Tuesday 7th July 1015
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| It was one big laugh with Suzy this weekend in London and Bath |
Hi everyone
It’s Monday
and I’ve just come back from London, unpacked, got up to speed with my work and
here I am at my desk ready to share all my news. As you can see from this week’s headline, it’s
sizzling here and has been for some time and the record heat will be with us
for at least another 8 days. I was
warned of a heat wave in the UK but the highest temperature I saw there was 26c
and it even rained twice. So much for
the British heat wave but for me it was a great break from this stifling
weather.
When I left
off on Sunday 28th June, it was the hottest day of the year, a
record breaking 40ºc in Madrid for this time of the year. That day and from then on the news was
dominated by the economic situation in Greece.
The new government led by Alex Tsipras, prime minister of the left-wing Syriza party, unhappy with the conditions imposed by Brussels for
the repayment of a debt they will probably never be able to pay, called for a
referendum for the following Sunday; i.e. yesterday, for the people to vote for
the conditions or against them.
Essentially they were to vote for or against the Euro and even an exit
from the EU. That night many Greeks
queued up to get out as much money as they could from ATMs across the
country. The next day, a capital control
was announced (also called a “corralito” from the experience in the Argentine
some years ago) where they would only be able to take out 60 euros per person
per day. Many of the banks were already
empty. The rich of course had already transferred their millions of euros quite
a while ago to other safer countries. It is dark times for the country which
ironically is the birthplace of democracy.
I suppose the referendum is the essence of democracy.
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| Greeks queueing up at banks |
Monday was a
busy day. I was up at 06.40. Olivia joined us on our early morning walk,
as did the dogs, all three of them. Here is a photo of Oli with Pippa that
morning.
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| Oli with Pippa on one of our walks last week |
I had an
important meeting at the office then I had to go into the centre of the city to
see my urologist for another bout of not very pleasant treatment which I think
is actually beginning to have a positive effect, albeit very minor. As I left the office, I took the photo below
of the street temperature; 42c! I can tell you it was not a good day to
fast. The only possible thing to do once
I was home was to be in one of the air conditioned rooms.
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| Madrid is sizzling - this was the temperature at midday last Monday in Alcobendas |
This week
Pippa, our chocolate coloured miniature smooth haired dachshund who is the
sunshine of my life turned 7 months. Here is a close up I took of her one
afternoon last week. Isn’t she
lovely? I am still wondering if she will
grow much more. Right now she weighs
4.1kg and still seems very tiny.
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| Pippa is 7 months old now |
Tuesday was my
busiest day of the week and the longest. Eladio went off in the morning with
his brother José Antonio by car to León to pick up his Mother, Ernestina who
would be coming to stay with us for a fortnight. She is 93 years old and very
mobile but is unfortunately losing her memory. They would be returning on the
same day. On the way they made the traditional stop at Rueda where they
indulged in a glass of lovely local white wine and plate of ham. Here is a photo of the two of them enjoying
the moment.
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| Elado and José Antonio in Rueda |
Meanwhile I
got on with my work, last minute preparations for the staff summer party that
night. I also had a lunch engagement
with my boss and the financial editor of a major national daily newspaper. As you can imagine, we spoke a lot about the
“Grexit”, as well as ISIS terrorism and of course about Yoigo. You will be envious to hear we went to
Dstage, perhaps the best restaurant in Madrid.
It has a 4 month waiting list and is one of the most popular in Spain
with international foodie tourists. I
took a photo of each and every one of the 10 dishes as each one is a complete
work of art. The ingredients are all
first class and the dishes are out of this world. It is difficult to describe them, so here are
the pictures which speak the words I cannot describe.
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| Food at Dstage is creativity and pure heaven to eat. |
We didn’t
finish until past 5 in the afternoon – so Spanish to have a long business lunch
– and then I had to rush home to get ready to go out again. I had about 1.5h free time and spent part of
it in the pool with Salud, our home-help.
