Sunday 10th January 2016
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| A surprise family lunch at home on Saturday |
Good morning all this rainy post-Christmas Sunday in
January. It’s not my favourite time of the year. I hate it when Christmas is
over and the year has just begun. It’s
as if I need time to adjust to the new year.
I don’t know about you.
It was raining hard too in Montrondo when we left last
Sunday at around 11. We stopped on our
way to have lunch at the Parador in Tordesillas. Our choice was the most delicious roast
suckling pig and roast suckling lamb, both typical dishes of the province of
Valladolid, it’s capital which is some 20km from Tordesillas.
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| Our lunch in the Parador in Tordesillas last Sunday |
Every time I pass Tordesillas on the way to Montrondo or back, I always think of the poor Queen Juana of Castile who was imprisoned there in a
castle for many years for supposedly being incompetent to rule. In reality her
rivals wanted her under lock and key whilst they ruled instead of her. I think it’s the white castle in the picture
of the entrance to the town which you can see below.
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| Tordesillas |
Juana La Loca (Juana the Mad – 1479 – 1555) was the
daughter of the Catholic Kings and sister to Catherine of Aragon. She did not have a happy life. She was Queen
but never reigned and was locked up by her Father for many years in Tordesillas. In reality it was both her Father, King
Ferdinand of Aragon, her husband Prince Philip the Handsome of Austria and her
son Carlos (later Charles 1 of Spain and Charles V of Germany – the Holy Roman
Emperor) who wanted to rule Castile for
her. Madly in love with her fickle
Prince, he died very young and she mourned him forever after and clung to her
young daughter Catalina, the last relic of her adored husband. It is believed
she may have become unbalanced but surely not mad, after he died.
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| Juana 1 of Castile (Juana la Loca, Juana the mad) a very unhappy Queen who was imprisoned by her own Father in Tordesillas |
She must have hated Tordesillas. It’s actually a pretty medieval town. It was put on the world map in 1494, also
during the reign of the Catholic Kings, when the Treaty of Tordesillas was
signed between Spain and Portugal to settle conflicts over the newly discovered
lands by Christopher Columbus and other explorers of the times. In those days Spain and Portugal ruled the
world and divided the globe between them as you can see in the map below.
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| How the world's oceans where divided between Spain and Portugal after the Treaty of Tordesillas |
Recently Tordesillas has gained a very negative image
for its medieval bull festival called “El Toro de la Vega” where a bull is
hunted, chased down and killed by lancers as it runs through the streets of the
town. Finally Spain is coming round to the
subject of animal rights and each year the protesters against the festival and
cruelty to animals grow bigger in numbers and the conflict is much commented on
in the news. I hate this sort of
festival and hope one day it and many others like it in Spain will be forbidden
by law. I wonder if I will live to see
the day.
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| El Toro de la Vega - the cruel bull festival in Tordesillas |
Tordesillas is about 2 hours from Madrid so we got
home in the early afternoon. It was too wet for a walk. Guess what I did
then? Well, whilst I was away, the final
episode of Downton Abbey Season 6, the Christmas Special called “The Finale”
had arrived. I just had to see it. I watched it, loved it and felt like an
orphan afterwards. The ending was very
satisfactory with all the knots finally tied but I did feel bereft afterwards.
I was going to miss the cast so much. I am devastated that the series has come
to its end. There is talk of a film but
I think it’s only talk.
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| I was happy for Edith at the end of Downton Abbey |
I was especially pleased that Edith, Lord Grantham’s unlucky
spinster daughter finally found happiness. I later read that Julian Fellowes,
the creator of the series and actual writer of the scripts when asked in an interview why the
series would not continue had replied: “you want to leave a party when people
are sorry to see you go and not relieved”.
I don’t quite agree as I think I would never want to see the end of
Downton Abbey. But he has a point.
In the UK Downton Abbey has been replaced by the new
TV serial. War and Peace. Being of
Russian origin I would love to see it but I can’t watch the BBC here, not even
online. So I shall have to wait for the
first season to become available on Amazon.
