Olivia's stories from Ceuta, celebrating Eladio's birthday with Suzy, Harvard student asks Pedro Sánchez awkward questions, off to Asturias, discovering new places, tragedy in El Cuetu and other stories of the week.

Casa del Cuetu, Asturias, Sunday 27th September, 2026

Celebrating Eladio's birthday with Suzy on Wednesday at El Jardín de la Máquina

Good morning. I am happy to be publishing this week's blog post from El Cuetu, our house in Asturias where we came on Thursday. It is only our second trip here this year as there just hasn't been time. 

There was plenty of time on our hands last Sunday. It was the last day of summer but didn't feel as though the season had gone as it is still so hot in Madrid. That morning I took my weekly dose of Mounjaro and then got on the scales. I was relieved I had not put on any weight during our stay in England - all those afternoon teas and fish and chips -and weighed 59.6kg (9.5 stone). Not bad. This week, for the first time in many, many years, I wore my tops inside my trousers using a belt. Usually I covered up my non existing waist so was happy to see the result.

Me with a belt on and my top inside my trousers, something unheard of in the last decade or so. 

After publishing my blog I had moments with Suzy who is busy working and we don't often coincide. She seems fine but getting to work and back means a long drive to the airport and long hours. Olivia was still in Ceuta and I saw her again that morning when she reported on the heavy military presence at the border with Morocco as another massive invasion of immigrants was expected and thankfully didn't happen. You can see her here. 

I may have told you last week about her encounter with a young Moroccan nurse, Ikram, who had swum to Ceuta and was living on a football pitch. Olivia and her team adopted her and have tried to help her this week. Ikram spent the whole week with the TVE team and even sent me lovely messages in French which I somehow mananged to reply to in my haltering French.

Olivia and her TVE team with Ikram. She was so happy to be adopted by them. 

In the afternoon after a 1.5h siesta during which I had a nightmare about missing a flight to England, I had a long 2 hour video call with Amanda my dear friend. It was hard to think that only the Sunday before was her much awaited 70th birthday. We had a great catch up.

That night on the news we watched how in Germany in the elections, the far right party, AFD, surged ahead while the far left did so in Berlin. The difficulty is for Chancellor Friedrich Merz whose CDU party was removed from regional government. He vows to stay on.

After that we continued watching Season 5 of Fauda which had us riveted all week until we finished all 11 episodes. 2 of them were harrowing as they recounted the 7th October attacks by Hamas on Israel as seen through the eyes of Doron and his friends. 

Monday came and it was Autumn but again didn't feel like it. That day all our guests left and no more were coming until Wednesday, apart from Mark who is living here until December. Even Tana had gone - to be with her youngest son, Dennis, the youngest of 6, who had arrived that day and whom she hadn't seen for nearly 4 years. Later she brought him home for the night and by ·Wednesday he was on a train to Jaén where a job awaited him care of his aunt, as a bricklayer. I felt sorry that Tana didn't have any more time with him. I wish him lots of luck as an immigrant starting life in Spain. 

We went for our walk and then to our bank for a meeting with our "relationship manager" if that is what the role is called this day. It was Suzy's day off and she had lunch with us - not the only one this week. She is dating again and using something called Tinder. From what I can see, she has having a grand time. I spent time by the pool and I actually went in although the water was freezing. I think it's only the third time I have been in this summer. That afternoon I had a sensation similar to cystitis and was immediately worried it could be the infection I had in July and August that was back or had laid dormant. I did not have a good night with frequent visits to the small room. 

On Tuesday it felt better for a while so I got on with life. Reading the news over breakfast, in an article by one of The Times correspondents, here, David S. who I happen to know a bit as he covered our Felipe squatter story. He had quoted the Irish historian Ian Gibson as calling Spain's Federico García Lorca, Spain's "Shakespeare". As I don't agree I wrote to David who happens to be Ian's neighbour and we have suggested meeting up for a drink in Madrid. That would be something. Ian Gibson is probably the world's foremost scholar on Spain's poet and writer, Lorca, who was killed by Franco's regime at the prime of his life for being a socialist and gay. Lorca is much revered in Spain but much more so by British hispanists. As a former student of Hispanic Studies at Nottingham University, I too fell in love with Lorca and his works, memorably The House of Bernarda Alba. There is something in Lorca that attracts the British more than the Spanish and I would love to have that conversation with Ian Gibson. 

