Oli returns to TVE, New Year's Eve, RIP Gloria, bumping into old friends, Kings' Night and other stories

Sunday 6th January 2019

Happy New Year to you all from Pippa and I

Good morning  and Happy New Year to you all.

We are now into the first week of the New Year. It has been a quiet and festive week at home.

Last Sunday was quiet too. Our group of Mexicans left that  morning. They were an interesting group and we got a chance to get an insight into their country, one I have visited at least 3 times in my life but not recently. I was dumbstruck when the Mother, Aida, told us her son had been kidnapped twice, once very recently  for 2 weeks when he was kept hostage and permanently handcuffed.  She had to pay 1 million pesos for his freedom and had to sell property to get the money. Unbelievable right? She told us it was very normal in Mexico. We asked whether they had called the police to which she replied "no". We innocently asked why and her answer was that the police are in cahoots with the kidnappers.  Her description of life in corrupt Mexico sent shivers down my spine and this was a well to do Mexican family. 

They left at around midday after which we went for our walk and counted our blessings. Indeed we have much to thank life for. There is practically no violence here in Spain and we live in a protected and harmonious bubble with all the bad news we see and read about feeling very far away. How lucky we are. 

Last Sunday was a quiet day for us without our girls who we missed a lot. We had a quiet lunch with my Father and read in the afternoon. We would have no more guests until Thursday and we would  have the house to ourselves again, if only for a few days.

We even had dinner on our own. We had expected Oli to join us but she was out with friends, or rather went to dinner to "Elenita's" where she saw Copi, the girls' childhood and school friend since they were toddlers. Our youngest daughter was home early, at about 10 pm and caught us watching a film on Netflix. Miguel had gone back to Valencia to work and she would spend the week with us. 

This week has been very exciting for her. Monday saw her return to RTVE, Spain's state controlled TV broadcaster. She worked for RTVE when she left University for some 5 or 6 years after which she left to work for various programmes run on the local TV network, Telemadrid. She did a stint with "Aquí en Madrid", "Mi Cámara y Yo" and until last week, "Madrileños por el Mundo" where in just over a year she travelled to 13 different destinations all over the world.  RTVE headhunted her a week or so ago to return as a reporter, this time for their evening programme "España Directo".  Her last job with TVE was with their morning programma, La Mañana where she has many happy memories.  There is no denying that for a TV reporter, TVE is the best broadcaster to work for in Spain. She will be a live reporter again, something she hasn't done for a while but something she excels at. We are very proud of her and wish her well in this stage of her career. Go for it Oli. You are the best! From now on we must all watch España Directo ok.  It's on every day on TVE 1 from Monday to Friday from 19.25 and lasts an hour approximately. 

I had a better night, vs a vs my nasty cough and was up at 6.50. Thus I was able to have breakfast with Olivia who had to be at RTVE by 8 to sign her new contract. Her throat was better too and thankfully her voice had returned. Remember when we went out to dinner and she had lost her voice completely and had to use a black board to communicate? Her voice, of course, is her biggest asset as a reporter so I was relieved it had returned on Sunday. She will be working very near here, at the programme HQ in Prado del Rey in nearby Pozuelo. It's just a 15 minute drive from here. She will also be able to park on site which is a pretty good perk, work wise these days.

Monday, her first day with RTVE, was of course the last day of the year, New Year's Eve. Eladio and I went to the Villaviciosa fruit and veg market to get provisions for the week. We then went to Mercadona to get a few things for our NYE dinner and once again we went to the churrería for Spanish "elevenes". I do love this Spanish traditions, especially the "porras" the thicker version of the "churro" (fritter). We were home by about midday with plenty of time for our walk but in the end postponed it to the afternoon. We had to do things slowly on NYE as the day was very long for us, ending at past midnight. Thus I unloaded everything and finished making lunch - a chickpea casserole everyone loved and then I indulged myself by taking time to read for at least an hour before lunch.

