Keith and
Lorraine enjoyed the local wine and were offered chorizo, lomo and cecina which
I’m sure they loved. We had to head back
home to make our contribution to the big family lunch that day. Lorraine and I were making roast lamb and
potatoes and we would all be having lunch at Pili’s house. Pili is Eladio’s youngest sister and when we
got back she and her husband Andrés had arrived.
Whilst the lamb was cooking in the Aga
(the first time either Lorraine or I had ever cooked in one) we sat outside in
the sun on the sleeper steps that lead up to José Antonio and Dolores’
house. Pippa, as always, was with us and
I took what I now think is the best picture I have of her so far. Doesn’t she look gorgeous? She is the perfect
family pet.
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| Pippa relaxing in Montrondo |
We were to be only 9 for lunch that
day, quite a short number compared to other family gatherings. Here we are
enjoying lunch that day in Pili’s house, not to mention lots of Spanish
liqueurs afterwards such as “orujo”.
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| The family lunch at Pili's house in Montrondo on Saturday |
After lunch Primo went off to put
fencing up around his orchard and then to help his neighbours plant potatoes in
the field opposite his house. Keith, who
doesn’t know a word of Spanish, joined him.
Wondering how they were getting on, we, the ladies, went to see them
after which we would go on another walk to Murias, this time the ladies only
(Lorraine, Adela, Pili, me and Pippa).
This was the sight that met my eyes when we arrived of Keith helping the
locals plant potatoes.
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| Planting potatoes in Montrondo |
Later they had a stop to rest and
drink a glass of beer as you can see here.
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| Keith enjoying a break for a beer with the locals |
Meanwhile we went on our walk and
here is a selfie to prove it.
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| The ladies walk on Saturday |
Later we all gathered in the terrace
of Adela and Primo’s house enjoying the last sun’s rays which would go down at
about 8pm. We were enjoying what is
known as a “calecho” all together and were joined by other villagers as you can
see in the picture which illustrates this post.
The day didn’t end there. Each family went to have dinner in their own
house and later we gathered for drinks at Pili’s house. I must say it was a very long, intense and
enjoyable day, made even nicer because of the super weather.
On Sunday after breakfast we went on
another walk to Murias, this time exploring the old prison in Murias which has
now been turned into a small country hotel.
Once again we had a pit stop for coffee at Adela and Primo’s house
before we had to go back and pack. We
left Montrondo at 12.30 just as mass was starting at the church in memory of
Primo’s mother Virginia. We would have loved to take our friends there as mass
in Montrondo is quite an experience, but we had to leave to be in Benavente on
time for lunch at the Parador.
As always Eladio and I had the
chickpeas (from Fuentesauco) and I’m sure our friends enjoyed the quality of
the food at this old castle. Soon we hit
the road again, anxious to be back home on time to give my Father his afternoon
tea and dinner as it was Salu’s day off.
After unpacking, we spent some time
by the pool whilst Eladio tried to mend a burst pipe in the irrigation system
in the garden; something that always seems to happen when we are away. Dinner was an impromptu affair and we were
joined by Olivia. I’m afraid I, at
least, drank far too much wine. Somehow or other we got talking about the story
of my family. Then Eladio made me get
out two albums I made a few years ago of my Mother and my Father and I ended up
crying in front of my friends about the death of my Father’s sister, my Aunty
Gloria, her husband Derek and my cousins, Jacqueline aged 12, Michael aged 9
and little Anthony aged 7 who died in an air crash in 1971. They may have died then but they have lived
on in my heart ever since. I can never
forget; just as I can never forget my brother.
Yesterday, Monday, was Keith and
Lorraine’s last day. Again we submitted
Keith to a long walk in the morning with the dogs. Later I did some work and was very grateful that
Salu had made a sort of shepherd’s pie for our lunch. I hadn’t asked her to
make anything so I was very touched. In
the afternoon I drove our friends to the airport to catch their 8pm flight to
Gatwick. I was unlucky on the way home
as there was an accident in one of the tunnels on the M40 so I wasn’t home until
late. It was good to see Salu was back
when I got home and great that she helped make our frugal dinner.
Today, Tuesday, has been busy too. I
was up early, went on the walk with Eladio and the dogs and then had to go to
an appointment with the dermatologist. I
have a problem with the scar from the operation on my fractured ankle. It doesn’t seem to heal. I have to do a scan on Friday to see whether
it has something to do with the screws inside.
After the doctor I drove to the hairdressers as my roots were in a terrible
state. Then I came home to work on new tasks that have come up and which needed
attending to before I went out again. I
seem to have been in the car all day. I went out to have lunch with my friends
Julio and Fátima to celebrate the former’s birthday. They are my friends from Motorola and Nokia –
you see friends are the best things that companies can give their employees.
Here is a photo of the three of us at El Buey in Boadilla.
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| Lunch with Fátima and Julio today to celebrate his birthday |
I spent the rest of the afternoon
working and since then have been writing this post which I didn’t want to leave
until tomorrow. Why not you may ask?
Well that’s because my beloved daughter Suzy is coming tomorrow morning and
will be staying until Sunday. She is
here for Olivia’s 30th birthday which is actually on Friday of this
week. Wow, amazing to think my little
girl is going to be 30. Time literally
flies.
And now I must leave you as it is
getting cool outside by the pool where I am writing, finish publishing it and go
into the kitchen and help Salu make dinner.
Loving you and leaving you, I wish
you all a great week,
Cheers till next time
Masha
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