Home from Montrondo and back to sweltering Madrid, bothersome hairdresser visit, Elliot's first selfie, my thoughts on "woke" and "cancel culture", Serena Williams retires, RIP Olivia Newton John, satisfied customers, family barbecue, French lessons from Marianne and other stories of the week.

Sunday 14th August 2022

Elliot's first selfie

Hello again friends and readers. Here I am again another Sunday and this time writing from home - our main home - outside sweltering Madrid, except that finally the heat has receded for a short time.  I really think we should have stayed in cooler Montrondo; my husband's village, high in the mountains of North West Spain. It's hot nearly everywhere in Europe and I heard that this is the driest summer in Spain for 500 years!!! The main news is about forest fires because of the extreme heat.  Fires are raging in France and Spain and even in England where it is no longer a "green and pleasant land". I just can't imagine England not being green and the picture that sums up the situation most for me in the UK is one of Hyde Park in London where a month ago or less mercury rose to 40ºc for the first time. The problem in my home country is that it is not geared up for extremely hot temperatures as Spain is not geared up for extremely cold weather; snow.

A picture as never seen before of Hyde Park in London this week. 

In the Gironde region of France (near Bordeaux) firefighters are facing the worst fire in the whole of Europe. When we passed the area on our way to my cousin Zuka's house last month, the fire had started and we could smell and see the smoke. It has been described as a "monster" as apparently a lot of the fire is underground and impossible to put out.  This is new reality of climate change as we all know yet we don't do enough to tackle it. It's too difficult, too expensive and not enough people really care. This summer should be a huge warning. 

There were no fires in Montrondo thankfully. We had spent a whole 2 weeks in our village which is longer than usual and although I prefer the cool weather there, it was time to come home.

We left at around 11 on Sunday last and were home by 3.15 which is quite a record and I hope we don't get a speeding fine. We came home to find 3 traffic fines from our trip to France - damn it. The French one was easy to pay online. I left Eladio to deal with those from the Spanish Basque Country.

We settled in quickly and had a small lunch of some leftovers I had brought from Montrondo. I was happy to see 2 Amazon parcels had arrived - my new Birkenstock Arizona sandals was one of them. If you read my earlier blog posts, you will know I bought some fake ones in Villablino for 19 euros. So I was a bit disappointed that the real Birkenstocks are nowhere near as comfortable. That's ironic and I criticise myself for wanting them just because of the brand. I wasn't brought up to be brand conscious and I am not, usually, so that's why I am a bit cross with myself. These are them. If you think about it they may be the rage but they are not particularly beautiful. A friend, Andy, described them as Jesus sandals and he is right.

My real Birkenstock Arizona sandals which arrived in my absence

The second parcel contained what Eladio and I call "helicopters". They are little battery operated fans supposed to repel flies and wasps. I was inspired to buy them after seeing them at my cousin Zuka's place in La Teillée. Unfortunately only one of the two worked. I'm not sure they are that effective but we shall see.

My latest gadget - fly repellent fan

I would have had a long siesta except that new guests arrived; a family of 5 from the centre of Madrid, escaping the heat. Above all they wanted a pool - the main attraction here. They are a lovely family made up of 3 generations, the grandparents, their son and his wife and their 5 year old grandson. We really like them. They stayed until Thursday and made full use of the pool. 

The house seemed ok but oh my goodness, the garden did not. I have never seen so many bald patches, despite the irrigation system.  It will take Eladio some time to get it looking green again which isn't easy in this heat.

Monday came and I had lots to do. The main task was getting our damned printer working again, with the help of a very efficient young lady from HP. It took at least 2 hours. I don't think I will ever buy an HP printer again. It stopped working again on Wednesday. According to HP that is because of new Windows updates. Now how stupid is that?  That had me on the phone to them again for 2 hours on Wednesday. While trying to fix the connection, the damned printer fell over. I felt like throwing it out of the window but didn't as I need a printer. With a lot of patience, another efficient young lady guided us through some quite complicated steps - digging inside the printer and printer head, etc, and once again it was working.  By Friday we had another problem, this time with the printer head and had to order two new ones. The new printer had arrived yesterday. We were amazed to find that when we switched on the printer again, it was working and there was no error message. Thus we bought the new printer head for nothing damn it.   Oh technology can be very challenging can't it?  But what would we do without it? Nothing in this day and age. 

