Plums from our garden, hacked, home alone, a surprise email from Holland, friends will be friends, 50 years since the first moon landing, off to Montrondo to escape the heat and other stories

Sunday, 21st July, 2019

With Fátima my best Spanish friends with our dogs when she came to visit on Wednesday

Good morning friends and readers.

How has your week been? Let me tell you about mine.

Last Sunday was hot again but not unbearable with the temperature "only" reaching 36ºc. My English guests, Robert  and Cathy and Claire and her South African husband Murray, didn't mind it though and when they were up which was quite late as they had been to wedding, they sat by the pool and Claire swam.

I went for a walk on my own with Pippa that morning. Eladio couldn't bear the heat even at 8 am in the morning. I came back to see to our lunch and that was when my husband suggested it was time to pick some of the greengages from our tree, really our only proper fruit tree. There are an enormous amount of them and some of them seemed very ripe. So up he went on a ladder to gather the first crop. Here he is up the ladder. There are so many of them and some of them could even be reached by me just standing up.

Eladio picking the plums from our garden on Sunday

The tree is very sticky though and he got covered in its goo and had to have a shower and change his clothes afterwards hahaha. He picked quite a few but as some were still unripe, there would be many more to pick over the following days. I think there is something lovely about picking fruit from your own garden; quite bucolic.

Later I lay on one of our new sunbeds reading in the shade. I joined my English/South African guests for a lovely "chin wag" over their late breakfast and just before they were to leave which was at around 1.30. They were charming guests and I took extra special care of them. I have to say that because of their Yorkshire connection that's probably why I did. When they left, Cathy wanted to buy my father's book which of course I gave to her free. She was very touched at the gift but so was I that she wanted to read it.

When they left it was already lunch time. Suzy joined us after having been to an outdoor yoga session at a park in Alcorcón with her bosom friend Elena. We all had one of the Norwegian girls' Lindt chocolates as a treat. Then it was siesta time.

That afternoon, for the very first time in a long time, Eladio and I were practically "home alone". Suzy went to spend the afternoon at Elena's pool, our guests had gone and our lodger, Andy, the Scot, was out too. That meant Eladio and I had the pool to ourselves. What luxury. Given the circumstances I persuaded my husband to join me in the pool. He hardly ever goes in but on Sunday he did. Here he is enjoying the pool all to himself.

An unusual sight; Eladio in our pool last Sunday

Who didn't go in the pool as she hates water was Pippa, our little dachshund. She preferred to be in the shade under one of the terrace tables. Isn't she irresistible?

Pippa in the shade last Sunday

Most of the world was either watching the Wimbledon men's final between Federer and Djokovic or the Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand. My favourites were Federer and England (of course). The two top seeds played the longest men's singles final ever at Wimbledon

which sounded thrilling to judge from the score we kept following on our phones. Federer was looking to win his 9th title and "Nolo" his 5th. They played very equally and Federer even had two match points for the championship which ended on a tie break but Djokovic won in the end: 7-6 1-6 7 -6 6-4 13-12. I was happier to see that England won their match which was apparently just as thrilling as the tennis.

Eladio and I had a late dinner of what we could find in the fridge as the provisions bought at the beginning of the week were running out. We later watched a new series on Amazon Prime, "El Bloke" based on a corrupt police case. That night I realised my Netflilx account had been hacked. The night before I got an email from Netflix to say someone had entered my account from a location in Granada - miles from us. So I changed my password. But again that night I got a similar message to say someone from Barcelona had entered it that night.  I rang Netflix to report the issue but they really just washed their hands off the whole matter telling me to change my password which I had already done. I was not impressed with their customer care attitude nor with the fact that they don't have two factor authentication to protect customers' accounts.  I decided I would have to change all my passwords on most of my accounts when I got up the next day. I think this may have to do with the LinkedIn breach in security where lots of account information was stolen.

