Home alone! exciting news about my book, 36 years together, our anniversary dinner, Elliot is coming and other stories.

Sunday 25th August, 2019

Photo taken during our anniversary dinner on Wednesday night

Dear all.

How has your week been? Are you still on holiday? Away at some exotic location? Not us, we are at home; that is the four of us and my father. It's been a quiet week.

Last Sunday saw our 6 Brazilian guests finally leave after a rather invasive 3 days with us when they never left the house. They finally left, leaving us a nice note in the guest book, an hour after check out time which is at noon. Thankfully, later they gave me a 5 star rating.

When they left, it meant we were home alone. Pippa was the one who was most pleased as finally she was able to run free. With little children in the house I have to hide her as she is afraid of them and barks a lot. The girls came back from their excursion to Lozoya but only Suzy came for lunch.

Eladio and I had the pool to ourselves that day and we took advantage of it. My dear husband had to clean it first though, ridding it of the green rim that appears when people use sun screen lotion. It means cleaning it on your knees using a scrubber and a strong detergent. But he got his reward though, a swim alone in the freshly cleaned pool to cool off after his work. I had to have a photo as he hardly ever goes in.

Eladio enjoying the pool to himself on Sunday afternoon

Miguel was returning to Valencia that night. Thus Oli came to spend the week which meant the four of us would be together. And together that night we had a lovely dinner. Lucy made two small Spanish "tortillas" which we all enjoyed.   I  treasure the memory of us around the table together when I was fully conscious that each and every meal together is a gift as soon Suzy will be going back to Bali and Oli will be very busy with her new baby. Probably we all will. Oh gosh, how her life and our lives are going to change. I keep looking at her ever growing bump which now at 38 weeks, with just 2 to go, looks like it's bursting. Elliot is growing and is expected to weigh over 3.5 kg when he makes his way into this world.

Monday came and I was up earlier than ever. I went down to feed the dogs and have breakfast and only then did I realise that it wasn't 6.30 as I had thought but actually half past five in the morning. Silly me, I had not looked properly at the time on my phone. It was too late to go back to bed so I just got on with the day. I had to edit a document I had written for a customer, so spent the time finishing it off. By 7.30 it was sent.

By 8.15, Eladio and I set off on our walk with the dogs. Thankfully on Monday there were no horrible rabbit and pigeon hunters - oh how I hate them. On Monday we were alone at home too and would be until that night when Andy our Scottish lodger was returning from a short break home to see his family in Antibes. Our next set of guests, a group of 5 young Dutch people wouldn't be coming until Wednesday night. So again we made the most of the day together.

Unusually for her Suzy also went swimming in the pool. Wearing a hat and with some new blue tooth ear phones, she did some lazy exercise while Oli and I looked on. Until last Sunday the weather had been very hot in the mid to high 30's. Thankfully this week we have had a respite with temperatures at just 30 or 31c which is far more tolerable.

Suzy in the pool on Monday morning

 I left the girls there to go and do a bit of shopping at Carrefour Market mostly to get fruit. I would do the main shopping at Mercadona the next day.

Lunch was together again too which I know pleases my father. We remarked to him that Wednesday would be our wedding anniversary. He congratulated us and commented "so you stayed together" or something similar to which I replied, "it's too late to leave him now". That had him chuckling. One of the most special moments of my wedding day 36 years ago was walking down the aisle with my father. I think it was probably one of the proudest days of his life. We were married on 21st August 1983 and he was aged 64, just two years older than I am now. I'm sure he has remembered the moment all his life, just as I have. Here he is walking me down the aisle. I love the picture and all that it represents.

Walking down the aisle with my father on my wedding day. There are no words to describe what it meant to me. For my father it must have been one of the proudest and happiest moments of his life. 

We all had a siesta afterwards and then congregated by the pool which we had all to ourselves. What a luxury. The girls and I spent most of the afternoon there. I was reading my new book, "Winter in Madrid" by C.J. Sanson, set in Madrid before, during and after the Civil War. It makes for fascinating reading. Oli was reading a brochure her midwife had given her which may have been about giving birth - no doubt that is on her mind the whole time. I don't know what Suzy was reading but it was lovely to be together. It was somewhat cloudy but still very warm and Eladio thought it was the perfect moment to mow the lawn. The grass had grown so much since he last did it that he had to mow it twice poor chap.

Later the girls and I made our dinner. Both Oli and I had a craving for pasta which I hadn't eaten for yonks and made some wholemeal pasta to which we added home made tomato sauce, basil from the garden and some left over green beans with garlic. Again we had a lovely meal together.

