Home again, Madrid, 20th September, 2026
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| The two of us together on Amanda's 70th birthday last Sunday |
Our wonderful week in Devon is over. How can that be? Time flies so fast. We seem to have been on the go for months now so it's good to be home. Ah, but not for long. If we have our way, we shall be going to El Cuetu next week where the weather promises to be fantastic and on a mini road trip to Tangiers in October.
Last Sunday was our last full day in the UK. It was also Amanda's actual 70th and after the dinner the night before she had invited her family and friends to a house party where they served brunch from 11.15. We dressed casually for the occasion but I made an effort and wore a black and white outfit again. This is what I wore.
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| Ready to go to Amanda's birthday party |
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| Eladio ready for Amanda's party last Sunday |
It was a glorious day and the party was very relaxed. My friend was wearing wonderful Levi dungarees which suited her. I didn't take many pics as I seemed to be chatting all day, but I did get one of the two of us, courtesy of Eladio and that is the one I have chosen as this week's feature photo. We also got one of Jake, Amanda's son, whom we hadn't seen since Andy and Amanda's wedding in 2005, too long ago. He is posing with his big love, Simba. What a handsome man he is now.
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| Jake and Simba |
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| My birthday card to Amanda. I used a photo of us taken in Seville in April. |
All good things come to an end and suddenly we had to say goodbye and I don't yet know when we shall see each other again. If Amanda can't come out this autumn, for sure I will return to Devon before Christmas.
We came home to chill out and even have a light dinner from the remains of the M&S gourmet food we had bought at the beginning of the week. It was such a shame we had to chuck some of it away.
I woke up on Monday after nearly 7h sleep and felt great. Amanda's brother, Simon, and his wife, Gill, who were driving up to Yorkshire, were taking us to Briston airport which is a good 1.5h drive from Shaldon. They weren't doing so until midday which gave us plenty of time to get ready to leave and even go for a walk. I had a hell of a job packing all the stuff I had bought, mostly at M&S; just look at the suitcases before I had even finished:-)
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| Packing to go home was quite a challenge! |
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| I couldn't resist this colourful sweatshirt from Lazy Jacks in Teignmouth on our last day |
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| View of Shaldon from the ferry on our last day |
The rest of the time in the departure lounge was a bit boring and the place was chock a block. One thing I have to say though is how civilised it is that the airport has a smoking area where I went a few times. I got chatting to a fellow smoker who told me a packet of cigarettes now costs 18 pounds in the UK! Wow and I thought they were expensive in Spain where they cost between 5 and 6 euros. The passenger was flying to Turkey and I had good news for her. I told her a packet there in Duty Free costs about 1 euro only! We also had a bite to eat. Eladio had chicken tikka masala while I had some rather spicy humus. Soon it was time to board and thankfully the plane was not entirely full and we had 3 seats to ourselves. The 2 hour flight went past quickly and we landed in Madrid at around 20.40 local time to over 30c temperature; pleasant but not stifling. We took an Uber back and were home in a jiffy. Suzy was asleep by then with Pippa so there was only Tana to greet us and help us with the luggage. The house was full of guests from Guatemala, Mexico and France but I only saw them the next day.
It took a while to unpack but we did it all. Then we could finally enjoy being back in our own room and comfortable bed with crisp and clean white sheets. We had had a grand time but it was good to be back. Coming home is always lovely if things are going well and they are for us at the moment. Long live that moment.
I only slept 5.5h but woke up happy to be home on Tuesday. It was great to see Pippa who had slept with Suzy. But I didn't see my elder daughter because she had gone to work. I am happy to tell you she has a new job. She is a promoter for a turrón (Spanish nougat) company at the airport in Duty Free. This is her in her uniform.
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| Suzy has a new job. |
Oli's job that day took her all the way to Ceuta, that Spanish city in North Africa with land only measuring some 7 square miles and where 80.000 illegal migrants invaded it on 30th and 31st July last. Many returned but there are still anything up to 20.000 living in harsh conditions. It is the biggest news we have in Spain and is an ongoing crisis which won't go away soon. It's easy to say just send them back but the law doesn't work that way. Each person has to be processed and have a lawyer and an interpreter and each case can take months to file. In order for that to happen, the immigrants have to be in a place where they are under control; refugee camps. Those not in the camps are living in dreadful conditions and some are violent and have committed crimes, including rape, but not the majority. Among them are up to 3000 minors who cannot be sent back. The population of Ceuta which is about 85.000 is fed up with the situation. They cannot live their normal lives, they are afraid to take their children to school, to do the shopping and cannot use the beaches which are the main area the illegal immigrants are "living" in if you can call it that. As my daughter got off the ferry the first thing she saw was the Army everywhere and small children begging for food. She also saw lots of Spanish flags hanging from buildings all over the town. She was going to have a hard job telling the story from both sides and she was going to see a lot of misery. She met one Moroccan girl called Ikram (I think) aged 23 who is a nurse from Fez. She had been interviewed on TVE and I saw the clip. This girl swam to Ceuta to find a job and pay for an operation her mother needs and which her salary as a nurse in Morocco is too low to pay for. She had not been raped but had been leered at by men and even had one point a pistol at her. I am proud to say that Olivia's team took her under their wing and she is now sleeping in one of her colleague's rooms. The problem for Ikram will be when they leave.