Then Eladio, José Antonio and my mother-in-law arrived and it was time
for me to get ready for the staff party.
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| Eladio's mother is staying with us now |
I love to wear
casual clothes and no make-up at home and when I get “dolled up” to go out,
Eladio calls it my “transformation”.
This is what I was wearing; a cream lace dress I bought a few years ago
at Pedro del Hierro, a Spanish designer.
I think it is possibly my only designer outfit as most of my clothes come
from Zara, Massimo Dutti and shops in Sweden and Finland like Lindex.
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| At the Yoigo party with 2 of the hostesses wearing my cream lace dress |
It took place
at The Roof, a rooftop terrace in Plaza Santa Ana and quite a glamorous place
with great views of the city.
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| The Roof at night during our event |
We were
worried about the heat and had hired fans which also sprinkled water to cool
the atmosphere down. The highlight of
the night was when we all attached messages to balloons and let them off into
the night. It was wonderful.
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| Letting off the balloons at the party |
Wednesday was
the first day of July and thankfully it was an in-between day, in that I had
one day off to catch up with work and organize some of the programme of my trip
to London the next day. A lot of the
preparation was about our private visit to the Houses of Parliament courtesy of
the MP of South Bradford, or rather her assistant Rob, all very well organized
by my friend from school Geraldine. It
was to be a real treat and one of the highlights of my adventures in England
with Suzy.
That morning
we went on our walk early as usual. In order to avoid the heat we try to go before
8.30. This time we had another dog to take on our walk. Nuba, José Antonio and Dolores’ mongrel came
with us. Nuba is to be staying with us
too for a while whilst her owners are away in Cuba visiting their son
Miguel. The house seems to be a combination
of an old people’s and dogs’ home at the moment hahaha. I just had to take a photo of Eladio with all
4 dogs which I dubbed “the dog walker”.
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| Eladio the dog walker |
On Thursday I
was up literally at the crack of dawn at 04.30 which would turn out to be 03.30
as just a few hours later I would be on English time. Eladio took me to the
airport and there I caught the 07h Easy Jet flight to Gatwick. I was meeting Suzy at Victoria from where,
after leaving my suitcase in left luggage, we would catch the tube to
Westminster. We got there early and
spent a lovely hour together having a cup of coffee at St. Stephen’s tavern
just round the corner from the visitors’ entrance to Parliament at Portcullis
House. Geraldine had warned us of the
strict security but it wasn’t that bad and soon Rob – a dashing 30 odd
parliamentary assistant - was there to greet us and take us on a short tour of
the Houses of Parliament. We were very
lucky to have a private tour but not so lucky either as we could not visit the
Chambers of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords as both were in
session. In any case the visit was very interesting and Rob was a super
host.
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| Suzy with our host Rob at Westminster on Thursday morning |
I think what I
most liked about the visit was Westminster Hall and The Lobby, as well as the
courtyard and the house where the Speaker lives, the only member of parliament
to actually live on the premises.
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| Suzy and I at the Houses of Parliament on our private visit |
From
Westminster we took the tube to Goodge Street.
Suzy was starting work at 1pm at Planet Organic and she took me there to
see the shop and meet her colleagues. It is quite an impressive place if you
are into organic stuff. As she has 25%
discount we bought some food for my stay.
Here is a photo of Suzy with a chap who was going to give her some
training when I left. Later she told me
he was from Afghanistan and didn’t blink when she said it. London is such a melting pot of
nationalities.
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| Suzy and a trainer at Planet Organic |
Meanwhile I
went to buy more food for our stay at both Waitrose and Marks and Spencer as
well as fruit from a great stall outside the tube station. I stocked up on
lovely food such as dressed crab, prawn cocktail, sliced roast beef and Eton
Mess. Realising I was carrying far too
much to take the tube to Victoria I decided on a London cab. Well actually I
tried to use Uber but as I am a Spanish customer it just didn’t work. The cab took me nearly an hour as the traffic
was so dense – as it must be always I think. Finally I got to Victoria and
picked up my big case and pc and took another cab to Suzy’s flat. After some
issues with the key, I finally got inside.