Later we had a siesta, a long one as we would be up till late. Oli was home early from work. Her new Director who, funnily enough, had been her director at "Aquí en Madrid" and the person who hired her for that programme, had told her to take it easy on the first day and sent her home early. That was lovely. Thus she was able to join us on our walk in the sunshine. We came home and took things slowly as we wanted to have a late dinner and not sit around for hours waiting for it to be midnight. At 19.30 Oli and I watched her new programme; after all she had to get to know it. It was all about how NYE is celebrated in different corners of Spain. While we were watching it, my dear friend Sandra video called me from Brussels where she was celebrating with her family, her mother Magda, her brother Paul and his wife Arabella. It was lovely to see them. Sandra is now in India on holiday, her place of birth. Oh how I would love to visit India with my dearest friend. One day I will. 

Meanwhile, Suzy in Bali had already welcomed in the New Year, 7 hours ahead of us. Here she is with her friends who travelled from London and Madrid see her, enjoying their last dinner of the year.

Suzy and her friends on New Year's Eve in Bali

Soon it was time to get dressed up for dinner. Both Oli and I decided to make an effort, even though there would be just the 3 of us to celebrate. Oli wore my golden Zara jacket and I wore a sequinned dress also from Zara that I had bought a few years ago. All ready for partying, we came down to the kitchen to make the dinner. We protected our festive outfits by wearing aprons and looked very funny. The 3 of us prepared our feast; giant prawn cocktail with mango and avocado, "perushki" (Russian meat pies), foie with raspberrries, some delicious sweet roast miniature peppers and believe it or not the remains of last week's bacon rolls or "Rolls Royce" as Eladio calls them. This is what the table looked like before we sat down to dinner at 10 pm.

Our New Year's Eve dinner at home on Monday 

Eladio would have happily tucked in as soon as we sat down but first we had to have some photos and a toast with our newly discovered Juan Gil wine from the Jumilla area. Oli and I found some Christmas selfie props from last year, put them on and took some selfies. We really got into the spirit of New Year's Eve as you can see in this photo below hahaha.

A  bit of fun on NYE with Eladio and Olivia

We had a delicious dinner and I insisted we ate slowly - I usually devour hahaha - in order to savour it all and not rush. For dessert we had a fruit, meringue and ice cream concoction after which, of course, we pulled some crackers. They were last years and rather disappointing as the bang had gone and there were no jokes or hats.

We cleared up together and then gathered in the TV lounge where Eladio had put the fire on. He only ever puts it on at Christmas and NYE. We sat by the fire watching mostly rubbish on TV and waiting for midnight. In Spain the tradition is to eat a grape at each chime, making for fast eating of 12 grapes which often get stuck in your throat. This year I had bought special grapes with their pips removed but they were so big, I didn't manage to eat the 12 during the 12 chimes. Only Eladio did. The tradition is to have a glass of champagne afterwards. I had chilled a very good bottle of French champagne my friend Sandra had brought me for my 60th but in the end we didn't have it. Eladio, being the wonderful party pooper he is, had brushed his teeth after dinner and threatened not to eat the grapes as it would mean having to brush them again. Oli and I put our foot down hahaha. Thus we ate the "grapes of luck" as they are called here at the chime of 12 from the clock in the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid which was teeming with thousands of people. No way would I have changed my sofa seat for a place in that cold and crowded square full of revelers.

We stayed up for about half an hour while the revelers from our neighbourhood lit up so many fireworks it felt like the 3rd world war outside that night. It seems to me to be a new tradition which I actually rather like.

It's funny really as we had quite a nice New Year's Eve together when I am not a great fan of celebrating the New Year. I am not a reveler, I don't like going to bed late, I drink very little alcohol and as to the Spanish lucky grape tradition, well it's an adopted one I go along with but doesn't mean much to me.  I used to look forward to NYE as a teenager but have realised now that I never really enjoyed it, so it was rather nice that I did enjoy this year's NYE. Unlike most people, we were in bed and asleep by about 1 in the morning.

