Green eyes rarest in the world, more revelations from my mother's past, RIP Kobe Bryant, 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, lunch with 3 sisters, EU bids Britain goodbye, Coronavirus declared international emergency, Brexit happened, off to Santa Pola and other stories.

Sunday 2nd February, 2020

Lunch with the three sisters. From left to right: Gloria, Cris, me and Bea

Good morning all.

How has your week been? It's February finally now and I hope that means the end of my January blues. I remarked to Eladio on last Sunday's walk in the sunshine just how important sunny weather is to my well being and I suppose to many other people's. That is why, we decided on the spur of the moment, on Friday, to come and spend a few days here at our apartment by the beach as the weather forecast was splendid. I'm glad we came as it is a lot warmer here. 

Sunday was a quiet day until the afternoon when the girls arrived with Miguel and little Elliot. They had been to lunch to our newly discovered Moroccan restaurant, El Tuareg and Suzy loved it. They came back to retrieve Miguel's car as he was leaving for Valencia to work the next day. Thus we had a couple of hours in Elliot's company which we love. Here he is with Pippa who is very good with him although she keeps insisting on licking his fingers and we keep having to clean them hahaha.

Pippa and Elliot get on fine

I love seeing both girls, mother and Aunt, together with my grandson and captured this precious moment on camera.

The girls with Elliot

They all left at around 7, the girls and Elliot included who would be spending the night at Oli's flat. Thus we remained alone. I spent the time continuing my research together with Andy on my mother's family.

I had always known that a distant relative on her mother's side, Mikhail Stakhovich had been Governor of Finland before the Tsar was forced to abdicate. Quite an honour I always thought, not that I liked Finland being a Grand Duchy of Russia. But I never knew exactly who he was. Some time ago I had found his name on Wikipedia (see link above) but it was on Sunday I found out how we are related. It turns out he was one of my great grandfather, Alexander A. Stakhovich's (1858-1915 - father of my maternal grandmother Sophie Lieven née Ribeaupierre) siblings. We also found out he was a great friend of Tolstoy's with whom my grandmother used to play tennis and that the great Russian author had even written a play dedicated to him; Hour of Darkness. I can conclude that the last but one Governor of Finland was the uncle of my maternal grandmother, my mother's uncle and thus my great uncle. What an honour.  My mother had also recalled in her tapes, something I confirmed in my research, that he resigned from his post in Helsinki and had been appointed Ambassador to Spain but never took up the post because of the revolution.

He died in France so I have to conclude he never went back to Russia. This by the way is him,  a very imposing man with a long beard. Usually it is Russian priests who don long beards so I have no idea why he had one. Andy commented it could have been thanks to Tolstoy's influence. I am no fan of beards by the way hahahaha.

My maternal grandmother's uncle, the last but one Governor of Finland in 1917

My head was swimming with names and connections of relatives I tried to work out and it's not easy. As I keep saying this is worse than remembering the characters in War and Peace, Don Quixote or 100 years of Solitude. Thus a good family tree is vital for my mother's book. What a responsibility I have and what a huge task I have undertaken. I should say we as Andy is by my side continually. 

Meals are great interruptions to my work and on Sunday Eladio and I had a quiet dinner together. Later, as always, we watched the news. The developments of the coronavirus story coming out of China were very alarming. Let's see how things go. I feel for those people in lock down in their homes in China and can only pray that we don't see a world wide deathly epidemic. The last one was of course what was dubbed The Spanish flu where an estimated 50 million people died, the same number of people in lock down. In the research on my mother's family, we have one victim. It was my mother's paternal grandmother, Alexandra Petrovna Vasilchikova who died in Paris on 2nd February 1929. I sincerely hope the coronavirus will not reach the same proportions.

It was that evening I read an article that somehow popped up on my facebook feed that peaked my interest. It was about the rarity of green eyes which are the colour of my eyes, inherited from my mother. My brother's were blue inherited from my father and I suppose typically English. I was very surprised to read that only 2% of the population have them. That is incredibly rare. The commonest colour is brown.

Only 2% of the worldwide population has green eyes and I am one of them

I skimmed through the article, reading that Iceland was the country where there were most people with green eyes and also read that once, as they were so rare, they were often associated with witches; i.e. women with green eyes were thought to be witches!  On the plus side they are apparently the most admired colour of eyes. One thing I know too is that my dear husband was first attracted to me because of my eyes. Today, aged nearly 63, my eyelids are drooping and my eyes are not so nice to look at now as they were. They were perhaps the thing I liked most about myself when I was young.  Someone questioned the assertion so I fact checked. Was I really one of only 2% of the world to have green eyes? I actually doubted it but later found it was true. This is one article that proves it,  coming from a medical site, Healthline. I found the same facts in many other sites so I have to conclude it is true. Oli has green eyes and Suzy's change from brown to green and back again. So I wonder what colour eyes little Elliot will have.?

That night, as usual we watched the news. The world was gutted to hear that the US basketball legend, Kobe Bryant aged only 41 had died in a helicopter accident along with his second oldest daughter, Gianna aged 13.

Kobe Bryant with his daughter Gianna. They both perished in the crash of his helicopter just outside LA last Sunday. 

It was his helicopter and they were on the way to a basket ball tournament. The cause was bad weather and everyone on board died. Just how terrible is that? He is one of  sports most famous players ever and his sudden death caused shock the world over. I am no great basket ball fan but even I knew who he was. My heart goes out to his wife who has now lost both her husband and daughter. That is a mother's worst dream. There was another family on board who lost their life too. That of course brought back the terrible memory of the death of my father's sister Gloria, her husband Derek and their children, Jacqueline, Michael and Antony, in 1971 in an air crash on their way to Rijeka from Gatwick. A whole family suddenly wiped out and our family. They live on in my heart and the memory still today often brings me to tears. So I sympathise with Koby Bryant's family and with the sports world. RIP Koby, you will never be forgotten.

That night we watched Almodovar's latest film, Pain and Glory, or tried to re watch it and didn't finish it. We didn't like it the first time we saw it but but wanted to see it again after it had received so many accolades and had won 7 Goyas, as well as being up for the Oscars. I love Antonio Banderas who plays Almodovar's alter ego but I'm afraid to say I don't like seeing him with a beard (there you go, I hate them), taking heroin constantly and kissing a man  when I find him so attractive as a woman. If he is playing Almodovar's life, then I am really sorry for the Spanish director who is portrayed as someone suffering dreadful pain and a drug addict. I hope that part is not true. On the other hand I loved the roles of Penelope Cruz as Almodovar's young mother and of him as a child. 

The poster picture of Almodovar's latest film everyone is talking about, Pain and Glory

Again I found it difficult to sleep with so many of the characters from my mother's past in my head - it is such a puzzle. But finally I must have dozed off and woke up on Monday morning at 6 am.

