Resilience, my motto of the week, 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, routine medical appointments, babysitting our grandchildren, Elliot's family tree, air crash in Washington DC, more Israeli hostages released and other stories of the week.

Madrid, Sunday 2nd February, 2025

Eladio with Elliot and Juliet this week when we babysat for them, the little mites. 

Good morning my friends. 

It's February, a new month and the sun is shining. However, this week has been a bit like Groundhog day with most days being similar and all  made more depressing by the cold and rainy weather caused by new storms, Herminia and Ivo. They have mainly affected the north coast but we have felt their repercussions here in the centre of the country. Thankfully by Thursday the worst was over and the weather looks good for the time being. I am so glad to have the sun back and couldn't face living in a country without it.  

I read something that helped me this week and it may help you if you are going through a difficult period like me.  Basically it's about resilience when the going gets tough. I liked the article and my motto this week was "resilience" which seems to be mostly called resiliency these days but I prefer the former.  Basically, according to what I read, it "is the ability to bounce back and recover from a setback or difficult experience. It is how we dust ourselves off and get back up when we fall. At its core, resiliency is seeing ourselves as capable of doing hard things and holding the steadfast belief that we can and will navigate the hard parts of our lives; not matter what." The idea is that you can do the hard things AND be ok (or at least try).  The 5 pillars of resilience are: belonging, perspective, acceptance (important), hope (difficult) and humour. I love the last one. It always helps doesn't it? Just a thought ........ and now back to the stories of this week:.

I left off last Sunday when Oli and family came for lunch. It was not a very peaceful occasion with both kids playing up so badly their parents took them home straight after the meal. Oh dear. Shortly after they left, a new guest, Ximena, from Mexico arrived and was staying for 10 days. She is a very nice young student but turned out to be rather needy. I chatted to her about the 4 million Mexicans living in the US and the fear of deportation under the new Trump administration. She nodded, adding her country was very corrupt and had scathing comments about the new President, Claudia Sheinbaum. 

I spent some of that afternoon while waiting for her, watching The Night Agent which is pretty good but not a patch on The Night Manager. Later I watched Season 2 of the former which was rather far fetched. 

Monday 27th January came, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, also called Holocaust Memorial Day as Auschwitz is the greatest symbol of the Shoa. Over 1.1 million people were killed there, nearly all of them Jews. There was a big memorial ceremony at the infamous camp attended by many heads of state and by just 50 survivors, most of them children at the time. Soon there will be very few left. Ironically, as it was the Russian Army that liberated the camp, there was no one there  from Putin's government. That's because he is in nearly everyone's bad books for invading Ukraine.

Olivia, my daughter, did a piece for her programme La Hora de la 1 on TVE that morning about the Spaniards imprisoned in Auschwitz which I am happy to share with you here. She later told Suzy and I that it was harrowing choosing images from TVE's archives. They made her cry which for a journalist is quite something. I was brought up on so many stories of WW2 from my parents, both of whom were much involved, that I am still so fascinated by events in those times. To think my own Mother was imprisoned by the Gestapo sends a chill down my spine. Like my father, she worked for the Allied Control Commission after the war - she for the French in Austria and he for the British in Germany. I know for sure my mother saved many a Russian soldier from being deported and sent to Stalin's gulags. My mind was on it all day.

While this was happening, more displaced people, this time Palestinians were heading north back to their destroyed homes and Hamas announced that 8 of the 33 hostages to be released as part of  the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire are dead.  I am so sorry for their families as I am for the Palestinians; ordinary people caught up in a senseless war. It seems we haven't learned our lesson from WW2.  Just this week Trump suggested Palestine be wiped out and that its inhabitants be sent to nearby Egypt and Jordan. The world is in the hands of a madman, it really is. 

In our Skype call that afternoon with  Amanda, whose father was a Spitfire pilot in the RAF, we spoke about this and many other things. I can't wait for my trip to Devon this month to finally see her in person after so much time - November 2022. 

Tuesday came, bringing with it another medical appointment; one of quite a few in January, February and March; all of them routine, so no worries. I went to the ultra modern Quirón hospital in Pozuelo for an appointment with a dermatologist to remove a cyst on my back. As my brother George died of melanoma, she did a thorough check on all my body; a good thing. I will have the benign cyst removed on 5th March. On that same day I will have my annual gynecological check up too as my mother apart from bowl cancer also had breast cancer which she died of. I am sort of resigned to the fact I will also get cancer at some stage but hope it's late in life. 

Once home and with lunch out of the way, a technician from Samsung came to change the water filter on our avant garde fridge. When we bought it we didn't know it would have to be changed every  6 months - what a bind. Shortly after, a plumber came to mend some radiators which he didn't manage to do and in Santa Pola a stone maker was bringing a new slab of marble to our apartment there so that a plumber, Bernardo, could install a new sink. We have been trying to have it changed for 2 years now and it has proved difficult. Finally the plumber did his job the next day and we shall see it for ourselves when we go on Tuesday. I can't wait for a break in the sun. We also have stuff to do there; change our mattresses, put in a heat and AC pump in our room and hopefully a big screen TV. Let's see if that happens. 

