Montrondo, Sunday, 20th July, 2024
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| In Llanes on Monday by the El Sablón Beach - lovely to be back. |
There was a lot to do last Sunday too. I had guests leaving and guests coming but I was short of a room which was a headache. There had been a huge leak in the shower in my father's old room, the one Mohammad and Sarang shared. I had no idea what damage it had done. The insurance people came the Friday before but would be sending plumbers, bricklayers and painters to fix the damage. The problem was I had people coming on Monday to that very room which was unusable. Thankfully, a guest who had booked another room had told me he had to go elsewhere as his event venue had changed but he never cancelled. What a nightmare for me. It worried me all day and all night. Sometimes, I just want to throw the business out of the window and go and live somewhere smaller where I have no guest issues. In the end I always solve them though.
That rather spoiled my Sunday. That day was of much importance to France as it was the second round of their snap elections called by Macron which the far right had won in the first round. The French, though, rallied round to make sure they didn't win this time with their "barrage". I spoke to my French guest, Sylvie about the elections and she assured me the "barrage" would work. She was right. But she wasn't right when she said the left wing group wouldn't really get anywhere.
On Monday, Sylvie and most of France were probably relieved Marie Le Pen's National Rally party were outvoted by the different coalitions. But they were also surprised to see that the Left Wing group, the New Popular Front, theoretically won the elections. Macron's Ensemble Alliance did better than predicted but not enough to govern. None of the 3 groups have enough to govern. Thus France has a hung parliament. No one knows how it will pan out. I don't either but am relieved the far right will not govern. The word in French is "ouf", I suppose - "phew". The whole thing was touch and go and it's not yet over. Probably nothing will be sorted until August, after the Paris Olympics.
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| Hung Parliament in France after the second round of elections last Sunday |
We were leaving for Asturias on Monday but were both worried about the room being ready for new guests and also for the new TVs to be installed properly on the walls in two of the rooms. While we were driving the 500km journey we were both constantly on the phone dealing with all sorts of tradesmen. The highlight of the day was lunch at an unknown place not far from Simancas (Valladolid) which turned out to be great. Lunch at Hotel La Colina was surprisingly good at 15 euros each for the menu of the day. We shall be going again next time we drive to Asturias.
We were in our new or rather old house in El Cuetu by about 5.30 and it was good to be back. Guests had left a few days before and new guests are coming today. Then it will be non stop till the end of August. Thus we had to get provisions for the housekeeper and cleaner which is now Lucía, Loli's daughter who, unfortunately, is not very well.
I had brought food just to start us off as I didn't want to leave Tana with bare cupboards. I slept well, for me, that night and woke up on Tuesday morning at 6.30 after 6.5h sleep which I consider rather good.
Coffee was at La Galerna, as always and as always I had to have a photo taken. It's a place that makes me happy.
One of our first tasks was to change the plants on the terrace; mainly hydrangea and geraniums. They were nearly all dead which figures. Before going to the garden centre in Cue, we stopped in Llanes to have coffee and get some cash from the hole in the wall. We parked right by the lovely El Sablón beach, the main town beach in pretty Llanes. It was nice weather and if we hadn't been busy, I wouldn't have minded spending time there. All we could do was take photos, like the one I have chosen for this week's feature photo. Here is another one.
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| In Llanes on Tuesday morning |
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| Coffee at La Galerna in Llanes on Tuesday |
I would have loved to go to the local market which is open on Tuesdays but we had to continue our way to Cue to get the flowers. As we do every year, we spent a fortune and that day bought 14 hydrangeas and 20 geraniums, the planting of which would keep Eladio busy that afternoon.
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| Eladio planted all the new hydrangeas and geraniums |
It was too late to do the shopping so we left it till Wednesday and drove home for lunch which I somehow conjured up with not many ingredients.
We had been expecting rain all day and it came in the early evening. That's not unusual in Asturias - part of Spain's green coast and it was rather a relief from the heat in Madrid. It was a pity though that we couldn't sit outside on the terrace with the new flowers.
That night was "the match" - the Euro Cup football semi final between Spain and France. We tested the old TV before watching it and decided, with a heavy heart, we would have to invest in a new one. The frequencies have changed and even with a decoder I couldn't get it to work. Actually we couldn't find the one we had bought in March. Who the hell had taken it? Things always go missing there. Guests steal. It is a fact and that's why we can't have anything valuable or pretty to attract petty thieves. Thankfully the only channel that worked was TVE1 where they were broadcasting the match. Another TV, really?