Monday came and brought more dark skies and drizzle although thankfully it brightened up in the afternoon. I had the biggest scare of my life that morning. The girls were sleeping at Oli's with Elliot and I got a call from Miguel from Valencia. He was worried as at about 9.40 they were not answering their phones. He was surprised as Oli had a yoga appointment at 10 am so they should have been awake. He also told me they had had problems with the gas the night before. With these three factors, I suddenly imagined the three of them gassed in the apartment and went into panic mode. At the time I had just come out of the shower and was only wearing a towel. Both Eladio and I tried ringing Oli and Suzy insistently and no answer. We were worried sick. I told Miguel to ring the porter and get back to me. Then at about 10.20 or so we got a routine message from Oli in the whatsapp family group. That was confirmation my worst dreams were not happening. My girls and Elliot were alive. I broke down crying in relief and in happiness. But what a shock. It was not a good start to the day but the rest was fine.

That morning saw Eladio and I out and on errands. He had dressed so well I had to have a photo of my good looking, colour coordinated and dapper husband, who although aged 75, looks years younger. I'm sure you agree.

Eladio well dressed and colour coordinated ready to go out on Monday morning. 

We headed first to Villaviciosa to the town hall to get a document certifying I was on the census - this I need for my Spanish nationality paperwork. I also had to confirm that as an EU citizen (still by a few days), I was residing in my usual home address. It is apparently a new law. In any case, despite the surly public servant issuing the documents, etc, we were out quite soon as the queue was not too long.  Later I learned from my lawyer I would need to get another one nearer the time to applying for nationality as it would have expired by then. Damn it! That means I have to go back for another one. It was time for a coffee before we continued our errands, this time at El Corte Inglés, Spain's main department store. We went for more paperwork - invoices I needed for my freelance status but also to get my birthday present. Eladio bought me, in my presence hahahaha - a simple pair of gold plated stud earrings as I had lost one of the pair I had.

We were home on time for lunch. During our drive, my dear assistant and friend, Andy, had been doing more research on my mother's family and came up trumps, at least for me, when he found the Russian Wikipedia site for the Lieven family.  Luckily I could read it in English. It has much more information than the English version but not that much. I had hoped I would find the direct link from one of our most illustrious ancestors, Dorothea von Lieven (1785-1857 - wow she died 100 years to the year of my birth) to my grandfather, but that was not clear. I wonder if we ever will find that.

Just one of many paintings of Dorothea von Lieven, this one by Sir Thomas Lawrence hangs in The Tate Gallery in London. Painted in 1820. 

I have been familiar with this painting ever since I can remember. My mother had a copy framed and it graced every one of our homes. Today it graces our dining room. I had heard about Dorothea von Lieven all my life.  There are lots of her including one by Gainsborough but it is the Lawrence one which seems more famous and the one I know. I think my mother was most proud to be an ancestor, not just because of the lady's position but because of her political influence. Born Dorothea von Benckendorff, daughter of a Baltic general of noble origin, she  was the wife of the Russian Ambassador in London, Count Christoph Lieven, somewhat older than her.  She had such considerable social and diplomatic skills she was at ease with the Royals of both her own country and many others in Europe. The late Tsar Nicholas II called her a diplomat in skirts. Dorothea  was perhaps the most influential woman of her time and it is rumoured she had an affair with Metternich, but more about her in my mother's book when I have found out more myself.

I'm not so sure my mother would have approved of the film Pain and Glory. It would not have been her thing. That afternoon Eladio and I watched it till the end and both concluded the second part was better than the first. We later went on our much needed walk and were home at about 7 pm when it was only just getting dark.

The girls and Elliot joined us for dinner - it was so good to see them after the morning's shock. Later I helped Oli bathe her not so little baby.

Monday of course was the official 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz where a memorial took place that day. I wish I could have been there. My father watched the ceremony on the BBC and I later and saw snippets of it on the TV and my phone. Most poignant for me are the living testimonies of those still alive to tell the story. Those who can tell their story were very young when it happened and are today in their 90's. So few of them are left. We should never forget. Here is just one story. Listen to it. This man Arek Hersh, a Pole, is one of them. Aged 91 he lives in Leeds, Yorskhire. He was ten or eleven when his family was rounded up. When he arrived at Auschwitz later, aged 14 with 183 other Jews, the queue was sorted into those who lived and those who died. He said he was 17 and was sent to the queue of 3 people only who were to work. The rest were sent to the gas chambers. Here he is on video for the BBC. As many of the survivors did, he wrote a book many years later which I read a couple of years ago. It is well worth the read.

Arek Hersh's book 

 I Picked him because he came from Leeds. When I lived in Yorkshire as a child and teenager there was a large population of Poles and Ukrainians and my parents knew quite a few of them. One owned a Polish cash and carry where they bought lots of Russian food. I used to love the halva they bought. The owner, whose name I can't recall, was a gentleman and a very kind man. When he greeted us he used to kiss my hand and my mother's. I found that strange but my mother told me it was a very Polish thing. I remember my parents telling me he had lost all his family in the Holocaust and that made a huge impression on me. He would have been a comtemporary of Arek Hersh. That's why I chose him.

Eladio and I watched a documentary on the subject after which one came up on penguins in the Antarctic. It was rather a relief after the terrible stories of the Holocaust.  We both love animals and animal documentaries and this was splendid.  We later learned that to make one hour of film on the penguins' behaviour it took 2 whole months for a specialised team to film, living alone in the furthest part of the world where temperatures go to 60ºc below zero and where they had to wear 5 layers of special clothing to venture out. They and I wonder how the poor birds can survive. I later looked up the documentary to find it was episode two of the BBC's Dynasty series presented by the one and only David Attenborough and about the Emperor Penguin, the largest of the species in the world.  Wow what a great documentary. I especially loved the part where the BBC crew break the rule of leaving animals alone to save a colony trapped in a ravine.

Emperor penguins and their chicks from the BBC documentary Dynasties

As I watched I thought just how funny penguins are. Once they were birds but now cannot use their wings to fly and have become almost fish. It is in the water that they are  at their most agile. They also form families, just like humans and as a colony,  similar to a group of people they help each other out. When they walk or shuffle they remind us of humans. Perhaps that is why they are so fascinating.

Tuesday came and the day was brighter. It was lovely to have the girls and Elliot back. It is in the mornings when he is at his chirpiest and sweetest and I love holding him while Oli has breakfast. He later fell asleep allowing his mother some respite.