Thus on Monday morning, one of the first things I did was to increase the security on my various accounts beginning with Gmail. Before changing the passwords, I checked on a site "I've been pwned" whether my accounts had been breached. The answer was that 5 of them had. That shocked me  and I didn't want a repeat episode of when my gmail account was hacked a few years ago in Stockholm when the hackers used my account to send an email to all my contacts saying I was in Cyprus and had been robbed and please send money! They also spitefully deleted all my email history and added a letter to all the names of my contacts making it impossible to send an email. So on Monday I really had to up the security if I didn't want something like that to happen again. What a world we live in!

I was a bit late for our walk because of this but thankfully there was  a tiny breeze and the heat wasn't quite so oppressive. Later Eladio and I did some of the food shopping and I spent the rest of the morning making a delicious lunch; broccoli, carrot and mushroom soup followed by pork rib stew with potatoes. Oli joined us for lunch - she is off work with lumbago poor lamb  - and my father was impressed with her bump and asked after "Elliot" whose name will include the two "ls" in the end.

That afternoon I got a surprise email from Holland from someone called Maarten. Maarten told me he was doing research for a book about his grandfather, Major Mowbray Morris Souper, and had come across the matriculation photo of my father at Selwyn College Cambridge in 1938 where he had excitedly found his grandfather on the third row and fifth from the right. This is the photo by the way.

My father's and Major Mowbray Morris Souper's 1938 Selwyn College Cambridge matriculation photo (my father is second from the left on the second row)

What a coincidence. There were more coincidences as I read that Mowbray M. Souper was also the son of a Church of England vicar and that he was born in Bristol where my father was brought up.  Sadly though Mowbray died at the Battle of Arnhem in Holland on 24th September 1944. His wife later married a Dutchman whose daughter also married a Dutchman. It was only when they both died that Maarten inherited his grandmother's metal box with all her letters and documents regarding her first husband Mowbray. That must have been what spurred on Maarten to write the biography. Of course I wrote back immediately and sent  the photo as well as the the Selwyn College Alumni departments's contacts. To think both Mowbray M. Souper and my father were at Selwyn together in 1938 and would have known each other and then to receive this email out of the blue 81 years later from a relative of Mowbray's in Holland to me in Madrid, is quite extraordinary isn't it? Unfortunately though my father didn't remember him.

We spent a pleasant afternoon by the pool again and were joined by both girls later. Oli and I swam for a bit to cool off. Our next set of guests arrived, a group of 4 young people from Valencia who were coming just for one night. Irina and her colleagues soon settled in, went down to the pool for a bathe and then out to dinner. We didn't see them again until the next day.

That afternoon I spent part of my time responding to numerous requests to come this weekend which, surprisingly, was actually free on my Airbn calendar. However, most of the requests were for big groups and parties which we do not allow.  Later though I got a more lucrative reservation from a family from France who would be spending 5 nights at our house. 

With everyone out, we had a quiet dinner, just the four of us - what a luxury - and lingered around the table until way past 10 pm when it was still quite light. The full moon was out which helped.

The day ended with us watching Netflix and I had my fingers crossed the change of password would prevent the hackers using my account. That night we started watching a rather violent biopic called "Kidnapping Stella" which would entertain us till quite late.

I was up at 6.15 on Tuesday and after seeing off our group of guests who were no trouble at all, went for our morning walk with Eladio and the dogs. Our next group - a family from France - was not arriving until Friday.

I had a very lazy and pleasant day on Tuesday spending a lot of it with Eladio and the girls although for Suzy it was possibly her busiest day vs a vs her lessons.

I was interested to read at breakfast that morning that the Bank of England will be featuring the famous English mathematician, Alan Turing, who is famous for cracking the Enigma Code, on their new 50 pound notes. He also pioneered the modern computer. He was selected out of 1000 scientists. I don't who they were or their merits but I do think it is great that  this amazing scientist who was also persecuted for his homosexuality should finally be recognised for his help in WW2, one of his main roles being to fend off German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. That made me realise he must have kept my father safe as my father was a Lieutenant in WW2 in the Royal Navy and most of the missions of the ships he was on were to catch U-boats precisely in the Atlantic as he was stationed in Scotland for much of the war. That was a very positive piece of news indeed.