We had our own jobs to do that day. We had to inflate the tyres of the Mini which is such a bore, then do the shopping. But in between I had a lovely coffee at Alverán. That's when it felt we were really home. Tana made our lunch and later I had a whole 2 hour power nap I much needed. That afternoon I booked 3 nights at The Rock hotel in Gibraltar where we will be going on a mini road trip to Tangiers, Morocco, in October. Another trip to look forward to.
Suzy was back from work just as it was wine and pistachio time by the pool and we had a great catch up. She was busy on her phone with her potential dates which had me laughing and happy for her. The next day she was meeting an American from Chicago, Michael and taking him to El Escorial. I think it went well. She is no longer taking weed, she is having her meds and she is a different girl.
On Wednesday I was up just before 7 am and soon I was watching Olivia live from Ceuta. She has been reporting all week not only for her programme, La Hora de La 1 but also for the early morning news, Mañaneros, TVE24h and even for the lunchtime news. I am so proud of her and happy for her too because as a journalist she loves to be where the action is. She has been sent for 10 whole days. It's a long time away from her kids but I think now that they are a little older, she can focus more on her job. Up till now she nearly always had to turn down covering news if it meant she had to travel and be away for long. I have lots of photos I took of her on the screen and also some she sent. Here are a few I want to share and remember.
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| Olivia told me that this one was one of the immigrants she interviewed who told her that the Spanish Army had hit him and his friends and stolen their mobile phones! |
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| Some photos of Olivia in Ceuta and reporting live |
One day this week she was in real danger. She was reporting on the chaotic transfer of 1700 out of 4000 immigrants from the beaches to a new camp. While covering the tense situation, she and her cameraman got caught in a stampede of desperate men who were being fired at with rubber bullets by the police. Thank goodness she came away unscathed. I also followed her on TVE's social media and would particularly like to share you one link where in one of her reports she interviews a Moroccan in French while translating for the spectators. I heard later she and her team were congratulated by some rather top bosses. My dream would be for her to be posted as a foreign correspondent. Wouldn't that be great?
After watching just some of her live reporting, we went out on more errands and coffee again at Alverán. We came home for lunch I made and then watched the news. I was happy to hear that the EU supports Ceuta. Not sure they can help either. I was also happy to hear they had invited Canada, to Trump's fury, to be an associate member. As to the Greenland agreement reached between Denmark and Trump, it makes me sick. Yes, Greenland remains Danish, but at what a price? Now the USA can veto countries like Russia and China buying critical minerals. It can also build more military installations without permission from Denmark. Trump could not "buy" Greenland but this agreement gives him much tighter control over the Arctic compared to the previous treaty. I bet the Danish are not happy.
On Wednesday we had Miguel and the kids for dinner. We hadn't seen them since Alicia's wedding at the end of August so it was wonderful to be reunited. Juliet had turned 5 on 4th September while they were in El Cuetu and Elliot was turning 7 the next day. We had brought them presents from England, clothes from M&S as, honestly, I wouldn't know what toys to buy them. I think they liked them. They posed for me and for this blog.
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| Lovely to be reunited with Elliot and Juliet this week |
We had dinner outside as the weather was great and it was quite cool. We served the kids their favourite: my bitki (well Tana's now) - small Russian hamburgers, with rice, followed by ice cream. The next day Elliot was having his party at some raucous children's place with lots of noise so we didn't go. I know he wanted to celebrate his party at our house and we felt bad saying no, but no way could we have 10 kids in the pool and all their noise, especially because of the guests. When we were finishing our dinner, José, our new Colombian guest, the one with lots of bakeries, arrived. He loves it here and comes whenever I have a spare room. I like the guy but can't stand his eau de cologne which is so strong and lingers in the house for days. Soon the dinner was over and the kids and Miguel left but it had been great to see them.
Thursday came, the day Elliot turned 7. 7 is no longer a toddler and now that they are 5 and 7 they are much easier to handle and more of a joy to us. His mother, of course, missed his birthday which I know she will have been sad about. Again I watched her first thing in the morning. We went for a walk as we did most days this week after which I made our lunch; a dish with chicken from a recipe I found on Instagram.
