Leaving the snow in Montrondo, St. Lucia invitation, a visit to Anovo, to Barcelona and back, new clothes, Thanksgiving and the unknown Spanish origin, the craze of Black Friday, Suzy in Bath and other stories.

Sunday 29^th November 2015

About to devour this delicious Fideua on Thursday in Barcelona at Cal Pinxo

Hi everyone,

It’s been an extraordinarily busy week.  It started off quietly though.  Last Sunday we woke up to snow in Montrondo. The day before it had snowed on and off but then it must have snowed all night as we woke up to a white Montrondo. 

We woke up to snow on Sunday morning last week in Montrondo

It was Pippa’s first experience with real snow and I’m not sure she liked it.  What I loved apart from the white scenes, was having a cozy breakfast inside our warm house with wonderful views of the snow outside.  Here is Eladio enjoying his breakfast that morning.

Breakfast in Montrondo last Sunday with snow outside.

My idea was to stay and enjoy the snow, go for a walk with Pippa, have lunch and set off for Madrid in the afternoon.  However Eladio foiled my plan.  He and his family always seem to enter into panic mode when snow falls in the village, perhaps remembering being trapped there when they lived there many years ago.  So Eladio hurriedly made preparations to leave despite my protests. I tried to point out that the snow plough would be here soon and that we would have no problem driving.  But it was not to be.  This is what it looked like when we left.

It was snowing hard when we left

The main road was quite clear of snow and just a few miles down the road there was less and less snow.  There was more in Montrondo as it stands at 1.300m high in the mountains.  Pippa wasn’t too keen to leave either.  She now travels “legally” with a proper seat belt fastener on the back seat rather than on my lap.  She is not very keen on travelling and I’m sure she too would have preferred to stay that day in the village.

Pippa travelling legally now

On the bright side we were home for lunch.  I was happy to see my Amazon order of Downton Abbey Season 6 (the last one) had arrived and spent part of the afternoon watching the first episode.  I am very sad there will be no more seasons, my only consolation being that I have yet to see the Christmas special which I can only order after it has been aired in the UK later next month.

Downton Abbey Season 6 arrived in my absence.  Needless to say I devoured all of it in less than a week.

On Monday I was up early.  I had to be in Madrid that morning with my boss for an interview with a new radio station belonging to Forbes which will be launched next week. The interview was taped so there were no nerves and we both enjoyed the session.  The questions were very general; none of them too tricky.

The interview at Forbes Radio

Once back at the office, I went through my pigeon hole.  Normally it is full of junk mail; mostly boring sector magazines, but amongst all the mail there was one envelope which looked interesting from the Swedish Embassy.  It was an invitation for two to the Swedish Ambassador’s private residence to celebrate St. Lucia.  Gosh that meant having to dig out a suit for Eladio; not an easy task as the last time he wore one was probably about 10 years ago. 

The invitation from the Swedish Embassy

St. Lucia is an important Swedish and Nordic Christmas tradition where a beautiful young girl wearing white and a crown of candles on her head together with a cortege, bring the light to the dark days of Christmas singing and offering traditional gingerbread biscuits and other typical products of this festival, one of the most important in the Swedish calendar.  From what I have read about its origins, “St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304AD. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means 'light' so this is a very appropriate name”.  St. Lucia takes place on 13^th December, although the Embassy celebration will be a few days earlier.I look forward to it and for once I will have Eladio to join me.

Tuesday was a headachy day and I think I didn’t shake it off until I returned from Barcelona later in the week.  That day we had a “Yoigo Morning”, a staff event which I organise where the staff gets an update on how the company is doing and can ask questions.  It is followed by fun  and personal presentations from new employees and then a cocktail party to enjoy and to network.  We had full house and the information shared was of great use to the employees.  Everything went off without a hitch, including the presentation I had put together at the last minute.

The Yoigo Morning on Tuesday

I then dashed off to Anovo.  What’s Anovo you may ask?  Well it’s a phone repair company that we use for most of the models of phones we sell to our customers and one of our strategic partners.  If you saw me in Undercover Boss you may remember my session there, learning how to repair a mobile phone with a young employee called Miguel.  After me, I think he was the star of the show.  So why did I go?  No, not to repair a phone but to get mine repaired.  The screen of my phone broke a while ago and I never seemed to find the time to go to Anovo to get it mended on the spot.  I needed to go in person to make sure all the data remained and that it was not put back to factory settings.  It was very funny going back to Anovo as Masha and a customer, rather than my fictional self in the programme, Melanie the fruit seller from London hahaha.  I got red carpet treatment and the screen of my phone was replaced in a jiffy; a perk of my job I suppose.  Whilst there, I met the people in charge of Yoigo, as well as an old colleague from Motorola, Lubas who I am always happy to see. Then to my joy, Miguel turned up and I threw my arms around him.  You can’t imagine just how close I am to the employees who took part in the programme with me.  Here is a photo of that moment.  It was really nice to be back at Anovo.  Thanks guys for your help.