That night Eladio and I continued watching a series we had begun when we had finished the hospital one called New Amsterdam. "La Víctima número ocho" (Victim number 8) is a terrorist thriller set in Bilbao in the north of Spain and is one of the best series we have seen in a while.

We have binge watched it and that night watched episodes 5 and 6 - there are only 8 and switched the light off after midnight.

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5.30 but this time looked closely at my phone and promptly went back to sleep until 6.30. Tuesday was a another quiet day with not much to report. It was another day with the girls, all four of us, and the last day of us being "alone at home".

We are nearing the end of August and most of Spain is on vacation but we are enjoying a quiet time at home, treasuring moments together. On the news scene, there are 3 main topics at the moment or 4. First the wild fires in Spain on the Costa del Sol and the more terrible one in Gran Canaria. But a much worse fire is burning elsewhere in the Brazil rainforest, due to deforestation which could have catastrophic consequences. The so-called lung of our planet has been on fire for 3 weeks yet not much has been reported on it.

Then there is the story of the Spanish NGO ship, Open Arms, with over a 100 migrants on board who are coming to the end of their tether waiting to be allowed to disembark in Italy. Finally they were allowed to disembark but the ship was retained by the Italian authorities. The third topic or maybe the first is Brexit of course. Boris Johnson is hoping to get the countries of the EU to rethink the Irish backstop. We have seen leaked documents from the Government about their preparations for a crash out of the EU on 31st October and we have also read that as from day 1, free movement of EU nationals will be over in the UK. That can only have one consequence and that is a reciprocal approach by the EU countries. So, if the UK doesn't respect EU citizens' rights in the UK, the same will happen to UK citizens in the EU, like my father and I. That doesn't bear thinking about. I shall now have to pursue the route to getting Spanish nationality. The fourth topic is hardly news really, it's a total farce. It seems Bojo's crazy American counterpart, Donald Trump, wants to buy Greenland. Did you hear that right? Is this believable? Is the man mad? Greenland is not up for sale. This is not the Empire and countries cannot buy other countries but Trump doesn't seem to know. Luckily this piece of news is not going to happen but it is just one more thing that shows how deranged the US President is.

All these thoughts were on my mind when I took my walk that morning with Pippa alone. Eladio was tired after mowing the lawn and slept in. It was on my walk that I got a sudden piece of good news. Back in July I got a surprising email from a London publisher, one that I had written to submitting the manuscript of my father's book. Since then there has been a lot of tooing and froing of emails about its publication. Well that day I got an email from the Senior Editor to say a full appraisal had been made of my good and the outcome is that they want to go ahead with publishing it. Of course I have yet to see the contract which I shall share with a lawyer friend before I sign it. The nicest part of the email was when they told me the book was well written. Their exact words were: "your book is well written and interesting and and clearly has historic value". That for me in a way was praise enough. For a publisher to tell me, a first time author with no real training in writing, was very flattering. At that moment the person I most wanted to share the news with was my mother but of course she is no longer here. She died aged 79 on 1st October 1999, nearly 20 years ago and we miss her every day. I thought how proud she would be of me. Then I began to think how sad she won't be here for Elliot's birth and then I welled up and talked to her from my heart. Oh how I wish she could still be here with us.

I came home to tell the family the news. I also told my father who was surprised and pleased. The publisher has mentioned my book being sold in Foyles and Waterstones. I can hardly believe it. It's funny but my mother used to buy her books at Foyles in London when she lived there after WW2 and my father's favourite book shop in Bradford was Waterstones. Will my book really be sold there? Will people want to buy it I wonder? Well, we can only try.

Front cover of my father's book soon to be published officially 

The good news gave me a big high that day. The publishers who seem a very serious business sent me links to other authors' books they had published as well as examples of PR they had done. Some of it was of authors on TV shows in the UK. I can hardly imagine myself going on TV to talk about my book or can I? Of course I can. I'd love to do that.

On Friday I got even better news from my soon to be London based publisher. It was to confirm their interest in publishing the book and to send me their publishing proposal. If I accepted it which I did, the next step is for them to send me a contract. Once that is signed the publishing can begin. Gosh this exciting news has made my week. I loved the words, black on white in the second email which said: "You will probably have guessed from this email that we would indeed like to publish your book, so I am pleased to attach our publishing proposal for the Biography of C. Courtenay Lloyd". By the way, if you haven't read it yet and are a Kindle reader, you can find it on any Amazon site. This is the UK one. When I looked up the link to paste it here, I had a surprise. A customer had left a 5 star review, my first review. This is it.

