Sunday 29th
November 2015
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| About to devour this delicious Fideua on Thursday in Barcelona at Cal Pinxo |
Hi everyone,
It’s been an
extraordinarily busy week. It started
off quietly though. Last Sunday we woke
up to snow in Montrondo. The day before it had snowed on and off but then it
must have snowed all night as we woke up to a white Montrondo.
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| We woke up to snow on Sunday morning last week in Montrondo |
It was Pippa’s
first experience with real snow and I’m not sure she liked it. What I loved apart from the white scenes, was
having a cozy breakfast inside our warm house with wonderful views of the snow
outside. Here is Eladio enjoying his
breakfast that morning.
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| Breakfast in Montrondo last Sunday with snow outside. |
My idea was to
stay and enjoy the snow, go for a walk with Pippa, have lunch and set off for
Madrid in the afternoon. However Eladio
foiled my plan. He and his family always
seem to enter into panic mode when snow falls in the village, perhaps
remembering being trapped there when they lived there many years ago. So Eladio hurriedly made preparations to
leave despite my protests. I tried to point out that the snow plough would be
here soon and that we would have no problem driving. But it was not to be. This is what it looked like when we left.
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| It was snowing hard when we left |
The main road
was quite clear of snow and just a few miles down the road there was less and
less snow. There was more in Montrondo
as it stands at 1.300m high in the mountains.
Pippa wasn’t too keen to leave either.
She now travels “legally” with a proper seat belt fastener on the back
seat rather than on my lap. She is not
very keen on travelling and I’m sure she too would have preferred to stay that
day in the village.
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| Pippa travelling legally now |
On the bright
side we were home for lunch. I was happy
to see my Amazon order of Downton Abbey Season 6 (the last one) had arrived and
spent part of the afternoon watching the first episode. I am very sad there will be no more seasons,
my only consolation being that I have yet to see the Christmas special which I
can only order after it has been aired in the UK later next month.
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| Downton Abbey Season 6 arrived in my absence. Needless to say I devoured all of it in less than a week. |
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| The interview at Forbes Radio |
Once back at
the office, I went through my pigeon hole.
Normally it is full of junk mail; mostly boring sector magazines, but
amongst all the mail there was one envelope which looked interesting from the
Swedish Embassy. It was an invitation for
two to the Swedish Ambassador’s private residence to celebrate St. Lucia. Gosh that meant having to dig out a suit for
Eladio; not an easy task as the last time he wore one was probably about 10
years ago.
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| The invitation from the Swedish Embassy |
St. Lucia is an important Swedish
and Nordic Christmas tradition where a beautiful young girl wearing white and a
crown of candles on her head together with a cortege, bring the light to the
dark days of Christmas singing and offering traditional gingerbread biscuits
and other typical products of this festival, one of the most important in the
Swedish calendar. From what I have read
about its origins, “St Lucia was a young Christian
girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story
told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted
Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She
would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things.
Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name”. St. Lucia takes place on 13th December,
although the Embassy celebration will be a few days earlier.I look forward to
it and for once I will have Eladio to join me.
Tuesday was a headachy day and I think I didn’t shake it off until I
returned from Barcelona later in the week.
That day we had a “Yoigo Morning”, a staff event which I organise where
the staff gets an update on how the company is doing and can ask
questions. It is followed by fun and personal presentations from new employees
and then a cocktail party to enjoy and to network. We had full house and the information shared
was of great use to the employees.
Everything went off without a hitch, including the presentation I had
put together at the last minute.
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| The Yoigo Morning on Tuesday |
I then dashed off to Anovo. What’s
Anovo you may ask? Well it’s a phone
repair company that we use for most of the models of phones we sell to our
customers and one of our strategic partners.
If you saw me in Undercover Boss you may remember my session there,
learning how to repair a mobile phone with a young employee called Miguel. After me, I think he was the star of the
show. So why did I go? No, not to repair a phone but to get mine
repaired. The screen of my phone broke a
while ago and I never seemed to find the time to go to Anovo to get it mended
on the spot. I needed to go in person to
make sure all the data remained and that it was not put back to factory
settings. It was very funny going back
to Anovo as Masha and a customer, rather than my fictional self in the programme,
Melanie the fruit seller from London hahaha.