At Anovo on Tuesday

Whilst all this was happening, on the international scene, I was amazed to find out that the Turkish government had given orders to shoot down a Russian military jet in Turkish airspace according to them.  According to Vladimir Putin it was in Syrian air space.  The Russian plane was given ample warning which it ignored and the plane was downed and the pilots had to parachute themselves out.  I personally think the Turks were wrong to shoot the plane, especially in these times when they should be allies and not enemies, in getting rid of ISIS.  The incident brought the wrath of the Russian President but thankfully it’s not war with Russia or Turkey, more like sanctions and the similar.  Meanwhile in Brussels the lockdown continued, as did the search for the terrorists behind the Paris Attacks.

The Russian fighter jet shot down in Turkish air space

On Wednesday I was up early again. That morning we were to issue a press release on the launch of the Yoigo app, called “Mi Yoigo”.  The app, available on Android and IOS is for customers to manage their use of their tariff and many other things. It comes late but it’s a very well made app and the response that day was positive, thankfully.

Proud of the new Yoigo (Mi Yoigo) app

Whilst it was being launched, I was on my way to Barcelona for a site inspection trip to choose locations for our press conference and party at the Mobile World Congress next February.  I have to confess the best part of all my events, are not the events themselves which I generally do not enjoy, but the sight inspection trips.  Here I am on the train setting up my office (pc, etc), except that I couldn’t work much because despite the avant garde technology of the high speed train, it doesn’t have wifi.  So I was content to continue watching Downton Abbey, albeit with not very good headphones.  It kept me entertained until my arrival at the Sants trains station at about 1.20.

On the high speed train to Barcelona on Wednesday morning

I had lunch with Bea and Miguel from my events agency, QuintaEsencia, at one of the possible locations, “Chapeau” a private club in the heart of the city.  Barcelona was looking good as it always does when the sun is shining. This is the view from my hotel room.

The view of Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona from my hotel room

As I took the photo I reflected that it would be a pity if Cataluña ever separated from Spain, the big issue on the nation’s agenda on the eve of General Elections to be held on 20^th December.

It was a great lunch after which we went to see more of the locations on the list.  We loved the first two we saw and which were perfect for our needs; so much so that we spent the whole afternoon brainstorming at Chez Coco the fashionable venue we have chosen for the party and which was used recently by the Barcelona Football Club.  We talked until 7.30 when I had to rush off if I was to be on time for my date with Grainne. 

If you read my blog regularly you will know that Grainne went to school with me and that she is the older sister of one of my best class mates, Brenda.  Like me, she has lived in Spain for more than 30 years.  She is a teacher of English and when I arrived at her home by the sea in Badalona she was in the middle of a conversation lesson with 4 men pupils.  She asked me to join the class which I willingly did and enjoyed talking English slowly to her eager pupils; all of whom had seen me “star” in the Undercover Boss programme!

After the class, Juan Carlos, one of her pupils, drove us and Marcel, Grainne’s son, to a local restaurant where my friend had booked a table, called Ca l’Arqué.  The wife of the owner was one of Grainne’s pupils and the next day her first English lesson would be with her.  In Badalona Catalán is widely spoken and at the restaurant I guessed even more so as I kept having to ask the owner and my hosts to speak Spanish, not to mention get a menu in Spanish.

Dinner with Grainne and Marcel is always a hoot 

It was a wonderful dinner, not just because I liked the restaurant and the food but because I always feel completely at ease with my dearest funny and charismatic friend Grainne and her delightful and loving son Marcel.  I reflected and pointed out to Grainne that I have visited her on perhaps every one of my trips to Barcelona over the years. Yet she has only visited us in Madrid once.  I would love them to come here and also to take them to Montrondo one day.

Soon it was time to leave and we called a local taxi.  I was amazed again when the taxi driver recognised me from the Undercover Boss programme.  He was a huge fan of the series and didn’t stop talking to me about it until we arrived at my hotel.  He was so happy to meet me and it felt like being famous for 5 minutes; not an unpleasant feeling I can tell you.

I slept well that night and in the morning decided upon the luxury of breakfast in bed.