Meanwhile, as I missed Downton Abbey so much, I decided to watch it all over
again from the beginning. Whenever I
have a free moment in the evenings before dinner, I watch chunks and am now on
Season 2. It’s amazing how much I had forgotten and I am enjoying it
tremendously.
On Monday, though I was busy preparing for the Spanish
Kings’ Day which would be on Wednesday. I went shopping with Eladio to get
presents for everyone and also bought the food for the Kings’ Day lunch;
funnily enough it would be a British lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire
pudding. I would keep to custom though
when it came to breakfast on Kings’ Day and we went to buy the traditional “roscón
de reyes” (round or elongated shaped cake decorated with crystallised fruit and
which I have mentioned before in this blog).
Kings’ Day (los 3 reyes magos) is the Epiphany which
is also called The 12th Night and is the last day of Christmas. Of course as we all know it was the 3 Kings or
the 3 wise men or the magi as they are also known who, guided by a star, were
led to Bethlehem to visit and worship the baby Jesus after his birth. As the Christmas Carol says, they came from
afar. And so they did. Balthasar was
from Arabia, Melchior from Persia and Gaspar from India. They travelled on
camels to come and worship baby Jesus and give him their gifts. These were gold, frankincense and myrrh which
have been interpreted as gold for a king, frankincense for his divine birth and
myrrh for his mortality.
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| The 3 Kings are far more important in Spain than Father Christmas |
In Spain and I believe in Latin America too, Kings’
Day is the day most people look forward to at Christmas as it is when most
people give their presents. Father
Christmas exists too in Spain but the Kings are far more popular. At our home, we respect both traditions,
although most of our presents are exchanged on Christmas Day and only a few on
Kings’ Day.
It was on Monday that one of the Kings of football,
Zinedine Zidane (Zizou), ex Real Madrid striker number 10 was appointed the Club’s new
head coach. I followed the news with
interest feeling rather sorry for Rafa Benítez who was kicked out after just 7
months. It seems, that as usual, the
latest Madrid coach just didn’t have the clout needed in the “changing room”,
or “vestuario” as it is called here.
Zizou will no doubt have the clout but is lacking in manager experience,
something Benitez had plenty of. In his first match in his new role on Saturday
against El Deportivo de Coruña, Real Madrid scored 5-0 with Bale scoring a hat
trick. Was that luck or thanks to a
change of atmosphere? Who knows but I just hope Real do better from now on and
that Zidane turns out to be the Guardiola of the Madrid club. Only time will tell.
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| Zinedine Zidane, the French king of football of Algerian origin and the new Real Madrid coach. |
Wednesday was 5th January and a bit like
Christmas Eve, here it is called The night of the Kings (la noche de
reyes). Supposedly it is when the Kings
arrive and so they do all over Spain where they take part in fabulous parades
in all the towns and cities in the country. These are called “Cabalgata de los
Reyes”. Children and their parents are the enthusiastic spectators eagerly
gathering sweets thrown from the floats.
Olivia reported, as she did last year, on the parade in Madrid, perhaps
the biggest of them all.
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| Oli reporting on the Cabalgata de los Reyes (Madrid's Kings' Parade) and happy to be surrounded by so many children. |
However this year, the Madrid Kings’ Day parade has
turned into a political controversy.
Even the FT reported on it. So
what happened you may ask? This year we
have a new left wing Mayoress in Madrid, Manuela Carmena, a former judge. She
has made many laudable changes but was heavily criticized for turning a
beautiful religious Kings’ parade into a multicultural carnival. The attacks were mostly about the Kings’
clothing and their arrival on an Iberia aircraft rather than on camels. I tend to agree. In other parts of Spain there was even more controversy
when newly elected left wing governments substituted 3 wise men for 3 wise
women!!! I watched the Madrid parade on the TV and must say the whole show
seemed more like a carnival than a 3 King’s Parade. Manuela has promised to rethink next year’s
parade. I do hope she does.
