Breakfast with the kids, a watered down Kings' Day; chocolate with churros and present opening, snow in Yorkshire, Los Angeles is burning, Trump wants Greenland, the Panama Canal and even Canada, and other stories of the week.

 Madrid, Sunday 12th January, 2025.

Ready for a rather washed out Kings' Day last Monday

Good morning again everyone. Have you got the January blues? I think I might have. In Spain this month is referred to as "la cuesta de enero" meaning it's uphill financially after all the excess spending at Christmas. But last Sunday Christmas wasn't over in Spain. There was still Kings' Day to come on Monday, the celebration of the Epiphany when children await their presents from the 3 Kings although these days they  get them from Father Christmas too.

That morning we had our grandchildren, Elliot (5) and Juliet (3) who had slept the night here with Olivia in Suzy's old room. Here are the little rascals having their toast after a not a very good night's sleep for any ot them, hahaha.

Breakfast with the kids last Sunday

When they left we had a row with Suzy who asked for money for cigarettes which we now know she was also spending on dope. For once we said no and from now on we will no longer be financing her addiction. That put her in a foul mood and we could hear shouting from her room. She didn't leave it until later and then did not join us for Kings' Day. She dampened our spirits of course but you have to be cruel to be kind. 

It rained that day and I felt sorry for the team of South American gardeners who had come to trim our enormous garden. It was a huge task but a necessary one. We wrapped up the few presents we had bought for Kings' Day and put them under the tree as you can see here.

Kings' Day presents which we put under the tree last Sunday

We had  the leftovers from our meal in Madrid with Julio for our lunch that day which we had alone while Suzy fumed in her room. I spent the afternoon on Airbnb admin work which was pleasantly interrupted by a call from my dear friend Adele who lives in France. I also carried on watching The Split which I adored and binge watched this week. It is British television at its best. I do love the actress who plays Hannah, Nicola Walker. I was to see her again this week on the BBC iPlayer when they added a series I love called Last Tango in Halifas. She is splendid and so is Sarah Lancaster of course. 

Monday came and it was Kings' Day which was the most diluted one ever. In the old days we celebrated it here with my father and Oli and al her family and Suzy of course. But these days Oli and co do it at their house and then go for lunch with her in-laws but they did stop by for the exchange of presents. However, we did do something different which was to go and have breakfast our, just the two of us, to have chocolate and churros at the local churros bar. Most people have the typical Kings' cake called "Roscón de Reyes" but I'm not that keen and neither is Eladio. So we gorged on Spain's most famous breakfast choice to celebrate. Here is a picture taken to share with you here.

Gorging on chocolate con churros on Kings' Day for breakfast

We then came back to wait for Oli and the family to come and exchange presents. And here I am next  to the tree wearing my festive Primark cardigan.

Me and Pippa on Kings' Day by the tree

They were soon here and excited to be opening their second set of presents - their third would be with their other grandmother. 

Our grandchildren opening their presents here on Kings' Day

I had bought them some glittery tattoos from FAO Schwarz in New York and clothes. When we had finished I tried to get a photo of Oli and family with a new Christmas hat which had arrived late from Amazon.

Olivia, Miguel, Elliot and Juliet on Kings' Day at our house  on Monday

Normally on Kings' Day I make a roast but this year  didn't make an effort as no one was coming for lunch.  However, later Suzy joined us for dinner although she was very quiet.  Monday, by the way, was the day Justin Trudeau stepped down as President of Canada. My own piece of news was that once again I was super host for a whole year on Airbnb. That is now 8 years of being a super host which is not easy to achieve. I want to thank both my guests and the company for this amazing journey I embarked on at the beginning of 2017, 8 years ago. Another amazing journey is my blog. This week, just out of curiosity I looked at the statistics. I started writing it in September 2005 and can't believe how many people read it. All time it's just under one million. The top ten countries in order of readership are USA, Russia, Spain, Singapore, UK, Hong Kong!, Germany and France. 

Tuesday 7th January was Russian Christmas which we used to celebrate thanks to my Russian mother when we were kids. Sadly, no more. But actually Christmas has felt longer than usual for me and my heart wasn't in it as much this year. That day it snowed in the UK and in my beloved Yorkshire.  My father's old school posted a photo of the school grounds covered in snow on social media announcing the school was closed because of the snow. 

Snow in Yorkshire and at BGS which closed down on Monday

That brought back memories of snow days as a child and teenager at my own school in Bradford, St. Joseph's college. Oh how we loved those snow days when we didn't have to go to school and could go out sledging. Once it snowed and we were at school wondering whether it would be closed and told to go home. I was very naughty and started spreading the rumour that it was to be closed. The whole school started walking up Cunliffe Hill to the sound of Mrs. Plunket Jones shouting at us; "girls come back, the school is not closed". No one listened. I wonder if anyone ever found out it was me who had spread the rumour. What a naughty girl I was and how proud I was of what I had achieved, hahaha. 

While it was snowing in Yorkshire and other parts of the UK, Los Angeles was burning as it has been all week. More than 150.000 people have been evacuated, 11 have died  and  more than 10.000 have lost their homes, many of them celebrities who will have no problems buying another one. But what about those who can't afford it? 