Breakfast in bed - a rare luxury

I spent most of the morning working quietly from my room until it was time to check out.  I decided to walk to my lunch appointment with Bea and Miguel at Cal Pinxo.  My hotel was on Paseo de Gracia, one of Barcelona’s smartest streets which is full of enticing shops.  I could not resist going into Mango, Punto Roma and Zara on my way and when I arrived at the restaurant I was carrying quite a few shopping bags.  I told Bea that I hadn’t bought any clothes for a long time.  And it’s true as my priority for the last year or so has been buying things for the house in Montrondo rather than anything for me, but that morning I was inspired.  I bought two dresses, a black top, a coat and a pair of jeggings.  I just loved this little black dress with a white collar from Zara and think it will be perfect for the Swedish Embassy St. Lucia reception.

The little black dress with a white collar from Zara

I got to Cal Pinxo, one of my favourite places in Barcelona, by the Palau de la Mar and the Port Vell, at around 1. Soon I was joined by Miguel and Bea.  We sat in the sun and ordered a dish we all love called “fideua”.  This is like paella but made with vermicelli.  The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of me and the fideua the moment it was brought to our table. There was so much I took home a doggy bag and we ate it for dinner that night and for lunch the next day.

With Bea at Cal Pinxo

I was home on time for dinner with Eladio and Olivia. Recently I have been so busy I have hardly seen Oli on the TV but was happy to see a photo of her doing a report on babies. She loves doing stories about babies and children. 

Oli doing a report she loved this week

The story was about a baby being massaged by an Indian girl.  How strange right?  Well not when I heard from Olivia that this is an Indian tradition whereby babies are massaged when they are young to strengthen their bodies and do them good in general.  In the report she went to a parlour in Madrid where young Indian girls offered the same service to mothers in Spain. 

Whilst Eladio, Oli and I ate the remains of the “fideua”, in the US and many parts of the world, North Americans were eating turkey and celebrating Thanksgiving.  I have never been to a Thanksgiving dinner but it might be interesting.  What was interesting to read was that according to historians at a University in Florida, the first Thanksgiving dinner did not take place thanks to the English Mayflower Pilgrims as we all thought. No, it was apparently Pedro Menéndez Avilés, the Spanish explorer who celebrated the first Thanksgiving dinner 50 years earlier in 1565 in St. Augustine Florida, in gratitude for the safe arrival.  And they didn’t eat turkey but ham and olives, wine and chickpeas.  This is not widely known in the US or anywhere else for that matter, probably because the US prefers to link the celebration to its Anglican rather than Spanish heritage and roots.

"The first Thanksgiving meal in 1565 in St. Augustine that was shared between Spanish settlers and the native Timucua Indians: salted pork, garbanzo beans, ship’s bread and red wine"

The next day was Black Friday, a sales day the day after Thanksgiving which was until very recently an exclusively US event.  Amazon brought it to Europe, as did other online sites, but I was amazed to witness this week just how much Black Friday has invaded Spain and most of the world too.  Black Friday this year was huge here and wasn’t just on Friday but in many parts started on Thursday and will last all weekend until Monday which is another bargain selling day event called Cyber Monday.  Has the world gone crazy or what?  I ask myself why in Spain and most of the world we have taken on as our own celebrations such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and now Black Friday.  I hope that doesn’t mean we will all be celebrating Thanksgiving next year.  My answer to its success can only be money; i.e. consumerism.  Even in Yoigo we celebrated Black Friday slashing prices from Thursday to today.

Yoigo joined in the Black Friday craze which took Spain by storm this week

I wondered what the origin of the day was, apart from being a sales day after Thanksgiving.  There are two possible theories, one about the association with “black” and coming into money and the more plausible one of the police calling it that due to so much traffic the day after Thanksgiving.  Be that as it may, Black Friday has come to stay.  I ignored it and did my shopping on Thursday in Barcelona and was not inspired to enter the frenzy this weekend as I hate crowds, just as much as I hate following sheep which is how I see Black Friday.  No, it’s not for me for the moment.

On Friday I had the occasion to wear some of the new clothes I bought in Barcelona on Thursday. Here I am wearing the new grey and white striped dress from Mango and the grey coat from Zara.  You probably know that my favourite brands of clothing are Zara, Mango, H+M, Lindex and M+S.  For shoes it is Clarks.

Wearing some of my new clothes on Friday morning

Off I went into town to Madrid for a meeting with my PR and Public Affairs agency Ketchum.  Here we were to go over the issues we have in Public Affairs and come up with a plan for 2016.  It was a productive session.

That morning we had another press release. This time it was to announce the return of our star tariff, the Sinfin with 20 gigas of internet and unlimited talk time.  It’s for new customers and is the focal part of our Christmas promotion and campaign.

Yoigo's sinfin tariff with 20 gigas is back for Christmas for new customers

I was home on time for our walk with the dogs and lunch.  The weather was glorious and it’s amazing that we go for walks in our shirt sleeves at the end of November. The bad weather came and went and it’s like summer again, at least during the middle of the day.

