RIP Julen, taxi driver strikes bring Madrid and Barcelona to a halt, Juan Gil wine from Jumilla, another chance meeting, a visit to the city, off to Montrondo and other stories.

Montrondo, Sunday 27th January 2019

In the heart of Madrid on Friday morning with Eladio - Puerta del Sol

Good morning friends and readers. I hope you've all had a good week. It has been cold here as it has  been in most of Spain. There has been lots of snow too but it never reached Madrid. It did reach Montrondo though this morning but only a tiny bit.  We came here yesterday and arrived to sunshine! However, snow is forecast here today so I am hoping for more. 

Last Sunday we had a respite from the bad weather. Andy, our Scottish lodger, braved it and went hiking in the mountains near El Escorial. We stayed at home. Oli was with us as she was still nursing her laryngitis and coping with a an awful cough. She wouldn't go back to work until Wednesday and hated being cooped up. I felt a bit cooped up all week too, despite our large house, as we haven't had a change of scenery since November when we went to our pad near Alicante.

That day was another quiet day at home, reading, having nice meals, going for our walk and spending time together. Oli did her French homework and I, being a bit lazier than her, left it for later. We went for a walk in the afternoon and had to take a different path to avoid the sheep or rather the shepherd dogs. We hardly saw anyone else. Despite the cold the sun was shining.

All day Sunday and for the rest of the week until the small hours of Saturday, the rescue continued for the 2 year old Spanish toddler Julen, with amazing machinery boring a parallel tunnel to the narrow one he had fallen down the previous Sunday. Time was against him.  I read that children are more resilient than adults and that he could probably survive up to a week and at a stretch to 10 days. The whole of Spain was praying for him. The efforts continued throughout the week in a race against time. The terrain and rock of the mountain produced obstacles the whole time and slowed down the process. Finally on Friday the team of elite rescue miners and specialised Civil guards went down a parallel tunnel which took heroic efforts to dig, to just 4 metres from where the toddler was supposed to be. From about 60 metres down they then had to manually build a horizontal tunnel to reach him. The rock was so hard they needed dynamite at least 4 times. Sadly, at 1.30 approximately on Saturday morning,  the dead little body of little Julen was found.  Most probably he died shortly after falling down the day he went missing. What  a terrible end to such a story of heroic efforts and solidarity from the whole of Spain. I cannot imagine how his parents who are now childless - they lost their other toddler a year ago to sudden death - will be able to carry on. What a tragedy. I was so sad to hear the news when I woke up yesterday morning, as I, like the rest of Spain was hoping against hope for a a miracle to happen. I feel for the family but I also feel for the huge rescue team who have worked non stop ever since the little boy's fall down that fatal tunnel, in the hope that the little boy could be rescued. RIP Julen. You will never be forgotten.

The first miners to go down on Thursday

But back to the beginning of the week. Monday came and guess what? It was blue Monday, equaling the most depressing day of the year. I wanted to know why it was called that and looked it up. Here is the answer from  Google: "Blue Monday is a name given to a day in January claimed to be the most depressing day of the year. The concept was first publicised as part of a press release from the holiday company Sky Travel which claimed to have calculated the date using an equation".

I got through Blue Monday ok, did you?

It didn't seem particularly blue to me although January is never my favourite month. I am just waiting for warmer weather. It snowed in many parts of Spain on that day but not in Madrid which is very rare indeed although it does happen.

There was no Monday fruit and veg market in Villaviciosa as it was  a local holiday in honour of St. Sebastian. We were running out of all the produce we had purchased there the Monday before but would leave the fresh produce shopping until Tuesday. It would be difficult to decide between the new supermarket, BM and Carrefour Market.

I spent part of the morning revising, editing and continuing with my Father's biography. I finished the Cambridge years, the years in Lincolnshire and finally got to when we went to live in Yorkshire in about 1964. I remember being 7 when we arrived and what a change.  When it's finished I shall share it here on my blog, chapter by chapter. I also have to search for photos for all the different stages of his life; not an easy task as they are mostly old and in black and white. Here is one of them with the famous Dame Elizabeth Hill, the Professor and Head of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge University, aka "Lisa" in 1955 at someone's wedding in Cambridge. I got this photo from the Secret Classrooms book but I know we have the original somewhere so I shall search for it.

My parents with Lisa Hill in Cambridge in 1955

It was difficult to concentrate though as when I am writing I have to have no interruptions and be in complete silence. That is why I am taking so long and can now understand why writers need to be on their own to write. I know the feeling.