We skipped our walk to go to A&E as I knew the cystitis, if that is what is it, was not better.  A bit suspicious too is the fact that my kidneys hurt slightly too and they have done since the summer. They did tests but need the results of a culture to determine what it is. They gave me another course of antiobitics which don't seem to be doing the trick so I don't know what to think. Meanwhile, I have an appointment with an urologist on 1st October to see what this is all about. Nearly a year ago I had a cystocele operation to repair a prolapse and other things that had dropped (oh God) and things have been great until now. Meanwhile, this is an absolute pain. 

We came back to find Suzy with her old school friend, Pilar, whom I hadn't seen for years. But she was there for me when Suzy was so unwell and didn't want to see anyone. How good to see the two of them together again. Thus we had lunch alone. I spent a lot of the afternoon on all my rental admin and bookings. Apart from two days this week, we are fully booked from now till the end of October. This weekend we have a group of 8 young people and I am so glad Tana is there to make their stay a pleasant one and not me, hahaha. 

Wednesday, 23rd September was my dear husband, Eladio's, birthday. He never seems to age does he? I was up way before him, having my coffee and fags and watching the news. I could not resist watching the interview by the BBC with Charles Spencer on his book about his sister called Swan Song. Of course as soon as it came out, I bought it on Kindle but haven't read it yet. You can see the interview here. His main revelations are quite explosive. He tells of a phone call by the then Prince of Wales about the funeral in which he says "We'll forget her soon enough" in what Spencer calls a "giddy tone" as if he were pleased. Spencer didn't want the "boys" to walk behind their mother's coffin which his brother in law insisted on. Spencer argued their mother would not have liked it. It happened and was monstrous. 

When Eladio came down to the kitchen, all thoughts of this subject left my head and turned to my husband's birthday. There waiting for him were two gifts and a card. I had bought him a suitcase which was too big to wrap up and a blue leather belt. Here he is with his gifts.

Eladio and his birthday presents

For his birthday we went out for breakfast and for lunch which turned out to be a bit too much. We went to have chocolate con churros, except that I had coffee with porras, the thicker version. They were amazing and we both enjoyed the moment.

Churros for breakfast on Eladio's birthday

We came home to go on our walk to work off some of the calories but not many, I am afraid. Later we went to do the weekly shopping to leave food at home and to take to Asturias. 

I had booked a table for Eladio's birthday lunch at El Jardín de la Máquina, in Pozuelo, where we would be joined by Suzy who got there after her morning shift. That is the photo I have chosen for this week's blog post. It was a lovely lunch and we enjoyed wonderful food such as mini scallops and artichokes. We even had a glass of pink champagne at the end of the meal. 

I was bursting when I got home and all I wanted was to go to bed. I slept a good 2 hours and woke up feeling slightly sick. No way could I have any dinner. Our day was long as we had to wait up for our new guests, 3 Portuguese drone experts who arrived just after 10 pm. My dear husband went to recieve them and I would meet them the next day.

All in all, I think Eladio had a great birthday. However, we didn't see our grandchildren or Olivia who missed his birthday and Elliot's so we are working on a date when we all here to celebrate the three September birthdays as a family. Hopefully, that will be soon.

Thursday came, the day of our departure to Asturias. I was up really early and greeted my guests and even spoke a bit of my rusty Portuguese which rather amazed them coming from an English woman. 

Before we left I managed to see Olivia again on TV. More interestingly she sent me a photo of a woman who had crossed into Ceuta from Morocco and whose baby was born a week or so ago. What a photo!