We had the kids coming at around 5 and would be babysitting them while Oli went to her Tuesday afternoon French lessons. We were rather worried about their behaviour but Oli said they had been well warned. We kept them occupied by offering them more decaf tea with biscuits. At one point I was holding Elliot in my arms and telling him he had to behave and not shout and hit people, hahaha. I also told him he was very handsome adding that was something he probably doesn't think about. He replied; "I do"; funny little boy.   Eladio then  took them to the swings as at that moment the sun was out and for once it wasn't raining. I asked Elliot to promise to behave and he replied in English, " I promise" and he did. 

Suzy and I then bathed them in our great big bath tub which they thoroughly enjoyed. As I was drying and dressing Juliet, Suzy and Elliot were on our terrace and I chuckled when I saw my daughter had put my dressing gown on him and I had to have a picture. Doesn't he look funny?

Elliot on our terrace in my great big blanket like dressing gown, one I wear all day long hahaha

Dinner time that day was much better than lunch on Sunday and they ate relatively well. Dinner was followed by play time in the library lounge and when Olivia came to pick them up, they didn't want to leave. So a good time was had by all. 

The news that night in Spain was better than last week. Remember when I told you about the decree with 80 different bills including the pension increase that didn't get voted on because it included so many controversial proposals?  The opposition lobbied for the decree to be separated to include just the most important social measures and this is what happened. Sánchez, our PM, was against doing so but had to give in to his untrustworthy coalition partner, Puigdemont, the Catalan political fugitive who lives in Waterloo. Effectively the government is in his hands. In the end, 29 of the 80 original bills were agreed upon with the fugitive who I can't stand. 

But it's worse in the US than here, I can tell you. This week was the beginning of Trump's new administration and he is cracking down on illegal immigrants of whom there must be millions; now all fearing for their lives. Deportations have begun, including a military plane with shackled immigrants flying to Bogota. The Colombian authorities refused to let it land and then Trump retaliated by imposing 25% tariffs on goods exported to the US. The Colombian President had to give in in the end. This is a terrible situation. The latest is that he intends to send many to Guantanamo, America's version of Auschwitz in my mind.

Another situation happened that shook the US economy this week and spooked the world of Artificial Intelligence. China surprised the world when it announced its version of AI called Deep Seek, the unexpected rival to Chat GPT. Different media gave different figures of how much of the value of leading US tech companies was lost after the announcement, some going as far as 1 trillion dollars. Trump called it a wake-up call and for once I agree with him. I haven't used Chat GPT very much and when I have tried it, often the results were wrong. I tried to make a Christmas card and was disappointed too. But maybe that's because I don't have the premium version. I don't like the sound of Deep Seek which is offered for free, for the moment, as it is biased politically. Apparently if you ask it to tell you about Tiananmen, it doesn't have an answer. I wonder what is says about Chairman Mao? 

Wednesday came, the day of my blood and urine test which had me up early and with no breakfast to look forward to until afterwards. I cheated though and had a tiny cup of coffee before I went. I was gutted to hear at the Health Centre that my GP and my father's, Dra. Pilar Martin, was leaving. Oh dear what am I going to do without her? I was hoping she would be able to help Suzy by somehow getting her into the system here. I wrote to her on Whatsapp, a privilege very few patients have, and she recommended a new young doctor who I have already signed up with. She will be sorely missed and I shall forever be grateful to her for how she looked after my father, especially the day he died.That day was  a holiday in Spain and she was there for me and him, guiding me all the way. I was very upset to hear she is going. 

I was home early and enjoyed a hearty breakfast, reading the news. Mentally I was prepping for the procedure before the colonoscopy test this Monday. The preparations are very strict: From Friday only a sort of white diet with no protein or fiber. From Sunday until the test at 8pm on Monday, only liquids and then on Monday the dreaded powders to be taken with litres and litres of water to clear my gut completely. No doubt I will lose weight but I was dreading the preparation. It's horrible but has to be done every few years. If you have had one done, you know what I am talking about.

On a lighter note, Oli sent us a photo collage Miguel had done for Elliot to take to school with his family tree. I just have to share it with you. 

Elliot's family tree. Notice how Pippa is included (hahaha)

There is not much else to tell about Wednesday so let's move onto Thursday. I woke up to news of a plane crash in Washington DC. An American Airlines passenger plane with 64 people on board collided midair just before landing at Ronald Reagan airport, with a  military helicopter carrying a crew of 3 on Wednesday night at around 9 pm local time.  Both crashed in the Potomac River. No one survived. Trump lays the blame on Biden and Obama's inclusive government, even saying some air traffic controllers were mentally retarded!  Of course they are not. The problem seems to be that there are few of them and that night one was doing the job of two. Another problems seems to be with the Army helicopter which kept changing course and was flying too high. Here is a chilling image of the midair collision.