I got red carpet treatment and the screen of my phone was replaced in a
jiffy; a perk of my job I suppose.
Whilst there, I met the people in charge of Yoigo, as well as an old colleague
from Motorola, Lubas who I am always happy to see. Then to my joy, Miguel
turned up and I threw my arms around him.
You can’t imagine just how close I am to the employees who took part in
the programme with me. Here is a photo
of that moment. It was really nice to be
back at Anovo. Thanks guys for your
help.
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| At Anovo on Tuesday |
Whilst all this was happening, on the international scene, I was amazed to
find out that the Turkish government had given orders to shoot down a Russian
military jet in Turkish airspace according to them. According to Vladimir Putin it was in Syrian
air space. The Russian plane was given
ample warning which it ignored and the plane was downed and the pilots had to
parachute themselves out. I personally
think the Turks were wrong to shoot the plane, especially in these times when
they should be allies and not enemies, in getting rid of ISIS. The incident brought the wrath of the Russian
President but thankfully it’s not war with Russia or Turkey, more like
sanctions and the similar. Meanwhile in
Brussels the lockdown continued, as did the search for the terrorists behind
the Paris Attacks.
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| The Russian fighter jet shot down in Turkish air space |
On Wednesday I was up early again. That morning we were to issue a press
release on the launch of the Yoigo app, called “Mi Yoigo”. The app, available on Android and IOS is for
customers to manage their use of their tariff and many other things. It comes
late but it’s a very well made app and the response that day was positive,
thankfully.
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| Proud of the new Yoigo (Mi Yoigo) app |
Whilst it was being launched, I was on my way to Barcelona for a site
inspection trip to choose locations for our press conference and party at the Mobile
World Congress next February. I have to
confess the best part of all my events, are not the events themselves which I
generally do not enjoy, but the sight inspection trips. Here I am on the train setting up my office
(pc, etc), except that I couldn’t work much because despite the avant garde
technology of the high speed train, it doesn’t have wifi. So I was content to continue watching Downton
Abbey, albeit with not very good headphones.
It kept me entertained until my arrival at the Sants trains station at
about 1.20.
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| On the high speed train to Barcelona on Wednesday morning |
I had lunch with Bea and Miguel from my events agency, QuintaEsencia, at
one of the possible locations, “Chapeau” a private club in the heart of the
city. Barcelona was looking good as it
always does when the sun is shining. This is the view from my hotel room.
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| The view of Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona from my hotel room |
As I took the photo I reflected that it would be a pity if Cataluña ever
separated from Spain, the big issue on the nation’s agenda on the eve of
General Elections to be held on 20th December.
It was a great lunch after which we went to see more of the locations on
the list. We loved the first two we saw
and which were perfect for our needs; so much so that we spent the whole
afternoon brainstorming at Chez Coco the fashionable venue we have chosen for
the party and which was used recently by the Barcelona Football Club. We talked until 7.30 when I had to rush off
if I was to be on time for my date with Grainne.
If you read my blog regularly you will know that Grainne went to school
with me and that she is the older sister of one of my best class mates,
Brenda. Like me, she has lived in Spain
for more than 30 years. She is a teacher
of English and when I arrived at her home by the sea in Badalona she was in the
middle of a conversation lesson with 4 men pupils. She asked me to join the class which I
willingly did and enjoyed talking English slowly to her eager pupils; all of
whom had seen me “star” in the Undercover Boss programme!
After the class, Juan Carlos, one of her pupils, drove us and Marcel,
Grainne’s son, to a local restaurant where my friend had booked a table, called
Ca l’Arqué. The wife of the owner was
one of Grainne’s pupils and the next day her first English lesson would be with
her. In Badalona Catalán is widely
spoken and at the restaurant I guessed even more so as I kept having to ask the
owner and my hosts to speak Spanish, not to mention get a menu in Spanish.
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| Dinner with Grainne and Marcel is always a hoot |
It was a wonderful dinner, not just because I liked the restaurant and the
food but because I always feel completely at ease with my dearest funny and
charismatic friend Grainne and her delightful and loving son Marcel. I reflected and pointed out to Grainne that I
have visited her on perhaps every one of my trips to Barcelona over the years.
