Sunday 28th April 2019
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| My father, Charles Courtenay Lloyd, aged 15 at his school Clifton College Bristol in 1934 |
Today is election day in Spain but I won't be able to vote. However I will accompany my husband on this crucial day for my adopted country. It is also Suzy's 35th birthday. My goodness 35 already. Where has time gone? She is still in Bali but will be coming home on Tuesday and we shall be able to celebrate her birthday with her, albeit belatedly.
Last Sunday was Easter Day and for people in Sri Lanka it was one of the worst days in the history of that small country. 290 people died after a wave of bombings which targeted Easter services. Three churches were bombed as well as some of the capital Colombo's most luxurious hotels. There were more bombs in Colombo; 8 in total. Many of the bombs were suicide bombs and it was thought the attackers were part of an extremist Islamic group. As it turned out ISIS claimed responsibility which did not surprise me. What a horrible group of radicals.
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| Authorities examining the damage and loss of life at the St. Antony's Shrine church last Sunday |
How awful for this to happen precisely on Easter Day. How many lives lost from fanaticisim? How long will this go on for? How can we stop it?
Our Easter Day was very traditional and quiet. I worked on the final touches of the PDF of my father's manuscript and sent it off to the publishers by about 11 am. Afterwards I was free to start preparations for our Easter Day lunch. Fittingly we would have a roast lamb lunch with all the trimmings. I was especially proud of the home made mint sauce I made from the mint leaves in the garden.
After lunch we all ate the Lindt Easter egg I had bought online. It was just delicious.
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| The chocolate egg we devoured on Easter Day |
I think it was the combination of a heavy stomach, red wine and chocolate that let me sleep a very long siesta until about 5.30. A walk was in order after that and Oli joined Eladio and me and the dogs for a windy but sunny walk. We all needed the exercise.
When we got home we spied our nearly invisible cat Phoebe, perched by her living space. She sleeps under the roof tiles of the gate to our house. Sometimes it's difficult to see her as her colour is like a camouflage when she sits on the stone of the roof of a similar colour to her coating. She's a lovely cat but is very nervous and shy and hates our dogs, poor thing.
It was in the afternoon last Sunday that my cousin Zuka sent me lots of photos from my mother's past. Some I had seen before and some I hadn't. They will prove invaluable for the book about my mother and her family I shall start to write soon. But first we must do the research and for that I have the great help of Andy D. who did my father's family tree and is now engaged on my mother's family tree which is coming along marvelously. Zuka also sent me photos which I could well have used for my father's book, such as the photo of her wedding day but it was too late to include them. I was particularly interested to see the photo of my mother's parents' family home or one of their family homes. Called "Spasskoye House", it is on the Krivyakino Estate in Voskresensk near Moscow and is where my mother's parents and children lived before they fled the Revolution. Of course they never got it back. The Soviet regime would later turn it into a children's home. My father and my Aunty Masha (my Mother's youngest sister) and Aunty Valya (wife of my mother's youngest brother, Nikolai), saw it with their own eyes when they visited Voskresensk in 2003 to attend the Lieven Readings - a sort of homage to the Lieven family. This is the house. Actually it is a painting of it which may have belonged to the family.
When we got home we spied our nearly invisible cat Phoebe, perched by her living space. She sleeps under the roof tiles of the gate to our house. Sometimes it's difficult to see her as her colour is like a camouflage when she sits on the stone of the roof of a similar colour to her coating. She's a lovely cat but is very nervous and shy and hates our dogs, poor thing.
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| Phoebe our cat sitting by her living space - the roof top of the gate to our house. |
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| My paternal grandparents' family home in Voskresensk near Moscow |
She also sent me a photo I had never seen before. It is of my mother when she was tiny with her siblings, Sasha, Olga and Daria together with their nanny, Niania Phima who my mother always called "Nashka".
