Eladio has his second cataract surgery, another quiet week, out and about in Boadilla, Israel attacks Iran, the clocks go back and other stories.

 Sunday 27th October 2024.

A happy moment this week when I found this jumper dress at a local boutique. It's right up my street.

Good morning folks. How are you doing? I bet today, the day the clocks go back, have you feeling a bit out of sorts. I always hate it and if feels like jet lag. But let me rewind to last Sunday where I left off and tell you about our week which has been another quiet one. Who wants drama I wonder? Well, if it's positive, sometimes I do hahaha. 

It was a quiet and sunny day and like most days of this week we went on our walk which is so good for us both and, of course, for little Pippa. Not much happened that day. Tana was off so we made the meals which we had in peace with Suzy who is still here.

Monday was a big day in our life. That morning Eladio was having his second cataract surgery; this time on his right eye. He was nervous on both occasions but I was very calm and we knew the drill this time. It was over very quickly and out he came with  sunglasses on, no patch on his eye and slightly sedated.

Eladio after his second cataract surgery last Monday

We then had to go to see the doctor who had just operated on him for him to see how his left eye had progressed after surgery a week before. During the examination which was held in front of 4 young medical students, I learned that before the first op, his better eye, the left, had only 40% vision. So we were delighted to find out it had increased  to 80%.  Even the doctor didn't expect tha.

Eladio having his left eye examined after the first surgery

This week my husband has no longer had to wear glasses to read his phone. Tomorrow we are going back for his second eye to be examined. Meanwhile, I am his nurse, putting in the 4 or 5 drops each eye needs for a whole month. It's quite tedious but is obviously very important. 

We were home by midday and Oli came for lunch. A guest called Hector arrived that day too and Eladio received him. He left this morning and would you believe I never even saw him.  Monday's highlight was my weekly Skype call with Amanda, bless her. She is my therapist and I suppose I am hers too.

Tuesday was quiet too and we got our walk in. I cheated a bit because we walked to the churros bar and I had a "porra" which probably contains more calories than I burned on the walk. Oh dear .I got lots more bookings that day which always gives me a high. I can't believe how many people want to come to this house.   

We came home to fix things. Eladio had to tackle the automatic gate where a funny kind of screw has come loose. I had to fix Tana's TV and amazingly restored the TV channels she so loves and where she watches lots of soap operas in the afternoon. I prefer Netflix or similar and that day, after having reread the book Unorthodox, I turned to the series based on it. By Deborah Feldman, the German/American writer, it is called Unorthodox, the scandalous rejection of my Hasidic roots".  These sort of stories based on true lives are right up my street. They always fascinate me. Later I recommended the series to Suzy who loved it too. 

Lunch was my home made bean stew, a sort of fabada,  cooked by me, which we had later in the week  as leftovers. 

I cooked again on Wednesday and made lasagne which I love and don't make very often. I enjoy cooking when I am in the mood and I certainly was this week. It was on Wednesday that Mohammad confirmed he is staying on until next year. Bea, our Mexican guest is also staying on. They are happy in our house and we are happy with them as guests. 

On Thursday an antenna technician came to fix the TV land signal on the ground floor which meant interrupting Hector. He did a good job and even got my father's old TV from Bradford working too. He brought it in 2005 so that's quite a while. I counted that in this house alone we have 9 televisions and 12 in all if you count the other houses. That's a bit obscene I think. 

Finally on Friday one of the two contractors for connecting the wooden cabin to electricity and water, etc, arrived to give us his estimate. However his pal who was carrying it, had some car problem so they are now coming tomorrow. There was no time for a walk. Instead we walked the aisles of Mercadona and Carrefour when we did our weekly shop. We stopped in between for a coffee at Manacor after which we went to get some special boutique bread for Suzy. That's when I spied a lovely jumper dress in the shop window of a local boutique. I had to try it on and as it suited me, I had to have it there and then. I love jumper dresses as they are so warm and comfortable and you can wear them with jeans or leggings. I don't have many photos this week, so have chosen the one Eladio took of me in my new dress as this week's feature photo. It was a happy moment.

 Realising I hardly had any photos for this week's post, I took one of Eladio which I entitled "out and about in Boadilla" where we always do our shopping and go for coffee. 

Eladio, out and about in Boadilla.

We first went to live in Boadilla del Monte in 1988 and only moved to our current house in 2006. It belongs to another town, Villaviciosa de Odón, but is much closer to Boadilla which we consider our home. When we first moved to this area from the centre of Madrid most people thought we were crazy for going "so far away".  It's actually only about 20km which for some people may seem far.  It never felt far away to us and we prefer to live in the country. We are country mice, not town mice. Today Boadilla has grown so much and is nothing like it was in the 80's. It is now a very desired area to live, being the third richest town in Spain. It also has all the infrastructure you may need and lots of green areas, impossible to find in the capital. We enjoy our out and about moments in Boadilla and hope to for a long time.

We came home to unload the obscene amount of food we had got for the week. It seems a lot but we always get through it. Suzy was down and had a sort of meltdown but she perked up later. She has worked so hard on herself and I am very proud of her. I did not sleep well that night. It was one of my worst and I hoped I would make up for lost sleep the next day after a spate of terrible nights which had me feeling exhausted. 

Saturday brought the coldest day of October with a minimum temperature of only 6ºc. It felt like the cold weather had finally come. That morning I read that Israel had finally launched an attack on Iran in targeted strikes. It was in retaliation for Iran's attack of 200 rockets earlier this month. Attacks like this  make me wonder if there will be an all out regional war. Israel is at war with Hamas but also with its and Iran's ally, the Beirut based group called Hezbollah. We had all been wondering how Israel would retaliate to the Iranian rocket attacks which in turn were in retaliation for Israel killing the leader of Hezbollah. Thankfully the attacks were targeted but those in the Lebanon create a lot of that horrible term "collateral damage". When is this going to stop? No time soon I guess. 

That was not good news yesterday. I thought about it on our walk that morning and felt fortunate for living near Boadilla del Monte where there hasn't been a gun shot since the Spanish Civil War, thankfully.  After our walk I had my coffee at home and then started on a batch cooking spree of "perushki" - small Russian meat pies - which Oli had suggested I make. I did a veg filling for Suzy so that she wouldn't feel left out. I did the same when I made lasagne. It's so good to see her enjoying home cooking. That's therapy in itself. 

I tried to sleep a siesta which was mission impossible so I turned to Happy Valley. Later Suzy and I finished making the pies which will be the main part of lunch today with one of my comforting winter soups.

Last night was when the clocks went back an hour to winter daylight saving time  -I only wish we could stay on summer time all year round as I prefer more evening light. That was going to interfere with my sleep but also a new guest arriving after midnight; Calista of Greek origin but from France. Eladio offered to receive her so I could sleep. And sleep I did. I actually managed 8.5h last night even if my sleep was rather fractured with lots of waking up moments. Today I am feeling so much better. 

Thus today, Sunday, I feel rested and will enjoy our walk and a nice lunch together. 

And that's it from me for today. Cheers folks until next Sunday.

All the best Masha