I took the time to continue the research into my mother's book. I had been putting off one of the most important tasks which I sat down to do on Monday. I have 7  tapes of her talking about her life which were taped in 1993. They were lost and when I got them back they had to be restored. They were then transcribed by a computer programme which wasn't so great. Each tape is about the equivalent of 19 pages, half of which are my mother laughing or offering coffee, etc. The problem with the transcriptions is that many names and places are wrong. My biggest task is to listen to each and every tape and compare it to the transcription and then correct it. Monday saw me reach the end of the second tape. It's so strange to listen to my mother's voice after 20 years - she died on 1st October 1999. Oli came down to see me in my study and found me surrounded by old photos and listening to the tapes. She wanted to listen too as she adored her grandmother. I love the parts in the tapes when my mother, when she can't remember some fact, always turns to my father who was present during the recordings, saying "Courtenay will know" and he did. He always did. I couldn't do more than two documents that morning as it is a very tiring task. In any case I had the perfect excuse to take a break just after 1.30 as I had a lunch appointment at 2.30.

Monday's lunch appointment with the three sisters dear to my heart, Cris, Bea and Gloria, was the highlight of the week. Many of you know who they are, others maybe not. Cris, Bea and Gloria run and own a very successful events agency, Quinta Esencia, which was my agency for 10 years at Yoigo. But I knew them from before, even from my time at Motorola when they worked for another agency, Comunica con A. So we go back a long way. We did hundreds of events together and there was no real client company relationship. They were my team or rather we were a team and also friends. I hadn't been out to a "corporate lunch" for quite a while and it was great to get dressed up to go out and not be in charge of lunch that day. I was happy to see my diet was pulling off as I could fit into some jeans I bought a year ago at M+S. Lunch was at a place called "Copa de balón" in upmarket Aravaca, about a 20 minute drive. It has valet service, so no problems parking my car.  It was lovely to see the "girls" as I call them, the 3 sisters with whom I worked for so many years. They had lots of gossip to tell me from the sector. My news was more on the domestic front hahahaha. The photo taken at lunch that day is the one I have chosen as this week's feature photo.

Chin wagging so much but not eating a lot, our lunch dragged on until 5 pm - some people's tea time in other parts of the world, hahaha. but I was home on time for our walk. The girls had given me a present for Elliot. I couldn't believe it as they had already given him a present when he was born. Oli couldn't believe it either. It was a beautiful little boy's outfit from the firm Neck and Neck. This boy has so many clothes, more than many women, hahahaha. Later we dressed him in the very Spanish type outfit and he looked so cute.

Elliot in his new outfit from the girls from QuintaEsencia. We love it. 

The sun was still out at 6 pm and we enjoyed a rain free walk. Once home it was nearly time for dinner and I was actually starving as I had eaten so little at lunch. We had  a quiet dinner in the dining room with Elliot but not with Suzy who had gone to spend the night at a friend's.

I only watched the news that night - the coronavirus is spreading - but was so tired I fell asleep very early. I was up at 7 am on Wednesday.

Wednesday came and it was time to move on with the process of obtaining Spanish nationality. I had nearly all the English paperwork I needed so it was time to decide on a lawyer. I had received fee estimates from 50 euros up to 3000!! In the end I went for a trusted source, the lawyers who did my friend and ex colleague's nationality, Jill. I spent most of the morning communicating with a lawyer called Azucena. It was Azucena who told me I should have done the tests - an exam on Spanish general knowledge and constitution and a language exam - before obtaining the paperwork from England as, for example, my criminal records certificate would expire in less than 3 months and would no longer be valid when presenting all the papers to the judge! Oh damn I thought. I now have to get a power of attorney through a public notary so that the lawyers can get an extended one from the Spanish Ministry of Justice.   My exams are on 26th March and 17th April. Damn it, damn it. I could have done this back in 2012 more or less automatically for being married to a Spaniard. Now the conditions are rather harsh. In any case I am now progressing with some problems but I am progressing.

Meanwhile the EU parliament backed the terms of Brexit in Brussels in what was a pretty emotional day all round. It made me feel sick to see Nigel Farage waving little British flags and using his last opportunity to rage against the EU. More poignant was to see the MEPs bid Britain goodbye when they all joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne. The Spanish TV presenters had a hard job of pronouncing that. It was the almost final nail in the Brexit coffin for me; a very sad day.

MEPs join hands to bid farewell to Britain while singing
Auld Lang Syne. 

Suzy was teaching that morning and Oli went to have a coffee with a friend's sister to give her advice on her journalistic career. She took little Elliot with her who behaved perfectly. They were back just before we all sat down to lunch and while waiting he literally sat in his pram playing with his rattles and toys very peacefully. It's so funny to see him nearly sitting up on his own at the tender age of 4 months.

Elliot sitting in his pram

Little Elliot continued to play happily in his pram while we had our lunch. That day we were all together, just how I like it and no doubt my father too.

The news that day was sad - the approval by the EU of the Brexit exit terms but also alarming vs a vs the spreading of the coronavirus. That day BA along with other European airlines and later followed by Iberia suspended flights to and from China. That virtually leaves the huge country isolated which is quite a big thing and will have many repercussions.  Russia closed its borders, most airlines stopped flights to and from China, Starbucks, McDonalds, Ikea and H&M closed their stores and Wuhan, the epic centre of the crisus is like a ghost town. At the time of writing the death toll has reached 294 with over 12000 cases confirmed.  But are we to believe the figures coming out of the country as China is not exactly known for its transparency. Perhaps the epidemic is far worse than we are being told. More alarmingly 76 other cases have been confirmed in 26  other countries. The only good news to come out is that the mortality rate of the illness seems to be similar to that of common flu, about 3%. The race is on too to find a vaccine.

We all had a short siesta, well not Elliot or Oli (hahahah) then the five of us went for a walk before dinner. Dinner was prepared by the girls, mostly crudités with carrot, red pepper and cucumber sticks. That was one healthy meal. I'm now happy to report I can get into 2 pairs of jeans that would not have fit right after Christmas.

Thursday came and I spent the morning on paperwork for obtaining Spanish nationality or rather at a local Notary. I needed a power of attorney for my lawyers to obtain a new criminal record from the UK which would have a validity of 6 months. I have to say the employees at the notary office were very pleasant and although I was there for more than an hour and a half, I left with the papers I needed. I then had to send them ipso facto by courier to my city based lawyer.  I got home to find Eladio, Oli and Elliot had gone to get our grandson's national identity card and Spanish passport. Last week when they went there was a clause missing from one of the documents - oh how I hate red tape. They were back for lunch a bit late but clutching the new documents which, as he is just a baby, are only valid for 2 years.

We were on time for the news; more about the spread of the Coronavirus. It had spread to more than 18 countries and on Thursday had reached every region in China. Very few airlines fly to China now and Russia closed its border.  It's all very scary. There was more about Brexit which is so depressing and then on Spanish politics. There will be elections in Catalonia after the President of the parliament there, Quim Torra, was stripped of his MP status - the story is too long to tell here. That means there will be elections in the region which may affect the stability of the newly formed coalition government which depends on the support of one of the Independence parties, the ERC.