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| Niania Phima, my mother's nanny and her siblings, Sasha, Olga and Daria - Bulgaria early 20's |
The photo must have been taken in the very early 20's in Bulgaria. Niania Phima was the only servant who accompanied the family when they fled the Revolution in 1920. She practically brought up my mother and her siblings single handedly and my mother always considered her surrogate mother. My grandmother, Sophie Lieven née Stachovich was incapable of bringing up 6 children alone. She had never had to do so she when she was rich and living in Russia where she was surrounded by wet nurses, maids, the lot. She simply did not know how to bring up her children, so she left the job to Nashka who they all adored. However, she left them when she was quite young to marry someone who turned out to be a murderer believe it or not. My mother must have been about 6 when that happened and was devastated. When the children's nanny left, my grandmother opted to send them away to be educated abroad and I suspect she did this so she wouldn't have to do Nashka's job. She sent the three girls, Olga, Daria and my mother to France for 4 years. Imagine my mother being put on a train from Sofia all the way to France aged just 6? Imagine not seeing your mother for 4 years? When she came back to Bulgaria, my mother found her last letter to her parents crumpled in a paper bin. She was the black sheep of the family and craved her parent's love, the love she had only really ever known from Nashka. I met her many years later in Biarritz where she served a relative of the Tsar, a lady I knew as "Knigina" (Princess). She was tiny and illiterate and had a heart of gold. My mother adored her. God bless her. You see there is so much to tell about my mother's life and that of her family. Where shall I begin and what shall I call the book? It's not going to be as easy as writing my father's biography but at least I won't have the time constraint this time.
I mused on all this when I came home from our walk to find more photos from my cousin Zuka. I can't believe she will be arriving tomorrow for my father's hundredth. It's going to be great.
But back to last Sunday - how time has flown. No way was I hungry that night for dinner but my pregnant daughter Oli and my husband Eladio were. I had been so busy I hadn't done any food shopping for at least 10 days so there was not much to choose from. Thankfully there were 3 eggs left in the fridge which I used to make scrambled eggs. We had the last of the Easter egg for dinner too.
Oli left after dinner but I would see her the next day. I was to have the honour of accompanying her to the gynecologist for her 20 week scan. When she left we went up to our quarters to see the end of the news. Of interest was the landslide win of a comedian with no political experience, in the Ukrainian elections. He got more than 70% of the votes. So lots of luck to Volodymyr Zelensky. Let's hope he realises it is no joke to govern a country.
We later watched a gripping film called Executive Decision about a hijacked plane with a deadly gas bomb on board which was destined to be detonated upon landing in Washington. It was a great film, one of the best we have seen in a a while and had us wide awake until the end.
On Monday morning I was up at my usual time, around 6 am. It was to be a busy day. Having abandoned all house keeping since embarking on the book and all the preparations for my father's big day, a trip to the supermarkets was a must. Thus Eladio and I went to stock up with food to last us a week. Once home, I had to rush off again to join Oli at for her scan appointment. It was to be one of the most important ones when the baby's organs and everything else is checked and measured. The appointment was at 11.45 and I was there well on time. When it was our turn I was happy to be allowed to sit next to my daughter with a screen in front of me to watch the process. Although the doctor kept pointing out the upper and lower limbs and some of the organs I found it difficult to see the whole baby as such. I was delighted though to see it's little hands and the spinal chord. But baby was head down so its heart was not in the right position to be scanned. Thus we were sent out for Olivia to take a walk around. She was advised to have a sweet drink and I wondered why that would affect the baby's position. But it did. We went back in at least an hour later. But all ended well as the results were all good and the baby is progressing perfectly. It was lovely to be with Olivia for that all important scan. We parted ways at about 1.15. She had to go off to work and I had to return home to make the lunch.
For once I had a free afternoon with no texts to check and nothing to write. I slept a short siesta and then read in the lounge with Pippa until it was time for our walk. We came back to watch Olivia on the TV. That day she was reporting on the Metro Station in Plaza España which had been completely covered with the whole text of Cervantes' Don Quixote. This was done for World Book Day which would be on Tuesday 23rd April. It was also part of the centenary celebrations of the Madrid metro. Here she is reporting live.