Olivia interviewing a Moroccan couple whose baby, Yusra,  was in the mother's womb when she crossed into Ceuta. 

She interviewed other immigrants, women mostly, whose living conditions as shown in this photo tell a dire story. Despite their terrible conditions, none of them want to return to Morocco. They are stuck in Ceuta where they cannot reach the Spanish peninsula and will continue to be for a long time. The situation is untenable. 

A Moroccan woman immigrant washing her hair in a camp in Ceuta

Meanwhile, in New York, Spain's PM, Pedro Sánchez, was taking part in the UN General Assembly. While there he visited Harvard to lead a debate about Artificial Intelligence. He did not expect some of the questions posed to him by students on his management of government in Spain. A third year student called Peter posed the most awkward of questions when he asked him  the following this: read on - 

"Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Peter. I'm a third-year student at the university and an AI safety researcher. I agree with many of the points you've made about artificial intelligence and how money tends to be a corrupting influence in politics. And in that context, I'm very curious to ask you about the fact that your wife, your brother, your former Attorney General, your former chief of staff, and your wife's personal assistant are among nine different corruption investigations currently underway involving your government. Some people are in jail over this. Some people are on trial. Some people have been indicted. So I'm curious — when we have this conversation about how to restore faith in government and get rid of the perception that government is influenced by dark money — how do you see yourself and your government at a time when, according to European Commission opinion polls, many Spaniards think you are one of the reasons behind corruption in Spain. Thank you."

So there he was at one of the US' most hallowed Universities, being asked about all the corruption cases in his government including his wife and brother. Sánchez has been much revered outside Spain because of his stance against Trump and Netanyahu, but this is a cover up to gain a positive image across the world. So thank you Peter for sticking your oar in Spanish politics for the world to see because your question went viral. But not the answer which didn't make the cut.

These topics kept me occupied while Eladio enjoyed driving our new T Roc to Asturias.We stopped for a swanky lunch at Hosteria Los Palmeros in Frómista in the province of Palencia on the way, a marvellous place but not cheap. 

Lunch in Frómista on our way to El Cueut

It was hot in the village when we arrived but the house is always cool. It took us longer than usual to settle in. Nothing was in its place, we had to make all the beds as the cleaner had not done a good job. Then I had to wrestle with the new TV, all solvable issues and finally the moment came when we could sit outside on the terrace and enjoy our wine and pistachio time. Loli, our neighbour and close friend came to greet us and we had a pleasant chat. She was telling me about her grandchildren, Pablo and Soraya who were taking part in a car rally in Llanes this weekend. Little did we know how that would end in tragedy.

Friday was much cooler and certainly not a beach day. I saw Olivia on TV in her last appearance in Ceuta after which she had to take the long journey home; ferry to Algeciras, car to Málaga and then the high speed train to Madrid. She was dying to go home and be with her babies after all the suffering she had seen. 

We decided to spend the morning in our beloved Llanes, that pretty coastal town near us. We had coffee at La Galerna and I did some shopping at Aramburu and the cake shop (oh dear). We took photos by the port over the bridge, a place we both love.

By the port in Llanes on Friday

From there we walked to the other town beach, Playa de Toro, enjoying the views on our way and taking more photos like these. I love some of the Indiana houses in that area.

Llanes and its beautiful houses and beaches on Friday

We went home for lunch that day and ate food I had brought from home that only needed heating up. We had a short siesta as prospective buyers were coming at 5 to see the house. It was quite a surprise to find out they live in Boadilla near us in Madrid. We didn't hear from them again. Neither have we heard from another client who made us an offer last week just below the asking price and we are now wondering whether we should have accepted it. However, we are not in a hurry and shall continue to enjoy this house until we finally sell it. 

While we were leading a peaceful life in El Cuetu, far away, in Washington, Donald Trump was hosting the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his wife for whom they rolled out the red carpet. The whole scene makes me rather sick as these two world leaders are the wrong people in the wrong jobs and they are dangerous. 

