Israeli Hamas war, journey back from Santa Pola, home again, rainiest day in Madrid in a century, time out in the city, Juliet in her flamenco dress as well as other stories.

Sunday, 22nd October, 2023

Wearing my new black and white spotted rain coat bought in sunny Santa Pola. I didn't expect to wear it so soon. 

Good morning friends and readers. 

As I write, top of my mind is the escalating war between Israel and Gaza or rather Hamas, the fanatical terrorist group that attacked Israel on 8th October last. You all know what happened. The militants broke the barrier into Israeli territory and went on the rampage, killing over 250 at a music festival and killing and kidnapping civilians at a kibbutz. Hamas now holds some 199 hostages, many of them children and old people although for some unknown reason, 2 were released this week.  Hamas wants to destroy the state of Israel and Israel wants to defend itself as well as take revenge for the terrible attacks the government never saw coming. Now Israel has warned over a million people from Gaza to leave their homes and go south. Most of them have and are stuck at Rafah,the border between Gaza and Egypt which, for the moment, remains closed.  Meanwhile, the US is rushing to avoid a catastrophe and begging Israel to open up a humanitarian corridor to get help to the Gazan population.  After some pressure it relented slightly and just a handful of lorries were allowed through on Friday, but no people. The international community are asking Israel to keep to the rules of war and not aim at civilians. They are also asking them to switch back on essential services; electricity, water and gas, Hamas has asked for the release of 6000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the kidnapped Israelis. This week saw the bombing of a hospital  in Gaza which Israel was blamed for but denied. So who did it? The Palestinians on their own people? The situation is dire to say the least. There have been outbursts of violence in countries in Europe, some of which are on high alert. On Monday this week 2 Swedish football fans were killed by an Arab militant which put Belgium on high alert. It is not thought to be related to the Israeli Hamas war but deep down it probably is. The US is Israel's biggest ally. Other countries are not so clear about where their loyalties lie. In Spain we have a left wing government in coalition with a Communist party called Podemos. Podemos always puts the spoke in the oar and last week its spokesperson, a woman I can't stand, Belarra, said "Israel is carrying out a planned genocide" and called on Spanish citizens to take the matter to the streets. That will have left the PM, Pedro Sánchez, in a difficult diplomatic position with Israel, not to mention with the EU. 

Meanwhile, life continues, as it does. Last Sunday saw me having breakfast with Sandra, my Uni friend who lives in Brussels. We left early after saying goodbye to Suzy, whom I haven't heard from since then. Sandie had an early flight. We had to say a quick goodbye at the airport and I left at around 9.15 am. I had a long solo drive ahead of me, nearly 5 hours. I do not like driving on motorways, nor do I like driving solo. I never have. But after our 50 day road trip, I am much more at ease at the wheel. I took it as calmly as I could and stopped twice, once for petrol and a second time for a coffee and croissant. For the record that cost me 3.90 euros compared to the 5.50 euros we were charged at the beach bar in Santa Pola the week before!

I was home just after 2 pm and delighted to see Pippa (first) and then my wonderful husband who had missed my company for 10 days. But he had survived, thanks in part to Tana who made his meals. He and Tana took care of the guests in my absence and all went well. I met a new guest, Martin, from Bristol, where my father once lived. His family lived in Henbury where my grandfather was the parish priest at St. Mary's. I am always very proud to say my father went to the famous school, Clifton College. Martin stayed in my father's room which we have baptised "the book room" and loved reading my biography, the book I wrote when my father turned 100.

After unpacking I had a rest and did not do much that afternoon and evening. I was feeling pretty tired after such a long drive.

Monday came and it felt good to be home again but I missed my friends Adele and Sandra and after 10 days away, doing what we wanted, I felt a little displaced. I also missed the warm weather. It hasn't been cold here but never as warm as in Santa Pola. No wonder tourists and retired people flock to the Costa Blanca. We went on our morning walk and had a simple lunch of fish and potato pure, courtesy of Tana, bless her. 

Martin left that morning and a new guest arrived, Daniel from Mexico. He came a little lost, like many of my young Latin American students. His first need was a local sim card and something to eat. Eladio drove him to Carls Jr. an American hamburger joint for which I was grateful as those sort of tasks usually fall to me.