Later in the evening we went for a walk with Elliot but on the road so as not to get the pram wheels dirty. Dinner was a family affair again and we made a meal of what was left from last week's shopping.

Meanwhile that day, Andy, my friend and unofficial researcher for my mother's book came up with more revelations. In my mother's tapes she told how her god father was one Prince Vladimir Volkonsky where his family lived on their estate or rather "palazzo" near Rome. That is where my mother's family fled but stayed at the Yusupov palace or "palazzo". I looked up the Volkonsky palace and was surprised to see that at one stage it became the British Embassy in Italy! It was difficult to find Vladimir himself but Andy came up trumps when he found his father. My mother had said that Vladimir was her grandmother's nephew not specifying which grandmother. We found out it was her paternal grandmother from the Vasilchikov family. Vladimir also is a descendant of the Benckendorff family and distantly related to Dorothea von Lieven née Benckendorff who I wrote about above.

Villa Volkonsky in Rome, the family palazzo of her god father, Prince Vladimir Volkonsky

Digging deeper into the Lieven part of the family, we researched on my mother's aunt and uncle, her father's brother Petr and sister Masha. We knew that Masha had married Julius Conus the famous Russian violinist and composer who was a friend of Rachmaninoff, the composer and pianist who needs no introduction here. Well that day Andy discovered that Julius' son, my great Aunt's step son, married Rachmaninoff's daughter Tatiana.  Music and the arts in general were all important for the Stachoviches and Lievens and both my grandfather played the violin and my grandmother the piano - she at a professional level. We are realising just how much endogamy was part of the way of life of the Russian aristocracy. We see much intermarriage between my family members; in-laws marrying into a family or cousins marrying each other. I suppose they had to marry who was near as there was not so much travelling in those days or rather they preferred to marry one of their own. But it does make building the family tree very very complicated, although at the same time incredibly interesting.

Friday came, 31st January 2019, a date that we shall all remember for being the date the UK officially left the EU. Oh what a sad day. Brexit is now a reality and is finally here.

The UK finally left the EU this week

For me it was a very black day and I had I suppose what my friend Kathy called the Brexit blues. But life continued and that morning saw us doing the weekly shopping. Life continued in the UK too semi normally as although the 31st was the official day of leaving - at 11 pm that night - things won't change really during this transition period of just under a year. The government now has less than a year to come to an agreement with the EU on trade, freedom of movement etc. It's the benefits we have got used to that people will most miss if they are not continued, such as freedom of movement for people in the EU, driving in any EU country, no roaming charges and programmes such as Erasmus. Oli spent her Erasmus year in England. I wondered whether that option would be open to Elliot when the time comes. Oh how bonkers this situation is. My mother would be horrified as England was the country she came to as a refugee after WW2, just as all the Poles and Ukrainians did. They won't be welcome any more and that is one of the worst repercussions of Brexit. Supposedly more crucial is trade so let's see how things go in this transition year.

The highlight of Friday was resuming our Friday night dinners out. I chose a new restaurant called "Mar y Montaña" via The Fork application. It was nothing special and we shan't be going back hahaha. It was during the dinner that Eladio and I decided to come her for a few days. The weather looked so good it was too much of a temptation to resist.

Thus on Saturday morning, we packed our bags and took lots of food and set off with Pippa just after 11 am. It's a wonderful feeling to know we can go anywhere we like whenever we want, barring certain responsibilities. That's basically because we have built a very good, although incredibly expensive, infrastructure at home where my father is taken care of, our Airbnb guests, the dogs and the house in general too.

Oli meanwhile had arrived in Valencia to spend a few days there with her little family. It was 25c on the Malvarrosa beach near the centre yesterday morning. She sent us a photo and I could see Miguel was in short sleeves. How marvelous to get weather like that on 1st February. Hopefully that's the end of my January blues.

Oli, Miguel and Elliot on the beach in Valencia yesterday

Our trip was smooth. We stopped for a very quick lunch at the Parador in Albacete - where else hahahaha? We got here at about 4.30 and saw the temperature was a balmy 24ºc. Wow!

View from our apartment

But before enjoying the sun we had to unpack and get the apartment ready. When we had unpacked, cleaned the terrace which was very dirty after the recent storm Gloria, changed the sheets of our bed, etc, I was raring to go for a walk to the lighthouse. Eladio who was tired from driving stayed at home to take a nap. Pippa and I enjoyed the walk. I had worn a coat but took it off and didn't need it at all. The walk there and back is about 7km and the destination, the lighthouse cliffs is one of my favourite places to be. You can see the island of Tabarca from there and I always have to have a photo.

View of the little island of Tabarca from the lighthouse cliffs

I also wanted a photo of Pippa and I which was a challenge as it had to be a selfie and to take one Pippa had to be in my arms. This is the best I could come up with hahaha.

A selfie of Pippa and I on the lighthouse cliffs yesterday

It was sunset by then and the views were a sight for sore eyes. I just love this spot. We walked back briskly and were home to a very warm apartment as Eladio had put on both stoves. We made a simple dinner and then watched the news followed by a series we are following on Netflix.

We were in bed by midnight and I slept pretty well, not waking up until 7 this morning. Today, no doubt, we shall head to the beach for a walk along the shore with Pippa.

Now it's time to leave you and get on with the day. Wishing you all a great week ahead, cheers until next Sunday,
Masha.

January blues, unraveling my mother's past, connections to the Romanovs, the Yusupovs, the Ribeaupierres and the Stachoviches, Storm Gloria, Olivia on stage, 100th birthday plaque from the town hall for my father and other stories.

Sunday, 26th January, 2020

Visit from the Town Hall to give my father a commemorative plaque for reaching 100.

Good morning all. 

January is never my favourite month. It's the month after Christmas which is always an anti climax for me.  It's dark and it's cold and the middle of winter, my least favourite season. Roll on spring I keep thinking. In Spain there is a phrase "la cuesta de enero" (uphill January). It usually means financially but for me it's more general.  I suppose in English that could be translated into "January blues". That is how I have felt this week, as if everything was a little difficult, a little uphill. It doesn't help being back on a strict eating regime after all the Christmas excesses. I dare not get on the scales but I know from my clothes I have put on some dreaded weight. The day after I returned from France I went back to healthy eating and hopefully within a month or two I will have shed the extra kilos. I certainly intend to and when I am on a mission there is nothing to stop me reaching my goals.

January - not my favourite month. 

Facebook reminded me this week that just 3 years ago I lost my job with Yoigo as their Communications Director and all that that meant when I was about to turn 60 in male dominated Spain where there is also age discrimination. That was a big stone in my path and I had to fight back and not feel sorry for myself. It was one of life's biggest challenges ever thrown at me. I refused to give in and did all in my power to rise again like the phoenix bird from the ashes. I haven't done badly I have to say and can only hope that things continue to go my way for the next two years before retirement. 