In the afternoon I did the weekly food shopping with Salu.  It always feels we are buying enough food to feed an army as we leave the supermarket with 2 full trolleys.  This time I bought even more food as I contributed to the nationwide campaign where food is being bought and collected for poor people on the biggest scale I have ever seen.

This week there was a nationwide collection of food for the poor at nearly all the supermarkets in the country

It was my good deed of the day.

Later that night we went out to dinner and were joined by Oli and Miguel, who is recovering slowly from his appendicitis operation.  We chose to go to La Vaca Argentina where we can use my excess number of luncheon vouchers and where I booked a table via The Fork, thus benefitting from a 30% discount.

Once home, Eladio and I continued to binge watch Prison Break which has us riveted with all the suspense this American prison series brings with it, not to mention rather too much violence at times. 

Some of the cast from Prison Break

Saturday was a lazy day.  I spent part of the morning watching the end of Downton Abbey and felt gutted afterwards as that was really the end and I wasn’t satisfied.  We went for another sunny walk in our shirt sleeves after which we came home and I made a lovely family lunch when we were joined by Oli and Miguel again.  Whilst Eladio slept his siesta, I watched one of the Call the Midwife Christmas specials I hadn’t seen. Then and there I ordered series 3 and 4 on Amazon and was disappointed to see there was no discount for Black Friday.

Meanwhile Suzy, Chati and their Italian friend were spending the day in Bath.  Suzy told me the weather was awful and that it was packed.  They were not able to see the Baths due to the huge queues.  The only picture I got was a selfie of her with Monica by the church next to the Baths.

Suzy in Bath yesterday - here with her Italian friend Monica

Later last night they drove on to Bristol where they would be spending the night with a friend of Chati’s who lives there. I look forward to talking to Suzy today to find out all about their trip and how she is in general.  We haven’t spoken for ages, just have contact on whatsapp.

Oli and Miguel went out to dinner last night and Eladio and I stayed in.  It was Salu’s day off, so we weren’t going anywhere.  And, yes, we watched more of Prison Break until it was time to fall asleep.

Today, Sunday, is another sunny day and we shall all have lunch together, but not before I finish this blog post and go for our walk.

Next week we shall be going to Montrondo again and Oli and Miguel will join us for the weekend.  But of course you will be hearing all about that in next week’s post.

In the meantime, I wish you all a great week,

Cheers till next time

Masha.

A busy week, good news for Oli, a Government reshuffle in Spain, a weekend in Barcelona and a happy Monday for Yoigo.

Me in the Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona this weekend

Hi everyone

I’m late with my blog this week but that’s because we came back from Barcelona late on Sunday evening which is when I normally write.

Last week was busy as this week will be too. It started Monday with good news for Oli and if it’s good news for Oli it’s good news for us. In her time with RTVE she realised that she really wants to work in television as a journalist. Thus, spurred on by colleagues, she applied to do the RTVE (Spanish national TV station) master degree in television journalism at the Universidad Juan Carlos 1 in Madrid. The entrance exam was very stiff. There were some awfully difficult questions on today’s political scene and general knowledge. The candidates also had to do a news story on camera after reading just a press release. There were 16 places for 80 candidates so it was no easy feat to get accepted. The good news came last Monday afternoon that she had been accepted. She will start this week on Thursday and the master degree will take about a year and will include 3 months unpaid practice with the RTVE news programmes in the summer. We are thrilled for her. Meanwhile she has gone to Marrakech with Laura and 2 other friends for a nice holiday break. The only thing we have heard so far is that they keep getting lost in the souk which doesn’t surprise me as I did too when I was there.

My beautiful journalist daughter Olivia who was admitted to the RTVE master degree in TV journalism. 
I'm so happy for her.

Monday for me was not so good. I had a dental appointment with my favourite dentist of long ago whom I can now visit as he is on the list of our new medical policy, Cigna. It was nice to see Dr. Garralda again but not so nice to hear that I will need 2 implants and that the treatment will take some 6 months, not to mention the cost. To top the bad news I scratched my recently painted Volvo company car trying to get out of a heavily congested car park in Majadahonda. So, no Monday was not my day, but it was Oli’s.

The week was busy work wise but there was time for lunch with an ex Nokia friend Susana at De María in Majadahonda on Tuesday and on Wednesday with Susana and Mauricio from the PR team I used to have at Llorente y Cuenca. After lunch with them at Laray in Hermanos Bécquer I went to have coffee with my sister and brother in law, Dolores and José Antonio who live nearby. I hadn’t seen them since August. I don’t know why but we no longer see each other as often as before and I miss seeing them. Ah and I also had a girly lunch with the girls on Thursday, the only negative thing being I had to be in a conference call with Sweden at the same time.