Alan Turing to feature on the new fifty pound notes

The afternoon was spent by the pool again in the increasing heat which as the week went on got hotter and hotter. Oli and Eladio accompanied me as did the dogs and we had a quiet time reading and chatting and generally enjoying life. Oli commented later that night just what a wonderful life her parents lead. She is right and we are very conscious of it.

Andy left on Thursday for France to spend his holidays with his family. That meant that for the first time in many many weeks, it was just us the family at home. We had a great dinner together. I made three small tortillas at Oli's request - her favourite food.

We went to bed with a full moon that night and a partial eclipse.  Coincidentally it was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 for what would be the first moon landing. Wow I thought, 50 years since that happened and I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was just 12 at the time.  I clearly remember the day of the landing, 20th July 1969. The television was on in our lounge from beginning to end and my mother watched the whole transmission including  during the night. I walked in and out at the most important moments as we watched it in black and white. Two men landed on the moon - Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and a third man, Michael Collins,stayed in the space module which must have been very frustrating for him. However, people only really remember Armstrong who was the first one to step on the moon's surface. Some people remember Aldrin was the second and more or less no one remembers Collins' role in the expedition.  All in all 12 men have stepped on the moon but we only really remember Neil Armstrong. That seems a little unfair I think. In any case if you were alive then, no doubt you will always remember what you were doing when the moon landing happened. We can never ever forget Armstrong's voice when he said "That's one small step for  man, one giant leap for mankind". In today's ever inclusive language the word "mankind" would be deemed politically incorrect but not in 1969 I can tell you. As I said he was the first man to ever step on the moon and his name and his quote are something  the world will remember forever.  I have always wondered if he had prepared it or whether it was spontaneous. It was probably the former but what he said was so very very true.  It has always been said he forget to add the word "a" before the word "man", meaning to have said "a small step for a man" instead of "a small step for man".  That day I was getting ready to go to a guide camp in Baildon (West Yorkshire) and was perhaps too young to understand the significance of that one giant leap but I do remember going in and out of the lounge to follow what was happening as I packed for my camping trip.  Today as I look back, I feel privileged to be a part of one of the most important historical collective memories of modern times. I think it was one of the two most important pieces of news when I was a child, the other one being the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

The moon landing

To me it seems quite amazing that without today's computers and technology just how the Apollo 11 moon expedition and landing every took place. Some people think it was  a fraud but I think there is too much evidence to suggest that. At the time there was thought that after the mission, the moon could somehow one day be populated. It is only with today's technology though that this is being contemplated. Maybe one day it will be feasible but I don't think I would ever want to live there for some very obvious reasons.

Wednesday was a busy day. It was on Wednesday that Eladio and I decided we would escape to Montrondo on Thursday for a few days to get away from the heat in Madrid where the temperatures are more than 10 degrees lower.

That day there was another important anniversary that did not escape my attention. My favourite tea rooms, Betty's, in my beloved Yorkshire turned 100 that day. Exactly 100 years ago the Swiss cake maker, Frederick Belmont, opened the first Betty's Café Tea Rooms at 9 Cambridge Crescent in Harrogate on July 17th 1919, also the year of my father's birth. My father and I are both great lovers of those charming tea rooms only to be found in Yorkshire for their amazing quality of food and traditional and genteel atmosphere. So it was happy birthday to Betty's that day. I would have loved to be in Harrogate or York or Ilkely or Ripon where it has establishments.