One of the best things I did was to become an Airbnb host and open our house to people from all walks of life and from all around the world. It has been quite an adventure; not something everyone would do I'm sure as not everyone would want to open their own home to strangers. Of course I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to  but while I do it, I do it with love and with grace and really enjoy meeting and making friends with people from every corner of the world. Last week we had a lady from Peru, a young Portuguese girl from France and Ingrid, from Colombia left on Friday. Luis, a young student from Mexico, arrived too this week. January is a quiet month so I count my blessings we have a full house in the low season. 

Last Sunday was quiet. Sonia, the Portuguese girl left, Ingrid was out all day as was Andy, our semi permanent Scottish guest. The girls were away too at Oli's place. I was rewarded with a lovely photo of Suzy and her darling nephew Elliot. Here they are together.

Elliot and Suzy, Suzy and Elliot

Storm Gloria had begun its damage with  30 or so  of Spain's 50 provinces affected but luckily Madrid was not hit. We only got some wind here. We went on our walk very wary of the damned hunters out shooting rabbits but we needed the exercise. 

The rest of the day was quiet and panned out just the same as most Sundays. Suzy joined us for lunch but went out again that day to stay with  a friend, Mónica. I lounged around in the afternoon and watched "Gone Girl" on Netflix. I read the book a few years ago and thought the film might be interesting - it was. I had to interrupt my viewing when it was time for dinner and went down to the kitchen to find Andy, Ingrid and Eladio having a chat about Colombia. Ingrid was talking about life in Bogota which she said has a population of 13 million. She told us what we knew - life is not safe there, but also what we didn't. There is no metro, although one is to be built soon and traffic and pollution are crazy. She told us there was a new law only allowing cars with odd or even numbers on alternate days but that people had got around that by having two cars, one with odd numbers and one with even numbers. Imagine! 

We had our dinner on our own - prawn salad - watching the news online and then went up to bed for more Netflix entertainment. Sunday night saw us watching the French series "Glacé" which I think we had seen before.

Monday came and I was up at 7.30. Oli had sent me photos of Elliot to print. They were for his passport and national identity document which he needs if they want to travel abroad with him and which no doubt they will do at some stage. They sent me the photos for printing and my goodness he is getting chubby. But what a bonny baby. 

Elliot's photos for his first passport and national identity document

While printing them I felt a bit cross that my grandson is not eligible for a British passport. I feel that is so wrong. In many countries, like Ireland for example, you are entitled to a passport of the nationality of one of your grandparents. In the UK, citizenship can be passed on to a child born to mixed marriage parents (one of them being British - my case) in another country. This is called citizenship by descent but stops at the child receiving it. Thus Suzy and Oli are English by descent but cannot pass on their British citizenship to any children they bear. Both that and the fact that I am now undergoing the process to collect all the documents needed to apply for Spanish citizenship make my blood boil. Bloody Brexit is all I can say. On the bright side, both Elliot and I will be EU citizens, something British passport holders will not, again thanks to Brexit. 

Eladio and I mused on this on our rather windy and chilly walk. I heard later there were winds up to 70km per hour in Madrid which made walking a little difficult. My hair kept getting in my face, despite my hood.

That morning, inspired I think by my visit to France and being shown old photos from my mother's past by my Aunty Valya (married to my mother's youngest brother Nicky), I went to look at the file I had compiled on my mother's story to check the transcriptions of her on tape that my dear friend Amanda's ex husband had made many years ago. The tapes are not good and were restored and then transcribed into writing but the text often doesn't make much sense. I started reading them again and came across the mentions of two Grand Duchesses. All her life my mother used to mention Grand Duchess Irina from Paris but I had no idea who she was. Now I know from the tapes it is  Grand Duchess Irina, the only niece of Tsar Nicholas II who was married to Felix Yusupov of Rasputin fame.   I have now researched and found out that Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia was the daughter of Grand Duchess Xenia who was the sister of Nicholas II. She was the elder daughter and fourth child of Tsar Alexander III and married a cousin, Grand Duke Mikhailovich of Russia with whom they had seven children, one of them being Irina. 

Felix Yusupov and his wife Grand Duchess Irina. My mother knew them both

My mother's family were close to the Yusupovs, the richest family in Russia before the revolution. My mother even refers to Yusupov as "Uncle Felix". Her grandmother (Olga Stachovich nee Ribeaupierre) and Felix' mother were first cousins. This week saw me, with the help of my unofficial genealogist, Andy, to determine   the exact relationship between them although I had a fair idea as both their maiden names were Ribeaupierre (Russian noble family).  He came up with a eureka moment while filling out the family tree, part of which you can see below. It also means that Felix Yusupopv who killed Rasputin was my second cousin twice removed! Amazing. Andy even went as far as to trace my relationship to Tsar Nicholas II and it comes up as "uncle of wife of 2nd cousin twice removed" hahahaha. So, there you are, I am related to the last Tsar.

Family tree 1 - showing our relationship to the Yusupovs. 

Family tree 2 showing our relationship to the Yusupovs.

What I also know for sure is that Felix Yusupov's mother was my mother's godmother. Both families exiled to Rome where the Yusupovs had a palace where my mother's family stayed when they left Russia. My mother adored her godmother, Princess Zinaida Yusupova who they all called "Aunty Fairy" as she was such a lovely person.

Portrait of Zinaida Yusupovna, mother of Felix Yusupov, killer of Rasputin

In my only ever visit to Russia I went to St. Petersburg. There I visited  the Yusupov winter palace on the Moika. It was a present to Felix' great-great grandmother from Catherine the Great. Today it is a museum and there I saw the original painting of the portrait above. I had seen my mother's photo of the painting many times and was stunned to see it myself. I was also stunned to be in such an amazing palace imagining my great grandmother (Olga Stachovich née Ribeaupierre - dark hair) and my mother's godmother, Princess Zinaida (left with blonde hair) there together having tea. This photo  of the  two of them having tea is another treasure to put in my mother's book. 

Princesss Zinaida Yuspov, mother of Felix and my great grandmother, Olga Stachovich née Ribeaupierre

In the tapes my mother mentions staying with her Aunt Irina and Uncle Felix in Paris and saying he was very kind. She stayed there on her way from Bulgaria to Paris with her mother when she was sent to school in France at the tender age of 6.  She is quite revealing about her "uncle" and his bisexuality and here I quote the words from my mother talking on the tapes: "he was just a homosexual. And at the same time he married a woman and had a child. No, as a boy, he got himself an engagement with a very well known café, Café chantal, with performances there. He was to play the role of a young girl, which he did very successfully until one of his uncles, who was in the public, recognised him". She says quite a bit more about him but I shall leave you just with this for the moment as the rest will be going into my book. 

