Sunday 31st
May 2015
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| The family, all 5 of us, about to vote last Sunday |
Hello again,
Another week
has passed and it has been a good one.
The wonderful weather helps of course and our garden is looking
beautiful. What I most love about it at
this time of year are the roses, or my roses, as the family calls them. Last Saturday when I last wrote, I picked
what I think must be the most beautiful rose in our garden. It is called a “black rose” but is actually a
very deep red.
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| The best rose from our garden |
I think it
would probably win a competition. Our
black roses do not have a scent but the dark pink and orange ones do and it is
a delight to smell them when I walk down our drive to the gate. I just adore them and fill the house with
them when they are in bloom. To do so I use the rose pruners which come from
our old house in Bradford as Eladio pointed out to me the other day. Here is a
selection of just some of the roses we have.
My favourites are the red and yellow ones.
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| Beautiful roses from our garden |
When I wrote
last week Olivia’s 30th birthday party was in full swing and Susana
was here. That night was the Eurovision
Contest. We only watched a little of it
and fell asleep during the voting. There
are so many countries these days, it goes on for far too long. Sweden won in the end with a song called
Heroes. What I was most impressed with
was the amazing stage put up by the host country Austria and by the special effects
many of the contestants used.
Sunday was
Suzy’s last day with us and it was also the day of the Spanish regional and
local elections. We packed a lot into
that day. After breakfast the whole
family, including my Father went to vote.
The picture illustrating this week’s post is of the five of us about to
go and do our electoral duty.
We took my
Father in his wheel chair and he was wearing his elegant panama hat. I think he may well have been the oldest
voter.
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| My Father about to vote |
We are a very
democratic family and between the five of us we voted for Ciudadanos, the new
centre party, UPD, a new centre party and Podemos, the new and now famous anti-
corruption party born from the “indignados” movement and who some say are
communist. I don’t think they are. Not
one of us voted for the two main parties, PSOE (left wing) or PP (right wing
and governing party); fed up with their corruption and austerity measures. After voting, we decided to celebrate this
democratic and, in a way, festive activity by going for a coffee together to a cafeteria
a stone’s throw from the polling station.
Some of us had “churros” with chocolate and most of all we enjoyed being
together. For my Father the outing was a
huge success as he hasn’t left the house for a long time. We shall have to take
him out again for churros or a glass of wine as he seemed to enjoy himself so
much. Good for him!
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| At a cafeteria all together after voting last Sunday |
To work off
breakfast and the churros, afterwards, the four of us then went for a walk together with
all three dogs. It was a very warm day
as you can see from the clothes we were wearing. It was so warm that a halo formed around the
sun; something I have never seen before.
It was quite a unique phenomenon to quote Eladio. Here are my lovely girls and Eladio and the
dogs on our walk that day.
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| The girls and their Father and the dogs on our walk after voting last Sunday |
The family
walk was followed by the last family lunch with Suzy as she was leaving that
afternoon. This is a selfie of Olivia and I with her just before she left.
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| Last moments with Suzy last Sunday afternoon |
I’m not sure when we will see her next as she is starting a new
job with Planet Organic and will not have much holiday as she is going away to
Thailand with the “manada” in September for two weeks which will leave only a
few days of any entitled holiday she may have from then till the end of the year. Oli and I took
her to the airport and when we came home the house felt so empty. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging
around, reading and playing trivial on our phones. It is so addictive I had to uninstall the
app.
On Monday we
woke up to the results of the elections.
They surprised us all. The PP
lost many votes as did the PSOE most of them going to Podemos and
Ciudadanos. In both Madrid and Barcelona
we shall shortly see two women Mayors from parties associated with Podemos. Meanwhile as not one party has a majority
there will be all sorts of coalitions; the most likely ones being with Podemos
and PSOE to oust out the increasingly unpopular PP.
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| Election results |
Whilst the two
dominating parties were licking their wounds, life went on. That morning I had
many errands to do as well as an appointment with the dentist. In the evening we had an appointment with our
decorator at Ikea and we spent a good two or three hours there going over the
lists of furniture we have ordered for the house in Montrondo. The most exciting part will of course be the
kitchen.
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| The kitchen we have chosen for our house in Montrondo |
Also for the
first time in my life I will be choosing and buying bathroom furniture, rather
than inheriting it. This is the bathroom
furniture we have chosen for our own bathroom which I think will go beautifully
with the black and white checkered floor.
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| The furniture we have chosen for our own bathroom in Montrondo |
On our way out
we spied the new collection of garden furniture. There and then we bought four
small tables which can be used singly or together and 10 chairs for our two
terraces in Montrondo. They are very Scandinavian, don’t you think?
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| The terrace furniture we have bought for Montrondo |
Our car was
full to the brim and it was then that we got a call from Olivia to come and
pick her up from a place called Colmenar Viejo, some 20km further north where
she had been reporting on a story for her TV programme. She only just fitted in
the back; it was such a squeeze. When
she got home my daughter was delighted to receive a parcel from her beloved
Indian friends Sumit and Sandeep for her 30th birthday. It was a box of Belgian chocolates sent, or
rather ordered, all the way from India.