The moment the American Airlines aircraft and the Black Hawk helicopter collided in midair

I had just finished watching The Departure on Netflix the day before and this news sent a chill down my spine. Whenever there is news of an air crash, I always remember our own air crash tragedy. On May 21st 1971, my father's sister, Gloria, her husband Derek and their children, my little cousins, Jacqueline (12), Michael (9) and Antony (7), died upon landing in Rijeka in a flight that took off from Gatwick. This tragedy lives with me and always will. My heart goes out to the families of the victims of the collision in Washington DC this week, it really does, because I know how they will suffer. It is something that never goes away. 

That day, 8 more hostages were to be released from Gaza in the third exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages. First a young female soldier was released but once again it was done on stage with thousands of Hamas supporters cheering. Then the others, including 5 Thai nationals, were released in chaotic scenes.  Israel protested at the way the hostages were being released and threatened to stall the release of Palestinian prisoners. Later they were handed over and I really hoped that the next liberation of hostages would be done in a more humane way except that I think Hamas  really does not understand the meaning of humane. 

On Thursday while Eladio went for a routine appointment to our dentist, I went out shopping to get the food I am allowed on the preparatory diet (really boring stuff). While out I had a coffee at Manacor and enjoyed sitting in the sun. I need the sun I was told by my Doctora Martin who rang to give me my blood test results that day. She said my cholesterol was a bit high and my Vitamin D (the sun vitamin) a bit low. I shall have to take steps to remedy both. 

We had the kids again in the afternoon while Oli went off to her Thursday afternoon French lessons. This time they behaved so so but we managed. Bath time was the highlight after which we dressed them both in our dressing gowns and Elliot declared he was  Suzy and Juliet was Grandma. What a funny moment it was

The children in our dressing gowns this week. What fun moments we had

Friday was the first day of my preparatory diet with no fiber, fruit, veg or red meat. So I had white toast and coffee with skimmed milk washed down with strained orange juice. Not bad. That morning saw Eladio and I at the town hall on a bureaucratic errand. Oh how I hate Spanish bureaucracy. I really do. But at least it got us out of the house and I was able to have another coffee although not to my taste: decaf with skimmed milk but better than nothing. The best thing was having it in the sun. 

That day the 60's icon, Marianne Faithful died aged 78. She will always be known for having been Mick Jagger's girlfriend. She will also be known for her drug addiction but in the 60's she must have been a very happy girl. RIP.

Friday was also the day that Trump imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, his closest neighbours with whom there is a trade agreement. This is a disaster for Canada and Mexico but not good for Americans either when they see many prices go up. This is part of the maniac's MAGA strategy (make America great again) which I think can only backfire. He also withdrew millions of humanitarian foreign aid with disastrous consequences for poor countries, especially Africa. Trump also imposed a 10% tariff on goods from China and the EU maybe his next victim. He seems to think the world outside the USA  is of no importance and went as far as saying " we don't need their stuff".  Oh damn the man. 

UK had a similar outlook when Brexit went into force 5 years ago that day. To think we fought for peace in Europe and then went and left the EU for ridiculous reasons. Not only that, the vote was so divided, it really shouldn't have gone ahead. I was furious of course for having my EU citizenship stripped without even being able to vote. Today I have Spanish nationality because of bloody Brexit. I think secretly many people now regret the decision but say nothing about it. What the hell, the EU is on the UK's doorstep, why leave and pay the consequences, especially in trade and freedom of movement? Damn it.

I had good news in the afternoon when I went to see my traumatologist. It was to get the results of the MRI on my knee. Thankfully it's not bad enough to be operated on (sigh of relief). What I have is arthritis and wear and tear on the menisci which I think I can live with. I was cross with myself when I got home for having lost or left behind the report and the prescription he had given me. That means I will have to go back.

I slept little and badly that night and woke up on Saturday to news of another air crash in the USA. This time though the aircraft was a Mexican medical airplane so no doubt Trump will blame the Mexicans and not any mentally retarded air traffic controllers. It crashed into a residential area of Philadelphia and all six on board died. It also killed one person in a car and set houses on fire. How awful. 

3 more hostages were to be released that day as part of the Gaza ceasefire. I hoped they would not be displayed in public like the others but they were, once again although the handover was less chaotic.  

Our Romanian guest Cristiana left that morning after 10 days staying in my father's old room. This is what she wrote to me before she left: "I think I am leaving, it was a pleasure to stay here, the house is absolutely stunning and the people living in it… amazing human beings 🥹 thank you so much! It was a pleasure meeting you and your family!".  Comments like this make it all worthwhile; not the bureaucracy in Spain for renting short time on Airbnb. 

We had a quiet day yesterday and today promises to be quiet too. No doubt I will be very hungry as I can only have liquids. On the bright side, I might lose some weight hahaha. The answer is resilience  isn't it?  

So that's it from me for the week. All the best, Masha.