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| The unusually dressed 3 Kings with the left wing mayoress Manuela Carmena at the Kings' Parade on 5th January. |
The day before Kings’ Day was a quiet day for us. As usual I had breakfast early in the kitchen
surrounded by our lovely dogs. I never tire of the image of the 3 of them
resting together whilst I quietly read the “papers” (online these days of
course).
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| I love my quiet breakfast time in the kitchen with the dogs sleeping placidly together. I never tire of this image. |
I had a lot of work to do that day, monthly reports to
send in, plans for 2016 but I found time to make the Kings’ Day dessert. It was
to be our favourite, trifle, a dish I only make about once a year.
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| The 2 trifles I made for our Kings' day lunch |
That night Eladio and I went out to dinner to Carús,
the Asturian restaurant in Pozuelo where our last Nokia girls’ lunch was
held. The food is great, a bit heavy but
the worst thing is the noise. The place was very full and of course Spaniards
do like to talk loudly when there are crowds, putting up the decibels even
more.
Kings’ Day was lovely.
Here is the roscón we had toasted in slices for breakfast. Other people prefer the same version with
whipped cream inside but I find it very heavy.
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| The roscón we had toasted in slices for breakfast on Kings' Day. I got it with luncheon vouchers at the Mallorca bakery. |
After breakfast we had the present giving ceremony
around the tree. Here is my English
Father with his Spanish son-in-law, opening their presents on Kings’ Day.
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| My Father and Eladio opening their presents on Kings' Day in the morning |
The present I got was for both of us and had been
chosen between the two of us at Zara Home, a new set of towels for our
bathroom; not very original but highly practical.
Again it was time for me to make lunch; roast beef,
roast potatoes, sprouts, fresh peas and gravy, a meal which is not complete
without Yorkshire Pudding. I love
Yorkshire pudding but it doesn’t always turn well for me; i.e. it doesn’t
always rise, despite putting the batter to cool in the fridge and pouring it
into the baking trays with boiling fat or oil.
So I decided to use my Grandmother’s recipe. Thus I got down the her two
old cookery books, Mrs. Beeton’s Everyday Cookery and Housekeeping Book which
was published around 1890 and The Radiation Cookery Book published in the 20's and 30's which my parents used too.
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| My Grandmother's cookery books, they are a treasure. |
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| A priceless instruction from Mrs. Beeton's cookery book |
I found the Yorkshire pudding recipe in Mrs. Beeton’s
cookery book which you can see below.
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| The recipe in Mrs. Beeton's cookery book - not a good one:-( |
This is the one I followed and shouldn’t have because
the Yorkshire pudding did not rise, even though it tasted good. A few days I looked a bit more closely at both
vintage cookery books and found a handwritten recipe, written in my Grandmother’s
handwriting inside the Radiation cookery book.
This is the one I shall use from now on.
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| My grandmother's handwritten recipe for Yorkshire Pudding |
I was also delighted to see her name and address on
the inside of the Radiation cookery book.
She must have acquired it before she got married as the name written
there is her maiden name: Dorothy Gertrude Scull or there again it may have been her Mother's. When my Father reads this post, no doubt he will know.
I did some research on both books and was tickled pink when I read that "the food economist for Downton Abbey described the book as an important guide for the food served in the series! I shall treasure these books from now on; especially
after I had to remove a crusty old wasp’s nest from the older Mrs. Beeton’s
book hahaha.
Lunch was lovely and again Oli was the photographer of
how the table was laid. The crockery was
of the finest we have. Thanks to my Grandmother and my Mother our dining room
is full of precious vintage bone china dinner and tea sets by legendary names
such as Coalport, Crown Derby and others.
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| Just some of the porcelain I inherited from my Grandmother and Mother |
Being the last day of Christmas we used the last of
the crackers too for this splendid lunch. They were good ones and both Olivia
and I were amazed when she found a headscarf in hers. I liked some of the jokes too like these ones
below.