Sumit and Sandeep are her friends from their Erasmus year in Falmouth in
Cornwall and I know they will be life-long friends. I’m still hoping one of them might marry one of my
daughters but it seems not. They are
more like brothers and sisters, God bless them.
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| Oli with Sumit and Sandeep's chocolates |
Monday was
also Suzy’s first day as a nutritionist with Planet Organic. I had asked for a photo but never got
one. We haven’t heard from her since she
left apart from the odd whatsapp message to say everything is going fine. I really hope it is. Love you Suzy.
On Tuesday I
had to go to an event at the Swedish Embassy where Yoigo was taking part in a
debate on the European Digital Single Market.
It was my first time there which is quite strange really as our Mother
Company, TeliaSonera is Swedish. I only
realized when I was dressed to leave that I was actually wearing the colours of
the Swedish flag; blue and yellow. Here
I am, by my roses, dressed for the occasion.
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| Off to the Swedish Embassy in the right colours |
The
Ambassador’s residence is in a very smart street in the centre of Madrid and is
really a beautiful old palace. It has a
small patio and garden which when I arrived was full of men, mostly tall
Swedes. It made me think that whilst the Swedes residing in Madrid often go to their Embassy events, I have not once been to the British Embassy for anything
other than a new passport which you can’t even do anymore as it’s all
online. Maybe I have to register with
them to get invited to their glamorous events or maybe they wouldn’t invite me.
However all the Swedes I know in Madrid
seem to be invited to all sorts of events at their Embassy and the Press
attaché promised to send me an invitation to a Swedish gastro event as well as
to their Midsummer party. I look forward
to them.
The event was
quite political as the Secretaries of State for telecommunications from both
Sweden and Spain were present, as was a Swedish representative from the
European Commission for Economy. Below is a collection of photos I took that
day. Take a look at the one of the
speakers; there is only one woman. She,
of course, is Swedish and is actually the Ambassador who speaks perfect
Spanish.
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| At the Swedish Embassy on Tuesday |
At the
cocktail party later I found myself talking to the Ambassador, the Commercial
Attaché and the EU representative, all of them women and we spoke about how few
women are in high positions in Spain, about maternity leave in Sweden vs Spain
and even about Ikea meat balls. I must
say that this conversation was the best part of the whole event. I should add that the presentation of the
Single Digital Market by Ann W, the EU representative was another highlight of as she made understandable and did not resort to what I
call “Brussels Speak”.
I rushed home
afterwards to have lunch with my men but go there afterwards. On my kitchen “island” waiting for me were
two small parcels from Amazon. They were my “e-cloths”, one sent by Suzy and
the other that I had ordered. It was my friend Lorraine who stayed with us
recently who recommended them. I am a
bit obsessed with keeping the “island” clean and clear of wipe marks. Salu, our home-help is especially “good” at
creating wipe marks. Unbelievably I read
on the instructions that the e-cloth is to be used with just water and that it
doesn’t leave a mark. I tried it out
immediately and it’s true; it cleans and leaves no mark. The packet also
included a polishing cloth for glass and similar surfaces. Again you use only water with it and to clean
glass you spray water and wipe it with the dry polishing cloth. Our windows are now looking spotless. I just wonder how I had never heard of the
e-cloth before and if it is available in Spain.
At about 5 pounds per pack of two cloths – the dry and the wet one, they
are well worth investing in. I shall be
getting more for Montrondo and Santa Pola and for my sister-in-law Dolores.
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| E-Cloths, the miracle cloths I discovered this week |
On Wednesday I
fasted as I did on Monday. After our
morning walk - these days we go early in
the morning or late at night to avoid the heat – I had appointments with two
doctors. The first was with the surgeon
who had operated my fractured ankle. It
was to see the scar which doesn’t seem to heal. When he first saw it he thought
the screws in the bone might be affecting it; i.e. my body was rejecting them
and even suggested taking them out via another operation after which I would
have to walk on crutches again. But he’s not sure so has asked me to go back
next week to see how it is. Do cross
your fingers I don’t have to have the screws out. I shall spare you the photo here of the scar
which is rather ugly haha.
What cheered
me up after the appointment was one of the press clippings about Yoigo that
day. It was a result of our press
release from last week which I issued after the Ministry of Industry had
published its study on the level of customer care of the Spanish
operators. Yoigo was top of the league
with least complaints. Here is the
clipping from the Spanish financial daily newspaper, El Economista.
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| A clipping that made me happy this week |
The next day
Thursday, I was to issue another press release.
This time we were announcing a new prepaid tariff. I’m hoping for good coverage about this too like this article in English, surprisingly.