There was another Romanov Grand Duchess Irina in my mother's life who I met but never knew who she was, only that she was a cousin of Nicholas II. In the tapes my mother refers to her as Grand Duchess Irina Paley. Now I had a name I could find out who she was. She was none less than the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, brother of Alexander II and Uncle of Nicholas II. Coincidentally Irina Paley married the brother of Irina Yusupov, Prince Feodor Alexandrovich of Russia. My mother knew Irina Paley mostly because her beloved nanny, "Nashka" who stuck with her family when they left Russia, went to work for her. I well remember meeting my mother's nanny and the Grand Duchess at the latter's summer residence in Biarritz on more than one occasion. We were often invited to tea there and it was all very formal. Irina Paley divorced her first husband and 15 years later in about 1950, married a very gregarious French nobleman; Count Hubert de Monbrison. My parents who spent most of their summers in their early married life in Biarritz got to know the Grand Duchess and the Count very well. 

Grand Duchess Irina Paley

Irina Paley's sister Natalia was a Hollywood actress and often actor friends of hers were invited to the villa in Biarritz. I remember my mother telling me that once Tyron Power visited with a girlfriend or wife - not sure who. Knowing they were staying at the house of a Romanov Grand Duchess they demanded of Nashka (my mother's nanny) for their beds to be made up with sheets bearing the Romanov insignia. She refused, saying something along the lines of them not deserving to sleep in sheets bearing a crown!

Once I had researched the two Grand Duchesses, I began to feel more inspired to start on my mother's book and worked every day this week on research.  I do hope I haven't bored you with all this.

There's not much else to say about Monday apart from that I don't really like them and always think of the Carpenters' song; "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down".

If we had cold and windy weather in Madrid, it was a lot worse in the South East and the Balearic Islands.  Storm Gloria battered that area of Spain with strong winds, rain and snow which left many inhabitants trapped and without electricity. In Valencia the biggest ever wave in the region registered at 8.44 metres high.

Storm Gloria produced the biggest ever wave in Valencia this week

Storm Gloria left a death toll of 13 (at the time of writing)  as well as 4 missing people, some from Callosa de Ensarria (Alicante) the village dear to my heart where my parents bought a house in the 70s,  It continued its way towards Catalonia the next day and from there to the south of France.  Thank goodness our journey back from France had been before the storm and snow. The stories of damage done by the storm dominated the news all week.

Tuesday came and it was still windy and cold here,  so again a depressing day.  We had braced the weather on Monday on our windy walk but did not venture out on Tuesday. I continued with my research making more discoveries from my mother's tapes and then googling what I found. It's a very laborious thing to do but incredibly revealing.

That day saw me unraveling who is who in the Stachovich family, my maternal grandmother's family. My mother mentioned so many uncles, aunts and cousins, I had to find out who they were.  I mainly concentrated on my maternal great grandfather, Alexander Alexandrovich Stakhovich II - 1858-1915 - and his wife  Countess Olga Pavolvna Ushakova. He died before the revolution and according to Wikipedia was a wealthy landowner, who studied law but also studied at the Nikolaev Cavalry School and served in the Hussar Regiment. At some time he was the Yelets district leader of nobility where he did a lot to improve education. Also a prolific writer, he was one of the founders of the Union of Liberation, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party and was a member of the 2nd State Duma from the Oryol province. There is no mention of how he died as he died quite young, only that he was buried at the family estate in Palna Mikhailovka.

My maternal great grandfather, Alexander Stachovich

He was one of 7 siblings. My mother mentions them all: Nadezhda, Alexey, Olga, Mikhail, Sofia, Pavel and Maria (my mother's great aunts and uncles).  It was to Mikhail's house in Salzburg my mother and her brother Nicki sought refuge in 1945 when they escaped the arrival of the Red Army in Berlin.

Alexander and Olga Pavolvna themselves had 6 children (my mother's uncles and aunts):  Nicolai, Alexander, George his twin, Sophie (my mother's mother) Irina and Olga.  Of these six, my mother's family seem to have had most contact with Alexander (Sasha) - 1884-1959 who resided in Paris, like many of them, after the revolution. Alexander married Anastasia Sergeevna Ignatisius (1889-1952), commonly known as "Tiusa" and they had 4 children, Alexander, Olga, Maria (Masha) and Anastasia. These were my mother's first cousins about whom she spoke all her life and I met them all except for Olga.  It is with the daughters and  the descendants of Olga and Maria with whom I meet in France every year at what is now our traditional summer "cousinade". To make life even more complicated, Alexander and Anastasia's daughter Maria (Masha) married another Stachovich, her first cousin, Alexei (or Axi) the son of Mikhail whose house my mother and her brother sought refuge in Innsbruck. That's awfully complicated isn't it? My Aunty Valya in France (wife of my mother's youngest brother Nicki) showed me various photos of which I took photos with my phone. One of them is of my mother's oldest brother Sasha (all oldest sons in the family seem to be called Sasha - short for Alexander) visiting these cousins in Paris in about 1939.

Sasha my uncle and my mother's oldest brother in the middle with his cousins (left Masha and Olga and front row Anastasia) with their mother Anastasia (Tiusa) . Photo taken at their family house near Paris in Anier in about 1939. 

Thankfully my dear friend, Andy, my parents' past pupil of Russian, has done a good job so far of our family tree and many of those mentioned appear in the tree. As to the book itself,  what shall I call it I keep asking myself? I don't just want to write about her but about her family and also myself. So maybe this would do, what do you think? "H.S.H. Elena Von Lieven. Memoirs of my mother. Her story and my story. A family saga from the Russian Revolution to the present day". I just wish she was here for me to get all the answers I need for questions I should have asked her when she was alive. Like with my father, when I was younger I just wasn't very interested. On the bright side I have lots of material but occasionally will ask her for inspiration. And where do I start I wonder? From the beginning probably, from the origins of the Lieven family. In any case, the good news is that I have started, at least the thought process has started as well as the research. Also on my side is the experience gained when writing my father's book.

My mother, who adored her adopted country, Great Britain, would have approved of my choice of film that evening,  Darkest Hour about how Churchill became Prime Minister after WW2 broke out and how he planned to fight the Germans until the end, refusing to enter into peace negotiations. I have to say it's one of the best films I have seen about Churchill. It peaked my interest in finding a good biography on Great Britain's greatest statesman and I came across one recently written by Andrew Roberts. Called "Churchill, walking with destiny", it has rave reviews. I can't wait to get my teeth into it. I am a great Churchill fan, for all his flaws, and well remember as a child his state funeral where the country came to a stop. I spent half a crown of my pocket money to buy a commemorative booklet. I wish I had kept it.