The highlight of the morning was talking to Suzy via a whatsapp video call. She and her friend Chati who went out to live with her this month are now sharing a new house together with another Spanish lodger. I love the house. It's in the typical Balinese style and the lounge and kitchen are sort of outside but covered. As we spoke they were in the middle of a rain fall. It is the rainy season there. Between the two of them they pay approximately 150 euros per month for lodging which includes all utility bills as well as a cleaning lady who does their washing too as well as their shopping, the latter for a tiny tip of under a euro! No wonder they don't want to come back to Spain.

I stopped for lunch  with Oli, Eladio and my Father. It was served by two Lucy's that day haha. I think I told you last week that Lucy our Paraguayan carer is leaving for her country at the end of the month. Her replacement, also called Lucy, came back with her on Sunday night and will be learning the ropes for the next 10 days or so. She seems very nice. She's also quite tall and strong so is able to push my Father's wheel chair up the path to the house so he can join us for meals.

There is not much else of interest to tell you about Monday. Well there is something but not sure it will come to fruition. I got a call from my modelling/acting agency. They want me to feature in a promotional video for some medicine made by the pharmaceutical company Lilly. They wanted a native English speaker from the UK so I seem to fit the bill. I told them my fees and they have to come back to me. If it happens, shooting will be on 31st of this month where I will be involved in a simulated doctor's appointment. It sounds fun. If it does happen it will be a first. I just wonder what medicine it is. Hope it's not for something embarrassing people in their "golden age" might need hahaha. Watch this space.

On the news scene, the rescue efforts for Julen,  continued. The whole of Spain was waiting with baited breath while it happened. I have to admit that every now and again I checked for news of the progress constantly on my phone that day and all week. We all wished for a happy ending and still had hope until the end but it wasn't to be. The other news in Spain that day were the big taxi strikes in Barcelona and Madrid against Uber and Cabify and the new right wing government taking office in Andalusia. Around the world, Theresa May was supposed to have presented a Plan B to the Brexit deal but that didn't happen. In the USA government block down continued while yet another caravan of people left Honduras for the "promised land". Meanwhile in an area near the border, 4 American women were convicted for leaving water for migrants. In what world do we live in when a person  cannot quench the thirst of a fellow human being?

We got through Blue Monday and Tuesday came. It was a very grey and cloudy day, damp and wet too at times. I braved the weather to go and buy our enormous weekly supply of fruit and vegetables. It's amazing how cheap oranges are now, about 1 euro for a kilo and they are huge and juicy. It is the season for oranges so yes they should be cheap but maybe not that much. If they cost a euro in the supermarket I wonder what the fruit growers earn? Probably so little it's not worth the effort. I heard later on the news that there is fierce competition from South African as well as a surplus, leaving many of the oranges rotting on trees. What a pity.

My day perked up a lot when I bought a return ticket to Brussels for the beginning of March. Adele, Sandra and I, my bosom Nottingham Uni friends,  will be having a lovely girly weekend at Sandra's place, just the 3 of us. We had been planning it for quite a while but it wasn't until this week that we finally chose and agreed on the dates.  Roll on March.

In Madrid the taxi strike continued and threatened to bring to a halt one of Spain's biggest exhibitions, "Fitur", an international tourism fair opening the next day. The strike was alarming, violent and the  taxi drivers more or less took the city hostage, blocking roads to the Ifema Exhibition halls and Madrid airport.  It was a similar story in Barcelona. Some 80 or so Uber and Cabify cars were damaged violently by the taxi drivers which is unacceptable. No violence please, this is Spain.

Taxi drivers blocking the main ring road outside Madrid this week

They are fighting against the likes of Uber and Cabify. Their main demand is for the hire of the latter to be 15 minutes before pick up and not immediate. In negotiations with the local government in Barcelona this was increased to one hour and conceded to by the latter.  Uber's and other's response was to announce they would have to stop working in the city of Barcelona. I sincerely think the taxi drivers have a lot to learn from the likes of Uber who are far more efficient. I also think, like in many other cities, they can live alongside each other.  It would be so easy for taxi drivers to compete by copying Uber's success factors by developing a similar app. Why don't they? That would be far more constructive than all this violence and their tantrums. In this new sharing economy, we all have to adapt and embrace change. It's as if book shops went on strike because of Amazon. Don't taxi drivers order stuff on Amazon? They should learn.  The image of the two cities this week has been severely damaged by the strikes with scenes of people walking to the airport on the M40 carrying their luggage or burning containers on the streets.  One thing is demonstrating which we all have a right to do, another is taking a city hostage with violence which none of us has a right to do. They do not have my sympathy.