First customer review on Amazon for my father's book

I think I know who it's from and I am very grateful. I encourage you all to read my father's book and give me your candid opinion. 

I lived on that news on Tuesday as we spent a very quiet day together. It panned out a lot like Monday and I told my family at dinner that I treasure each and every meal together as I said earlier. Soon our lives will change, Elliot will be here and sadly Suzy will be gone at the end of October.

Wednesday came and our new set of guests would be coming, the bunch of 5 from Holland aged between 23 and 29 who came for a wedding and an extended weekend in Madrid. They sounded like nice people.

Wednesday was 21st August and our anniversary. It's amazing to think that we got married so long ago. I was just 26 and Eladio was 39 but looked 10 years younger.  Every year I dig out the same photo of our wedding. This year though I made more of an effort and went to find the old album to choose some different photos. One I particularly like is of the moment just after Eladio had made his vows in English (I made mine in Spanish). It was in front of the Very Revd. Brandon Jackson, a vicar and family friend who came over specially to marry us. When Eladio pronounced these most beautiful words, hesitatingly in English, words that were unfamiliar to him as he didn't know English at the time; I welled up. "I, Eladio Freijo Calzada, take thee, Masha Lloyd, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my troth". It was the last sentence: "thereto I pledge thee my troth" which he pronounced with a very sweet Spanish accent that made me well up when it was my turn to say the same words. I couldn't carry on and began to cry uncontrollably, unable to stop. All the women in the pews began to cry too. Brandon Jackson, Eladio, my Father and my mother-in-law, all tried to comfort me and held my hand. In the photo below you can see I am crying. I remember thinking "I can't stop" and then dear Brandon Jackson looked at me and said; "we have all the time in the world, you just take your time and when you are ready we shall continue". Thankfully those words calmed me down, I stopped crying and was able to make my vows too. My make up was ruined though hahaha. It is a moment I remember as if it were yesterday.

The moment I welled up during our marriage ceremony 

I also love the one of Eladio putting the ring on my finger, the decisive moment I should say.

Our wedding 36 years ago on 21st August

I have never taken it off since and neither has Eladio taken his off. 36 years is a long time but looking back it seems time has flown. We started off our marriage in our newly bought old flat in the Salamanca district of Madrid. It had no kitchen, we hardly had any furniture but it was our nest, the nest that we would build and become the family we are today. It took a lot of hard work to reach the standard of living we have today and we still have to work hard to keep that standard of living. That's one of the reasons we offer up our huge house to Airbnb guests. We have had many years of what I would call "a marriage as good as it gets" and I am blessed to have married the man of my dreams who I loved then and still love today. Today aged 62 and nearly 75, we face the difficult prospect of growing old together. How much quality time do we have left I often ask myself? However much time it is I promise we shall live it to the full. We shall do so together with companionship and always putting the right foot forward, always helping each other until death do us part as we promised in our marriage vows 36 years ago.

Wednesday was quite a busy day. It started off with our morning walk for which we had the pleasure of Suzy's company. It was the main food shopping day and Eladio and I went off to Mercadona for the basics. I was caught in the kitchen unloading everything and making lunch too, by the arrival of our 5 Dutch guests who had arrived far earlier than I thought. I had to leave everything I was doing and rush out to greet them. They are a lovely bunch of young people but I'm afraid I can't remember all their names. They loved their rooms and the fruit platters I had prepared for them. I showed them to their rooms and around the house leaving the kitchen until later when it would be cleared and empty.

Straight after lunch I had a conference call with one of my customers after which I had to send off some documents. I worked till about 5.30. The girls meanwhile had gone out to have their hair cut. They looked gorgeous when they came back. It's funny but their new hairstyle is a bit like mine. Here they are together. Suzy completely clipped her long locks as she had so many split hairs but I think the new hairstyle really suits her. Hopefully she will still be able to put it up in her trademark bun.

The girls after having a hair cut

The Dutch guys spent the afternoon by the pool. That afternoon we didn't have time for reading in the garden. We had to go out and buy a mattress for Suzy to sleep on as the Ikea single sofa bed was to be used by our guests. We decided to get an inflatable mattress so it can be put away when not in use. We also had to get bedding for it and while at the department store, El Corté Inglés, I also had to buy some new kitchen towels as the ones we have are so old they are tearing apart.

We came home to make up the new bed. The inflatable mattress is great and pumps up and down electrically thank goodness.