José  Antonio and Dolores with their new pet Nuba.  It was lovely to have coffee with them last week

Wednesday was a big day for Spanish politics. It was the day I also realised that daily newspapers really do not bring fresh news anymore. Whilst my whole family were reading The Daily Telegraph, El País, El Mundo and Que, I was at my computer. And it was on Facebook that I found out that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was to announce that morning a major cabinet reshuffle in his government. His number 2, the Deputy Prime Minister, the austere mature lady María Teresa Fernández de la Vega was to leave her position and be replaced by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba who would combine the job with Home Affairs for which he was already responsible. The latter was also a minister under Felipe González. One of the main reasons behind the reshuffle seems to be a need for better communication from the Government especially with the new reforms taken because of the financial crisis. I like to hear that as I am a communications professional. There were many other changes but this was the biggest. I rushed upstairs to the dining room to inform my family reading the papers that the real news was on internet and of course both Eladio and Olivia rushed off to their respective PCs to find out more.

María Teresa Fdz de la Vega leaves the number 2 position in the government after last week's big cabinet reshuffle

Soon it was Friday and Eladio and I went off to Barcelona for a jolly weekend. I use the word jolly as the hotel we were to stay at were offering us a free weekend because of appalling service when I last stayed there. A friend of mine, dear Julio, when I told him the story, urged me to write a letter to the Manager saying I may get some compensation. So for the first time in my life I wrote a very exaggerated letter of complaint and low and behold the manager responded and offered me 2 nights free whenever I wanted. The hotel in question is the new W Barcelona built by Ricardo Bofill. It is located at the end of the Barceloneta beaches right by the port. It is a bit far from the city but you can walk to the Rambla in about 45 minutes, so good for exercise.  The hotel building is quite spectacular and is in the shape of a huge sail with some 26 floors with magnificent views. Once again however the service was lacking in professionalism. However I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and complain again.

The amazing Hotel W where we stayed in Barcelona this last weekend, great place but very badly organised

The drive was long, some 650km which felt like it took forever. The highlight was lunch at Asador La Brasa in Calatayud on the way. The worst part was driving into Barcelona in 1.5hrs of dense Friday afternoon traffic. Once we had checked in, we walked to the Port Vell to the Palau de Mar area and decided upon dinner at one of my favourite places in Barcelona, Cal Pinxo. Here I was able to keep to my protein and vegetable diet by ordering excellent crayfish and sole.

On Saturday we were up early and after a protein breakfast, at least for me, we made our way into the city. We walked to Port Vell and from there to the Paseo de Colón until we reached La Rambla.

Eladio at La Rambla in Barcelona this weekend.  We had a great time.  As you can see the weather was great.

La Rambla was bustling with tourists and was as fun as always. There were lots of living statues, one more spectacular than the other. This was the one I liked best.

La Rambla is lined with living statues competing for tourists' money.  I thought this one was especially good

From La Rambla we walked to the Plaza de Cataluña and then on to Puerta de Angel, the street they say is the most commercial in town. Here I ventured into Cortefiel and to Zara (keep buying new clothes as I lose more weight-:) whilst Eladio waited patiently outside. Then we walked towards the Cathedral in the Gothic old city and went inside for a quick look. It really is magnificent. What I didn’t like were the semi professional gypsy beggar women outside who give a terrible image of Spain to the tourists who flock to Barcelona in their thousands.

The semi professional gypsy beggar women are not a pretty sight outside the cathedral in Barcelona

We had a coffee in the square by the cathedral to gain some renewed energy before continuing our walk, this time back to the Port Vell and for lunch at Cal Pinxo again. Eladio was very happy to order black rice whilst I kept to my diet by ordering cockles and sole once more.

Eladio enjoying black rice at Cal Pinxo in Port Vell this weekend in Barcelona

It is at Port Vell where the black immigrants sell imitation branded handbags illegally. The bags are attached to strings and then to a blanket so that they can run off fast if the police come by. I always buy a handbag from them that I don’t really need and this time I got the latest Prada model in brown for 13 euros after a very small haggle. The guy who sold it to me was a good looking immigrant from Senegal. I could only imagine the drama that must have gone on in his life for him to arrive and be selling illegal faked goods in Barcelona.

I'm always a sucker for imitation fashion bags at Port Vell sold by black immigrants.

Before going back to the hotel, we went to a market in the town to buy flowers and some produce to take to Grainne’s that night. I went to school with Grainne who has lived in Barcelona or rather in Badalona nearby for many years and I cannot every go Barcelona without visiting her. This time we invited ourselves to dinner. That’s how good our friendship is.