One good thing about not drinking much alcohol is that the next day, 1st Jan 2019, the first day of the New Year, I did not wake up with a hangover or bleary eyed. I did wake up a bit later than usual at around 7.20 after a nearly cough free night.

Our first day of the year was a quiet one. Oli had to work to finish editing her programme on Austria, my Father watched the annual New Year Concert from Vienna and the house was generally quite. I watched it too but on my iPad while I was preparing our lunch. That's one of the reasons I love new technology. In the old days there would have been just one TV and I would have missed the concert. So no, I enjoyed it too as I always do. It's one of the great traditions of New Year's Day. Many other people around the world were watching it too and I felt a bond with them.

Watching the New Year Concert from Vienna on my iPad as I cooked on New Year's Day in the morning

I prepared a lovely suckling lamb roast for our first meal of the year; a rack of ribs and 2 shoulders which we had with roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, my gravy and home made mint sauce made from mint leaves from the garden. It was a magnificent meal but unfortunately I totally forgot to take any photos:-(

Later in the afternoon, Oli went to see her friend Elenita while Eladio and I

went for our daily walk. It was later than usual but also we noticed it got darker a little later. Thankfully daylight hours, as from 21st December are getting longer.

None of us was hungry that night, but we had dinner. There is a lovely expression in Spanish: "comer y rascar, es cuestión de empezar" (scratching and eating is a question of beginning). So we began to eat and ended up having a fine meal.

Wednesday 2nd January dawned. For us it was a quiet day, not so for others as you will read. I had an appointment with my GP about my night cough. I got him to prescribe me magic pills that stop you coughing at night but that most GPs are reluctant to prescribe; plain codeine called "codeisan" here. It did the trick that night thank goodness.

Oli left for her second day at work with her new programme, España Directo with TVE1, and it would be a busy day for her. Meanwhile, we took it easy and went out shopping for presents for Kings' Day. We give all our presents on Christmas Day here and just a few on Kings' Day but many people in Spain do the opposite. In fact, for them, Father Christmas is relatively new. So we spent a pleasant morning at Gran Plaza 2, a big shopping centre, or maybe it was just me. Eladio told me he found the whole experience overpowering hahaha. Thank goodness it's me who takes care of Christmas here. 

We were home on time for lunch with my Father, his highlight of the day, no doubt, after which we took a siesta - a short one for me. True to custom we then went on our walk in brilliant sunshine. The flock of sheep were it as they have been for the past few days but thankfully not the sheep dog as otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get past.

Oli whatsapped me to tell me her debut with a live television report would be at 7.24 that day. I immediately relayed the message to my great friends Julio and Fátima to tell them to put the TV on if they were at home. It was then that I found out that Fátima's mother Gloria was dying. Dying! What a word. How could that be? I had seen her on 24th December when we had churros with her family. Then on 28th December, Fátima rang me to tell me she had taken her mother to live at a lovely residence in Majadahonda as she was getting frailer and needed 24h care. The message on Wednesday said Gloria had gone into coma just 2 days later and that Fátima and her family were on the way to the hospital as the doctors were about to take her off artificial respiration. That meant she was about to die. Wow how dreadful. . It wasn't until Thursday morning that Fátima confirmed her Mother had died on Wednesday at 20.30 after two heart attacks. She had died in peace and in no pain and in total unawareness. But how hard this must have been for the family. I have known Fátima's mother since I have known her daughter, my best friend in Spain, since our Motorola days in the early 90's and I know she will be sorely missed. All I can say is RIP Gloria, I'm so sorry you had to leave this world. For memory's sake, here is the photo of us together on Christmas Eve. Uncannily, it turned out to be Gloria's last Christmas on this earth.