Thankfully I was at home all day so didn't have to suffer the effects of the strikes. The rest of the day went by normally and according to routine.

There would be no transport problem in Davos, Switzerland, that day as the wealthy and the mighty of the world arrived by private jet to that skiing paradise to discuss the worlds' problems and I suppose to maintain their status quo and riches.

Funnily enough Oli's very last programme with Madrileños por el Mundo that was broadcast that night was about Switzerland. Zurich had been her last destination in her time with the travel show. It was on at 22.30 and we watched it eagerly.

Oli presenting her very last programme with Madrileños por el Mundo a travel show

I knew Switzerland is a rich country of course, but was a bit amazed to learn that the average monthly salary is 5000 euros, 5 times more than in Spain. Ok everything is more expensive there but 5 times seems too much. For sure the worlds' wealth is so divided. It's an unfair life that the people in Davos are not going to solve. Jesus famously said "the poor will always be with us" but such a difference in wealth is rather sickening don't you think? I heard on Tuesday that a banker, the ex head of the Spanish bank, BBVA, Francisco González  got or would get a golden handshake of 80 million euros when he retired.  Meanwhile, pensioners in Spain are demonstrating peacefully for the average pension to be around 1000 euros per month.  In Spain the divide between the rich and the poor has increased since the crisis began in 2008. A recent study showed the average annual income in one of Spain's richest corners, "La Moraleja" in Madrid is around 113.000 euros  while that of an area in Elche in South East Spain (Carrus) is just 13.000; 100.000 euros less!!  This increasing wealth gap here in Spain and all over the world is the wrong way to go and just not fair. How to get around it? Pretty easy actually, tax the rich more and don't tax the poorer earners.

We loved Oli's programme on Switzerland which you can see here. It's not a country I know well and Eladio has never been there, so maybe we should add it to our bucket list. Our bucket list is endless.

A still from Oli's last programme for Madrileños por el Mundo - Switzerland

The programme ended late and it was straight to sleep after that. I woke up on Wednesday morning at around 6.30, not bad and started my day quietly in the kitchen making my breakfast and surrounded by our dogs, as always.

On Wednesday morning our order of Juan Gil wine from the Chilines Winery in Jumilla arrived. We discovered this wine through Oli's boyfriend Miguel a while ago and when we were returning from Santa Pola in November made a detour to Jumilla to buy some from the shop he recommended. Since them we have fallen in love with it, so much so, I made an order for 12 bottles which arrived that morning. I bought 6 of the 18 month blue label for 16.44 euros a bottle when you normally find it at around 22 euros and 6 of the 12 month silver label for just 7.36 when it is often priced at much more. I also read Juan Gil is such a discovery that demand has rocketed and now there is a real shortage of it.

You've got to try this wine.

If you are Spanish no doubt you will have heard of the Jumilla wine growing area in Murcia. If you are not you you are probably only familiar with Rioja and maybe Ribera del Duero. Well, these days, there are many more wine growing regions in Spain which produce just as good wine. I challenge you to try Juan Gil wine and tell me what you think. I had to share it on the Vivino app and I was happy to see it already had some very good write ups. I can't drink much wine as it gives me a headache but I am happy that my Father and Eladio can enjoy a glass for lunch every day.

That morning Eladio and I visited El Corte Inglés department store, Spain's only one really and it is as good as any of the best in other countries. We hadn't been there for a while and walking around through the perfume area with the wonderful wafts coming from the mixed fragrances of all the  different perfumes on sale, the whole place oozed luxury and consumption. My daughter Suzy has become more and more against it, but not me yet I'm afraid. I was bit awed when I saw Tesla electric cars on sale and Eladio and I glimpsed inside one as if looking at the future. We could have bought a drone there too and seeing so many things the product of new technology I reflected on how much the world has developed since I walked into my first Corte Inglés to spend my first week's salary as a student in Madrid back in 1978. We had a few things to do, one of them being exchanging the odd Christmas present. With the return voucher I bought a 128 giga memory card for my Samsung Galaxy S9 plus as my 64 giga card was nearly out of memory. Once home, after copying the photos from the old card onto an external disc I was gutted to find that the new card was defect. It had no capacity whatsoever. That meant I would have to go back and get another one. What a bore. We had a coffee afterwards at Starbucks for an astonishing 7 euros which is very expensive for Spain. Eladio was outraged at the rip off and I suppose he is right.