We spent Monday morning at home on various tasks. Lunch was more leftovers which is fine. I was waiting for 2 more guests - a couple from France - but communication with Emma  was not easy as she doesn't use Whatsapp which astonished me. I wrote in the morning to ask what time they would be here but got no answer. It was when we were at the hairdressers that she announced she had arrived. If she had told me she was arriving at 4 pm I would have been there to greet her. Of course she couldn't communicate with Lucy and had all sorts of questions (what is the wifi password, where are the nearest shops, etc) which Lucy relayed to me while my hair was being died, washed, etc - not easy to answer like this. I had sent Emma the house information pack which included all the answers to her questions, but like most, she hadn't bothered to read it. Meanwhile a mini crisis was going on in Santa Pola where new guests were arriving. Mar, who is the key holder wanted to talk to me while my hair was being washed etc. Apparently the cat belonging to Lucy, our neighbour and cleaner, was sleeping on one of the beds when Mar opened the apartment for them. It turns out Mar hates cats and dogs so she was very alarmed but thankfully the guests weren't. Lucy removed the cat and changed the sheets and all was well. Meanwhile, up north at our house in Asturias, Loli, the caretaker was worried about the new guests arriving late. Thus my time at the hairdressers was a sheer pain and the heat didn't help. It was so hot, that all I wanted was to get done with the job. I asked Caty, my hairdresser, to wash my hair with cold water and not to bother blow drying it as I couldn't stand the heat of the hair dryer. Meanwhile, Eladio waited patiently as Caty had finished with him before me, totally unaware of all the rental problems I was having to solve meanwhile.

I came home to greet the French guests, a very young couple who had driven all the way from the Loire area - more than 1300 km. As they don't know a word of English or Spanish I had to get out my school French which is better than nothing. I gave them the house tour and lots of tips for shopping, eating out, etc - even though it is all in the house info pack. Why do I bother I wonder?  

I was reminded me of a lovely Yorkshire expression which will not make any wokes reading this happy. It is "there's nowt so queer as folk". Today people substitute "queer" for "strange".  I have a problem with this as I have a problem with the word gay. When I was a child, gay meant happy and outgoing and queer meant strange. Both these words went on to be used to describe homosexuals in both a good and bad light. The  problem for me is that  I can no longer use "gay" or "queer" with their original meaning. I left England in 1981 and my vocab is now rather old fashioned. But I like it that way. Not one for using words like "awesome" I'm afraid. But it is worse than that as I keep finding out. Woke is a new phenomenon I am not living through because it hasn't really come to Spain yet but OMG it has in the UK and US where you can hardly use the word woman anymore. Really? Woke used to mean the past tense of wake didn't it? Well, now it means to be alert to injustice in society, especially racism. What is unjust about using the word woman I wonder? Every day I read articles and stories in The Times about how "wokeism" is affecting our vocab. I think it is affecting our freedom of speech. This reminds me of 1984 where free thought was replaced with group think. George Orwell predicted future society quite well  as we are now well into "wokeism" and "cancel culture". In his famous book which had a profound affect on me,  society language is called "newspeak". This was apparently a government tool devised for "monitoring the people's communications, prosecuting "thought crimes" and ultimately controlling and dictating the people's very beliefs". In my mind this is exactly what is happening today. I researched a bit more on the subject of wokeism and Orwell's book and was flabbergasted to read in The Express (not my favourite paper but the headline is so true) that 1984 is "slapped with offensive warning as woke madness hits new heights". Those very words; "woke madness" make my blood boil. Don't wokers realise what their madness does to society? I do. Another headline I found was "With silencing of speech is America entering Orwellian territory?" Not just America I'm afraid. Another headline reads: "Why the ideologies behind Woke and Cancel Culture are putting our democracy in jeopardy?  I then went on to look up "books cancelled" because of cancel culture and I was again flabbergasted. The list even includes George Orwell's Animal Farm (and 1984 !), Alice in Wonderland, The Catcher in the Rye as well as other less famous books.  Some books have been completely cancel cultured and others, such as those written by my favourite children's author, Enid Blyton, are now heavily re-edited to suit the times. What bloody times? Sorry, I am getting cross here. This amounts to cancelling history. It was thanks to Enid Blyton my love of books began. What would she think of cancel culture and wokeism I wonder? 

Classical literature books now being a victim of cancel culture. 