Gloria, Fátima's mother, smiling for the camera on Christmas Eve. She is second on the right with blonde hair .RIP Gloria

That news took the shine off Oli's debut on TV but as she's my daughter I was determined to enjoy watching her. She was reporting live from a small town in Extremadura in Cáceres, Navomoral de la Mata, about a train from Badajoz to Madrid which took 11 hours to reach Madrid after breaking down and how 150 passengers were stranded without light, water or food. The journey by car is about 4 hours and it takes longer by train. The people from Extremadura have protested a lot about the rail infrastructure and this week they came to their tether. Spain has one of the best railways in the world, leading most countries with its high speed network but unfortunately that does not include the region in question. Olivia took the same trip which was 40 minutes late and interviewed passengers on her way.  She also reported live from Navomoral. It was her first live report in 2 years and she told me later she felt nervous, thinking she may have lost her touch. But she hadn't and did a great job for which she was congratulated  by her Director. As she had to take the train back we wouldn't see her until the next day. I was happy for her too that she was covering a topic that turned out to be the main news of the day in Spain. We were very proud of her. Here is a picture I took of her on the TV to remember her debut this week when she returned to RTVE.

Oli live on TV in her debut on Wednesday this week with España Directo TVE1

That was the main news in Spain that day. Worldwide both China and the US rivaled in their exploration in space. For the first time the Chinese landed on the moon or rather a Chinese robot landed on the dark side of it. Meanwhile the NASA had launched a mission called "New Horizons" to explore the Ultima Thule solar system, the most distant target in the history of space missions. They apparently reached within 3.500 kilometres of the enigmatic rock which itself is within a baffling billion miles away from Pluto. The space ship later sent an image which likened Ultima Thule to a snow man. 

The snow man shaped Ultima Thule

I'm not sure I really understand where or what Ultima Thule is or what the importance of the mission is. Later we watched another episode of La Verdad which Amazon Prime is broadcasting in very slow installments. As I said, earlier, I had a cough free night that night and slept quite well, thanks to the tablets the doctor prescribed in the morning.

Thursday came. Oli was up early as she had to go for her medical for RTVE and then for another routine blood test at a local clinic. The poor girl was up at 7.30 and wasn't home until 10.45 and then had to leave for work at 11.45. Her official timetable is from 12.30 to 20.30 but she will often be working longer when she's out doing live reports. I waited for her to come back to accompany her while she had breakfast. It's pure pleasure to have our youngest daughter, Oli, stay with us during the week when her boyfriend is working in Valencia, also for RTVE. No doubt their professional lives will cross at some time in the future and I'm sure they will both love working together.

When she left, I left too but my destination was the hairdresser. It was the time of the month to get my roots died and hair cut or clipped an inch or so. I wasn't home until just before lunch and was happy to see Lucy had everything ready. She just had to heat up leftovers so it wasn't a big deal.

After the news and a short siesta, I went on my walk with Pippa. Eladio still has a bad cold and I can't manage all 3 dogs on our own. So off I went in the sunshine and wearing my headphones to listen to Christmas music while I walked. During the walk an ex colleague, Carlos, rang. He might be needing my services in PR which would be great. It's good to be remembered by colleagues. He's a special one actually. Once, years ago, when we both worked for Motorola, on a flight back from Amsterdam, after taking a group of dealers to see Real Madrid play Juventus in the Champions League final, an air hostess mistook me for his Mother. Forever after, Carlos has called me "mama" and I have called him "hijo mío" (my son). It's a standing joke between us.

As soon as I was home, I had to get ready to go out again. Eladio and I were attending the funeral mass for Gloria, Fátima's mother who had died the day before, aged 85 but about to turn 86 this month. The wake was at a funeral parlour in Las Rozas. Fátima and all her family were there who I know so well but don't often see. Gloria made sure we met up that day but I wish we could have met  in more cheerful circumstances. There I hugged my tearful friend and I cried too. Gloria was laid out with the coffin open and I went in with my friend to say a last goodbye and kiss her cold forehead. As I did so, I remembered doing the same with my own Mother, my brother George and also my Aunty Masha. Dead people look so different and are so stiff and cold, they already seem in another world. It was so sad to see her lying that way. A short while later there was a mass at the same funeral parlour, packed with Fátima's friends and family. The nicest part was the end when Gloria's 3 granddaughters, Fátima junior and her cousins Sara and Gloria all read out a tribute they had written to her. One of them mentioned her culinary skills, particularly her famous Spanish omelet. She made great ones and I told my friend I would make one for dinner that night in homage to her. On Saturday, on Kings' night at our traditional annual dinner at Julio's place, Gloria had always contributed with 2 small and delicious home made tortillas. This year it was Fátima who would make them. Never again will we try Gloria's. RIP dear mother of my best friend.