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| Pretty good crackers on Kings' Day |
No celebration meal is complete without fine wine and
on Kings’ Day we tasted one of 2 incredible bottles I got for Christmas. It was bottle number 7840 out of the 9000
bottles produced by the Marques de Vargas winery of a wine called Hacienda
Pradolagar Rioja Tempranillo 2005 and my was it amazing.
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| The wine we had on Kings' day was spectacular probably the best I have ever tasted |
I got quite a few bottles of good wine this Christmas
and as I don’t know too much about wines, I downloaded an app called
Vivino. It’s superb. You just have to
register. Then you can take a photo of
the label of any wine you want to and abracadabra there and then you have full
information on the wine and people’s comments too. Incredible.
I shall be using it more often now, especially when we go to
restaurants. You can find out more about it here.
Thursday was Jan 7th, the end of Christmas
and a sad day in my opinion. That day
Eladio and I took all the decorations down and we did it in a record half an
hour. If you think it took at least 3 hours
to put them all up, half an hour is not much time. Here is Eladio during the final moments of
putting everything away until next year.
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| Taking down the Christmas decorations is always a dreary task |
It was the end of Christmas for us but in the Orthodox Countries (Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, ….) it was their Christmas. When I was a child my Mother used to
celebrate Russian Christmas and we would get a symbolic gift too just like I do
today with Kings’ Day. If you have ever
wondered, as I have, why the Orthodox celebrate Christmas on the 7th
January instead of 25th December it is because of the Calendar they
use. In the West we use the Gregorian
calendar, originally proposed by Pope Gregory in 1582. But in the Orthodox countries they use the
Julian calendar, created by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. These days we all use the Gregorian calendar but
the Orthodox retain the Julian calendar for special feast days, like Christmas
and Easter.
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| It was Russian Christmas on 7th January |
In Russian Happy Christmas is “Счастливого Рождества” pronounced Schastlivogo Rozhdestva. My Mother’s family was very religious, her Father being an Orthodox priest and two of her sisters nuns, so they probably said “S rozhdyestvom Hristovym!”, which means “Congratulations on the birth of Christ!”. Of course 7th January is the end of Christmas for us now, but I always remember it being Russian Christmas when I was a child. God bless you Mummy and sorry I didn’t continue the tradition.
Thursday 7th January was also the start of the sales in Spain. Many people would also be returning and exchanging unwanted presents – more than 30% of all presents get returned in Spain. I was to be exchanging a pair of trainers Olivia and Miguel got me for “Reyes” from the French giant sports store, Decathlon, which were a bit big. I got these instead and they will be perfect for going up the mountains in Montrondo as they are waterproof and protect the ankles. They are also pink and go with the anorak I have at the house in the village.
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| My new trainer / mountain boots, from Oli and Miguel for Kings Day |
From Decathlon we went to Ikea. My main mission there was to buy white frames for the photos I can now print from my phone directly on the Canon Selphy wifi photo printer I got for Christmas and which I adore. I got at least 15 and may have to go back for more haha. Here is the printer with photos in 3 of the new frames ready to take to Montrondo when we next go.
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| New frames from Ikea for my new photo printer |
Whilst there I also got more candles for Montrondo, some kitchen knives and new frying pans for our house here and at the food store I indulged in more mulled wine, pear cider, cooked frozen prawns, smoked salmon and biscuits for my Father. Oh how I love Ikea.
On Friday Eladio got a cold which I suspect I may get soon
too. He must have got it from Olivia. Thankfully it is quite a mild type and he
will be ok. It was another very wet day and when I had got my work out of the
way I did more cooking. I made a batch
of bitki (Russian meat hamburgers) for lunch that day and to freeze. I made fresh veg to accompany it, including
artichoke hearts, my favourite. That
afternoon I went for the walk on my own and it was blustery and very cold. My compensation was watching more of Season 1
of Downton Abbey. I love the dialogue
and the costumes, as well as the house. Well I love it all actually hahaa.
It was on Friday too that I bought tickets for a flight
to Brussels to stay with Sandra in February.
Adele will be there too and thus the 3 couples will reunite after
perhaps 2 years when they were last here in our house in Madrid. I much look forward to that trip which will
actually be my birthday present.