Will that list one day include the works of Shakespeare? If wokeism continues then I am afraid that might happen too.  Don't you find this frightening? I do. Woke and cancel culture have crept up on society  and I suspect some people don't even realise it is happening. I do though because I have a window with a view  and am not living it. Sorry but I hate the fact that statues are being taken down because they are offensive today - you cannot delete history -  or Enid Blyton books  being edited to avoid offending anyone. There you have it, my thoughts on woke and  cancel culture. What are yours?

Now back to my daily life - after the arrival of the young French couple. Only by about 6.30 could I relax. At 7 we went to have dinner at Oli's to see Elliot and Juliet. I took along freshly made potato salad and some cold courgette soup as I had been given a lot of courgettes in Montrondo. It was great to see the grandchildren again. At one point Elliot and I went outside. He was keen to show me their pool and made me ask the maintenance guy show him all the installations. He is at the stage of asking what everything is called. So when he pointed at a bench and asked me what it was called,  I invited him to sit down on it with him.That was the moment I showed him how to take a selfie. He is a fast learner. The picture he took and which I have used as this week's feature photo is  not a good one, but a first for him and also you can see my new hair cut - same style as usual of course

Dinner was fine except that neither grandchild was hungry. I think it was just too hot for them, despite the air con in their house. But Elliot did want his ice cream hahaha. We left early as Oli and Miguel had to begin the going to bed process which can take hours and of course, our daughter has to be up at 6 am for work. This is little Elliot and Juliet waving goodbye from the window of their flat. So sweet.

Elliot and Juliet waving goodbye from their flat after dinner with them on Monday night

I think I got a better night's sleep that night. Tuesday came. Eladio had to take our old Volvo for an MOT. The vehicle didn't pass the test. He had to change all 4 tires and had a problem with one of the back seat belts. This meant he had to return in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I went to do the shopping  and had my coffee at Alverán alone. I wish I had more friends to have coffee with but most of them live abroad. 

My day didn't seem very productive but I suppose it was. In the afternoon I organised some of the cupboards in our bathroom and then tackled the freezer compartment of our big kitchen fridge. There was so much damned bread in it, nothing else would fit. Meanwhile Lucy made us "perushki" - little Russian meat pies. I have taught her to make all our favourite dishes which works perfectly to my advantage. Dinner that night felt like Christmas Eve as we had the perushki with my potato salad - well Lucy's and mine - as these are some of the ingredients of the most important dinner of the year. I sent a photo to the girls and they duly ummed and ahhed in appraisal.

Two of our favourite dishes - perushki and potato salad

I followed the news of course - more about tackling the energy crisis, the Ukraine war, the Queen in Balmoral without the usual reception, the registering of Trump's disgustingly rich mansion Mar a Lago to look for top secret documents he apparently took from the White House including those to do with nuclear weapons and how the news is actually benefiting him,  the new energy crisis bill in Spain (air con at 25ºc max and heating at not above 19ºc as well as building lights off) etc, etc. But of more interest, perhaps to a lot of people was the news that US champion Serena Williams is retiring from tennis. It was actually Vogue that announced it. 

Serena Williams to retire

I love tennis, both women's and men's and have a huge admiration for Serena and her sister but not as much as I did for those women champions of "my day" - I refer to Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and of course Steffi Graff. I was quite young when Margaret Court from Australia was in her hey day. She won 24 grand slams compared to Serena's 23 and retired at the age of  35 while Serena is 40. I think that is possibly why Serena has carried until now; trying to beat that ranking.  She may not be the GOAT (greatest of all time) of women's tennis but she is a champion without a doubt. BTW taking into account both men's and women's singles greatest players, Margaret Court comes first with 24 gran slam victories.  Serena Williams comes 2nd with 23 and in 3rd place comes Spain's Rafa Nadal with 22.  Thus the Australian tennis player, Margaret Court,  is still the GOAT of tennis. 

That was bitter sweet news about a famous role model for women. Sadder news was the death of Olivia Newton John, coincidentally from Australia, who died of cancer aged just 73 this week. She needs no introduction really. I was never ever a fan of Grease (1978) and certainly not of her partner John Travolta but I thought she was  a beautiful woman.

Sad that Olivia Newton John died this week

 All I can say is RIP, you were beautiful and lovely and the world will forever remember you.