The day ended quietly with dinner in the dining room and watching the news - all about the Israeli-Hamas war. It has overshadowed the war in Ukraine which no doubt will be delighting Putin. I slept on and off but managed to get enough hours' sleep and got up at 7.45 on Tuesday morning.

I woke up to the news of the terrorist killing in Brussels and immediately wrote to my friend Sandra who lives there. She was appalled and so is the world. That day I was expecting a group of 4 from China and wondered what sort of guests they would be. Much of the morning was spent preparing the rooms - thank you Tana. 

Eladio and I had errands to do. My dear husband was wearing the new polo shirt I had bought him at the Santa Pola market. It looked so lovely on him I had to have a photo.

Eladio wearing the new polo shirt I bought him at the Santa Pola market

He was standing under the newly repaired car port which he was very pleased about. I wasn't too pleased at the cost, hahahaha.

What did please me was seeing most of my roses in bloom which I think is unusual for October. Here are just some of them  in a picture I took as Eladio pulled the car out of the car port.

Roses in October

It was shopping morning but as it was already late, past 11.30 am, we headed straight to Alverán for our morning coffee. My husband took a photo of me with my cappuccino which I love.

Coffee at Alverán

It was good to be back at Alverán and good to be back with my husband. I had missed him. 10 days is a long time to be apart.

We shopped at Mercadona, Carrefour and BM and were home by 1.30, just on time to put everything away, have lunch and greet our Chinese guests who were arriving at 3 pm,

I went out to greet them. There were 2 women and a couple and 2 cars. I showed them their rooms and also gave a lesson to Yao on how to use Whatsapp - forbidden in China. He asked all sorts of questions which are all answered in my guest hand guide that no one reads. The main questions were the wifi password, where to do the food shopping, the best place to park in Madrid and where the best clothes shopping centres are - all in my guide book. They came with more food than we had bought that morning and I had to switch on  the extra fridge on the ground floor. They were given strict instructions to leave all the decks clear in the kitchen. I'm a bit OCD about tidiness and cleanliness. My father used to say "cleanliness is next to Godliness". 

Finally I was able to get away and have some alone time watching the final episodes of Season 6 of The Good Doctor until it was time for my Skype call with dear Amanda. It was so good to see and hear her and catch up on each other's news since we last spoke quite a while ago.

It was after dinner while watching the news that we heard of the bombing of the hospital in Gaza. Everyone was blaming Israel until the IDF denied its implication. In any case, it was awful. I did not sleep badly that night and woke up to rain on Wednesday morning. 

It rained on and off but we managed our morning walk. The rest of the day was very quiet which is quite amazing to consider we had 7 guests in the house - for the record, from Canada, Peru, Mexico and China. Eladio and I still feel amazed at how our lives have changed, sharing our enormous house with people from all over the globe. 

It was on Wednesday that 79 year old President Joe Biden who is looking pretty gaga, visited Israel. It came a few hours after the hospital blast. Because of this the Arab leaders he was supposed to have talks with cancelled their meetings. In summary he reinforced his support of Israel, stated that the bombing of the hospital was the work of the "other team" and only one real tangible came out of the visit. He got Israel to agree to open an humanitarian corridor between Egypt and Palestine. He then went home, no doubt a bit unsure of the success of his visit. The Americans are doing all they can so as not to involve Hezbollah in the war but I think their efforts are in vain. 

That day I finished The Good Doctor and turned to the BBC iPlayer to watch The Reckoning. It's a four part drama series that uncovers the life of creepy horrible Jimmy Saville. He duped and groomed many victims. As one of them said "he groomed a nation". But he didn't groom me. I never liked him. I remember him from Top of the Pops, Jim'll Fix it but above all from the advert about wearing seat belts "clunk click every trip". I would have been 7 when he was the presenter for Top of the Pops and even then I found him repulsive and creepy. What on earth did the programme directors see in him? Didn't they see the predator I saw as a 7 year old? No they didn't or if they did, they turned an eye. I am finding it heavy going and rather horrible. I'm not sure I want to finish it. He is the modern day Russel Brand who also duped the nation as well as my daughter, Suzy, who is an avid follower and doesn't see the evil in him. If only, ..... I hope he is imprisoned and stays locked up forever as Saville should have been. 