I had a problem in the afternoon using Booking to reserve a room in a hotel in a place on our way to Gibraltar. I began to realise they had blocked my account for who knows what reason as I have Genius membership on Booking and am also a host for them. They make it very difficult to contact them but I did, only to be told they had suspended my account but couldn't tell me why as it was sensitive information which had me fuming. But meanwhile, I had written to them on Twitter only to realise much later that the replies I was getting were not from Booking but someone masking them. I got a call from them, or so I thought. It turned out to be a scam; a man from Kenya who got my bank details and I had to block my card. The whole issue was awful. I do wish I could tell Booking and could talk to a human there who could look into my account and see that I am bonafide. As that is not going to happen, I shall use Booking to look up places and then ring the hotels and book directly. I did exactly that for The Rock and the other hotel and do you know what? It was cheaper and I got free cancellationfor both reservations. So damn you Booking and goodbye. You have just lost a good guest.
Our evening entertainment that night was watching episode 1 of the newly released Series 5 of Fauda but I fell asleep. I didn't really like it actually as it is too intense and quite complicated to follow.
Friday came and I was up at 6 am, the usual. After watching Oli live on TV umpteen times, we went on our walk with Pippa. That day I had two visits to the house in El Cuetu. Interest seems to be on the up. The day before I got an offer below the asking price and the man who made it wanted to pay more than half of it in cash! No way José! A while later we got the best offer so far, just 10k below the asking price but we said no. We are not in a hurry and if the client wants it, he won't let the house go. Houses in Asturias are much in demand but there are not many at the price we are asking where you can move in without having to make major reforms; plus El Cuetu could not be better located - near the beaches in Llanes and the Picos mountain range. When it comes to the crunch I think we will be sad to see it go.
After our walk we went to have coffee with Eladio's friend and former teaching colleague, Roberto at Alverán. It was a pity Mari Carmen couldn't come. I hope she will next time. While Eladio and Roberto chatted, I went to our bank to get a new visa card which took a while. What took a lot longer was changing the payment method on all sorts of online platforms: Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google, PayPay, Carrefour, Ikea, Express VPN and many more I might have forgotten and which will bring problems when they try to charge me. The world is getting a more and more complicated place especially for elderly people many of whom cannot keep up with the online world and feel lost and left out.
Later that day my latest guests arrived, 2 sisters who looked like mother and daughter, from Brittany arrived for 3 nights to see one of their sons. I had no option but to talk to them in French and I managed as I always do. The day ended with wine and pistachios on the terrace by the pool which I have hardly used this summer.
Saturday dawned. It was sort of cooler so I looked for different clothes to shorts and t-shirts. I tried on trousers and tops I hadn't worn for years and was delighted to get into some light pink jeans and others. We went to El Corte Inglés and I felt quite elegant, so much so, one of the assistants complimented me on my flowery patterned blouse which is actually a pyjama top from Oysho! Before doing our shopping there we watched Oli live again, this time on my phone. Only then could I order an expensive coffee from Starbucks but they do have great coffee. We were at this flagship Spanish department store to get a blue leather belt (hard to find) for Eladio for his birthday this Wednesday as well as - yes, 2 toilet brushes (hahaha). We also went into the supermarket section to get some extra things for lunch and I have to say it is a superb supermarket, as good as M&S, except that it doesn't sell their wonderful food that I so miss, such as sausage rolls hahahhaa.
I came home to finish making lunch - "cocido madrileño". While it cooked Tana and I cleared a cupboard so full of empty glass jars that Eladio collects, the tupperwares wouldn't fit. I can't tell you how many we threw away and how many spare lids too. It was quite a job but a very satisfactory one. When I told Eladio we both laughed at his and Olivia's inability to throw away jam jars likening it to a syndrome called "Diogenes". Want to know more about this syndrome and who Diogenes was? Here is your answer.
I was proud to watch Olivia at 14.58 reporting live for the first time ever on the main lunchtime news of the day: TD1 on TVE which you can see here too. After the news I had another power nap, this time lasting 1.5 hours and again, as happens so often these days, I had an odd dream about my parents. Talking about parents, I was very sad to hear that our lovely Danish au pair and friend, Pernille's mother had died this week. I remember her well as a lovely woman and am so sorry for her daughter, Pernille and family in this difficult time. Bless you all.
The day ended again with wine and pistachios by the pool terrace and I got a photo of Eladio pouring the wine to remember the moment. Isn't he gorgeous?
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| Wine and pistachio moment yesterday |
Now I have come to the end of my stories for this week. I hope you have enjoyed the read. Cheers now until next time,
Masha
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