Wednesday was another hot day and as you know from earlier, I spent nearly 2.5 hours on the phone with HP getting our printer fixed again. I also had to register my new Dutch guests at the house in El Cuetu with the local police which is a bit of a bind. Guests don't like giving me their ID's and I don't like registering them either but it has to be done. Thankfully, Dick, the guest later wrote to say the house looked great. Nice! Another guest, Laura, who checked out of our apartment in Santa Pola wrote to me to say they had had a great time. That was music to my ears.

Music to my ears was when my dearest and oldest friend Amanda told me in a Skype call that afternoon that she will be coming to stay with me in September. She's not the only one. Our dear Danish au pair, Pernille, now a mother and nearing 50, will be coming from 1st to 4th September. She wants to see us of course but also our new grandchildren. So that's two visits from close girlfriends in September to look forward to.

Thursday dawned and I had not slept well, tossing and turning from 3 to 5 am. I had to take a second sleeping tablet and finally got up at 7.15.  Our Spanish family left at around 11 and later wrote the most beautiful review. This is it.

A magnificent review from our Spanish family who left on Thursday morning

I was delighted with the review and that this family were satisfied customers.   It is a reward for all the hard work I put into running my humble rental business. My overall  objective is customer satisfaction when guests stay here at our shared house or in Santa Pola or El Cuetu. I don't need a boss to pat me on the back for this. My bosses are my guests and I go over and above to make sure their stays are as pleasant as possible. There is a lot of work behind getting a review like this and I sincerely think much of my success is thanks to  my experience in the corporate world where "customer satisfaction" was drilled into me from the very beginning. At Motorola in the early 90's they called it Six Sigma. Customers were number one as they should be in all companies within reason of course.So thank you Javier and family for your lovely review. It was a pleasure hosting you; more like having friends to stay. 
 

After they left,  we went out on an errand which was more an excuse to have a nice cup of coffee together at Alverán. I love our coffees there where the waiters know exactly how I like my coffee, It has to come in a big cup, be extra strength and the milk must be all foam. 

In the afternoon, with the family gone and the French guests out on a cultural excursion, I had the pool to myself for the first time in ages. I took my book (kindle) and lay down on one of the sun loungers in the shade under the horse chestnut trees with Pippa beside me. I have to confess to skinny dipping which I absolutely love. Here was the view from my sun lounger. I couldn't have felt more content.

I had the pool to myself on Thursday afternoon

Here too is Pippa enjoying lying next to me. But she is not into skinny dipping as she hates water bless her. All she ever wants is to be with me. She makes me feel very much loved. 

Pippa next to me on another sun bed by the pool on Thursday afternoon

I felt content with the world. So did a French lady called Marie who had just checked into our apartment by the coast. These were her words. "Oui merci .l appartement est très bien et il y a tout le confort  .nous serions bien resté 2 jours de plus  ! merci". I didn't need Google Translate to understand or reply as the French was quite easy.  She wasn't alone as a Dutchman too, called Dick, who had just checked into our house in Asturias, also happy. He said the place was great. Those are fine words from a Dutchman. I find the Dutch are some of the most demanding guests. So that was two more  satisfied customers. Way to go Masha. 

My rental  work means I have to be available literally 24 h a day. Well, that night at around 2 in the morning I woke up and saw three or four messages on the Airbnb app which I had to respond to. I could have waited till the morning but I am unable to. Part of my customer satisfaction objective is to answer immediately whatever the time of day or night. I wonder if these enquiries will turn into confirmed reservations and more satisfied customers. We shall see. 

Friday dawned and Eladio reminded me we had abandoned our daily walks. He is right. But it is far too hot. Thus we agreed that from Saturday we would resume them but go out early. We did some food shopping for yesterday's barbecue which included coffee at Manolo Bakes this time. 

It was a horribly hot day again but as our French couple were out I bagged the pool again for myself and Pippa and spent most of the afternoon reading in the shade and skinny dipping a couple of times. Friday was of course the Glorious 12th when the shooting season starts in Scotland, not that I like shooting of any kind. I don't at all. 

Friday 12th would have been Bruce, Zuka's husband's  birthday. He sadly died aged just 59 on 11th May 2003 before retirement. How cruel is that I ask myself? I cannot imagine being in my dear cousin's shoes and thank my lucky stars my husband is in good health. Bruce would have turned 77 this month  the same age as Eladio.