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| Olivia reporting from Plaza de España on Monday evening. |
Shortly afterwards, at 8pm, a 5 hour long programme began on TVE1 on the 4 party leader general election debate which would take place at 10pm. Thus Eladio and I watched and listened to all the run up to the debate and by the time it actually started I nearly fell asleep. The 4 party leaders, Pedro Sánchez, the current Prime Minister, from the socialist PSOE party, Pablo Casado, the candidate for the right wing PP party, Albert Rivera, the candidate for the central to right wing party Ciudadanos and Pablo Iglesias, the candidate for the the far left party, Podemos, were at their stations in the TV studio well before it started. Ironically I noted they were all men. Last week there had been a 6 party debate with lots of women but that's because the party leaders had sent their second in commands and that's as far as women go in Spanish politics I'm afraid. In fact there were very few women present. The party leaders were all allowed to bring one adviser with them and they were all men too. The only women to be seen anywhere near them looked like TVE PR or make up people. Then suddenly TVE showed footage of the preparations and suddenly two women came into the centre. Great, 2 women. They turned out to be the women who would clean the floors. This caused a big fuss on social media just as it should have. I noticed it immediately. There you had 4 men party leaders who would be talking about women's matters which are so important to society and then 2 cleaning ladies who probably earn the minimum salary wage. As someone said on twitter: "1 man, 2 men, 3 men, 4 men and we women cleaning the floor. Where is the other half of Spain?" Where is it indeed?
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| The image of the night. The men ready to talk and a woman cleaning the floor. |
That's what struck my attention that night. I dozed through some of the debate, waking up every now and again. The 4 alpha men were just getting at each other, not much else. Eladio watched until the end.
Just before the debate started, my publisher sent me the semi final proof of the book. It was 9 pm at night and I had to send my corrections through before 9 am the next morning. I think the book was more on my mind than the debate.
I woke up at 4.45 on Tuesday! And I got up at that time when I remembered I would need at least 3 hours to go through every word of the proof again. The work involved in editing is far more time consuming than the actual writing.
Tuesday was of course World Book Day and it's quite coincidental that my first book would go to print that day.
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| The final book cover with its sleeves. |
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| Tuesday was World Book Day the day I had my book printed. A lovely coincidence. |
But actually it took a lot longer than I thought. However, finally the manuscript went off for printing at around 7pm. When it did, I felt like I was floating on air. I was also very happy to be in touch with The Yorkshire Post which will be doing an article on my father. The same goes for the Telegraph and Argus, The Cambridge Independent and Western Daily Press. Fingers crossed.
Most of my day was taken up with last minute stuff on the book. I did go on our walk though. But my was it blustery and cold. The sun was out but it didn't make much difference as it was very cold.
Tuesday night saw the second general election debate with the 4 party leaders this time on a private broadcaster. Atresmedia weas careful not to broadcast any ladies cleaning the studio before it started. Once again it was on at 10 pm and I'm afraid I slept through a lot of it. I had been up since 4.45 am and was exhausted by the end of the day.
Wednesday came and it more or less rained from the beginning of the day to the end. That meant no walk. I only went out for a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I wore my sou'wester over my coat and had to take a brolly. I had a few errands to do afterwards and despite the rain protection I came home literally soaked. It's so unusual for it to rain so much here. In the south east, on the Costa Blanca, they have had it much worse with the biggest rainfall since 1957.
On Wednesday a new Airbnb guest came, a chap called Chema from Valencia who we would hardly see. I have had quite a few new bookings recently so my summer calendar is filling up nicely. The new reservations are guests are from Spain, Holland and Norway.
With work out of the way, I embarked on making "perushki" (Russian pies) for my father's birthday party. Lucy helped me and thus the job was halved. I made the original meat version but also a vegetarian version for my daughter Suzy. I can't believe Suzy will be here so soon. She's arriving on Tuesday afternoon, the day before my father's 100th. We had some of the perushki for dinner and they were delicious. Actually it's the pastry which is delicious. It's bought puff pastry which I would never be able to make as well myself, not to mention the amount of work put into making that type of pastry .
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| "Perushki" - little Russian pies |
I couldn't dawdle though that morning as I had an appointment to meet a student called Raquel at 10 am at the Alverán café nearby. She is doing a thesis on crises in social media focusing on the Samsung Note 7 issue and the Huawei PR crisis. She wanted to interview me on the day to day job of a community manager. It was easy-peasy for me I suppose but very important for her. She seemed pleased with my answers. I'm not a trained community manager but of course have done the job since social media began. I did so with no training, learning on the job and using my common sense. It's not that difficult. The main things to bear in mind are transparency, honesty and immediacy when engaging with customers on social media. Seems easy but not all companies do it well I can tell you.