It was dark and cold outside when we left but it was a short journey home as Las Rozas is only 15km away. Once home, true to my word, I began on preparations for a Spanish omelet, the one made with potatoes and onions. While we were in the throes of making dinner, Oli arrived. We had missed her live report on her new programme but were pleased to hear it went well. We were not pleased to hear that one of her best friends, Anita, also Suzy's  ex flat mate in London, seems to be  ill with a rare disease they can't quite diagnose. Anita is only 33, so young to lose her health. I can't stop thinking about this lovely girl, so beautiful outside and inside and how life can be so unfair and randomly so.

On a happier note, my 2 small tortillas turned out a treat. We had them with steamed spinach and lomo (sort of cured pork loin). This is one of them. Notice my hair cut which I don't particularly like as it's a bit lank. No worries I would wash it again the next day and would look my usual self. I never like my hair done by a hairdresser. It always looks better when I do it myself.

One of the tortillas I made for dinner in homage to Gloria after her funeral mass on Thursday evening. 

They turned out perfect and I think Gloria would have been proud of me.

Later I spent some quality time with Oli and then it was time for bed and some entertainment. We watched the film Entebbe about the 1976 kidnapping of an Air France plane going from Athens to Paris with many Israelis on board. Most of the hostages were saved by the storming of the airport in Entebbe in Idi Amin's Uganda by Israeli elite armed forces and the terrorists killed. It was an event in the news I well remember and the film made in 2016 brought back all the memories of watching the unfolding of this terrible kidnapping on ITV or the BBC back in the UK when I was a teenager.

I was interrupted during the middle of the film to go and open the gate for my first Airbnb guest of the year, Joanne from Lancashire. She had come with her daughter, Elisa, who is on an Erasmus year here at the local UEM University. Her main objective was to experience the Spanish 3 Kings' festivities. Joanne speaks Spanish pretty well as she had lived here years ago, working for a tour operator. I settled her into Andy's room and then went back to bed to watch the end of the film with Eladio.

Friday came and it was another cold but sunny January day here. After some quality time in the kitchen while Eladio and Oli breakfasted as well as a short chat with Joanna over a cup of tea that I offered her, Eladio and I went out to do the weekly shopping. Naughtily we first went to have some churros at the local "churrería" where we live. Eladio ordered his with thick hot chocolate and I ordered 2 "porras" with a cup of coffee. Here you can see both varieties.

Churros (the thinner looped version) and porras 

Just as we were about to sit down, I recognised a customer who came in. It was Javier Ares a friend from my Motorola cycling days. He is a well known sports commentator and is generally considered the "voice of cycling" in Spain although he commentates on lots of sports, not only cycling. He is a neighbour of ours but we hadn't seen each other for some time. It's always lovely bumping into him. We both commented on how sad the passing away of Paul Sherwen had been, another sports commentator (for Channel 4 and Eurosport) but also the ex head of PR for the former Motorola team.