By then it was nearly time to go out to dinner. I had booked a table for 9 pm. We wanted to go earlier so I rang the restaurant only to find The Fork app had let me down as it as it was closed in August. Thus we had to quickly find an alternative. We chose "Denominación de Origen" in nearby Boadilla which only I had been to and only once. We all got dressed up as fitted the occasion, Oli and I wearing dresses Suzy and I had bought in France and Suzy wearing a lovely little white number. As we reached the restaurant Eladio took this photo of the three of us.

My lovely daughters and I on our anniversary dinner out on Wednesday

We liked the choice of restaurant, not so all the dishes although some were really good. Best was the dessert though as they had one of our favourite ice cream flavours; coconut which you don't find often here.  It was very special to celebrate our 36th anniversary together with both our daughters. It was actually a very special night. Oli, who usually takes our anniversary dinner photo ever year, obliged again this year and took the one featuring this week's post. She took quite a few and I also like this one of me looking at my lovely husband. Part of the secret of a love marriage is admiration and respect and I am full of both for my husband.

Another photo of us at our anniversary dinner this week

All in all it was a lovely dinner and we all went home feeling happy and also rather full. We came home to find water was leaking badly from a neighbour's house. They are neighbours we don't know as their house has an entrance on a different street. Oli and Eladio drove around to tell them and it's rather funny but they knew who we were and said a lot of English was spoken at our house. They even knew the names of our dogs. Of course they would know all that and possibly more I thought as I realised they must hear us quite a lot. That's because their swimming pool is at the end of our garden just behind the hedge by our kitchen terrace. Thankfully the leak was stopped.

We were in bed late and I woke up on Thursday morning at 7 pm, not too bad for a change. As usual I read "the papers" at breakfast online on my iPad. I think the news I liked best that day was about the New Zealand Parliament speaker Trevor Mallard holding and feeding the baby belonging to a fellow member of parliament, Tamati Coffey, who was occupied on his first day back from paternity leave. I wonder in which other country that could possibly happen and absolutely applaud the action.

The NZ speaker holding and feeding a colleague's baby in Parliament this week

As you can imagine the story went viral. It was one of the loveliest stories of the week.

That morning, we went on our walk as we try to do so every day. Suzy joined us again and it seems we were the only people out and about. I caught Suzy, Eladio and the dogs on camera from a distance and realised just how dry the terrain is. It looks like we are walking through a desert. Well, that is hardly surprising after all the heat of the summer. But, oh, how I miss the green of England or the north of Spain.

Our desert like morning walk on Thursday

I had to hurry  back to be on time to join Oli on an important doctor's appointment. That morning she was to have her baby's heart monitored. It was quite a procedure and I think we were at the hospital for more than 2 hours, time well worth spending on the health of my future grandson I can tell you. 

At the hospital with Oli on Thursday

They monitored Elliot's heart in a similar way to how an electrocardiogram while Oli lay with all the wires attached to a display where we could see how his heart was beating. It seemed to beat very fast to me. However, he fell asleep in the middle of the test and we had to wait for him to wake up again to get the results the doctor wanted. The results were good; his heart was beating fine. We then went in to see the gynecologist who was also to do another scan. 2 weeks previously Elliot had weighed just over 2.9 kilos. On Thursday he had reached 3.3k so had grown considerably. The gynecologist told us he was already full term and could be born any time from then until a maximum of 2 weeks. Her due date is 6th September but he could well be born before.

Later in the week Oli herself posted a photo of her wonderful bump which I am happy to reproduce here.

Elliot is inside Oli's big bump and could be born any minute now. 

So, my dear friends, I am happy to tell you Elliot is coming. He is on his way and it's not long till we get to see his little face not just on a screen in a scan but for real. Oli is so prepared she even has the baby seat installed in her car!

We came home to tell everyone the good news although of course we had already shared it on the family whatsapp chat and with Miguel, Elliot's father who is working in Valencia this week. He will be back for good and until the baby is born tomorrow I think.

We were home quite late, after 1 pm and I had to make lunch. While I was preparing the food, some of our Dutch guests came into the kitchen. One of the girls, Karen, told us how they loved our house which she said is "so big" and what laid back and easy going hosts we were. She said they had never felt so good at an Airbnb and they had been to lots. I was pleased to hear her words. She asked if I didn't mind having guests in the kitchen to which I replied that of course not. I went on to explain that I loved having international guests and that if I had chosen to do Airbnb it was my job to make my guests feel welcome. I certainly hope they felt welcome.