After unpacking and showering I sat down to lunch at nearly 5 in the
afternoon. Boy was I starving. I spent the rest of the day working and
waiting for Suzy to come home. She bikes into work and back which takes her 40
odd minutes both ways. My lovely daughter was home by 9 and we had a great
dinner together. We were to be alone in
her flat until Saturday. Her boyfriend
Gabor has gone home to Tenerife until the end of this month and their new
flat-mates weren’t moving in until Saturday.
Whilst I was
in London Wimbledon was on and it was on the day I arrived that I heard Rafa
Nadal, the two times winner of the championship, was out of the tournament. It
was not good news to hear whilst in the current world capital of tennis.
Friday was our
big adventure. We had hired a car and
were going to visit Bath. Sounds easy
right? Well it wasn’t and turned out to be a very long journey and a very
expensive one too. It took us about 2
hours just to get out of London which we hadn’t factored into our
planning. We then had to pay all sorts
of extras such as the congestion charge for driving in the middle of London. In
the end it cost about 150 pounds and took us 4 hours or so to get to Bath. I
very much regretted not having gone by train which would only have taken 1.5
hours. However it was an experience, or
rather an adventure. Suzy was very brave
driving on the left in the centre of London. Our sat nav was her phone which
soon ran out of battery. My battery was low too and I had to buy a charger at a
stop off which worked rather erratically (note do not buy non branded phone
accessories).
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| Suzy with the hired car in Bath |
I had booked a
table at the Roman Baths Pump Room Restaurant for 14.15 and I really thought we
might not make it but we did. The
restaurant was absolutely out of this world.
There was live music and a dishy new waiter serving people hot spring
water from the baths. I went for their
afternoon tea which was just as good as the one I had had at The Wolseley last
year.
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| Afternoon tea in Bath |
Here is a
selfie of the two of us by the Roman baths after our lovely lunch.
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| A selfie by the Roman Baths in Bath |
Bath is one of
England’s most famous and beautiful towns, on a par with Harrogate, Canterbury
or Stratford upon Avon. It is also a
World Heritage site largely because of its Georgian buildings. I had only
visited it once when I was a student and Suzy had visited it also when as a
teenager she and Olivia stayed with my friend Amanda and her family in nearby
Wells. We didn’t have much time to visit
the town which was much bigger than I remembered but I knew there were certain
areas we could not miss. The first wasthe Circus, a round street with a garden in the middle and lovely Georgian
houses.
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| The Circus Bath |
We loved the
houses and the stone they are made of.
Funnily enough it is not dissimilar to the stone in Yorkshire; the
pavements too.
We loved the
Royal Crescent – a literal crescent of Georgian Houses. I remember being told in Delhi that Connaught
Circus (the heart of New Delhi) was a copy of the Royal Crescent. Unfortunately
the Indian street has gone to complete seed whilst the Bath one is a joy to look
at.
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| The Royal Crescent Bath |
By the crescent
there was a lovely park which I think is called the Victoria Park. Here there was a French brass band playing in
the open air and we were drawn to the music.
We spent a delightful half an hour or so lying down on the grass and
listening and watching the band.
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| A magical musical moment in Bath |
We didn’t have
much time left in Bath but there was one more thing to see, the Pulteney Bridge.
To quote Wikipedia, “Pulteney Bridge crosses the River Avon in Bath, England. It was completed by 1774, and connected the
city with the newly built Georgian town of Bathwick. Designed by Robert
Adam in a Palladian style, it is exceptional in having shops built across
its full span on both sides. It has been designated as a Grade I listed
building”. All I can say is that it is a sight for sore
eyes.
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| Pulteney Bridge Bath |
To get there
we had to go past the beautiful park nearby called The Parade Gardens which
looked fabulous on this lovely sunny day.