From the churrería we left for Mercadona where I spun round the aisles to stock up on basics. Our last stop on Friday morning was at Carrefour Market, the more upmarket supermarket in our area, to buy the more gourmet stuff we like. Here I would buy the joint of meat to make roast beef for lunch today, so fitting for Kings' Day. It was here we bumped into more people we knew. In one of the aisles, we suddenly saw the parents of a friend of Suzy's from when she was very little, Lorena. Lorena and Suzy were in the same class since the age of 4 and, as they were neighbours, the girls often played together out of school time and that was how her parents, Juanjo and Isabel became our friends. We first met via our children at their school, St. Michael's in 1988. I was just 31 then. And on Friday we met again 17 years or so after the girls left the school for University; now double that age. It was amazing and uncanny. Looking at their aged faces, we both realised how we have aged too. We knew of course that we had aged, but suddenly looking at the faces of friends we hadn't seen for such a long time, ageing was very much on our minds. What a shock but also what a delight to meet friends from the past with so much in common. We met at all the girls' birthday parties and even went out on occasion. I had to have a selfie with Isabel, not a good one I'm afraid, as both of us now have wrinkles and lines on our faces. I remarked to my ex neighbour and friend that we were younger than our offspring are now when we first met and yet at the time, I didn't feel particularly young. That was probably because I was too busy with motherhood.

Meeting Isabel on Friday 

We stood around talking for ages, catching up on our lives of parenthood when our kids were small. We exchanged phone numbers and have agreed to go out to dinner next Friday. We will be looking forward to that.

We were home a bit late but Lucy, as always, had everything ready on the table. All I know is I wasn't very hungry after the "porras" but once again I ate as "scratching and eating is a question of beginning" hahaha.

The rest of Friday passed as most of our afternoons and evenings do. I went for a walk, we read in the lounge accompanied by the Christmas decorations which, sadly, will be going down tomorrow, and then we had dinner. Being Friday I had proposed going out to dinner but Eladio wanted to stay at home. We didn't see Oli that night as she was having dinner with friends, Elenita and Copi, the latter being one of the girls friends from school since 1988, together with Lorena.  Our entertainment that night was a Spanish film called Ismael, about a 8 year old black boy who runs away to find his Father. We loved it.

On Saturday morning I would probably have slept until 7 am but the alarm went off at 6.25 as Lucy forgot to switch it off when she got up. It sounded in all the house and I hoped it hadn't woken up our guest, Joanna. It certainly woke me up and I couldn't fall asleep again and thus went downstairs to the kitchen to start my day.

Saturday was the last day of Christmas but one. In Spain 5th January is the called the "Noche de Reyes" (the night of the Kings) which is really the night before Epiphany. That morning I had Oli to myself and the two of us went shopping to Centro Oeste. I still had to get one more present for Kings' Day today and she had to get quite a few. We spent a lovely morning together, pure mother and daughter quality time, although I had to share her with her phone. Since she started her new job with TVE, she has been so busy with her new job and messaging with people it's hard to get a free minute with her. While shopping together she was working too as this week coming she has to do a few reports on women in Agriculture in rural areas of Spain. Tomorrow she will be off to a village in Cáceres where on Tuesday she will be interviewing and filming a 35 year old woman goat herd!! She does get to do different topics and doesn't often get to choose them.

We stopped for a coffee and in a moment of fun, the two of us tried out taking photos and videos using the silly Snapchat social media platform more suited to young kids or teenagers. Inside, Oli is still a little girl and I went along. This is one of the silly photos we took. There are others that distort your face which I hate but Oli loves hahaha.

Snapchatting with Oli

The loveliest thing about taking photos with snapchat is that it eliminates any sign of old age and all the wrinkles disappear as you can see in the photo above.

One of my main tasks yesterday morning was to buy the traditional "roscón de reyes" a sort of Kings' cake similar to a brioche but in a round shape with a hole in the middle. I bought the classic one and a small one with whipped cream in the middle, the one my Father likes best. We will be having it today for our Kings' Day family breakfast.

We were home on plenty of time to finish preparations for lunch and sat down at just after 2 pm with my Father. By 2.45, Lucy had left to enjoy her weekend and Zena was here to take her place and look after my Father until tonight. The added perk of having a home help is that we don't have to clear the table or wash up.

We all had a siesta. Oli was exhausted after her first week back with TVE. Her job is great but much more demanding than the one with Madrileños por el Mundo where she only had to do one report a month. With España Directo she will be doing at least 3 live reports and two non live reports a week which will keep her on her toes.