Finally on Thursday the weather turned for the better. The rain had gone and it looks like we are entering a sunny period now. Facebook reminded me that around this time last year, the weather was much warmer and that we had already opened the pool. I was hoping Eladio would open it this weekend on time for my father's birthday. Little did I know that my hopes would be fulfilled.
Oli and Miguel joined us for dinner that night and would sleep over as they had a doctor's appointment nearby the next day. I made a prawn and mango cocktail which we all loved. It's one of my favourite dishes. Later we all watched in our separate bedrooms a new TVE series called "Monteperdido" about two eleven old school friends who get kidnapped. One of them appears 5 years later and the search is on for the other one. It's quite good.
Friday came and I couldn't believe the week had passed by so quickly. It was to be a busy day for me and a very sad one for our friends Phil and Kathy from Yorkshire. Phil's mother passed away on Friday and my heart goes out to him. Losing a parent is a very difficult thing to go through and I know because I lost my mother. All we could do was to send them our condolences. He's going to have a rough time now, remembering his past, knowing he will never see his mother again. But, like me with my mother who passed away on 1st October 1999, he will carry his mother in his heart always. RIP.
Life went on as normal here at home. That morning I got a very surprising and pleasing email from the PA to the headmaster, Dr. Green, from Clifton College Bristol, my father's old school.
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| My father's old school - Clifton College Bristol |
He and his brother Raymond attended this most prestigious school from 1928 when the family moved to Bristol after my grandfather was appointed Parish Vicar of St. Mary's in Henbury. In my preparations for my father's 100th, I wrote a while ago to the headmaster to let him know their old pupil - possibly their oldest living pupil - was going to turn 100 on 1st May. Their response has been amazing. The headmaster immediately went into action, telling me the school wanted to do something special for that occasion. He put me in contact with the Development Director - schools have them these days - Jeremy P. He in turn went in search of my father and his brother's school records and sent me photos of them at school in the 30's and even their school reports which would be invaluable for the biography I was writing. The school offered to fly their flag from the Wilson Tower on 1st May in homage to my father. I was astounded. I didn't really know what he meant but later learned the significance of the Clifton College Flag, a US flag. It had been donated to the school by Eisenhower, none less, for its efforts in WWII. This was because the school had been the US First Army HQ during the war. Since then the school has flown the US flag every year on 4th July - US Independence Day - and only on very special occasions. One of these occasions is my father's 100th. If that wasn't enough for Clifton College, in the mail I received on Friday they told me the whole school would sing Happy Birthday to my father on 1st May in the Chapel and they would send me a recording for my father to see. How kind and thoughtful and how respectful. I was overwhelmed and extremely touched. This is the text of the email which I have to share with you:
"Dear Masha. I hope you are well and that the preparations for your father's 10th birthday are coming along nicely. Dr. Greene (headmaster) has arranged for the College to sing Happy Birthday to your father on Wednesday morning in the chapel and we will also be flying the College flag in his honour. We would like to send you a recording of this via email on the day so that you can play it to him - so just a heads up to please check your emails on Wednesday 1st May!"
Isn't that just lovely? When I posted this on Facebook one friend said it made her feel warm inside. It made me feel on top of the moon. What a beautiful tribute to my father. For this week's feature photo I have chosen one the school sent to me for the book. It is of my father aged 15 in 1934 at the school. Jeremy told me both my father and his brother Raymond who were day pupils attended North Town House. That, by the way, was the old house of John Cleese and the cricketer A.E.J Collins. Former actors Michael Redgrave and Trevor Howard were also "Old Cliftonians" and my father coincided with the latter at school although he was older as he was born 6 years before my father. It is a very good school and counts among its past pupils with 3 Nobel Prize winners, John Kendrew (Chemistry), John Hicks (Economics) and Nevill Mott (Physics) as well as a host of other famous people. That's great company for my father in the list of Old Cliftonians. I can't wait to hear the tape. That will be one more exciting thing to happen on my father's 100th.