Saturday came and out we went again, but this time to explore new places. We were going to visit the village of Pendueles, near Unquera where Olivia and family went in the summer. We were keen to see the Indiana houses and walk to the wild beach of the same name, Pendueles which below a high cliff. We loved the walk across the fields to get to the top of the cliff overlooking the beach and took loads of photos like this one.

Overlooking the Pendueles beach

More than a beach, it is a wild cove famous for its rocky islet, Los Picones which you can reach at low tide. It was low tide but was too rocky to walk to. It is certainly not a place to swim because of the strong waves but we did see one bather risk it. I took a video which you can see here. It was quite  a steep walk down and I took great care as I did not want to fall. But oh how wonderful when we got to this rugged beach which we had to ourselves. 

The wild beach in Pendueles, near Unquera which we visited yesterday

The sun came out and it was a magical moment of peace and beauty with the only sounds coming from the waves crashing against the rocks. Once back at the top I asked a couple to take a photo of both of us to share with you here and to remember the moment.

A beautiful spot overlooking the rugged beach of Pendueles

We know many many places in this area so it was great yesterday to explore and discover a new one. We shall be back. 

At 2pm we had a reservation at a restaurant called Casa  Xico in Mestas de Ardisana. My friend Gerardo had recommended it to me and Oli and Miguel went there and loved it. So off we went. It is near our house but on a country lane which had been cut off because of the Llanes Rally car race. So we had to go another way. Finally we made it and were surprised just how many cars were parked in this tiny village. Obviously, Casa Xico, is very popular.  They offer a fixed menu for 30 euros a head and serve local food. We both chose tomatoes for starters. For our second course, Eladio went for the roast goat (not my thing) and I went for a "fabada" - the famous Asturian bean stew. Neither of us could finish our second course so brought back a doggy bag for today. 

We left feeling rather full and happy with our choice of restaurant. Here are some pictures.

Casa Xico restaurant near us and which runs a very successful business.

Yesterday we discovered two more places in the area and today we shall discovrr two more, to Porrua and Playa de la Huelga, although my heart is not in it.

My heart is with Loli my neighbour. Yesterday afternoon as I was on the terrace in the shade I saw many people around who were crying and ringing their hands. I imagined someone had died so I sent a message to my neighbour to ask her who had died. I could not believe my eyes when she wrote back to say that it was her 20 year old granddaughter, Soraya Barreiro. But how I asked? She was taking part in the car rally  (49th Rally Villa de Llanes) near here with her boyfriend German who was the pilot while she was the co pilot. This happened yesterday at around 2 pm when their car veered off the side of the road just after the start where her grandparents Loli and Pepe were cheering her on. The car veered off a steep ascent near El Mazuco a road I know and hate. It fell into a wooded area and caught fire. German managed to get out but while trying to get Soraya out too, the car exploded and there was nothing he could do. Loli told me her granddaughter did not suffer as she was unconscious when the car burst into flames. Although they were on site when it happened they only saw the smoke. Loli and Pepe lost their only other child, Juan Pablo, brother to Soraya's mother, Lucia  more than 20 years ago who, I imagine, is now destroyed as a mother as are all of them. This is the biggest tragedy that can hit a family and I cannot begin to imagine their suffering. I honestly don't know how they will pick up their lives now. Time will help but a part of them will have died with their daughter, sister, granddaughter and partner. My heart goes out to all of them.

Today is Sunday and I imagine none of them will have slept. I saw Loli and Pepe again this morning and Loli and I hugged. I have no words to comfort her. Words at these times are useless. They are in my heart and thoughts and if we are still here we shall be going to the funeral to pay our respects. 

Loli with her beloved granddaughter Soraya who died in a tragic accident yesterday in El Mazuco

RIP Soraya. No one will ever forget you.  Life is so cruel that it had to take you at such a young age. 

Soraya and German.

Lord give strength to your family and may your memory live on in them always.

And that is life my friends.

Till next Sunday when I hope to have happier news, 

Masha

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