My mother would have been proud too to see the photos of her granddaughter Olivia that night on stage as I was. Every year Oli is a master of ceremonies in English together with  a young journalist who does the Spanish part in the annual awards of an international hotel chain. The awards take place every year at a fancy hotel on the eve of the big tourism fair held in Madrid, Fitur. This year Miguel went along too as Elliot had to be near his mother lest he need feeding and to keep him quiet if she was on stage and couldn't hahaha. Here she is with her co master of ceremonies looking like a star in an amazing black velvet dress.

Olivia dressed to kill for being on stage on Tuesday night for the hotel awards ceremony

And indeed little Elliot who weighed in at 7.5 kilos when he saw the doctor that day, demanded feeding and my daughter was able to oblige. Here is a photo of the two of them that dear Miguel sent me.

Oli off stage to feed her ever growing son Elliot

They had come for lunch that day and it was, as always, a pleasure to hold and see Elliot who is growing bigger by the day.

Wednesday came and it was on Wednesday that I found a treasure trove of photos and documents my father had kept and brought to Spain. They were in a great big plastic bag and oh my when I saw them. I knew immediately that this was help sent from heaven for my mother's book.

Another treasure trove of photos and documents I found at home

In the bag there were old photos of both of my mother and her family and my father and his. I was gutted to find 5 WW2 medals my father had been awarded by the British Armed forces I knew nothing about as well as some great photos of him during the war which would have been great to add to his book but oh never mind it is too late now.

It was my mother's photos I was most interested in. Many I already had and were repetitions but there were some which I had never seen. One really interesting one is of my grandmother, Sophie née Stachovich with all her brothers and sisters. Now I had photos of them all. This is it. It must have been taken in Russia. I tried to work out the year. My grandmother was born in 1886 and her youngest sister Olga (front row to the right of my grandmother) in 1892. In that photo Olga looks to be about 9 or so which could give us a date for the photo of about 1901 or so. Imagine.

Photo of my grandmother Sophie Stachovich in Russia before her wedding in about 1902. She is sitting in the front row with her youngest sister Olga to her right. In the back row from left to right the twins Sasha and George and to their right Irina who died aged 21 of typhus. Olga died too a  few years later  in Paris where  she was run over by a train. 

But it was a more recent photo that really pleased me. It was one of my mother holding me in her arms the year I was born (1957). According to my father's notes on the back it was taken that year at Henbury Vicarage where his parents lived near Bristol.

With my mother the year of my birth, 1957, at the Vicarage in Henbury, Bristol, the home of my paternal grandparents

I am very fortunate in that my father had taken the effort and I don't know when he did it, to write on the back of each photo the names of the people, the places and the dates the photos were taken as far as his memory could help him. That was an amazingly helpful thing to do and I am very grateful.

Wednesday morning was spent poring over the old photos and documents, some of my mother during the war I had never seen. We tried to venture out for a walk with Pippa but just as we were ready to go, the clouds burst and a huge rainstorm began. So again no walk. Here is Pippa all ready to go in her rain coat which she is not very fond of.

Pippa in her raincoat.

The photo of the day, not counting my new treasure trove, was of our little prince, Elliot. I love this one of him with his father. That day they went to get his national identity card and passport so that, if needed, he can travel abroad.

Father and son on Wednesday

In the afternoon, I accompanied Suzy to a routine medical appointment in Madrid and later regretted going with her. That was because of the awful traffic coming back in the rain. The usual drive of about 25 minutes from the centre to home took over an hour. We stopped at Carrefour Market to get a few more provisions for our dwindling cupboards so as to have a delicious supper of scrambled eggs with asparagus and mangetout, a vegetable that was not eaten in my childhood (hahahaha) and neither in Eladio's who didn't like them. They are called "tirabeques" in Spain and are hard to find.

While the three of us were making our dinner, we chatted to our Colombian guest, Irina, who has been a pleasure to host. Later that night Eladio and I watched another great war film. It was about the restoration of Japan after WW2 and called Emperor. I highly recommend it.

Thursday came and amazingly we had a respite in the weather and the sun came out. That made our walk much more pleasant. I was busy again with my mother's tapes and in contact with Andy for him to continue building the ever growing family tree, just as he did with my father's family. The highlight of Thursday though was the visit of the town council of Villaviciosa de Odón. They had rung a while back to say they wanted to visit my father to give him a commemorative plaque for reaching 100. I was most surprised as he was too. In England of course all centenarians receive a card from the Queen but as far as I knew nothing is done in Spain. I was wrong as at least our local town hall do something to acknowledge the achievement of reaching 100. We dressed my father in a white shirt and Eladio put his Selwyn College Cambridge tie on for the occasion. We were expecting the councillor for social services and maybe someone accompanying her or him. So I was taken back when I saw a whole entourage of 6 people including the photographer. It was a very touching occasion, one my father appreciated as did Eladio and I. They gave him a glass plaque with his name on which was in the wrong order but who cares, it was the thought that counts.

The commemorative plaque from the Town Hall. They got his name upside down. It should read Charles Courtenay Lloyd but again it's the thought that counts. After all, people have got my father's name wrong all his life!

I asked the group how many centenarians there were in our town and was told there were 11, two of them being a married couple! I also learned this practice of giving a plaque to 100 year old's is something done by some town halls but not all. Of course I had to tell the group about my father and his amazing life and  ended up giving them my book which they asked me to sign. When they arrived he was reading a very old book in Russian which they thought was Greek. I think they were a bit in awe of his being able to read in Russian, not to mention in many other languages, at his age. I am still in awe of that. There were many photographs taken and I got one with my phone. I have chosen it for this week's feature photo.

Notice behind the group is a large portrait of Nicholas II. It was given to my parents, probably when they married, by my mother's Uncle Sasha (Stachovich) in Paris (the Sasha Stachovich I mention earlier in my blog). My parents always treasured it and it had pride of place at our home at 6 Heaton Grove. Today it graces my father's room. My father spoke to the group thanking them for the visit and the plaque and he very poignantly told them that he was alive thanks to me and to Eladio. We do our very best to take good care of him and shall continue to do so as long as he lives which I hope is for quite a few years more. I cannot envisage life without him. He is so dear to me.

Later we had dinner quietly in the kitchen and as we did we watched the news on my now old iPad Plus. The main news this week on the international front has been about the virus from China, spreading from a town called Wuhan. It's called the "coronavirus" and has already left a death toll of 41 and 1.287 cases in China at the time of writing. More worryingly it has spread outside China and in France there are 3 cases.  Some cities in China have been completely locked down which must be complicated as this weekend is the Chinese New Year.  The other news which I at least found interesting was the Holocaust memorial that took place in Jerusalem on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. World leaders attended as did a group of dwindling survivors. It took place at Yad Vashem or near it - the world Holocaust Remembrance centre - which I shall never forget visiting with Eladio when we traveled to Israel about 10 years ago. It was a harrowing experience.