Happy birthday Betty's

Nearly every time we are in Yorkshire, Eladio and I go to Betty's, me for afternoon tea usually and Eladio for fish and chips. I remember introducing my husband to the tea room in Harrogate at Christmas in about 1982, the year before we married. We had a window table and stayed the whole afternoon there together. We were so in love, Eladio spent a lot of the time taking photos of me. I have dug out the only one that survives. Aged just 25, I had long hair then and was smoking which of course today is no longer allowed anywhere inside.

At Betty's in 1982 where we spent the whole afternoon

I had no idea that day that 37 years later we would still be together. I always say I won the lottery of marriage and I did.

On Wednesday we did the general weekly shopping at my hated Mercadona supermarket but it had to be done. Meanwhile Suzy was giving lessons and Oli was relaxing by the pool. She sent a photo of her with Pippa and her bump. Elliot is growing for sure and it's not long before he will make his entry into this brave new world. There are not many photographs of her pregnant so here is one for me to remember her by.  I love it. In it she is holding Pippa. Soon she will be holding baby Elliot. Finally  as I said, his name will be spelled with two "ls".

Very pregnant Oli with Pippa in her arms

Once home and with everything put away, I embarked on a cooking spree and Oli joined me. She helped me make some of the veg for lunch and then made her flagship cake, a carrot cake, not my favourite but it's nice. This is how it turned out before she iced it.

Oli's heart shaped carrot cake

Eladio, meanwhile, was busy in the garden. He had to pick more plums before we went otherwise the birds would have eaten them. He got quite a crop and even so there are loads left.  As it's a bit a of sticky job to pick them this time he wore an old hat to protect his hair but again had to have a shower and a change of clothes afterwards. The fruit tree apparently secretes some sort of sticky stuff which protects the tree and fruit but it makes it a very dirty job to pick the plums. Here are just some of the ones he picked. Later I would give my friend Fátima some as well as our neighbours.  We would leave some at home and also take some to Montrondo. The crop this year is very abundant and the taste of these home grown greengages is wonderful. I gave my father one for his "pudding" and he loved it.

Eladio picked more plums on Wednesday

My husband later cleaned the ping pong table for it to be ready for new guests and in the afternoon he mowed the lawn and then cleaned the swimming pool; all so we could go away to Montrondo leaving the garden and pool ship shape.

I cooked alongside my daughter happily in the kitchen making more broccoli, carrot and mushroom soup to have as a first course for lunch. The main dish would be fish with roast red peppers and green beans.

Later we all had a siesta  - it's so hot at that time of day, the only place to be is in our air conditioned bedrooms. As happens pretty often, Pippa joined us. She loves to lie by Eladio's legs and I had to have the sight on camera. She is tiny but very long, nearly as long as Eladio's very well shaped legs hahaha.

Pippa joining us for our siesta

Later I joined Oli under the trees on our new sun beds to read and enjoy the slightly lower temperature to be found in the leafy garden by the pool. My friend Fátima was coming to spend part of the afternoon with me and I was looking forward to that as I hadn't seen her since my father's birthday on 1st May.  It was great to see her in such good health, despite her cancer which she is fighting heroically. I can do nothing but admire her. We spoke about everything from her daughter's studies, to the film about the last Tsars and my mother's family before the Russian revolution, to my daughters, to our past together at Motorola and Nokia and how life is so good. We first met at Motorola where I joined in 1990 and she joined in 1991. I was the head of communications and she was the  sales and marketing manager. We went to a lot of cycling races together when Motorola sponsored a team and have some great memories. I have a photo of the two of us at the Paris Roubaix race which we went to with the Spanish cycling magazine, Bicisport. We were so young. I think it must have been taken in about 1992 or 1993 when I was my daughter Suzy's age, just 35 and Fátima must have been about 31. We were so good looking but also unaware of how attractive we were. We were surrounded by men in the cycling world but everyone was very respectful of us although I'm sure there must have been many comments about us. Here we are together in a photo I shall treasure always.

Fátima and I in your youth at the Paris Roubaix classic cycling race in about 1992 - we were so young and beautiful but were not at all aware we were.