Alas we had no time to leisure on one of the colourful deck chairs there
and contemplate the River Avon.
Soon it was
time to go but not before a last cup of tea at a café. Unfortunately we were
invaded by horrible pigeons and fled quickly to drink our tea on a bench. On our way back to the long stay car park we
went into Waitrose as we had to buy more provisions. That night at Suzy’s flat
we were receiving guests for dinner; Chati, Suzy’s Spanish nurse friend, Monica
an Italian linguist and Ania, a Polish architect. It was to be a truly international girly
evening. We had arranged to meet at 9
but it turned out to be much later at approximately 10.30 as it took so long to
get home. The return journey was a bit
better but even so getting to Tower Hill to return our car was another
adventure due to the dense traffic in the city of London. Finally we were at the bus stop by Tower
Bridge with all our food bags waiting for the bus which never came.
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| Back in London after returning from Bath. The bus never came! |
Suzy had run
out of battery on her phone and I had no signal. We had no cash either, just credit cards. In
the end we hailed a cab and asked it to stop at an ATM on the way. We were home really late. Whilst I had a cold
shower (the hot water was not working) Suzy unpacked the food and laid the
table. Soon our guests were there and the sparkling wine Suzy was reserving in
her fridge to celebrate the HCPC registration approval was flowing. It was a lovely evening. We were both very tired and by 1.30 (2.30
Spanish time) I was completely flaked and had to go to bed. Suzy joined me at 3 in the morning as she has
a little more stamina than me.
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| Suzy with her girlfriends, Chati, Ania and Monica |
Meanwhile in
Spain, Olivia and Miguel were arriving at the apartment they had booked in
Almeria for a week at a place near Roadalquilar. The photos of the apartment looked
lovely. Oli has a week’s holiday she is
much in need of due to her stressful TV reporter job which has her on her toes
the whole time.
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| The apartment where Oli and Miguel are staying in Almeria this week |
Saturday was 4th
July and Independence Day in America.
Suzy and I didn’t celebrate of course but were extremely independent,
doing just what we wanted and enjoying our own company in London. It was a warm day again and after breakfast
on Suzy’s sunny terrace we set off for London Fields, an area near Regent’s
Canal which is becoming quite hip.
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| Regents Canal - London Fields |
Sometimes I
felt as if I was on a Monopoly board as when the tube broke down we had to take
a bus and suddenly I was on Old Kent Road (remember the brown cheap property
next to Whitechapel?). I had similar
feelings on The Strand, Piccadilly, Northumberland Avenue, etc. Near London
Fields is a great food market called Broadway.
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| Broadway market is very colourful and not only about food. |
Here Suzy and
I sat and watched the multicultural world go by whilst sipping a detox and
fruit juice to cool off.
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From Broadway
market we made our way to Stratford or rather the Westfield Shopping Centre
where we had lunch at Jamie’s Italian a chain belonging to the famous British
chef Jamie Oliver. There were no fish
and chips on the menu of course so I went for steak and chips. I was a bit disappointed as it turned out to
be a bit stringy.
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| A rather disappointing platter from Jamie Oliver |
After lunch we
headed straight for Marks and Spencers.
Here I bought loads of underwear for all the family, trousers for my
Father and some nice clothes for Suzy and I.
I just had to have a photo of myself outside my favourite British store
and here it is.
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| Happy with my purchases outside M+S at Westfield Shopping Centre |
That evening
we were organizing another dinner party, this time just for three. Gillian, my ex
legal student house-mate from Nottingham University and who today heads up a
Legal Aid company, was coming for dinner.
It was great to see her again and darling Gill turned up with a
beautiful bunch of flowers and bottle of wine.
We wanted to thank her for her part in making Suzy’s registration with
the HCPC work out. She had very kindly
done the legal work necessary for it. Just
as we got home the much awaited letter from the HCPC had arrived in Suzy’s post
box, so it was the perfect moment to celebrate with Gill. The final step in getting the registry number
was to pay by visa on Monday which is what we did and immediately afterwards
Suzy got an email to confirm the number.