Who is not is the Indian Muslim born author Salman Rushdie of the Satanic Verses fame. He published this book in the 80's and the Iranian government issued a fatwa whereby he had to live in hiding for 16 years. On Friday he was finally caught up with while talking about writers' freedom of speech in New York when a fanatic came up on the stage and stabbed him 16 times. I moan about wokeism and freedom of speech, but at least the woke fanatics don't issue fatwas. Today as I write Rushdie is on a ventilator and unable to speak. I only hope he survives and is not silenced forever. 

Saturday was the highlight of the week by far. Oli and family were coming for a barbecue and also we were to be reunited with "our French family" with Peggy and Jerome and their little daughter Marianne. They are from Normandy and stayed with us for 3 weeks in 2018. We have never forgotten their stay and I was delighted when Peggy asked to come again this August. Marianne was 8 at the time and I wondered how she had changed. I wondered too if she had learned English meanwhile or would I have to make the effort of trying to talk to her in French. I knew she would be upset that Norah and Elsa are no longer with us, our Beagle and Labrador, she fell in love with when she came 4 years ago. She was a wee bit frightened of Pippa who barks a lot and I hoped they would get along better this time. They did and they do, thankfully. 

We spent part of yesterday morning preparing their rooms and lunch of course. Oli and family arrived at around 1.45 and by 2 my French family were here. There were tears of emotion in Marianne's eyes as I hugged her. She was delighted to be back and I was delighted to have her back. She is now 12 and is beautiful but still a child and such a positive one. Marianne was happy to meet my grandchildren and it turns out she loves babies so she was in her element. After greeting dear Peggy and Jerome like old friends, we left them to settle in while we had our barbecue.

Barbecue on the go yesterday - notice the dry grass

All was good except for the damned flies as yesterday was a balmy and cloudy day, the type of day that attracts flies the most. Hate them. Today a new electronic device is arriving that hopefully will put an end to that fight - flies and wasps at the table outside in the summer. Here we are all sitting down to enjoy the meat cooked by Eladio. 

Yesterday's family barbecue lunch

It was great to have Oli and family for lunch - it had been a while. The children didn't partake too much in the barbecue food but Elliot enjoyed his ice cream of which he had 3 portions at least. We later convened to the pool where for once it wasn't too hot and the sky was cloudy. What a breather. We were joined by Marianne after I had called her. Her parents had gone shopping and she was under strict instructions to stay in her room and not bother us which is what I suspected so I went to rescue her. She was delighted and so were we. 

As it turns out I have to speak to her in French as does Oli which is challenging but doable. Whenever we don't know a word we look it up on Google Translate. She is an excellent French teacher and was teaching us words that have double uses, such as "mure" and "mur" (ripe and wall) with the same pronunciation. She also pointed out to me that the word mango is "mangue" and that a towel is called "serviette". Before coming here she had been staying in the Basque Country with her parents so we asked her about the Gironde fire and whether she had smelled it. That's where we got stuck as neither Oli nor I knew the words for putting out a fire. With great patience she told us the word was éteindre (un incendie) not to be confused with "étendre" (le linge - hanging out the washing). We were both impressed with her skills at teaching us French. Elliot was even more impressed to hear this beautiful young girl talking in perfect French which he recognised from one of his favourite TV series - a French series called Lady Bug where the main character (Lady Bug) is Marinette. I think he thought she actually was Marinette which we all thought was hilarious. 

Oli and co left quite early and our French family went out to dinner just as the young French couple returned. It was their last night with us and although I had my doubts at the beginning they were more than excellent guests. Aged just 18 Emma was the cleanest and most organised guest I have ever seen. Her boyfriend, Tom, who is her first love (how sweet) and with whom she has been going out with since she was 14, was equally clean, respectful and organised. They even asked for materials to clean their room during their stay. They even bought products which we provide for free such as bin liners, washing up liquid, kitchen roll, etc and which they left behind. I was amazed too to see them cleaning the shelves where they had kept their food. They left early this morning at 6.30 am and I really hope to see them again. I even think my French has improved since they came to stay. Thank you Emma and Tom, it has been a pleasure.

Today my friends it is Sunday again. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to notice it was so much cooler outside and our walk today should be much more pleasant.

I look forward to a quiet Sunday. Next week I will be writing from the north coast again, this time from A Guarda in Galicia. We are going on our annual anniversary trip and this year it is to Galicia and Oporto after which we shall be going to our house in Asturias for a few days. I'm so looking forward to hitting the road again.

Meanwhile, I wish you all the best and hope that if you are on holiday you are having a good time.

Cheers till next week,

Masha

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