Registered to vote in the UK - hurray, spring weather in January, a morning in Boadilla village, lunch out and other tales of the week.

 Sunday, 28th January, 2024

A warn and sunny walk on Wednesday morning 

Good morning friends and readers. What a warm and sunny week it has been. The temperatures have been more like April or May and several records have been broken for January. That's great of course but worrying too. It the temperature reached 29ºc in Murcia and 27ºc in Valencia this week, what will the weather will be like in the summer?  Unbearably hot. Spain will one day be a desert, no doubt. Selfishly thinking, we could always move north. But even in Asturias this week it reached 21c. 

On the world's stage, war continues in Ukraine and in Gaza. What can I say? I am sick of it. But we have the great privilege of living in Western Europe and in the EU, where things are relatively safe. My heart goes out to those whose lives have been taken or those who have lost their loved ones, not to mention their homes. This week our dear friends, Kathy and Phil, practically lost their lovely Victorian house in Keighley, West Yorkshire. They come home from a Winter break in Barcelona to find the house completely flooded from burst pipes in the attic. Their house is ruined, down to the very brick of its walls. I cannot imagine their shock. The insurance people are doing their best, but it looks like they will have to spend a year in lodgings until the house is fit for living in again. My heart goes out to them too. What an awful thing to happen. It happened to us once  in our previous house in Boadilla (Río Tajo 5). We came home to a burst pipe with water gushing out but it was in the basement not the top floor. We commented this week, thank God we have someone living here all the time when we are absent. Maybe the solution in the future is just to switch the water off. We do that in our house in Montrondo. 

Last Sunday we had Oli and the kids round for lunch. They duly arrived as I was in the middle of making roast lamb. Elliot was apparently ill and had been diagnosed with a strep throat. The correct term for this bacteria is "streptococcus" which sounds quite dangerous if not treated. He had been prescribed antibiotics in a child like strawberry tasting mixture. But, he refused to be given it. He has always refused medicine. We tried as best we could but it didn't work. He also refused up until a short while ago to have his hair cut.The alternative was to force him physically and none of us had the heart to do that. So, I hope his body will be able to get rid of the strep naturally. A while back he had a very painful ear infection and preferred the pain to taking medicine. When I was a child I remember biting doctors who tried to come anywhere near me. So maybe I am in no position to correct his behaviour, not that he would let me as he has  a mind of his own. 

The afternoon was quiet but interrupted by yet another horrible and recriminatory Whatsapp message. What had we done this time? It made me very upset and put off any desire to go away to Asturias the next day which had been our plan. 

Monday came and brought with it news in the form of an email with an attached letter from Bradford City Council. It was to confirm I can now vote again in the UK. This comes after my application sent last week following the new law that finally allows overseas UK citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years to vote again. This was it. 

The letter from Bradford City Council confirming I am now registered to vote in the UK as an overseas elector for Bradford West. 

I was given the option of using a proxy to vote on my behalf which I suppose must be someone in the same constituency, so I opted to be registered as a postal voter. Although to tell the truth I would far prefer to be able to vote in person. I tried to think who I voted for the last time I went to the polling station which used to be in Shipley. It must have been Edward Heath or Margaret Thatcher!  I have always voted Conservative but my God, I won't be this time. Not that Labour is any great alternative. But at least I have my suffrage rights back; finally!

On that happy note we went to Ikea that morning to buy a small desk for Oli's room which is now being used by Maria. She needs one and so do future guests. I love Ikea don't you? I was a bit cross with them though that day as they wouldn't sell me 8 plates which were on exhibition and not for sale. Honestly what do they do with all their exhibition stuff I wonder?

The highlight of the day was my Skype call with Amanda where we discussed my new voting rights and who we voted for back in the day. 

Tuesday brought another awful Whatsapp audio message which we have to live with. Of note we went out for coffee and did some more food shopping. To cheer us up I booked a night at the Parador in La Granja de Segovia. I took them up on a St. Valentine's romantic package. This is what it includes.

The Paradors' St. Valentine's offer

If you have not heard of Paradors, they are state run hotel like establishments with a difference. Most of them are housed in historical buildings and they are usually synonymous with quality. Now we have something to look forward to. 

I spent most of the afternoon waiting for a new guest, 18 year old Gabriela and her aunt. Instead of taking a taxi from the airport they decided on public transport which is not easy as there is no direct route. My listing highlights the fact that public transport is scarce and that a car is essential but people either don't read or care. Later in the week they were using scooters to get about. 

Wednesday was 24th January. I love the 24th day of the month as it is pension day. Thanks to always having paid the maximum tax contribution I now enjoy the maximum pension as does Eladio. Recently a financial journalist friend accused me of not having saved into a pension fund or not having saved money. I was a bit taken aback.  No we didn't, we preferred to invest in bricks and mortar. We never understood financial services, stocks and shares or any of that but we do understand buying and selling houses. So they are our pension fund. 

Wednesday saw us on a lovely sunny walk, as you can see in the feature photo above. Later Eladio got on with the job of mounting the Ikea table and I caught him on camera.

Eladio mounting a new desk for Oli's room

He finished in later in the week and this is what it looks like. It's functional and small, but the only one we could find which would fit in the only space available.