There was another match I was more interested in. It was Carlos Alcaraz playing in the Last 16 at Wimbledon. He then met Medvedev - a repeat of last year's Semis, who had beaten Sinner but only really because the Italian was ill or so I understood. Carlitos won Wimbledon last year and recently won the French Open, so he could do it again but first needed permission from the Russian Medvedev which he got. But today he faces Djokovic, a repeat of last year's final. That day I had one eye on Wimbledon and one eye on the Euro Cup. So did Carlitos whose first words after winning were about the Spain France match.
We had a break before the football. The pie and cecina from Aramburu we had for dinner were delicious. At 9 pm we were in our small lounge with the TV on about to watch the most important match for Spain in the Euro Cup tournament, against Les Bleues. You have to admit it, Spain had the most difficult path of all teams to get this far. They had to beat Croatia, Italy and Germany (on their home turf) and then France, one of the favourites. France is always Spain's "bête noire" and with Mbappe even more so. But Spain has its own amazing players including the newbies Nico Williams (21) and the youngest player in the tournament, Lamine Yamal who turned 17 yesterday, just a day ahead of the final. He has been continually praised and even more so when he scored an incredible equaliser early in the game. It was Dani del Olmo, yet again, who scored next for Spain to reach 2-1. They held the score till the whistle blew and then they were through to the final. Spain can be proud of their squad. And man of the match was the young Lamine, the youngest scorer ever in a Euro Cup. Deservedly, he was given the MOTM award.
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| 16 year old Lamine Yamal, Man of the match in the semi finals against Les Bleues |
What a win for Spain. There are a lot of wins for Spain in many sports. It's funny how the country has progressed so much in the last decades to become a force in football, tennis, cycling and many sports. It used to be just golf thanks to Severiano Ballesteros. Somehow you don't think of Spain as a country good at sport but the reality is there. We saw it this week at both Wimbledon and in Germany. Today is a great day for Spain - we are in the Euro Cup final and in the Wimbledon final. Carlitos Alcaraz made it again and will play Djokovic again. It's strange that the Spanish press does not give much attention to Wimbledon. Unless you have pay per view, you can't even see the matches. I think Carlos Alcaraz gets more international media attention than Spanish. I suppose that's because Wimbledon is not what it is for the Spaniards, like it is for the English. While most of England will be glued to the TV this afternoon, very few Spaniards will be watching.
I told Eladio that if we didn't have a house in the area I would love to stay at that hotel.
I didn't sleep well that night; just 5h but had slept on the TV lounge after the match so maybe it was a bit more. On Wednesday we had lots to do. The first would be to buy another television. We also had to get a couple of things that had gone missing (i.e. stolen) such as a chopping board and a toilet brush (of all things). Thus we went to Llanes again, the nearest big town. We got the TV which the efficient shop set up for us. We would have to take it home and finish installing but as it is a Samsung, I was familiar with it.
While they were doing that we went to have coffee - the highlight of the day. Instead of La Galerna, I took Eladio to a place I had discovered when I came with Sandra and Adele. He loved the terrace of the Hotel Don Paco and so do I.
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| Coffee at a different place on Wednesday - Hotel Don Paco |
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| Hotel Don Paco in Llanes where we had coffee on Wednesday morning |
It's an old convent and has a great looking restaurant which we must go to one day. We then picked up the TV and drove Posada de Llanes to the local supermarket. We had to stock up on all the cleaning products our cleaner needs and the stuff we have to provide guests with. I had to make sure I bought enough to last the summer. As you can understand we didn't really go to Asturias on holiday. It was to get the house ready for all the summer guests.
We came home to quickly make lunch and then set up the TV. It was a disaster as the table was too small and there was no time to fix it on the wall. I then had the bright idea of using one of the two terrace tables and covering it with a table cloth until we can find a better solution. So far, so good. It fitted but I don't know what we did, as we unraveled all the cables, removed the old TV and placed the new one, internet suddenly went. Oh that couldn't be happening surely? Well, it was. It honestly felt as if we have been on an obstacle race this week, sorting so many things put in our way. Thankfully I still have a good contact in Adamo, our internet provider and they came the next day.
Eladio spent part of the afternoon removing all the earth from the old plants from the terrace. He had a bit of paving weeding to do too and clean the barbecue which was filthy. The cleaners here never go near it or the terrace, unfortunately. I can tell you I wasn't in the best of moods that day but finally was able to relax with Eladio on the terrace in the evening, surrounded by the new plants and enjoy some cider and pistachios.
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| Pistachio and cider time on our terrace this week |
We had run out of wine but had lots of bottles of local cider. That's because my guest welcome pack includes a bottle of cider and a large packet of crisps.