That morning whilst I worked and cooked I got a phone call from a journalist. He wanted to know my opinion on the end of the Motorola brand for phones, from Motorola to plain Moto. It's sort of goodbye Motorola hello Moto. When I first started in the company in 1990 no one in Europe knew the brand and there was all sorts of theories of the origin of the name. In Spain not much later it became the generic name for a mobile phone, any marketeer's dream, like hoover, kleenex or aspirin. In fact it comes from the radio division which actually today is still called Motorola. So it is only goodbye to Motorola in the phone division I think. This was the decision of the new owners the Chinese computer company, Lenovo. I told him that on a personal level I was rather sad to see it go. On a professional level I told him I thought it was a mistake as basically the Motorola brand is more popular than Lenovo and that it takes years to build a brand and it was a pity for it to be destroyed so quickly and possibly without much thought behind the decision. He remarked that it must have been a difficult decision. Well I know better. People may think that in blue chip companies top level decisions are taken after much research. In my experience, they are usually taken in a brain storming meeting where a few hands go up and that's that, or on the whim of the manager in charge. I've seen that happen in both Motorola and Nokia. Here is the article where I am quoted if you want to read it (in Spanish).
Eladio was well enough for going out to dinner that night so I
booked a table at a new restaurant for us, La Sidrería which Miguel and Oli had
recommended to us. We liked it, the food was good and I adored the cider. Spanish cider mostly comes from Asturias and,
unlike the cider in England, it has to be poured from above the glass to
maintain its sparkle which can prove difficult.
However the restaurant had a great little device, we had seen before in
Asturias, where you put the glass in the figure’s hand and press a button
behind it and voilá you get freshly sparkled cider. You will know what I mean if you see the
photo below of Eladio and the curious device.
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| Eladio and the cider pouring device at La Sidrería in Majadahonda on Friday night |
Whilst Eladio and I were dining at La Sidrería, Oli
and Miguel were out too with La Manada (the herd) as their group of friends is
called. They had all met as one of their members, Tefi (Estafanía) was coming
from Vigo in Galicia with her boyfriend and it was to a super reunion. They hadn’t seen her for a year. Here is a photo of the female members of The
Herd. Suzy would have loved to be there
too I know.
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| Oli and the rest of the female members of La Manada (the herd) on Friday night, reunited with Tefi. |
On Saturday just as I was making lunch – oxtail stew
by the way to the recipe of Simone Ortega, we had a surprise visit from José
Antonio and Dolores. They had come to pick up the ham they had left in Montrondo
and which we had brought back for them.
We invited them to lunch gladly but had to persuade José Antonio who is
always reluctant to accept hospitality; not wanting to be a burden. It’s quite the opposite. As I said to Dolores, to quote the Dowager
Lady Grantham in Downton Abbey, he “has the trump card”. She said this in reference to Mary who was in
trouble with a Turkish man at the beginning of the series. For the Dowager “the trump card” meant “she
was family”, as is Toño our family and of course he is always welcome
here.
We had a great lunch together and were joined by
Miguel and Oli. Miguel kindly took the photo which I have chosen to illustrate
this week’s post. It was great to have a
surprise family lunch.
In the afternoon Dolores and I went for a blustery
walk with Pippa and Nuba. I felt guilty leaving Norah and Elsa behind, but
cannot handle 3 dogs on the walk as they all pull at their leashes.
And today is Sunday, a quiet day, a day to write my
blog and a day to have lunch with my family.
It didn’t start off very well as Miguel, Oli’s boyfriend, injured his
arm whilst taking photos of his nephew in a local race, a race he and Oli were
to take part in later too. Thankfully he
hasn’t broken it but he will have to wear an arm sling for at least 2 weeks.
And now as I come to the end of this week’s tales, I
must go and make the lunch.
I wish you all a great week ahead. I shall be getting more used to the beginning
of a new year and will have quite a few work meetings next week. I hope the rain goes and that my cold does
not develop.
Cheers to you all till next time,
Masha
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