We spent the afternoon lazing and enjoying the hotel. Eladio had a siesta in our room whilst I read the newspaper on the swimming pool terrace which was a magnificent place. For one moment I thought I was in paradise. Later on we visited the small but well equipped spa before dolling ourselves up (well me at least) and taking a taxi to Grainne’s place.

The swimming pool terrace and complex at the W Hotel by the Barceloneta beaches is a sort of paradise

Dinner at Grainne’s is always a pleasure as I feel so at home there. It was Eladio’s first visit but I know he did too. We were joined by Pepe, Grainne’s best friend and a shoe repairer for the record as well as by Marcel, Grainne’s adorable son who is the same age as our daughters. Grainne is a superb cook but I didn’t get to try her great chicken casserole and lemon soufflé as I was determined to stick to my diet and had an omelette and some cooked ham, washed down by caffeine free diet coke (how sad).

With my dear friend Grainne at her house for dinner on Saturday night in Badalona.  We go back such a long way.

And suddenly it was Sunday and the weekend was nearly over. We had a leisurely breakfast and I packed whilst Eladio read the paper by the enormous window overlooking the city and the sea. I must include a picture of the view from the room because it is simply spectacular and one of the salient points of the W Hotel.

The view from our room at the W Hotel in Barcelona

Thus we checked out at midday but before hitting the road decided to do that day’s walk along the Barcelonata beaches towards the Hotel Arts at the other end of the beach from where our hotel was. The walk was splendid in the sunshine with people enjoying themselves on the beach, walking, on bikes, on skates, skate boards, playing bowl and generally enjoying their Sunday morning by the sea.

On our walk on Sunday morning from our hotel in the background, all along the Barceloneta promenade

So with a heavy heart we left, only cheered by the news of Fernando Alonso winning the Korean GP and taking leadership of the Formula One championship. The drive back was long and tedious and lunch was at a pretty nasty roadside cafe near Lérida. We got home late thanks to heavy traffic coming into Madrid but were happy to be home again and welcomed by our lovely daughter Susana who joined us for a makeshift Sunday evening dinner.

Monday was a happy day for Yoigo and deserves a special mention in this week’s blog. It was the TeliaSonera Q3 results and there were glowing references to Yoigo’s performance. We have reached over 2 million customers and look forward to being positive in the last quarter of the year. On top of that we had excellent results in the EPSI customer satisfaction surveys within the countries of the group. If you don’t believe me, just look at this chart of how we are doing in Spain vs our competition.  To think that we have done all this in such a short a time is quite amazing.

According to EPSI Yoigo has the most satisfied customers of all mobile phone operators in Spain!!!

And on that happy note, I leave you until next week. Hope you all have a great week, me too of course. Cheers till next time

Masha

PS Here is the full collection of photos of our lovely weekend in Barcelona

Barcelona again, a Hawaiian Barbecue, a Swedish royal wedding, the girls in Copenhagen and more

The "girls" in Hawaiian dress at yesterday's Barbecue. 

 Good morning my friends,

Another week has passed and here I am writing this sunny Sunday morning when thankfully the brightest star in our lives has returned. It wasn’t like this all week but gradually it made its appearance again.

Let me start from last Sunday if I am to be faithful to the chronological spirit of this blog which is actually my diary. We were joined by our friends Roberto and Mari Carmen on our walk in the late evening. Afterwards we went to dinner to a place we all like but don’t go to that often, La Txitxarrería, somewhere we often take our visitors from abroad. It has such great Basque food I don’t know why we don’t go more often. Mari Carmen, who is a pharmacist, brought me the pills I had ordered from her for my headaches and which you can only get under prescription unless you have a pharmacist friend like me. Thanks my dear. Let’s see if the new stuff works!

I haven’t tried them yet but hardly needed them this week as I only had a few light headaches. Luckily I didn’t have one on Tuesday which was my debut in the Management Team at work. I am the only woman in the team which I suppose has its added difficulties. I was a bit daunted but in the end all my fears went away as everyone was so welcoming. Eladio says I belong to the G8 now which is sort of fitting as the team now has 8 members with me.

The meeting went on for hours and I had a train to catch to Barcelona which I was afraid of missing but didn’t want to leave the meeting early on my first occasion. Luckily I caught it by the skin of my teeth. So why was I going to Barcelona mid week? It was to attend what I thought was an international PR conference but turned out to be the annual meeting of the PR measurement industry. Luckily there were other people like me; customers of that industry and I was really interested to see how social media and digital news was impacting all our work. The best thing about the three days was the networking and being at an international conference with people from all over the world. I made great friends with Audrey and Susanne from Germany and Tim from the UK.

With Susanne and Audrey at the Amec summit dinner at the restaurant Miranda del Museu overlooking the yachting club in Pau de la Villa.  Amazing place but the food nothing special.