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| Our new prepaid tariff which we announced this week |
It was also on
Thursday that my boss and I had lunch with El Mundo, the Spanish newspaper or
rather with their telecoms reporter, Ana and her boss their editor of economy,
Vicente. We went to El Quënco de Pepa
near Alberto Alcocer where they serve fruit and vegetables from their own
orchard. Just look as these
cherries. Cherries are my favourite
fruit and the season is now starting much to my joy.
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| Giant cherries at El Quënco de Pepa |
We talked shop
of course, but even more interesting for me was to talk about the newspaper
itself. El Mundo, traditionally right wing, was headed up by a very famous
Spanish journalist, Pedro J. Ramirez and some of the journalists are very well
known. For example Ana Romero their ex
royal correspondent who has just published a book about the abdication of the
King of Spain – the supposed real story which I have read; or Javier Espinosa
and the photographer Ricardo García who were kidnapped by ISIS. In the lunch on Thursday my suspicions that
the Spanish government paid for their release were confirmed. They were held in captivity together with
other Western journalists who were later beheaded probably because their
Governments would not pay for their release.
After the
lunch I rushed home to catch up with lots of work. I have a lot on my plate these days with two
big events coming up and lots of other things.
I didn’t stop until dinner which I prepared with great haste just before
Oli was back from work. On Thursdays in
our house there is never much choice for food as the weekly shopping happens on
a Friday afternoon and the cupboards are rather bare by then. But I managed to
rustle up a lovely meal of Swedish open prawn sandwiches and Spanish ham which
we had “al fresco” that evening. I love
eating outside at night these days as it is light until past 10 at night.
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| Dinner al fresco on Thursday night |
On Friday I
was up at 7 as I nearly always am. The
earlier I get up the more I can pack into a day. I worked most of the morning but was
pleasantly interrupted by the arrival of another parcel from my online shopping.
This time it was a pair of Clarks white summer shoes with a low heel, ideal for
wearing with jeans or a dress and very comfortable. Clarks seem to make shoes just for me; they
are not only practical and comfortable – with the option of extra width, but
quite chic too. They are not the Clarks
we wore as kids at school in the 60’s and 70’s.
They have come a long way since then but perhaps have kept that image as
a bit frumpy or old fashioned.
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| My new Clarks shoes |
Salu made us
lunch that day as she usually does. This
time she made Spanish “cocido” or rather “cocido madrileño” which is really a winter
dish. But it’s a dish we love so much we
eat it all year round. This is what it
looked like and, believe me it tasted delicious.
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| Salu's "cocido madrileño" for lunch on Friday |
Whilst Salu
and I were doing the weekly shopping that afternoon, Olivia was making her
debut as a TV presenter. Up till now she
has always worked as a TV reporter, although she is the official substitute
presenter for her programme “Aquí en Madrid” but has never presented. So Friday was a big day for her when she had
her own set in the Retiro Park where she was to present the Madrid Book Fair, a
big event in the literary world.
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| Oli made her debut as a TV presenter on Friday |
I watched it
online the next day and was very impressed with her ability to present,
especially as she has never done it before. You can see her too on this link
but will have to fiddle around to find the exact moments. Well done Oli.
That night we
celebrated her debut by going out to dinner.
I had chosen De María in Majadahonda, a great favourite with the Atlético
de Madrid football players as their practice grounds are right next door. Here is a selfie of the three of us at
dinner.
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| A selfie at dinner on Friday night |
And yesterday,
Saturday, Olivia invited 7 of her colleagues from her programme to lunch to
celebrate her 30th birthday. It was to be her second birthday
party. I was very proud of her culinary
efforts as I watched her make a superb carrot cake and 6 home-made pizzas.
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| Oli cooking for her friends on Saturday. Notice Elsa got in the pic! |
I helped by
making the first course, Salmorejo (from Córdoba) and being the general skivvy
haha.
They had a
very civilized lunch by the pool after which they swam in the water, listened
to music and drank mojitos. I tried one
which was delicious. Here they are together relaxing by our pool.
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| Oli and her colleagues yesterday at her second birthday party |
After the
party, Oli left for another party, this time in Majadahonda to celebrate
Rocio’s 31st birthday.
Meanwhile we stayed at home, going to bed early to watch the Sinking of
the Laconia, a real story that happened in the Second World War. After Pippa’s evening sponge bath, she
settled down in our bed too, but to sleep rather than watch the TV hahaha. Here is a collage of photos of the sequence
of her settling down to sleep. Pippa
will be 6 months old next week and has reached the weight of 4 kilos! She looks bigger than when she first came but
is still the size of a large new born baby. And oh, how we love her.
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| Pippa who is nearly 6 months old - settling down for the night. |
Today is
Sunday and it is quiet. We shall be
having fish and chips for lunch, after I have written this post. I imagine the afternoon will be spent by the
pool reading. Next week promises to be
busy. Thursday is a national holiday –
Corpus Christi – and we shall be going to Montrondo again and taking the chairs
and tables with us, as well as not so little Pippa.
I do hope you
all have a great week. I look forward to
telling you about mine next Sunday.
Meanwhile
cheers everyone and all the best
till next time
Masha
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