It took a year and we were so happy to see that much awaited letter. It
means a brighter future for Suzy.
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| The much awaited letter |
We had a great
evening having dinner on Suzy’s terrace whilst Gill told us about some of her
more colourful court cases or “clients” (i.e. criminals), some of who were from
the area Bermondsey near where Suzy lives.
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| A selfie with Gill |
That night
Suzy’s new flat-mate moved in, Jordan.
He is from Lancashire and told us he had just graduated in “physical
theatre” from Essex University. He had
to explain to both of us that he meant “acting”. His girlfriend, Kirsty, a
graduate in acting too wouldn’t come until Sunday night as she had been on
tour. I laughed when I heard she had been
staying at Butlins!
Jordan was
probably asleep when from the terrace we heard and saw a very loud shouting
match going on outside. An underclad fat
white girl who was probably not much more than 14, was f*** and blinding and
shouting “I`ll kill your sister”. Gill said the area was notorious for racism
and where a lot of working class cockneys live. I do hope Suzy can one day move
a bit south of the river haha. But I must say the whole show was very
entertaining.
On Sunday we
woke up to rain. We had planned to go to
Kew Gardens but it was not to be. It was
that morning at breakfast that I heard my beloved friend Adele’s mother was
dying. She was in Yorkshire with her and
all the family and I so wanted to be with her.
With our spirit a bit
dampened, Suzy and I left the flat later than usual and made our way to Soho,
via M+S on Oxford Street. We had lunch
at a lovely little place called Muriel’s Kitchen.
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As we sat at
our table a waiter and tray race was going on; the sort of thing you only see
in London. I thought it was highly entertaining.
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| A waiter and tray race in Soho on Sunday |
The weather
had brightened by midday so we decided to walk all the way back from Soho to
South Bermondsey which took us nearly 2 hours including a couple of stops. I was exhausted when we got home. It was to be my last evening with Suzy as I
was leaving the next day and she would be getting on with her life. I did my packing that night and the next day
said goodbye to Suzy who left the flat at 7.15.
Here is a photo of her leaving on her bike. We had such a good time together; quality
mother and daughter time. The only people missing of course were Eladio and
Oli.
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| Suzy leaving for work on her bike, complete with helmet, on Monday morning. She is very brave to cycle every day through the centre of London. |
I had a few
minutes to read the news after Suzy left before going myself and was surprised
to read that the Greeks had voted against the EU conditions. Immediately the now famous finance minister,
Yanis Varoufakis resigned. He and the Greeks have been very brave standing up
to Brussels. It remains to be seen what this will mean for the future of Greece
and Europe.
A cab came for
me at 9 and I was at LGW by 10.30. It
took ages to get through baggage drop and security. The latter made me feel like a piece of
cattle. Thankfully my 12.15 plane was on
time and I arrived in Madrid yesterday (am now writing on Tuesday) in the early
evening. Eladio was there to pick me up
and we couldn’t find each other which was awful because of the heat. The
temperature that greeted me at Madrid Barajas airport yesterday was 42ºc
Unbelievable! It’s always a shock returning to Madrid in the summer when you
step outside into the heat but yesterday was probably the record.
It was good to
be home to see the family and our dogs – especially Pippa. All I wanted to do was to bathe and have a
shower to cool down before sitting at my desk with the air conditioning
on. It was also nice to sleep in my own
bed last night but I missed Suzy. I am
missing Oli too who won’t be back from Almeria until next Sunday.
Today,
Tuesday, has been busy but I was able to get a walk in with Eladio and the dogs
in the early morning. I am also fasting which didn’t help when I attended a
very long management team meeting at work at midday.
And this my
friends is it; the story of my week and stay in London and adventures with Suzy
there and in Bath (note must go there again one day or maybe retire
there?).
So I will love
you and leave you until next week
Cheers till
then
Masha
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