Another regretted purchase that day was when I signed up for a new streaming service called Acorn TV. Acorn TV, dubbed the Netflix for British viewers, had been targeting me for weeks online as a potential customer. Interested, as I miss British TV and there is not much of it on Netflix or Prime Video, I took the bait. So I signed up, gave all my payment details and downloaded the App on my iPad. I signed up for a 7 day free trial and was told I could cancel the subscription which costs about 5 euros a month, at any time before the end of the trial period. Ok I thought, let's have a look at the content. It totally disappointed me. There was hardly anything, very few good series or films.  Thus I decided to cancel and there began my kafkian nightmare. You can't cancel from the app which says you must manage your account from the web. So I went to the web. There I couldn't log in which was frustrating. Thus I went to their help page - no number to call of course - and was redirected to a page  called Roku where I was told to register. It didn't look like it had anything to do with Acorn TV so I didn't register. Instead I returned to the Acorn TV site and tried again. I even tried resetting the password but I still couldn't log in. I began to suspect it was deliberately impossible to cancel the subscription and had to resort to social media. That, my friends, is the only way to get good or any sort of customer service these days. After a few tweets and posts from me, I had an email from the head of customer service from the whole company, which is from the US, not the UK by the way, as well as direct messages from their US community manager. Their website and cancellation process may be sh** but I have to say their online customer service is great. In the end the CM, after many apologies,  cancelled my subscription, promising she would tell the product team about my unfortunate experience  and offering me a free 6 month subscription which I took up. Many companies these days entice you to sign up for services which you can't see until  you give your payment details. Then they make it extremely difficult for you to cancel. At one stage I was so worried this was a scam and that my card details had been robbed on internet, I nearly rang the bank to cancel my card. These days, too, you have to be very careful giving your bank details on internet. On Wednesday I  also learned something I already knew: if you have a customer service problem, forget emails and phone calls, go to twitter. Amazingly, the next day I got a call from their PR Agency in Spain to apologise profusely presumably because they knew who I was from my social media profiles.  It was very nice to get the call but I wonder if they would have called anyone else in trouble

While all this was happening and I was on my walk, my daughter Oli was attending the Fitur tourism fair which the King and Queen of Spain visited, despite the huge taxi demonstrations outside that continued all day. Most visitors had to go by metro as the taxi drivers had blocked the roads to the exhibition centre. Later we watched Oli and her report on Fitur. Here is a picture of her by the Catalonia stand.

Oli reporting from Fitur on Wednesday

The taxi demonstrations and the Fitur exhibition were big items on the news that day, as were, of course,  the continued efforts to rescue  Julen. On the international front, the biggest news, in my mind, came from Venezuela where people took to the streets to protest against the "dictatorship of Maduro". The leader of the opposition, the 35 year old Juan Guadió declared himself interim President of Venezuela. Donald Trump immediately backed him as did leaders of several Latin American countries. No doubt over the next few days we would see how things would develop in troubled Venezuela where people are deprived of the most basic things in life to survive. I was worried there would be a bloodshed. On the other hand I want to see Maduro removed as fast as possible and wish for a happy future for the Venezuelans. The latest update from the EU, from Spain, France, Germany and the UK is an ultimatum to Maduro to call elections otherwise they will recognise Guaido's leadership. He won't do that, I'm sure and even if he does, could we trust him to hold democratic elections? No.

Later in the day, with no Airbnb guests around - Javier and Alba would arrive on Thursday - Eladio and I had a quiet and healthy dinner in our big kitchen and then went to bed. That night, after the news, we watched the 1993 film Sommersby with a young Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. I liked it but didn't like the end.

On Thursday my pulse or legume bag arrived. This is a great little kitchen invention I had seen on a TV programme with a far left politician, Iñigo Errejón, who made a "cocido madrileño" and where I saw him using this bag to keep the chickpeas  separate from the rest of the food. I wanted one but it wasn't easy to find online but I did on a site called Hiperchef. I can't wait to use it. It cost about 2 euros and transport was three times the price hahaha.

My new legume bag

That morning we went on more errands. First we took Eladio's or my old Nokia Volvo car of 14 or so years to have part of the chassis mended. From there we went to El Corté Inglés to return my defect memory card. I got my money back rather than a new card because that morning, after prompting from a friend, I saw that the very same card on Amazon cost 40 euros less. If The Corte Inglés Starbucks' coffee is expensive, their memory cards are downright robbery.