I asked Oli to take a photo of the two of us today, some 27 years later. Oh, how we have aged but friends will be friends and our friendship which started in 1991 will go on forever. What a difference in age my friends. I have chosen that photo for this week's post as the feature photo as it shows us just how we are today - no makeup, no filters, a few grey hairs and quite a few wrinkles, ageing I like to think gracefully.

Later the girls left to spend the night at Oli's flat where the two of them would have dinner and watch their latest favourite series, Stranger Things, which is not my cup of tea. Eladio and I had a quiet dinner together on the kitchen patio only going up to bed at about 10 pm to watch something more to our taste. It couldn't have been very good as soon I was asleep.

I was up at 5.45 on Thursday morning and with plenty of things to do before we could leave for our village which is a four hour drive away.  We left at about 10 am taking Pippa with us and lots of provisions as there are no shops in the village or area. There was a police control on the way which lengthened our trip which normally takes about 4 hours. On the way to Montrondo we always stop at Rueda, the capital of a white wine growing area of the same name. I have to say that Rueda is my favourite white wine. We stopped at our favourite winery, El Palacio de Bodegas, and true to tradition ordered a plate of ham to be washed down by the local wine. I always choose the local grape "verdejo" while Eladio goes for "sauvignon". Here is Eladio enjoying the moment.

Ham and wine at our stop in Rueda

We bought some of the wine as well as chocolate and biscuits (for my father) and resumed our journey. I spent part of it beginning to plan Oli's baby shower which I realise now we have left far too late. Oh dear.

We got to the village at around 2.30 to lovely weather - around 24ºc. We unpacked everything we had brought  and eventually sat down to have a late lunch of my leftover pork rib stew even though we were not at all hungry. 

Eladio had installed the new sun beds in the back garden and that is where I spent the afternoon with Pippa at my side. We should have gone for a walk but felt a bit lazy. We would make up for it the next day. Pippa loves being in Montrondo, as much as us I suppose. Here she is sitting on the old stone steps outside our kitchen feeling very at home. She knows every nook and cranny.

Pippa in Montrondo

Eladio went to have coffee with his siblings and I continued to read my book with Pippa at my side. At about 8 pm it got quite fresh and we had to go in - what a difference from Madrid. We watched the news and then had a very light dinner. We would have watched something on Netflix too but by about 10 pm both of us were asleep and thus went to bed to have an early night. In contrast to Madrid here we sleep with a duvet on us. There is no need for air conditioning here either. The day time temperatures are in their 20's but during the night they go down by about 10 degrees.

I was up early on Friday morning. I woke up at 5.30 - what an indecent hour - and eventually got up at 6.15.  It was just 12ºc degrees outside, much cooler than in sizzling Madrid. We went to the nearest town from here, Villablino, to get some provisions. We also went to the Friday market which I'm afraid always disappoints. It sells the usual rubbish you see in markets in most parts of the world. The fruit was nothing special either so we did our food shopping at Gadis which belongs to a chain of supermarkets you only see in the north of Spain. True to tradition, afterwards we went to have a coffee at one of the town's rather dismal bars. As we drank our coffee I said to Eladio, this is nothing like Betty's hahahaha. Well, there is nothing nearing a Betty's anywhere in Spain I am afraid. We were home by 12.30 and greeted excitedly by poor Pippa who had been left in the house by herself. Had this been England, France or Italy we could have taken her with us but Spain is an extremely unfriendly dog country as I have told you countless times. One can hardly take a dog anywhere these days apart from on the street and I refuse to tie her up outside a café as first she doesn't like it and secondly someone could steal her.

We had leftovers I had brought from Madrid that day - "fabada" (bean stew) and watched the news that day. The main story on the international front was the seizing of a British tanker by Iranian vessels in the Gulf. This has caused a lot of tension but thankfully the UK government has said they want to resolve the issue diplomatically. I can hardly imagine a war with Iran. According to the latter, the ship was "violating international maritime rules" but according to the owners of the tanker it was in "full compliance with all navigational and international regulations". It looks like the Iranians are looking for a fight; not something the world wants to see.