Thursday came and brought rain in abundance. Oh how I missed the good weather in Santa Pola. We had incredible weather there. Here in Madrid, the "summer" is over and next weekend the clocks will go back which for is the first sign of winter. Isn't it funny how important weather is? It go so bad that at the end of the day it was reported that Thursday 19th October went down in history as the rainiest day in Madrid in 100 years with over 114 litres/m2. of rain registered between 9 am and 7 pm.  All this was caused by Storm Aline. Storms these days are often called "Danas". Why can't we just use weather vocab we have always used I ask myself? I stayed at home all day so missed the chaos of closed roads and metro stations and general traffic chaos.

The rain in Madrid on Thursday caused traffic chaos and flooded the metro. 

Eladio went out in the afternoon for an appointment and told me he drove through a huge puddle that reached as high as the car door. He came back another route. As my friend Adele said; good for the earth, not so good for morale.  For sure it felt as if last week in Santa Pola was the end of the summer for me, at least. Oh how I miss the sun there. 

In Spain when it's bad weather, Spaniards, unlike the English, do not normally venture out. There is a saying called "sofa y manta" meaning the sofa and a blanket. People often add the word "peli", meaning a film. Thus Thursday saw me on my bed with a blanket watching the telly in the afternoon as there was not much else to do or if there was I didn't feel like it.

The house was full of guests but I hardly saw any. I felt sorry for my Chinese guests who were visiting Madrid on the rainiest day in a century. They probably went out shopping as that, apparently is one of the main reasons the Chinese visit Madrid. It's not the Prado, but big shopping centres where they can buy cut price top brand clothing. I don't give a damn about designer clothes, far preferring Zara, H&M, Primark, Marks and Spencer and even Decathlon and, of course, local markets. I love those. 

Another huge rainfall was forecast for Friday, again robbing us of our walk but it didn't happen. I had another nasty letter from the tax people that morning. They are digging into my tax returns for the last 5 years and I am forking out an awful lot. This is in part due to new laws but maybe to the incompetence of my accountant. But I refused to let it spoil my day. So off we went to the local churros place for a coffee (and a porra). For the occasion I wore my lovely new black and white spotted rain coat which I had bought at a boutique in sunny Santa Pola. You may remember the story of a spontaneous fun moment there with me and two other women trying on and buying the same coat. I did not expect to wear it so soon but it made me feel good and I got my patient husband to take some pics which are this week's feature photos. I especially like the back of it. PS the shop is called "El armario de Carlitos". 

We had guests coming and going that day - 8 in total. Cole, our Canadian boy went off to San Sebastian for the weekend as I could not accommodate him. He will be back tomorrow and staying till the end of the month and the whole of November. A young couple from Vitoria came that day and at around 3ish we greeted them and gave them the usual house tour. I know it backwards now. 

Only then were we able to rest for a while but not too long as that afternoon I had got an appointment for Eladio's Covid booster jab, his 5th. As he is an ex civil servant his health policy is private and comes from "Muface" and the system is different for "mutualistas". Most people, like me, have a public health policy; although I have both, state and private. With the public health system, getting the new Covid and flu jab is a doddle. All you need is an appointment at your local health system. Mine is on Monday near where we live. But for civil servant pensioners like Eladio the system for both the flu and covid jab is Kafkian like. To cut a long story short I finally found a way of getting him an appointment at the now famous Hospital Isabel Zenda - built during Covid. The problem is it is nearly 50km from home. Once there we were told that over 65s did not need an appointment. This annoyed me as I was told otherwise. Here he is after his booster Pfizer jab for the Omicrom version. I asked him to pose especially for this post.

Eladio after his jab

He now has to get a flu jab. If only he could have had both at the same hospital. We had a long drive home in the dark but were rewarded with a lovely dinner. I had made cream of broccoli soup and some new perushkis (Russian meat patties). We ate in the quiet of our dining room while the Chinese family invaded our kitchen. They made the strangest of meals. 

We had plans for the weekend; quite unusual for us. On Saturday we were going to the St. George's Anglican Church Jumble Sale. 