On our way back we stopped at the bank and that was when we had a chance meeting from the past. We saw an neighbour from our old house in Parque Boadilla, Inés, the mother of Beatriz who was in Suzy's class at St. Michael's school. Many an afternoon was spent at Ines' house with the girls when they were young and Inés and I got on very well. I remember her making Halloween outfits for them which I wasn't able to do. Inés and her husband Fernando, a computer freak who used to drive me into Madrid to work before I passed my test, still live at their house which is just across the road from the school. It was great to bump into her. I had to have a photo  to share the lovely moment, of course. We have now exchanged phone numbers and hopefully will meet soon for a coffee and a lovely natter about the past. Lovely to see you Inés.

Chance meeting with Inés, the mother of the girls' friend and neighbour from the past

While we were out, Rafa Nadal was playing the young Greek tennis player, Tsitsipas in the Australian Open semi final. 20 year old Tsitsipas, now a Greek hero in his country with no tradition of tennis, had beaten Federer earlier and seems to be the promise of the future. However, Nadal was on such form that day that he won in 3 straight sets 6-2 6-4 6-0. Tsitsipas said later at the press conference that Rafa Nadal had a talent for making other players play badly. Ever the gentleman, Nadal had only good words for his rival who was feeling very down after losing. Nadal will play the final on Sunday. If he wins, it will be his second time. He won there 10 years ago. If he wins too, that means he would be the only player in recent times to win all grand slams twice, breaking yet another record. The Times asked the other day if Nadal was Spain's best sportsman ever. He may well be but he is also Spain's best ambassador in my mind.

Nadal after thrashing Tsitsipas on Thursday 

Today he will be playing the number one seed Djokovic who seems on equal form after thrashing another youngster, the French player Lucas Pouille  6-0 6-2 6-2 on Friday.  The latter said afterwards that the Serb was "the best in the world". Well today we shall see who that is although both Nadal and Djokovic are pretty much equal rivals. Novak Djokovic, who at 31 is just one year younger than Rafa Nadal, could win his 7th Australian Open or Nadal his 2nd. But overall the Spaniard has won more grand slams (17 to 14) than the Serb. Djokovic though is the favourite as the Australian Open court is a hard court, his favourite surface. Rafa's is clay like the court at Roland Garros, the Grand Slam he was won 11 times.  All I can say is may the best man win, although my heart is with Rafa.

Thursday was a lovely sunny day in Madrid in contrast to the north of Spain where there was snow and also lots of flooding. On our way out of the house to go on our walk, the 2 Lucy's were returning from theirs. So let me introduce you to them. Lucy 1 (the smaller woman) will be leaving at the end of this month and Lucy 2 will be replacing her. I don't think I realise how much we are going to miss Lucy. I will be very sad when I say goodbye.

The 2 Lucy's

While we were on our walk, Oli had traveled to an area in the north of Burgos called Las Merindades, to a town called Villacarayo where there had been severe flooding after the River Nalon had overflowed. Later we would see her reporting live from there on TV.

Olivia reporting live from the province of Burgos on Thursday

From our comfortable home we watched her on TV. That night too we watched the "box" this time using the Movistar Plus app which comes with the fixed telephone monthly package but which we haven't used much. We wanted to compare it to Netflix and Amazon Prime and yes it has some good content. We started watching an exclusive new series called "El Embarcadero". Ironically, the fiber connection provided by Movistar was not good enough so in the end we had to connect to my Yoigo mobile phone. That's really ironic I must say. The series, made by the same people who made the very successful series "the house of paper" promises to be nearly as good. We watched 2 episodes that night.

Friday came and we had to go into Madrid to get Suzy's criminal records. She needs them for her online teaching lessons to Chinese children. The story of getting them is a story of its own and a bit of a nightmare too, a bit like Acorn TV. Eladio had ordered the certificate online more than a month ago and paid over a hundred euros when later we found out it costs just under 4. It was a scam company he ordered it from. They never sent the certificate and after much pressure from us, finally an envelope arrived with no letter head and with only the forms filled out to request the certificate. Thus I got an appointment to get the damned certificate personally and that's what took us to Madrid that morning. We were to obtain it from an office belonging to the Ministry of Justice in the Calle de la Bolsa street, just off the heart of the city and country, La Puerta del Sol. It was a glorious and sunny day. We left the car at the station and took the metro to Plaza de España. From there we got to Sol. Our appointment was at 11.10 but we were early so went to have a cup of coffee at delightful old establishment, Chocolateria de La Puerta del Sol. I would have far preferred the chocolate and churros but had a coffee and ate an apple I had brought from home. Here  I am enjoying my coffee.