Soon it was dinner time and then the other Euro Cup semi final; England vs Holland. Of course I wanted England to win. But on the other hand I didn't want England and Spain to play against each other.
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| An amazing final tonight and I'm divided. |
For me that's like seeing my two daughters competing. On the other hand, whichever country wins should make me happy. I actually slept through the winning goal. Now we have to see if "it's either coming home or a casa" to quote someone's twitter feed.
Thursday came, our last full day in El Cuetu. Again it was full of obstacles. A parcel from Amazon containing new bed linen had got mislaid, we went in search of a TV table we didn't find and had to be back by 12 for the Adamo people to come and fix Internet. We found the parcel which had been delivered to another person in a nearby village (really?), we didn't find a table and the Internet people came. Apparently a cable had broken. They changed the cable and it was up and running. I then tried to connect the TV to the new internet network which it refused to do. I got so cross but had to leave it as we had booked a table for lunch in Asiego, up in the Picos de Europa. I really needed a break and so did Eladio.
Lunch at Sidrería Casa Niembro was wonderful. It was our third time there and we always order the same; the "tortos" - sort of fried and puffed up corn - followed by "cabritu" (goat), all washed down with local cider. The dessert is "turrón" ice cream. We love that place. It's one of our favourites in the area.
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| These are the tortos |
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| Goat casserole with chips |
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| The setting couldn't be more rural or typical of Asturias |
Friday came and we woke up to rain which was good for the terrace plants, hahaha. We had a smooth journey to Montrondo with an important stop in the nearest big town, Villablino. We got lots of provisions at Gadis, a superb supermarket. It was then a 20 minute drive to Montrondo. We hadn't been since last September, nearly a year. Oli and family had though and before settling in we had to do quite a bit of cleaning as you can imagine and rearranging to put things back in their normal places. At 3.30 we were eating a hastily cooked pizza with gazpacho.
The afternoon was spent quietly and outside as the weather was much better than in Asturias and the sun was shining. Two of Eladio's distant cousins from his father's side of the family came to see us. This resulted in a big family gathering with lots of biscuits, etc with coffee. Oh dear.
Toño and Dolores joined us for dinner that night - it was good to see them again. We probably spent most of the dinner telling them about our road trip. I hope we didn't bore them. Who wasn't bored was Pippa who found a new friend in Pipo (yes Pipo) - my nephew Miguel's 6 month old large puppy. Here they are playing in the front garden.
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| Pippa had company in Montrondo with her neighbour Pipo! |
We had a long and lazy day. I cooked for the first time in ages and made "cocido" stew which had to be watched constantly. I took a break at midday to drive down to Senra to the nearest open bar for my morning coffee. Everyone else was busy - everyone was Eladio's family - all his brothers and sisters were here on Saturday. And here I am enjoying the moment.
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| Coffee in Senra yesterday morning |
I was home on time to serve our lunch, the first proper one for a while. Eladio adored the soup and the chickpeas. The afternoon was spent with Eladio's brothers and sisters. For once we were the only generation and now there are three. It used to be Eladio's parents, their 6 offspring and our children. Now they have gone and we have replaced them. Our children now have children and that's how it goes. I took the annual photo of the 6 of them. This is the one I like best.
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| Eladio with his 5 siblings - not often together |
We spent the whole afternoon outside drinking coffee and talking. It was very funny to hear Eladio, Toño and their sister- the three oldest - reciting from books they read as children. Their memories are amazing and they had us in stitches.
We sat quite high up behind our houses where you get good views of the village. You can also see the back of our house so I snapped this picture. I do love our home here which we restored in 2015, nearly 10 years ago now. Wow!
It was a nice end to the day and I reflected it was good to be back.
As Montrondo is so high up in the mountains, it gets cold when the sun moves behind our houses and at about 7pm we all put jumpers on. Well, I don't; I put on my pyjamas and thick dressing gown. Eladio and I had a very light dinner and I stupidly had a glass of red wine which later gave me a headache. While he washed up, I joined the spectacle of hens being allowed to roam on the grass; hens that are being looked after by Toño and Dolores. Someone took a picture which I entitled, "village life". I felt so relaxed and look silly in my dressing gown but who cares?
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| Chilling out in Montrondo last night |
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| Our house from the back. We are surrounded by green |
I slept well that night but woke up at 6 am with a blazing headache. Luckily, after my first cup of coffee it gradually went away. There will be no wine tonight. Or maybe I will eat my words and toast whichever team wins tonight.
I will leave you now and get on with the day which must, come what may, include a walk.
Cheers till next Sunday,
Masha.
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