That lovely email set the mood for the day. I spent a lot of it talking to journalists in England in my PR media campaign to pitch my father's story. The response from some of them has been amazing too. They were so interested in his story. I can't wait to see the articles. In fact I can't wait for a lot of things. Next week is going to be just amazing. Everything I planned is coming together. But I have to say I am feeling pretty exhausted. I seem to have boundless energy but at some stage I shall need to rest. When I spoke to the book publisher that day, he told me he had never put together a book in such a short time and that it was a record for him. Imagine me and this is only my first book. I have learned so much in the process and hopefully this will be help me when I start on my mother's story. That will take longer I guess.
Being a beautiful sunny day, we enjoyed our walk in the afternoon with our dogs. Later we went out to dinner as it was Friday night. Eladio chose the place this time and opted for somewhere new. It's called "Casa Iván" and we had seen it often but never been. We had a quick look at the opinions on Tripadvisor which seemed to be mostly positive and based on them, booked a table. We were not disappointed with our choice. It's a great place, the food is divine and the price very reasonable. I know we shall be going back. We came home to carry on watching our new series "Monteperdido" until we both fell asleep.
Saturday came and for once I had nothing really to do. With time on my hands I rang Suzy who I hadn't spoken to for quite a while. Facebook reminded me that morning of our reunion in London two years ago after an absence of 4 months. She is coming on Tuesday afternoon and I all I want to do is hold her like I did in the photo below. Oh, how we miss her. It's fabulous though that this time she will be here for a long period, at least 6 months. Hurray.
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| An emotional reunion with Suzy two years ago in London. It will be equally emotional when I see her and hold her again when she comes on Tuesday. I can't wait. |
We didn't manage to speak but later she sent me an audio message. But we will definitely talk to her today which is her birthday. It's such a pity she isn't here to celebrate it with us. We shall make up for that when she comes next week though.
Later in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised when Eladio called Lucy and I to help him remove the cover from the pool. Was he really going to open it on time for the summer and on time for the party? Yes he was, bless him and needed no badgering from me this year. It's quite a big job, especially removing the canvas cover, cleaning it and then filtering the water. Thankfully the water this year didn't go green like last year. Here he is with his panama hat and white shirt which would soon go grey, beginning the task. Lucy and I helped him remove the heavy canvas cover but he did the rest.
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| Eladio getting the pool ready on Saturday |
Soon it was looking like this; very inviting but of course not warm enough to swim. I wonder who will be first in this year? I guess our Scottish lodger Andrew who seems immune to the cold.
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| The pool ready and open for the summer season, earlier than usual this year. |
I spent most of the morning reading in the sun and when it got too hot, I made my way to the shade. I only interrupted my reading with preparations for lunch. At lunch yesterday, my father and I commented it was just 5 days until his 100th. He smiled. He doesn't know what he is in for.
After a short siesta, I came downstairs and went to the pool terrace to read and enjoy my surroundings. Pippa joined me. Here she is sitting on the white wicker sofa, a plum place to sit in the shade by the pool.
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| Pippa, the queen on one of the white wicker sofas by the pool |
I think she looks very elegant. Soon Eladio joined me too and at about 6ish off we went for our evening walk which was quite balmy. We came home to make a dinner of salad and cold cuts which we enjoyed alone in the kitchen and with the dogs at our feet.
Saturday was what's known in Spain as "la jornada de reflexión", the day before elections; a "reflection day" where no political campaigning is allowed. I couldn't reflect much as I won't be able to vote. Having been outside the UK for more than 15 years I can't vote there and I cannot vote in Spanish general elections as I am not a Spanish citizen. Thus I am in voting limbo which is most unfair. But of course I am very interested to see how things go and what the final outcome will be after today's voting. These are the 5 candidates.