Lots of news is from the America this week, Trudeau steeping down in Canada, the dictator Maduro proclaiming himself the newly elected President of Venezuela when facts show he did not win the elections, and of course Donald Trump saying all the wrong things. He has his eye on Canada saying wouldn't it wonderful if it could be state number 51, he wants  the Panama canal and now Greenland which belongs to Denmark. The man is crackers. Equally crackers is his right hand man, Elon Musk of Tesla and Twitter fame who is now his top advisor. Musk is interfering with European politics with a lot of his attacks going towards Kier Starmer. I wouldn't be surprised if he was voted the next President after Trump. Watch this space. As old people used to say in my day and  I am repeating them: "what is the world coming to?". 

All of this was discussed with my dearest friend Amanda in our Skype call that afternoon which we resumed after Christmas. 

By lunch that day Suzy was calmer and we gave her her Kings' Day presents. We later took the Christmas decorations down which is always a very depressing task. On the bright side, it's much faster to take them down than to put up. So on Tuesday Christmas was officially over for us and we are now nearly in the middle of January of  a new year, 2025. It takes some getting used to.

On Wednesday we had something to look forward to; a post Christmas lunch with Eladio's two friends, Juanjo and Roberto and their partners, Justi and Mari Carmen. Eladio had booked a table at El Jardín de la Máquina where we had a splendid and very long lunch. We were among the last to leave and wren't home until 6.30 pm! I must have been having such a good time I forgot to take any photos. Sorry. I love this restaurant where I have been going to for more than 25 years when it was first called La Leyenda. I remember Motorola Christmas lunches there, St. Valentine's dinners, my farewell Nokia dinner, my Nokia girls 50th birthday lunch and many more times at this restaurant which always serves great food in fabulous surroundings. 

Thursday morning was spent entirely on bureaucracy. The Spanish socialist and communist coalition government wants even more control on rental businesses and guest registration. The latest requirement for short term rentals is to acquire a reference code from the Property Registration Offices from your local Town Hall. The problem is the system is not working properly and is damned difficult to navigate. I won't go into the details but the whole thing is rather Kafkian. I was filling out the form online for our house in Asturias and put in the number of my tourist licence only for the words "wrong number" to pop up. I rang the Tourist office to make sure the number was right. Then I rang the Property office in Llanes to tell them my problem. They told me they couldn't help as they didn't know how and to ring the College of Property Registration offices in Madrid. My case is now being escalated. Bureaucracy in this country is a nightmare and this stupid government doesn't make it easy with their ridicuous new laws which are so difficult to comply with. Damn it. For the rooms we rent in Madrid I managed to fill out the forms and decided to print them out and take them the next day to the Property Registration Office at my local town hall. Would you believe they didn't know what to do with them and asked to keep them and ring me later? I wonder if they ever will.  See what I mean by Kafkian? I do thank Airbnb for my journey but not the Spanish administration. 

I spoke to Kathy (and Phil) that afternoon and explained my dilemma. Theirs is bigger. After their house was destroyed by flooding  a year ago in Yorkshire, they are still living in rented accommodation. They had been snowed in and had had visits from two foxes they were feeding on nuts. 

It was on Friday morning that my dear husband gently asked me if I had weighed myself recently. Not a chance. He should know me by now. I only ever weigh myself as I have a deep aversion to scales, two or three weeks after I have started a diet. I am mulling over whether to start one tomorrow Monday 13th. I know I should but I do have the will power at the moment? Oh, the flesh is weak my friends. 

After our unsuccessful visit to the Property Registration Office at our local town hall, we drove to the local shopping centre in Majadahonda called Centro Oeste. The pretext was to change the slippers we had bought for Suzy but it was also time for my mid morning coffee. From there we went to Eladio's favourite store, the DIY place called LM to get some bulbs and batteries. 

Saturday was  a quiet day and for once we managed a walk. In contrast to Yorkshire it was sunny and the temperature reached 18ºc yesterday. But sadly it was yesterday we discovered that Suzy's delusions are back. They had probably never left but we didn't know. She still thinks she is the secret sister of Prince Harry and daughter to Lady Diana and King Charles who she announced yesterday on her YouTube channel had died of a heart attack. Later she removed the video. I think she has also been dabbling in exorcism. What are we to do if she refuses therapy and medication? Our hands are tied. Thankfully, though she is now living with us and not alone in Santa Pola. That rather upset us but as I always say, we have to carry on, despite her illness. We just cannot help our daughter. We can only be there for her. 

Today is Sunday 12th 2025. 8 years ago today saw me entering the local Unemployment office. That was a dour moment. I had to pick myself up and start again aged nearly 60. And you know what? I did it. I did it and am not at all bitter about losing my job at Yoigo. I only wish I had started our rental business earlier. It might have its problems but I am my  own boss and answer just to myself and my guests of course. And Eladio is with me for every part of the way bless him.

That's it now from me friends and readers for this week. Cheers till next Sunday,

Masha