Yet she has only visited us in Madrid once.
I would love them to come here and also to take them to Montrondo one
day.
Soon it was time to leave and we called a local taxi. I was amazed again when the taxi driver
recognised me from the Undercover Boss programme. He was a huge fan of the series and didn’t
stop talking to me about it until we arrived at my hotel. He was so happy to meet me and it felt like
being famous for 5 minutes; not an unpleasant feeling I can tell you.
I slept well that night and in the morning decided upon the luxury of
breakfast in bed.
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| Breakfast in bed - a rare luxury |
I spent most of the morning working quietly from my room until it was time
to check out. I decided to walk to my
lunch appointment with Bea and Miguel at Cal Pinxo. My hotel was on Paseo de Gracia, one of
Barcelona’s smartest streets which is full of enticing shops. I could not resist going into Mango, Punto
Roma and Zara on my way and when I arrived at the restaurant I was carrying
quite a few shopping bags. I told Bea
that I hadn’t bought any clothes for a long time. And it’s true as my priority for the last year
or so has been buying things for the house in Montrondo rather than anything
for me, but that morning I was inspired.
I bought two dresses, a black top, a coat and a pair of jeggings. I just loved this little black dress with a white collar from Zara and think it will be perfect for the Swedish Embassy St. Lucia
reception.
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| The little black dress with a white collar from Zara |
I got to Cal Pinxo, one of my favourite places in Barcelona, by the Palau
de la Mar and the Port Vell, at around 1. Soon I was joined by Miguel and
Bea. We sat in the sun and ordered a
dish we all love called “fideua”. This
is like paella but made with vermicelli.
The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of me and the fideua the
moment it was brought to our table. There was so much I took home a doggy bag
and we ate it for dinner that night and for lunch the next day.
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| With Bea at Cal Pinxo |
I was home on time for dinner with Eladio and Olivia. Recently I have been
so busy I have hardly seen Oli on the TV but was happy to see a photo of her
doing a report on babies. She loves doing stories about babies and
children.
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| Oli doing a report she loved this week |
The story was about a baby being massaged by an Indian girl. How strange right? Well not when I heard from Olivia that this
is an Indian tradition whereby babies are massaged when they are young to
strengthen their bodies and do them good in general. In the report she went to a parlour in Madrid
where young Indian girls offered the same service to mothers in Spain.
Whilst Eladio, Oli and I ate the remains of the “fideua”, in the US and
many parts of the world, North Americans were eating turkey and celebrating
Thanksgiving. I have never been to a
Thanksgiving dinner but it might be interesting. What was interesting to read was that
according to historians at a University in Florida, the first Thanksgiving
dinner did not take place thanks to the English Mayflower Pilgrims as we all
thought. No, it was apparently Pedro Menéndez Avilés, the Spanish explorer who celebrated the first Thanksgiving dinner 50 years earlier in 1565 in St.
Augustine Florida, in gratitude for the safe arrival. And they didn’t eat turkey but ham and
olives, wine and chickpeas. This is not
widely known in the US or anywhere else for that matter, probably because the
US prefers to link the celebration to its Anglican rather than Spanish heritage
and roots.
"The first
Thanksgiving meal in 1565 in St. Augustine that was shared between Spanish
settlers and the native Timucua Indians: salted pork, garbanzo beans, ship’s
bread and red wine"
The next day was Black Friday, a sales
day the day after Thanksgiving which was until very recently an exclusively US
event. Amazon brought it to Europe, as
did other online sites, but I was amazed to witness this week just how much
Black Friday has invaded Spain and most of the world too. Black Friday this year was huge here and wasn’t
just on Friday but in many parts started on Thursday and will last all weekend
until Monday which is another bargain selling day event called Cyber
Monday. Has the world gone crazy or
what? I ask myself why in Spain and most
of the world we have taken on as our own celebrations such as Valentine’s Day,
Halloween and now Black Friday. I hope
that doesn’t mean we will all be celebrating Thanksgiving next year. My answer to its success can only be money;
i.e. consumerism. Even in Yoigo we
celebrated Black Friday slashing prices from Thursday to today.