A new desk for our guests

Thursday was just as quiet as the rest of the week.  We went for a coffee and sat outside but not in the sun as it was too hot - in January! The weather is unbelievable right now and I dread to think what the summer will be like. We spoke this time of this year's trip. Eladio is not that keen on doing 13,000 kilometres again although I am. The alternative is a trip far away by plane. He suggested Vietnam and I added Cambodia and Laos. That is a region we would both love to go to so stay tuned.  But it's not a region we know much about except for its history of war during our youth, so I must do some research. I am also tempted by Mongolia. Thus the world is our oyster and aren't we lucky that it is?

I finished the whole of Downton Abbey that day and now feel orphaned. I will miss the characters so much. I turned to Call the Midwife Season 13 on the BBC iPlayer which I love but not as much as "Downton". I am obsessed with life at the beginning of the last century. Whenever I saw the year on the screen, such as 1924, my first thought was "oh my father would have been 5 years old". He lived through that era and the war and life has changed so much. Here is a photo of the family on their pony and trap taken in 1923. How  different a life it was for him in 2021 when he died. He could never have imagined all that was to come, neither could have my grandfather born in 1887 in Anglesey, Wales. 

My father, his brother Raymond and parents Canon John Lloyd and Dorothy Gertrude Scull on their pony (Tommy) and trap in 1923 - Probably taken in Amington, near Tamworhth, former Staffordshire, where my father was born. 

My father had written the details on the back including the name of the pony which was Tommy!  I treasure that photo. By 1926, my grandfather had a car which he must have bought when they moved to Sledmere (Yorkshire). This is it, outside the rectory which we were lucky to visit on my trip down memory lane in 2019. I think it is a "Morris Cowley". 

My grandather's car in 1926 - photo taken outside the rectory in Sledmere, in the "East Riding" of Yorkshire

From what I gathered from my father and from writing his biography, my grandfather was a very modern man for his times. I do think these photos are very Downton. Maybe, now you understand my obsession. 

Friday came, another very sunny day. I slept reasonably well that night. We had a full house of guests; Maria from Galicia, Gabriela and her aunt from Colombia, an absent Inés from Portugal, Leticia from Burgos and Mohammad from Iraq. Today we shall be full house too when 3 Moroccan guests arrive occupying "Andy's room" which is now being renamed as "Leticia's room". 

I woke up thinking I would like to do something different that day as we are rather in a rut with out routines. So I suggested we go for a walk in the old part of Boadilla - nearby village, have coffee there and then lunch out. I booked a table at one of my favourite restaurants, De María in Majadahonda. It's an Argentinian steak house right across the road from the Atlético de Madrid playing fields, so full of football people and quite expensive.

We had a glorious morning. Coffee time was in the old square opposite a medieval church with three or four pairs of storks. I caught Eladio on camera in a rather nice photo I think, don't you?

Coffee time in Boadilla on Friday

From there we walked into the Infante Don Luis Palace gardens which are open all year round. Here is a picture to record that visit. We always wish the palace was more than a façade and used for a purpose but I suppose that would be too much for the village finances.

In the gardens of the palace in Boadilla del Monte

It was built by Infante Don Luis de Borbon, brother of King Charles III, in 1765 and the architect was Ventura Rodríguez, the most famous of those times. The palace and gardens and outer buildings dominate the historic centre of Boadilla, just 15km from Madrid. We walked out of the gardens and instead of heading to the park which we know so well, we took another path, which takes you past allotments and other palace buildings, such as the one Eladio is posing next to in this picture.

Enjoying the weather in Boadilla on Friday

We have lived in or near Boadilla since 1988, yet had never been on that path. When our walk ended it was time to drive to the restaurant in Majadahonda for lunch. 

We sat outside on the terrace; a luxury in January. Here is Eladio studying the menu. After Covid most menus are QR codes - something my father would never have fathomed, hahahaha. 

Eladio studying the menu at De María on Friday

They give you so many extras  at De Maria, we decided to go for just one course each and we couldn't even finish that. The older you get the less you can eat; unless it's chocolate or ice cream, in my case, hahahaha.

We came home to have a delicious siesta, except that I couldn't sleep. In any case we had had a lovely and different sort of day; a day to remember.

Yesterday, Saturday, was another warm and sunny day. We should have gone for a walk but instead drove into Boadilla, to the modern part, far away from the village itself, to have coffee at Manacor. Manacor is our latest favourite coffee haunt. I love Alveran, but OMG, their service is so slow. We sat for an hour on the terrace savouring our coffee (well, me at least) discussing our worries about our daughter Suzy. We go round and round in circles talking but we can't do anything. If last week I wrote we had lent her the Volvo, this week she told us she doesn't want it and that, according to her, it's not working. What has gone wrong?  We shall have to drive to Santa Pola in the Mini to find out.

Today is the last Sunday of January. Oli and the kids are coming for lunch as Miguel has been sent by TVE to Benidorm for 8 days. It's to cover some ghastly festival where they choose the candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest. That means that this week we shall be on grandchildren duty and will have to take them to school on Wednesday and Thursday. Otherwise, no doubt, we would have gone to Asturias as the good weather is going to continue. We will go one day soon and I look forward to that. I have always thought it's important to have something to look forward to. 

But I must leave you now as I have to get on with the day and start preparing the lunch too. 

Cheers then until next Sunday,

Masha