We went to this jumble sale yesterday

You may remember that it was St. George's Anglican church that I organised my father's first funeral in Spain in November 2021. My father wasn't interested in jumble sales but my mother and I loved them. 

 As a child she took me to many. I remember going to one in Ruskington when I must have been 4, 5 or 6 and buying some grown up high heeled shoes to play in! That reminded me I had to give Juliet her flamenco dress and shoes (with small heels) I had bought at the market in Santa Pola which I knew she would love. We were having dinner with  Oli and family  last night so I was up early as I had so much to do.

After breakfast and a shower, I drove quickly to Mercadona to get more pastry and was home to make the last of the pies to take to Oli's last night. At 10 am Eladio and I left and drove to the nearest metro station where we parked our car. We then took the metro to Velázquez, a very chic part of Madrid. We met Eladio's brother and wife, Toño and Dolores outside the church. Dolores and I went in and the men went for a walk. We were both a bit disappointed with what was on sale, a lot less than other times. But I managed to get some second hand toys for the children.

We then headed to my favourite patisserie in the city, Balbisiana, as good as the best in Paris or Brussels. It is run by a friend of a friend called Paula who started making cakes as a child. What a place she has made. She now has quite a few in the city but the one in Velázquez was the first. Just look at their cakes.

Irresistible cakes and pastries at Balbisiana

We sat over a lovely cup of cappuccino accompanied by a delicious chocolate truffle. Just look.

Coffee and truffles at Balbisiana yesterday

We left at around 13h but not without having a photo taken outside to record the moment. I had also bought some truffles and cakes to take home. I couldn't resist them.

Leaving Balbisiana yesterday

I have to say it was nice to be out and about in Madrid yesterday, lovely to see Dolores and Toño and to have coffee at Balbisiana. We will be seeing them again today as we are going to have lunch at their house. Not sure if you know but we used to live in the same block of flats when we got married. We lived there from 1983 to 1988 when we moved to a proper house outside the capital. Going there is like going back to our past, where it all began. 

On our way home I got a message from Olivia. Very coincidentally, she was also in Calle Velázquez and we had missed her by about 2 minutes. My youngest daughter was going to a lunch with her friends from St. Michael's school. It was a 20th anniversary  reunion organised by one of her classmates, Zeus. I always remember him doing badly academically at school and being a bit bullied by the teachers but today, oh my goodness, he is the most successful of them all. His parents ran a very famous chain of hairdressers so he comes from a family of entrepeneurs. One of his many businesses is a chain of 18 restaurants in various countries called Sushita. The reunion was held at the one in Velázquez, Márques de Sushita, right across the road from Balbisiana. Oli said she had a wonderful time. She sat next to her best friends, Sonia and Paula whom I have known since they were little girls. She came back saying that they all commented how happy they were at the school. This, is a photo I got of the group lunch. How lovely for them all.

Oli's 20th anniversary school lunch yesterday. What fun she had

She had left Elliot and Juliet with Miguel's mother as he was away in Navarra and won't be back until today. We hadn't seen the kids since before I went to Santa Pola so went round for dinner last night which consisted of  more of my broccoli soup and perushki. It was great to see little Elliot and Juliet. He was wearing an awful "Venom" suit (some TV character) and he greeted us at the door with a big scream to frighten us, hahaha.

Elliot dressed as Venom, some character from Marvel pictures. 

He has lots of these types of costumes but Juliet has none, so I was delighted to give her the flamenco dress and shoes I had bought her at the market in Santa Pola. Here she is looking at herself in the mirror feeling not quite sure.

Juliet in her flamenco dress

Both Oli and I were reminded of little Ruby, our New Zealand cousin, who came here with her parents in 2010 when she was about 3. Her parents bought her a flamenco outfit in Madrid just like Juliet's. It's amazing to think she is now 15. I dug out the photo to share with the family and you. Here it is.

Ruby with her brothers Luc (left) and Sam in 2010 in her flamenco dress and shoes, just like Juliet yesterday

Dinner with the family was a bit chaotic but a lot of fun. We left rather exhausted at around 10 pm and came home to quite a quiet house considering we had 8 guests last night.

Today is Sunday again and we have 2 social engagements; coffee with Oli and the kids and lunch in town. You will read all about it in next week's post.

Cheers till then, Masha