Obsessed as we are with WW2 - who wouldn't be in my position, brought up by parents who both experienced its horrors close up? - that night we watched another film on the topic. Called "Diplomacy" it's about the supposed planned attack to destroy Paris and ordered by Hitler which was thwarted through diplomacy. In the film Hitler orders General Dietrich von Choltitz, the last Nazi Governor of Paris to destroy the city. According to the film and there are hints the main story is true, a Swedish diplomat and ambassador to France, Raoul Nordling, persuades him not to do so by offering escape for him, his family and other favours.

I was up at 6.40 on Friday as it seems I am gradually returning to getting up earlier and earlier, I woke up to rain and it would rain all day. I had to lend an umbrella to Luis, the young Mexican student from Guadalajara who arrived the night before.  We did the weekly food shopping and came home with enormous quantities of fruit and vegetables. Eladio always asks why we can't be like normal families and suffice ourselves with just apples, oranges, pears and bananas. No way I always tell him as I love strawberries, bilberries, raspberries, pineapple and mango which are always on the menu haha. I think we are the best customers of the local Mercadona branch!

While having lunch with my father with plenty of vegetables, his favourite being sprouts and cauliflower, the central heating fuel lorry arrived to fill the tank to heat this enormous house and more excitingly a new PC for Eladio we had ordered last week. He had a perfectly good HP PC. However it had the Windows 7 software for which, very unfairly, Microsoft will no longer make updates and other manufacturers will no longer support. Well now he has an up to date new PC. Here he is just before its unboxing.

Eladio with his new PC which arrived on Friday

Being the in house PC expert (hahahaha), it was up to me to set it up and install the office programme, etc. It was soon ready for using. If any of you computer experts could tell me, I would love to know how the hell to get rid of Microsoft Edge. I did so on the PC I bought back in September but can't remember how I did it.

I was multitasking that afternoon; setting up Eladio's new PC, texting with Andy and Helen on my research of my mother's past when I got a sudden Airbnb reservation for that very night. I only realised after it was confirmed that the guest, a young Venezuelan girl called Andrea, said she was coming just for a couple of hours with her boyfriend and that they would not be spending the night! OMG I thought, have I turned our house into a den of iniquity? But then I thought her money is as good as any, she had good reviews on Airbnb, so why not. In any case I couldn't cancel as I am a super host and if I cancel an instant booking reservation I would lose that status.

That night at Oli and Miguel's flat over dinner, we did laugh over the reservation which, by the way, is the first time it has happened. By the time we got back Andrea and her partner had gone! Dinner at Oli and Miguel's was another highlight of the week. As I wrote when  I posted a photo of the family around the table, "family dinners are always more fun with Elliot".

Family dinners are always more fun with Elliot

We hadn't seen him since Tuesday and I swear he has grown since then. Oli showed me the amazing clothes our kiwi cousins had sent her - 10 outfits. My cousin Zuka also gave her a lovely little French outfit which is very chic. It's quite extraordinary how many of our friends and family have given gifts to Elliot. He has an awfully big wardrobe, hahahaha. He's such a little darling, recognises us and smiles brightly when he sees us. Eladio adores him as I do and I especially like to see my husband enjoying time with his grandson. Here they are together.

Grandfather and grandson together

Oli was our own personal chef that night and had made a splendid Turkish dish with aubergines accompanied by more vegetables which pleased my vegan daughter Suzy. Food at Oli and Miguel's is always great and much better than going out to a restaurant. Miguel made the dessert, a delicious home made apfelstrudel which he has got down to a fine art. Eating my portion with a spoonful of ice cream was what broke my diet this week. But no worries it was just a hiccup on the way.

Miguel's apfelstrudel

At just before 11 pm it was time to leave if we were to go to bed not too late. Suzy stayed behind as the next day she had a lesson nearby - a singing lesson by the way (good for her). We were home soon as there was zero traffic and there were no sign of any guests. It took me ages to fall asleep. Maybe I was a bit too full or rather my mind was too full of things but I must have gone to sleep eventually and woke up the next morning at 6. I refused to get up at  6 and forced myself to stay in bed until 7.

Yesterday it rained all day and we never ventured out. That is now 2 days since we have not been on a walk and we must remedy that today. It was another day of research into my mother's and my own past and I keep discovering the most extraordinary things. I am also happy to find information that confirms many of the things my mother either told me or that are on her tapes. Gosh the family's flight from Russia is an incredible story as is the story of my poor dear mother during WW2 in Germany where she was imprisoned by the Gestapo. No wonder I am obsessed with the war you must be thinking.

Anything else I did yesterday pales in comparison and my head was full of names and facts I kept checking with my friend and fellow researcher Andy D. I just couldn't do this without him. I really have to thank him for his support but above all for his interest in the story. We both concluded that with all the facts we have I could write a modern day version of War and Peace!    That's no joke by the way as Tolstoy was a family friend. My mother always told me how her own mother, my "babushka" (Princess Sophie von Lieven née Stachovich) used to play tennis with him! Tolstoy had an estate near some of her family's in Palna-Mikhailovsky.  He even wrote a play dedicated to her Uncle Misha; "The power of darkness". There is an article Andy found in Russian (google translate to English) where the author quotes Lenin as saying about the Stachovich family: "with such landlords, there is no need for the revolution". He called them all "reactionaries". Google Translate must have got it wrong but I assume from the sentence Lenin was accusing them of owning too much land.  I am now also concluding that although the Stachoviches did not have the grand title of my paternal grandfather's family, Lieven (this family has the title of His or Her Serene Highness), the story of the latter Stachoviches is far more fascinating than the Lievens in general. My final conclusion is that with all this information, apart from writing a book, it would make amazing material for a period family drama on film.

Talking of films, yesterday was Spain's celebration of Spanish cinema - The Goya awards.

They were held yesterday, although I didn't watch them as I find the ceremony rather long and tedious and Eladio was not at all interested.  "The Goyas" took place in Malaga, the city Antonio Banderas was born in. It was his night as he won best actor for his part in Almodovar's latest film, Pain and Glory. But it was really Pedro's night as he won 7 of the awards and is now hoping for an Oscar where both Pedro and Antonio have nominations. We had seen the beginning of the film not long ago on Netflix but didn't really like it. Now, as it seems so favourable to the critics, we shall have another go at watching it.

Today I was up early again and it looks like another cloudy, wet and miserable morning. I just hope the clouds clear and some sunshine breaks through. This weather is really depressing me. It's not the Spain I know in January.  Today will be a quiet day, just what I need to continue my work. It will no doubt pan out as usual as there are no outings or plans for the day and the girls will not be here for lunch.

So my friends, here I am at the end of the tales of this week. I do hope I haven't bored you with the stories of my mother's past. I shall probably continue to bore you as my work continues so please bear with me.

All the best for now,
Masha