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| Yoigo joined in the Black Friday craze which took Spain by storm this week |
I wondered what the origin of the day was, apart
from being a sales day after Thanksgiving.
There are two possible theories, one about the association with “black”
and coming into money and the more plausible one of the police calling it that
due to so much traffic the day after Thanksgiving. Be that as it may, Black Friday has come to
stay. I ignored it and did my shopping
on Thursday in Barcelona and was not inspired to enter the frenzy this weekend
as I hate crowds, just as much as I hate following sheep which is how I see
Black Friday. No, it’s not for me for the
moment.
On Friday I had the occasion to wear some of the
new clothes I bought in Barcelona on Thursday. Here I am wearing the new grey
and white striped dress from Mango and the grey coat from Zara. You probably know that my favourite brands of
clothing are Zara, Mango, H+M, Lindex and M+S.
For shoes it is Clarks.
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| Wearing some of my new clothes on Friday morning |
Off I went into town to Madrid for a meeting
with my PR and Public Affairs agency Ketchum.
Here we were to go over the issues we have in Public Affairs and come up
with a plan for 2016. It was a
productive session.
That morning we had another press release. This
time it was to announce the return of our star tariff, the Sinfin with 20 gigas
of internet and unlimited talk time. It’s
for new customers and is the focal part of our Christmas promotion and campaign.
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| Yoigo's sinfin tariff with 20 gigas is back for Christmas for new customers |
I was home on time for our walk with the dogs
and lunch. The weather was glorious and
it’s amazing that we go for walks in our shirt sleeves at the end of November.
The bad weather came and went and it’s like summer again, at least during the
middle of the day.
In the afternoon I did the weekly food shopping
with Salu. It always feels we are buying
enough food to feed an army as we leave the supermarket with 2 full
trolleys. This time I bought even more
food as I contributed to the nationwide campaign where food is being bought and
collected for poor people on the biggest scale I have ever seen.
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| This week there was a nationwide collection of food for the poor at nearly all the supermarkets in the country |
It was my good deed of the day.
Later that night we went out to dinner and were
joined by Oli and Miguel, who is recovering slowly from his appendicitis
operation. We chose to go to La Vaca
Argentina where we can use my excess number of luncheon vouchers and where I
booked a table via The Fork, thus benefitting from a 30% discount.
Once home, Eladio and I continued to binge watch
Prison Break which has us riveted with all the suspense this American prison
series brings with it, not to mention rather too much violence at times.
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| Some of the cast from Prison Break |
Saturday was a lazy day. I spent part of the morning watching the end
of Downton Abbey and felt gutted afterwards as that was really the end and I
wasn’t satisfied. We went for another
sunny walk in our shirt sleeves after which we came home and I made a lovely
family lunch when we were joined by Oli and Miguel again. Whilst Eladio slept his siesta, I watched one
of the Call the Midwife Christmas specials I hadn’t seen. Then and there I
ordered series 3 and 4 on Amazon and was disappointed to see there was no discount
for Black Friday.
Meanwhile Suzy, Chati and their Italian friend
were spending the day in Bath. Suzy told
me the weather was awful and that it was packed. They were not able to see the Baths due to
the huge queues. The only picture I got
was a selfie of her with Monica by the church next to the Baths.
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| Suzy in Bath yesterday - here with her Italian friend Monica |
Later last night they drove on to Bristol where
they would be spending the night with a friend of Chati’s who lives there. I
look forward to talking to Suzy today to find out all about their trip and how
she is in general. We haven’t spoken for
ages, just have contact on whatsapp.
Oli and Miguel went out to dinner last night and
Eladio and I stayed in. It was Salu’s
day off, so we weren’t going anywhere.
And, yes, we watched more of Prison Break until it was time to fall
asleep.
Today, Sunday, is another sunny day and we shall
all have lunch together, but not before I finish this blog post and go for our
walk.
Next week we shall be going to Montrondo again
and Oli and Miguel will join us for the weekend. But of course you will be hearing all about
that in next week’s post.
In the meantime, I wish you all a great week,
Cheers till next time
Masha.
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