On the home front, the Spanish government leader of the socialist party, Pedro Sánchez, is finding it hard to form a government after winning the general elections but without a majority. It needs the support of the far left party, Podemos, but in exchange for backing the PSOE, they are demanding a coalition government with their leader and others to be part of the government and to be ministers. Later in the day, the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, said he no longer demands a place in the cabinet. However, he is still demanding one for his wife, Irene Montero. The negotiations are not looking good and if they don't come to some agreement we may face new general elections in November.

A bit disgusted with the news, I took my book or kindle and went out to the back garden to read and sleep a siesta accompanied by Pippa. Later while Eladio went to have coffee with his siblings again, I went for my first walk since we got here. I took the old path and climbed up the "camino valle" which passes the river and runs parallel to the main road towards Murias de Paredes. I was the only one on the walk which was beautiful. This is the beginning of the "camino valle" path. It reminds me of countryside in Finland with its lovely birch trees.

The entrance to the "camino valle" path 

Unfortunately Eladio had taken Pippa with him so she missed her walk. I missed her too. Towards the end of the path I met with a herd of cows. At first I decided to carry on and walk past them but thought twice about it when I saw the many calves and realised the cows would want to protect their young. I wasn't sure either if one of them was actually a bull so decided to turn round and leave them to their pasturing. I was home by 9 ish and Eladio still wasn't back so set about making a delicious dinner of prawn, mango and avocado salad.

Later we sat on the sofa and watched a film on Netflix, Secret Obsession, which was quite a tense drama and entertaining enough for us not to fall asleep for once. We were in bed by midnight and I slept fitfully until I got up a bit later than usual at 7.05. Hurray.

Saturday was another gorgeous day weather wise. It would be warm and sunny but there would be no heat wave as there never is here because we are high up in the mountains. It is the perfect place to escape the heat yet enjoy good weather. We decided to go on our walk early so as to avoid the heat which although not as intense as in Madrid, makes for hot walking during the midday sun. We set off at around 9.30 towards Senra where we would stop for a well earned cup of coffee at the only bar there, Cumbres de Omaña, run by a very grumpy man. On our way we passed lovely green fields, many of them with newly created hay stacks, cows, sheep or horses. I spied what I thought was a very big cow which Eladio told me was a bull. I asked how he knew if he couldn't see its "genitalia" hahaha and he replied because of its face and neck. When I looked closer, I saw his point. He thought it would get up and move away when I took my phone out to take a photo but it remained sitting. I called it a "sitting bull",  like the famous Cowboys and Indians character. Well it didn't move and I got my photo of this magnificent animal. I was happy for it it as  it isn't destined for any cruel bull sporting that goes on still today in Spain.

My "sitting bull" as seen in a field between Murias and Senra on Saturday

We were home by 12.30 and I set about making our lunch. It's lovely just to cook for 2 people with no rush and nothing else to do. I had brought some minced lamb - not easy to procure in Spain - with the idea of making "shepherds' pie" after having eaten it recently in Ireland. It's the easiest dish to make in the world and I don't know why I don't make it more often. My father loves it so when we go back I shall make it for him too. It turned out a treat and Eladio complimented me for a wonderful lunch.

The shepherds' pie I made for lunch on Saturday

The rest of the day panned out similarly to other days here. We both had a siesta - mine was far too long - and later read outside on the sunbeds.

Today is Sunday and it will be another lazy day here. The girls will hopefully be joining us on Wednesday next as will Oli's boyfriend Miguel. I spoke to them last night and they complained of the heat in Madrid. They too can't wait to be here to get away from it.

So now my friends, I shall leave you to get on with the day.

Wishing you all a pleasant Sunday and happy week ahead, all the best until next week,
Masha.

c