The conference had its interesting parts but some of it was a somewhat technical and you heard people talking about automated measurement of sentiment, human analysis and machine analysis. I was interested to listen and see a guru of the industry called Katie Paine who everyone was telling me not to miss. She is an American lady, larger than life and extremely full of herself and someone you cannot miss in a crowd. You only have to go to her Twitter page to find out why. Here she says: “I've been called The Queen of measurement, but I prefer Seshat, the Goddess”. She was certainly no goddess to me, more of a pain to excuse the pun. I actually interrupted her presentation to ask her what she meant by “kick butt indicators”, such an Americanism I was sure more than half the audience didn’t understand. I think I might have floored her but maybe she has such an ego that that is impossible.

Katie Paine at the conference, the so called "queen" of PR coverage measurement.

We stayed at the Meliá, a supposed 5 star hotel just off the Diagonal and round the corner from a great shopping centre, La Isla (L’Illa in Catalán). It was fine but nothing special and I am no fan of modern sky scraper hotels with very masculine décor and furniture. The best thing was the bar and the big screen TV which was transmitted all the World Cup matches. Here they made the best mojitos I have ever come across, but then I haven’t been to Brazil.

The great  mojito I had at the Melia Hotel bar after the Amec summit dinner.  Tim called it the alternative to mint tea! 

In Barcelona I also had time to see my great friend Grainne and her son Marcel. One night I was invited to dinner at their place in Badalona and the evening was like something out of a comedy. We were joined by Grainne’s “boyfriend” Dan, a gorgeous looking Rumanian and Pepe a lovely man in his 60’s who has been Grainne’s friend for years. He had been married to a Scottish woman but his English was limited. I asked him what he did in life and when he said he was a “cobbler” I thought I didn’t understand. But yes, he is a traditional shoe maker and what a lovely guy he is. Dear Grainne made us all some very hot goulash at which even Dan complained. However we filled our plates with potato and salad to counteract the paprika and the lovely homemade Florentine tart did the trick in the end. In essence we spent the whole night laughing and I was made to feel part of Grainne’s group of friends even though I was meeting them for the first time. I think it all has to do with our going back so long ago to our school days but then again without the marvelous chemistry between us, the feeling wouldn’t be the same.

Pepe, Grainne and Dan the Rumanian.  We had a great evening at Grainne and Marcel's

Barcelona was as at its best and despite the Catalanism I love the place. I made sure I had time to walk down the Diagonal and got as far as La Rambla de Cataluña where I bought some great espadrilles at a shop called Mar Bessas (apparently a classic shoe shop in Barcelona) and S’carpa (sorry no websites) which I am delighted with. My suitcase was  of course bulging to the limit when I tried to close it on the last day. But my good old green Samsonite always closes in the end, especially if you sit on it. You can see the whole set of my photos from this trip here:

And now I have reached Friday of this week but I have totally forgotten to tell you what happened on Monday and it was important. So here I go. Monday was an historic day for Suzy and for us as she took her very last exam which if she passes will give her a degree from the Madrid Complutense University in Food Science and Technology. She was nervous but the exam went really well. We won’t get the result until the middle of July but we are very confident. She has been working hard for the last month or so, locked up in her room and only coming out for meals. Now she can look forward to a worry free Summer for the first time in many years. Have a great time darling. Soon you will be flying the nest and I will miss our moments together.

Also on Monday Oli returned from her fascinating trip to Brazil. We hardly had time to hear from her but at least managed a family lunch on Monday after which I wasn’t going to see her again till today. She brought us a beautiful Brazilian hammock which is proudly hanging between two trees in the garden by the swimming pool. Thanks darling!

Eladio having a siesta right now in the hammock Oli brought back from Brazil.

Oli had to go to work the same day she arrived which must have been challenging. She will have found her colleagues immersed in news about the World Cup and I was happy to read this piece she did on the atmosphere in Brazil related to the event.

Oli on a boat in Brazil recently.

But back to chronological order. I was home on Friday afternoon and as soon as I had unpacked Eladio dragged me off to Media Markt to buy a big flat screen TV for our room. Why would we want another television you may ask and be right of course? We have many TVs in this house but mainly watch it from our bed at night and the one in our room is probably 20 years old and failing. It is a typical 26” Sony TV from the late 80's but my eyesight is just not good enough to see it from the bed. So of course the alternative is a big flat screen. We didn’t want to spend much money and in the end chose an LCD 47” LG set which hopefully they will be installing next Wednesday. Eladio is very excited but I am less so. When I buy something I like very much  I need to use it straightaway to feel excited and this wasn’t the case on Friday. Yeah we paid for it but won’t see it till Wednesday. For you to understand: when I was a kid and my Mother bought me new shoes, I would put them on in the shop and when I went to bed I would put them on a chair at eye view in order to see them as soon as I woke up.