Coffee in the centre of Madrid on Friday morning

The process for obtaining the certificate turned out to be so easy, we regretted not going there at Christmas when Suzy was here. In any case, a few minutes after our punctual appointment, we left holding the precious document which Eladio later scanned and sent to Suzy.

From Calle de la Bolsa we walked back to our metro stop at Sol but stopped to admire perhaps Madrid's most iconic square. It is from the famous clock in this square that New Years Eve is celebrated. Feeling a bit like a tourist, I took some photos and also got a young girl to take one of Eladio and I in front of the clock. It is the one I have chosen to illustrate this week's post.

The journey back was quick and there was time to go home, pick up my shopping list and supermarket bags and go to Mercadona for the basics weekly shopping.

With our lunch we had red cabbage. My Father remarked my Russian born Mother used to call it "blue cabbage". It is in fact more purple than blue and I wonder why it's called "red". This is the delicious dish of this unique cabbage which Lucy had made after I showed her my recipe.

The red or rather purple cabbage we had with our lunch on Friday

We had decided we would go to Montrondo that afternoon but in the end had to postpone leaving until yesterday morning. That was because we had to wait for the central heating oil to come and by then it was a little late. While Eladio attended to the very modern boiler we had to get last year, I went off on my walk with Pippa alone. I couldn't believe it was so sunny and warm - 17ºc . That's amazing for January. Here I am happy in the sun in January on Friday afternoon.

A sunny walk on Friday

Later I watched Oli who was still in the province of Burgos, reporting on the floods in Villacarayo. Then it was time for dinner and up to our quarters to watch the news. Afterwards we binge watched 2 more episodes of "El Embarcadero" on Movistar Plus TV. Wow it's good and I am loving it. We didn't switch off the light until past midnight and the next morning, the day of our departure, I was awake at 6 am.

With all the preparations, we didn't leave until about 10.30. Our first and only stop would be in Rueda - the famous Spanish white wine growing area in the province of Valladolid - and here, faithful to tradition, we went to the Palacio de Bornos winery. Mariano, the head of the establishment, greeted us and made us feel at home. Soon two glasses of white wine - sauvignon blanc for Eladio and verdejo for me - a plate of ham and another one of fresh bread sprinkled with olive oil appeared on our table. I was in 7th heaven and so was Eladio as you can see in the photo below.

At the Palacio de Bornos winery in Rueda yesterday

It takes about 1.5h from Madrid to get to Rueda and for me a trip to Montrondo would not be the same without a stop at the wonderful Palacio de Bornos.

We got to Montrondo at about 3ish and arrived to brilliant sunshine. The only snow we could see was on the mountain tops. The house was already warm as Eladio had switched on the central heating remotely and soon we were settled in. We ate a bowl of left over bean stew we had brought with us although neither of was really hungry.

We had missed the news on the TV but of course I had followed it on my phone. I was very pleased to hear that day that Spain's best figure ice skater ever, 27 year old Javier Fernández had just won his 7th European title in Minsk. He has won all 7 titles in a row and also holds 2 world championship titles and is a revered figure in the ice skating world. It was to be his last competition as he recently announced his "retirement". I don't know why he is retiring so young but wow what a way to end his career and what a glittering career it has been too.  Well done Javier, well done Spanish sport yet again.

Javier Fernández, Spain's best figure ice skater ever winning his 7th consecutive European championship yesterday in Minsk

Eladio lit the fire to make the house warmer. He stayed by the fire to read while I went out for a walk with Pippa to Murias and back. I only met 2 villagers and they were from Murias not Montrondo. It was a lovely walk and I felt great being back in our village.

A view of  Montrondo on my walk yesterday

We had a light dinner and watched a bit of TV. We were both a bit tired and went to bed at 10 pm. Now that is early isn't it?

This morning I woke up at 6.20 but had had 8 hours sleep. I woke up to snow, just a bit though. I sincerely hope we get more during the rest of the day.

And now my friends, I have reached the end of the tales of this week. Next week you will hear all about our stay here in the village, the perfect place "to get away from it all". All the best till next Sunday,

Cheers Masha