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| Spain's 5 candidates in today's general election - all men of course |
The picture says it all: Spain is dominated by men. You can see 5 candidates from 5 parties, three of them new or "newish". The one to look out for is Vox (Santiago Abascal far right) the new far right wing party which is opposed to Catalan independence but also against abortion and same sex marriage. On his left is the furthest left candidate, Pablo Iglesias from Podemos. In the middle is my favourite, Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos, a sort of central democratic party with right wing leanings. His party sprung up in Barcelona from anti independence roots. To his left is Pablo Casado the PP (Partido Popular) right wing party which has suffered a lot from corruption in the past and isn't looking too good in the polls. Then finally on the far left is the current PM, Pablo Sánchez, the leader of PSOE the traditional socialist party. Spain's politics has been traditionally a two party show. Now we have 5 parties but not much has changed, apart from Vox, in that we have two blocks, a left wing block and a right wing block. The results are almost bound to lead to a hung parliament as no party will win a majority and possibly neither of the blocks will have enough seats between them (178) to govern without the alliance of smaller parties. Spain has never had a coalition government but, depending on the results, it may lead to that. What I don't want to see is the left wing block have to depend on the Catalan independence party for support. If that happens, we will have a repeat of what led to the calling of elections today; a lack of support from the independence parties when it comes to approving the budget proposed by government. I can foresee long and ongoing negotiations until we have a new government.
So no, I can't vote but I am very interested in the outcome and will be watching events with great interest. We watched the news of course after dinner in our room and then we watched the final edition of a lovely new talent show called "Prodigios" (the prodigious). Unusually for talent shows this is a classical music one in general. Last night there were two singers, two instrument players and two ballet dancers in the final. The jury which includes Spain's best known soprano, Ainhoa Arteta, would have a difficult job in choosing the best of the 6 candidates in their categories. I especially loved the young boy, Raul with his amazing triple voice a bit like the boy who sings in Les Choristes. His final act on stage was to sing Ave Maria. He is like an angel. I think everyone fell in love with this boy and his voice. But I was possibly more impressed with the violin virtuoso Jaime, who plays divinely. This is his interpretation of the soundtrack of Schindler's list. I also loved Said the ballet dancer. This was his final act. No doubt he will go far and will one day be a famous ballet dancer. These three were the winners of their categories.
While we were watching and it was quite nail biting, my latest Airbnb guest, Alberto, a cameraman from northern Asturias, arrived late at around 11.30. I hated leaving the programme when the decisions were about to be announced but I had to. Once I had installed him in Suzy's room -one of the nicest in our house - I returned to see the end of "Prodigios" which was a little disappointing for me.
What I didn't like was that a final winner was to be chosen from the three of them and by the public and not the more expert jury. How on earth can you compare a singer to a violinist or to a ballet dancer? It didn't seem fair to me. In the end and very surprisingly the ballet dancer won. They are all young though and being the winner last night is only a part of the beginning of what I know for sure will be brilliant careers for all three of them. The programme was a pleasure to watch. We love music and especially singing in this house. I do hope the girls will sing a duet for their grandfather's birthday next week.
The programme finished late and I, at least fell asleep very late, after 1 am. I was up this morning at around 6 am, well before anyone else.
Today as I said at the beginning, is Suzy's birthday. Being in Bali, all I could do was send her good wishes. I can't wait for her to be home to celebrate together. Meanwhile, happy birthday my darling daughter, 35 today. Where have the years gone? Love you to the moon and back only like a mother can love a daughter.
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| Suzy my beautiful older daughter whose birthday it is today. |
And here I am now, finishing the story of this week. I have a wonderful week to look forward to, the week of my father's centenary and the week our darling daughter Suzy returns and of course the visit of my cousin Zuka and my friends Andy and Amanda who are all coming faithfully for my father's birthday.
Zuka reminded me this morning that today is Russian Easter, so Xristos Vaskresi (Christ has risen) are the words to say today or chant at church for Orthodox Christians. My mother celebrated Russian Easter always when we were children and she would wake us up in the middle of the night to take us to the service and that's what people chanted. We would then come home to an Easter feast which included coloured eggs, "paskah" and "kulich". Oh how I miss those days.
So my friends, I shall leave you now to get on with the day. You will hear all about the coming week, which promises to be one of the happiest of the year, in next Sunday's post.
Cheers to you all and thanks for reading my blog.
Masha
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