From Media Markt we went food shopping for the barbecue we were having on Saturday. Part of the stuff was bought at Sánchez Romero and part of it at Supercor. Sánchez Romero is Spain’s best supermarket and I just wish I could do all my shopping there but it is prohibitively expensive. Then we went out to dinner, to celebrate the TV Eladio said. Actually we don’t need an excuse to go out to dinner so off we went to De Brasa y Puchero in Boadilla and savoured a superb Salmorejo (thick gazpacho from the Córdoba region) amongst other things.

On Saturday we were up early to prepare for the first barbecue of the season. Our friends, the González-Gálvez family, were coming and we were to be 16, 6 children and 10 adults. So a lot of organisation and preparation were in order. Tables had to be laid, fresh flowers had to be arranged in vases, the barbecue fire had to be ready to light and of course food had to be made. So what did we offer our guests? You could probably guess I made salmorejo for the first course. Then of course we had a variety of sausages and meat served with jacket potatoes and salad. The dessert I was especially happy with as it was new creation and is actually very easy to make. I served mixed fresh berries and stoned black cherries in small glasses and covered the fruit with whipped double cream which I then topped with either meringue or biscuit. and another cherry. Here you can see what it looks like.

The new Summer dessert I made for yesterday's barbecue.  Nice eh?

At 2h our dear friends arrived and we greeted them with Hawaiian party fare. We all dressed up, even my Father and Gerardo managed to take a self timer photo of all us which was no mean feat as it was difficult to place the camera. I also did a video at the beginning of the party which you can watch here on You Tube.

Group photo at yesterday's barbecue.

We all had a grand time, the kids with Norah and Norah with the kids (she must have stuffed so much that she hasn’t wanted to eat since). I feel so at home with this family, the family I lived with in Madrid when I was a student and love them all dearly. I love their kids too who all have the same bubbly personalities as their parents Gerardo and Irene and Viky and Tomas. It was great to have you guys. We will do this again next year. You can see the full set of photos here on Facebook.

The very much needed siesta yesterday at the barbecue: Norah with little Irene.

As I am writing we are waiting for a call from the girls from the airport. I haven’t seen them all week as I went to Barcelona and on Friday when I returned they had already gone to Copenhagen for the weekend to stay with Pernille and Thomas and their daughters Julia and Alberte. I will have told you many times before who they are. To recap Pernille was our Danish Princess au pair when the girls were small whom we all fell in love with and have kept up with ever since. They will be back later this morning and I am dying to hear all about their weekend.  By the way here are some of the photos from their visit.

Suzy and Oli at Pernille and Thomas' house.  In the photo with Pernille, her Mother and the 2 little girls: Julia and Alberte

Meanwhile a real Princess got married yesterday in Stockholm. Crown Princess Viktoria aged 32 was to marry her commoner fitness trainer boyfriend Daniel Westling agedc 36. All of Sweden and Scandinavia were immersed in the wedding which of course was transmitted live. Here you can watch the most romantic speech ever from Prince Daniel who is now called HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland. He called Viktoria “Princess of Sweden, the Princess of my heart” and told how he was not a frog like in the fairy tales but that the first kiss did not transform him into a prince. He also told the story of how Princess Viktoria wrote him 30 letters in one night, one for each of the days she was going to be away in China and separate from him. He said that said a lot about her. The speech and video transmitted pure love and I just hope that this Royal Marriage is lasting and that Viktoria and Daniel are happy for ever after as in all fairy tales.

The Crown Princess Viktoria  and commoner Daniel Westling yesterday at their fairy tale wedding in Stockholm

Who is definitely living a fairy tale is a young man called Pau Gasol. He went down in the history of Spanish sport as being the first Spaniard to win the American Basket Ball championship commonly called The NBA. Well this last week he did it again, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers team. Well done Pau, another first for Spanish sport.

The Spaniard Pau Gasol winning his 2nd NBA, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Who are not living a fairy tale, but rather a nightmare are the English and Spanish teams at the Football World Cup in South Africa. England has not been able to score and on Friday drew with Algeria. Imagine! Even worse was Spain’s fate against Switzerland in their opening match on Wednesday. Switzerland is supposedly the weakest in the G Group (Spain, Chile, Honduras and Switzerland) but beat Spain on Wednesday. The next match is on Monday against Honduras but the Spanish team, as usual, will probably not make it through to the quarter finals. There were high hopes as always in this competitions which are now somewhat dashed, disappointing a nation who needed a respite from the current depression, something success at the World Cup would have given them.  I hope these are my famous last words and that Spain does indeed actually get through.

And on that note, I leave you hoping you will all have a great week. Me too I hope.

Cheers till then

Masha