Discovering "Handled" my AI assistant, pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, former Prince Andrew arrested, Olivia sent to London to report on the bombshell news for TVE and other stories of the week.

 Madrid, Sunday 22nd February 2026.

Olivia reporting  on  Friday morning from Buckingham Palace on the news of the arrest of former Prince Andrew. What an honour for her. 

Good morning everyone. How has your week been? I am still reeling from the news of former Prince Andrew's arrest. For me as a Brit and a general fan of the Royal family I am shocked but at the same time I know he had it coming. He has to be held to account. For now he was arrested for possible misconduct in public office but I want to see him held to account for charges of abuse of underage women. I am hoping it will come to that. For the record he is the first royal to be arrested since 1647 when Charles I was taken prisoner after his defeat in the English Civil War. And we all know how that ended.  It was the most damaging day for the Royal family since then and possibly even worse than the death of Diana and the 1936 abdication because it undermines the institution I so revered itself. How can the Royal family survive this I ask myself? In a recent poll 50% of people believe there won't be a monarchy in 50 years time. Gosh.

Before I continue, let me rewind to last Sunday.

It was on Sunday that I discovered Handled. It is an AI assistant that lives on Whatsapp or Telegram so slightly different from Chat GPT. It has been trained to do tasks which are more time consuming or difficult for us. I tried it out and got it to convert a word document to a fully working spreadsheet in a matter of seconds. I then asked if it could rehouse my blog from Google's Blogspot  to somewhere more slick and I have been working with it all week. The result is amazing. Whether we like it or not, AI is here. If you want to try it and at the moment it is still a pilot project, use my referral link here. Basically you talk to Handled on Whatsapp as if you were talking to anyone. It's fascinating to do so. And it's safe as it has been designed by a Swedish friend, Peter who used to head up IT at Yoigo where I worked and I can vouch for him. I had hoped to launch it today but it is taking a bit more time than I expected. Hopefully it will be ready next week. So watch this space. 

In between talking to my very polite new friend on Whatsapp, other things happened that day. It was a sunny day and we went for our walk which was a joy. The rain seems to have gone for the moment and Spanish weather is back to what it should be. Oli and family came for lunch and I had some quality time with my grandchildren, especially Juliet. At one stage she hugged me and told me she loved me. I was very touched. I also played dominoes with them both. When they left we had a late siesta which I spent watching more of Call the Midwife which never fails to please.

Monday came and we did the weekly shop. The highlight of the day was my Facetime call with Amanda. Joy of joys apart from them coming to Spain in May, we shall meet in June in Yorkshire for a friends' reunion in the Dales. A wonderful thing to look forward to.

Tuesday came and it was Shrove Tuesday, often called Pancake Day. In France it is Mardi Gras and in Spain Martes de Carnaval. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent starts and pancakes were eaten for people to fill up on food before fasting. It's not a tradition I brought my girls up on but I decided I would make pancakes that day. Miguel is back to work after breaking his arm so we had to pick the kids up from school, take Elliot to athletics and Juliet back to our place. Oli picked up Elliot on her way back from her French lessons and by then Tana and I were in the throes of frying the pancakes. I used a different recipe to my usual and they turned out a bit thick, rather like American pancakes but were just as delicious. 

Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

The choice of fillings, all sweet of course, included nutella, strawberries, whipped cream, honey, Golden Lyle syrup and jam. Delicious. I made too many and froze the rest which we ate for the next two or three days haha. The kids loved them. 

Of note that day, workers came to change the floor of the annex to our bedroom where I have my study and which we call the gallery. There was a leak from the radiator which luckily our insurance company covered. In the end they painted the whole room including the ceiling, put in new floor boards and skirting boards too. Wonderful.

The gallery repainted and with a new floor. Looking lovely

On Wednesday I made "Cocido", always a favourite in this house and practical as all leftovers can be turned into soups or puree. 

I was happy that day to get notifications from the Santa Pola Land Registry Office with a certificate that I had successfully fulfilled the stupid new requirements for an annual form filling exercise which would stump most people. I was a bit worried about the SP Registry Office so was delighted to get the go ahead. I also have it for El Cuetu and am waiting for the notifications for the rooms I rent in this house. What a palaver. Bloody nightmare more like. 

Thursday came and brought with it the bombshell news of the arrest by Thames Valley Police of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor from his new home, Wood House, on the Sandringham Estate. It happened on his 66th birthday. What a way to celebrate it! It was my friend Kathy who alerted me to the news. I was astonished but also happy that justice was prevailing. He was taken  to Aylesham Police station where he would have been photographed and finger printed. His brother the King issued a statement saying the law must take its course. It was good to see that he was being treated the same as any British citizen despite being a Royal, albeit without a title anymore. He was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office which refers to the period he was the UK trade envoy. The misconduct is related to the Esptein case because in the trove of documents recently released there were emails from Andrew to his pedophile friend where he passed on confidential information from the British government. That would make him a traitor. We all waited with baited breath to see how the day would develop. 