The afternoon was spent in the garden while the Dutch group were by the pool. The four of us sat reading or working - in the case of Suzy, accompanied by our dogs. Pippa always likes to lie on something soft, a towel or beach wrap rather than on the grass. Here she is  on Oli's towel while Oli is reading on one of our new and very comfortable sun beds.

Oli and little Pippa in the garden 

Later we all made dinner together and went to bed quite early. Oli definitely needs her sleep and as much rest as possible before Elliot comes into this world. Her life is going to change completely and I suspect ours will too.

Friday came and it was a good day as of course, as mentioned above, I got the official acceptance from my soon to be publisher about publishing my father's book. Wow is all I can say. I doubt it's going to be a best seller but it's wonderful to know it will be available in the UK in the shops, etc.

That day saw me cooking with Oli all morning. For lunch we made broccoli and mushroom soup, roast red peppers and then little Russian pies (pirozhki) for lunch and also some "bitki" (Russian type small hamburgers) for freezing. These were the pirozhki and they were delicious.

Pirozhki for lunch on Friday

We spent part of the afternoon lounging in the garden and reading. When our Dutch guests left for their wedding, we convened to the swimming pool enjoying it to ourselves. It was a warm day and both Oli and I went in.

Just before they went, they called me to say they were off to the wedding and I came up to the pool to take a photo of them. They looked very smart and no doubt had a great time as they didn't get back till 5 in the morning hahaha.

My Dutch Airbnb guests off to a wedding

As they left they wished me a good evening. I said theirs would be much more exciting than mine hahaha. Ours would be a quiet dinner with Oli - Suzy went out to see a friend - and then off to bed. Not very exciting for a Friday night the night we usually go out for dinner. We didn't this week as we had been out on Wednesday for our anniversary celebrations.

I heard them come home but fell asleep again until about 6.20 when my body clock told me it was time to get up and get my first caffeine fix of the day. Saturday panned out as most days of this week. After our walk, I took Suzy to the bus stop as she would be going into Madrid to see an Australian friend, Bernie, and we wouldn't see her until the next day. I'm sure she had a grand time although it would have been a hot and sticky day in the capital. Oli joined me to do some quick shopping for things we had run out of; mostly fruit - oh we eat so much of it. Thus it was just the 4 of us for lunch that day. My Dutch guests were up late and we hardly saw them all day as they went out in the afternoon. That meant we had the pool to ourselves and both Oli and I bathed.  We spent a quiet afternoon and evening together. She is in a sort of "nesting mode" prior to giving birth and needs lots of rest  as she has to gain as much energy as she can for what is coming poor girl. I don't envy her. Giving birth is probably the hardest thing a woman can go through and I'm not exaggerating.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the leaders of the world gathered in that very chic town on the French coast, Biarritz, which is close to the Spanish border. They would have a lot on their agenda. But what a farce;  Bojo and Trump together hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons. For me Biarritz brings back happy memories of holidays there as a child and teenager with my parents and with my mother. We used to stay at my Uncle Kolya's apartments and I loved going there. My mother's nanny who came out of Russia with the family in 1920 was working for one of the Tsar's nieces, whose name, I'm afraid I don't know but could have been "Irina". She had a house or rather small palace in Biarritz which would have been her holiday home. I shall have to ask my Aunty Valya her exact name as I shall need it for my mother's book. We called her "Princess" or "Knyaginya" in Russian. I remember having afternoon tea with her in the splendid dining room of her palace home. I also remember having tea with "Nanya" or "Nashinka" as my mother called her tiny wizened nanny and who spoke pigeon French, in the basement which were her quarters.  Later, on my inter rail travels to Spain with friends, we would often stop in Biarritz to see her and have a well needed shower.  I would always be taken upstairs to greet the "Grand Duchess" an old lady by then. There are two great beaches in the town, the Côte Basque and La Grande Plage. Being the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay it's a haven for surfers because of the huge waves. I remember swimming in the sea there with my brother and often getting engulfed in the waves. No doubt the G7 leaders will not be swimming in any of the beaches but I'm sure they will enjoy the wonderful Basque food in the area. One day I must go back.

Today is Sunday my friends. Our Dutch guests will be leaving and we shall be guest free apart from our lodger Andy, until tomorrow when our next set of guests come. They are from Israel.  This house is just like the United Nations I can tell you.

I shall sign off now as it's 8 am and time for my walk. But first I must print a copy of today's post for my dear Father and most loyal reader.

Wishing you all a great week ahead,
Cheers till next Sunday / Masha