Later my youngest daughter joined me for our walk and we took all 3 dogs. Again it was cold but sunny. We've had wonderful weather over Christmas when it hasn't rained once. We came back to get ready to go out, both Oli and I. She was going out to dinner with her friends and were going to Julio's house with Fátima for our annual Kings' dinner at Julio's place. It's a tradition we started when we first met at Nokia in the year 2000 I think or maybe 2001 and a tradition we swore to continue until our dying days last night.

I wore a festive dress and made Eladio wear a bow tie which suits him so much. And here we are in in finery, aged 61 and 74 respectively but still looking good I hope.

Eladio and I at Julio's place last night for our annual dinner

We picked up Fátima at about 8 pm, all of us carrying our presents and my friend also carrying 2 tortillas made my her and not her mother sadly. They were just as good though. It's quite a drive to Julio's who lives in the centre of Madrid next to the famous bull ring, Las Ventas. To get there you have to go on the M30 a hateful ring road around the city and even though we had the sat nav on, Eladio needed both Fátima and I to be his co pilots when all we wanted to do was to catch up on our lives. Fátima mostly filled us on the end of her Mother's days this week; very sad.

Julio, the perfect host, opened the door for us at about 8.40 or so and thus we would have an early dinner. We were all excited about the dinner. After all it only takes place once a year and is something we all look forward to. Before sitting down to enjoy the typical Spanish fare, ham, lomo, tortilla, a salad and asparagus, washed down by delicious Bornos white wine from Rueda, we took a photo as we do every year of the 3 of us. This is the one we took last night, looking happy and radiant I think.

With my best friends Fátima and Julio at our annual dinner last night

Between the 4 of us we devoured everything on the table. Dessert, as tradition dictates, would be a whipped cream filled roscón which Julio buys from a very good bakery. Here is Eladio about to cut it.

The cream filled "roscón" at Julio's last night

After the "roscón" it was present giving time, something we all look forward to. Eladio had bought Fátima some Roger Gallet perfume and the Sapiens book for Julio. I had bought them both a jumper from Zara and some little presents from that lovely kitchen store in Valencia called "Gadget". I was expecting my usual perfume, "flower bomb" by Viktor Rolf but this year my friends surprised me buying me the Google home mini assistant loudspeaker. They thought I would love it as they consider me "techy". I'm not sure I'm techy but I do know that home assistant devices are the big technology thing of the moment and look forward to setting it up. I will tell you what I think in next week's post. The evening ended with Eladio and Julio talking about religion, the Catholic church and the discussion got quite heated. Julio is a believer and Eladio is a sceptic but also an ex priest, a philosopher and theologian. The two were a little at loggerheads so maybe we shouldn't have included religion in our range of topics last night. However we parted great friends as there is nothing that will ever spoil that. We left late at about midnight and went out into the cold and dark night to make our way home.

We were in bed very late, after 1 but I was wide awake and it was difficult to sleep. I ended up taking 2 sleeping tablets and slept until 7 this morning. I was the first up, fed the dogs, had a cup of coffee, checked my facebook and instagram account and read the headlines and then came down to the study, followed by Pippa, to finish writing this week's post.  I am now at the end of the stories of this week and must leave you now to get on with Kings' Day. For me it's a lovely day with the family but quite a lot of work as I have to make a special breakfast for everyone with all our finery in the dining room and then a full roast lunch.

Tomorrow, 7th January, Christmas will be over for us and I do not look forward to the dreaded task of taking down the tree and all the decorations. Monday 7th will also be the end of indulgence in food and I shall be back to my diet. No doubt we shall have either grilled chicken or grilled fish with vegetables and no more turrón. I have over indulged since 24th December and it's time to go back to healthy eating. For the Russian Orthodox, however, it will be their Christmas Day.

Now I shall leave you now and get on with King's Day, a lovely Spanish tradition and a nice way to say goodbye to Christmas. If you are celebrating it, I wish you a wonderful day and once again I wish you all an excellent 2019.

Until next Sunday, all the best Masha.