I was a fan of the late Queen but not so much of her son Andrew who has been in the press for years ever since Virginia Guiffre accused him of raping her when she was 17. She is not here now to witness his comeuppance. All I can hope for is that he will also be charged with abuse of women. I think there is enough evidence to put Andrew away for a long time.

Meanwhile, at Oli's news room at RTVE, she was asked to travel to London that very day to cover the story and expect to be in London for at least a week. What an honour. She was worried about leaving the kids as Miguel is now back at work. I told her we would take care of them and to go and do her job. For once RTVE were using her not just for her skills as a TV reporter but also for her English.

But then it was my task to brief her on the case. It almost feels as if I have been with her the whole time. There was one worry before she left. She has a Spanish passport and an expired British one. So would she need the new ETA visa? She had no idea when I asked her. Thus she had to get one and thankfully it arrived an hour or so before leaving. Good God I hate Brexit. 

While she was on her way to London, we picked the kids up again from school and took Elliot to athletics and brought Juliet home. Then Eladio had to go and pick up Elliot again. We didn't mind at all. We just wanted to help Oli.

Picking up the kids from school

Of course they got pancakes again. Oh dear!

 Meanwhile, Andrew was released from the police station probably around the time Oli was landing in London. One lucky journalist, Phil Noble, from Manchester who works for Reuters, got the shot of the day. His photo of former Prince Andrew slouching in the back of the police car with a frightened look on his face will go down in history. This is it if you haven't already seen it.

Former Prince Andrew leaving the police station.

He has been released under investigation (RUI). That actually means the police have all the time in the world to carry out their investigations. This week saw them searching Wood Farm and the Royal Lodge and now they will be talking to his staff from his time as the British Trade Envoy. I honestly hope they dig deep.

Friday came and I was up early and on time to proudly watch my daughter report live from Buckingham Palace on the Andrew case. She was on and off all morning and I later heard she didn't even have time for lunch. This week's feature photo had to be of my daughter reporting from Buck House. Here is another and a video of one of her reports. 

Olivia live from London

She was nowhere near Sandringham where the disgraced man was but Buckingham Palace is the symbol of the Royal Family. 

We went for a walk and decided to have chocolate and churros at the local cafe which. It was such a lovely sunny day. Here I am about to enjoy mine.

Coffee and a "porra" for me and chocolate and churros for Eladio on Friday morning.

We were free until we had to pick the kids up again but at least we didn't have to take Elliot to athletics. It was such a sunny afternoon we took them to the park. On our way we later regretted buying them too many sweets hahaha. 

Here they are at the park.

The kids at the park on Friday

I have to admit I was on my phone the whole time with Handled and with Peter so feel bad I didn't help Eladio. It was difficult to make them come home. Juliet had to be taken away screaming. Once again we gave them pancakes although we did offer soup, ham and cheese. Their father came for them at around 8.15 and I think they went to Carls Jr for hamburgers, bless them.

Saturday came and I thought Oli would have  a lovely free weekend in London but not so. Other programmes wanted her to report for them. We watched her live on TVE 24h which is actually where she began her career. Later she had to prepare  a report for a weekly news programme called Informe Semanal for which she asked me for more help. She had me asking all my British friends how they had reacted to Andrew's arrest. They all said the same, he is not above the law but they were sorry for the Royal family.  Thank you Amanda, Geraldine and Kathy.

Oli was happy to be in London and said she had a sweet camerawoman who is from Argentina with her who they must have hired locally. Here is a picture of them together.

Oli enjoying reporting from London

I only hope she has some time to go to an M+S food store to get me some things, hopefully creme eggs and butter mints. Let's see. 

Our day was very quiet in comparison. How I would have loved to be with my daughter in England. But I am enjoying her stay vicariously.

We went for another walk in the sun. My highlight yesterday was a long Facetime call with Kathy and Phil who, hopefully, we shall be seeing in England and in Spain in June. 

The day ended with a quiet dinner with Suzy and then to bed. I was excited to watch her on Informe Semanal where she did a piece on Andrew and his wrong doings and quoted my friends. I taped it and you can see it on my YouTube channel here. 

Reporting last night for Informe Semanal

We look forward to seeing her again today, this time on a programme called "Corazón".

Today is Sunday and it will be a quiet day. We have had a full house of guests this weekend but I have hardly seen them.

Here's hoping today is another sunny day and wishing you all the best.

Cheers till next week, Masha.