Happy New Year, our trip to León, a special dinner party, Christmas cracker jokes, Kings’ day and other stories.

Sunday 6th January 2013

New Year's Even in the afternoon in León last week

Hi everyone.

Today is 6^th January, Kings’ day (Epiphany) and the last day of Christmas. It has been good, as always but I think we are all in great need of a rest from the festivities and general over eating.

Let me start from last week. On Sunday last, 30^th December, we took my Father and Eladio’s Mother to have tea and Christmas cake at Suzy’s flat in Villanueva de la Cañada, some 10km away.  Ernestina, my Mother in Law, who is not used to travelling in a car, thought she lived very far away but for me it feels like round the corner.  It was to be a special treat for both of them but mainly for my Father who is very home bound.  Juli, the girls’ friend, was there and once again served as our official photographer. We were joined later by Olivia, but a bit too late for her to be in the photo.

Tea and Christmas cake at Suzy's last Sunday

Monday was New Year’s Eve and Eladio and I left for León to celebrate the New Year with his family.  The girls always prefer to stay in Madrid with their friends. Ernestina, my Mother in Law came with us and we stopped, as always at Palacio de Bornos for a glass of wonderful Rueda wine and a plate of ham.

Plate of ham and wine at Rueda on our way to León for New Year's Eve

We arrived in sunny but cold León just in time for lunch at Eladio’s sister, Pili’s house where we were staying.  Later we would all meet up at his other sister, Adela’s house to be together and of course celebrate her son, Roberto’s 41^st birthday.  The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of us all, or nearly all of us, that happy afternoon last Monday.

Eladio with some of his brothers and sister, from left to right: Isidro, Toño, Eladio and Pili

Dinner this year was to be at Eladio’s brother, Isidro’s home in the downstairs party room they have created.

Dinner with the family on New Year's Eve in León

We were 24 around the long table, with the older generation at one side and the younger generation at the other.  As usual there was far too much food, but it was all delicious, especially Yoli’s tiramisu for dessert.  Just before midnight we unwrapped all the mystery presents I had brought as we waited for the magical moment of midnight to arrive when we would eat one grape per chime of the clock and then drink champagne and hug each and every one of the family.  It was at that moment I missed my daughters most and had to make do with a whatsapp message in lieu of a hug.  I sat next to my beautiful sisters in law, Pili and Yoli and the three of us reflected that we had been celebrating New Year’s Eve together for more than 30 years.

With my lovely sisters in law on New Year's Eve, Yoli on the left in red and Pili on the right

2012 has been a great year, absolutely nothing to complain about and all I can wish is for 2013 to be just as good.  The photo below is a collage I created on facebook of some of the photos that represent this year.

My year in photos

I wish you all a happy New Year and thank you so much for reading this blog; so many of you from all the corners of the earth.  It always amazes me to know how many people read this blog and find my life interesting.  Thanks for following me.  I hope this year will be good for you and me.

Happy 2013 to you all

New Year’s Eve ended late, as always, after lots of dancing by some of the members of Eladio’s family but I was glad to get away just after 2 in the morning in dire need of some sleep.

Ist January is always a bit of a down day for me.  It takes some time to get used to the New Year.  Before leaving, we took a walk with Pili and Andrés towards San Marcos, that beautiful building and Parador which is a landmark in León.

Eladio, Pili and Andrés outside the historic and landmark building of San Marcos in León on 1st January

We left León at around 13h and on our way home stopped at the Parador in Benavente for lunch.  Here we enjoyed a delicious plate of the local chickpeas (garbanzos) which we had been looking forward to all morning.

The chickpeas from Fuentesauco at the Parador in Benavente.

You can see the rest of the photos of our trip to León here.

 

It was good to be home again after an exhausting but enjoyable New Year family celebration.

On Wednesday we enjoyed watching Olivia reporting live on the television on TVE1.  The story was about a mega New Year’s Party which had been cancelled at the last moment because of counterfeit ticketing.  You can see her here if you fast forward to 11.30 and 12.45.

Oli on the television on Wednesday

Of note on Wednesday too, our walk which was a bit later than usual was rather a highlight that day because of the incredible red sky which always makes me remember walks with my Father when I was a child.  I learned from him that wonderful saying: “red sky at night, shepherds’ delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning” and which I have passed on to my own children.

The red sky at night we encountered on our walk on Wednesday this week

Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable day.  I took Eladio shopping in the morning for Kings’ day presents.  At home we give all our presents on Christmas day but we also celebrate Kings’ Day with token presents.  Spaniards, however, do it the other way around and today is the most important day for them.  While we were out we also bought new beds for the dogs, as theirs were ready to be binned after so much use and washing.  Right now they are still getting used to them as you can see in this photo below.

The dogs got new beds this week but they are not too keen yet

We were home just on time to watch Olivia live on the television again reporting on TVE1.  This time the story was about illegal car racing. You can see her here if you fast forward to 13.45h.

Olivia interviewing a policeman about illegal car racing on Thursday this week

Friday was the day we were having a special dinner party at home.  Our friends, Mar, Mariano and their 10 year old Chinese adopted son, San, were coming for dinner.  Mar and Mariano are journalist friends go way back and Susana gives homework lessons to San and when she can’t make it Olivia takes her place.  

For the occasion I made a typical English fruit and jelly trifle, a favourite with most members of the family.  It was the first time in many years as I had stopped making it because the jelly wouldn’t set.  I read on internet that that is because certain fruits interfere with the setting process and for the record the main culprit is fresh pineapple.  I put strawberries in the trifle I made on Friday and violà it turned out to be perfect.

The fruit and jelly trifle I made for the dinner party this week

It was to be a wonderful evening.  They always arrive late and bring loads of presents and this year was not going to be different.  This is the only dinner party at home the girls like to be a part of and as I always want them to be with us, Friday’s event was extra special for me. 

The special dinner party on Friday for Mar, Mariano and San

For San I think the highlight was the crackers. And that comment brings me on to the subject which is included in this week’s headline.  Crackers are not a tradition in Spain but of course they are in England where they are an essential item at Christmas.  I buy mine online and the best ones I have found are from Robin Reed.  I’m sure San is more interested in the bang and the gift inside, but what I like best are the jokes.  As they are always puns and in English they are impossible to translate for Spanish guests.  Apparently the best cracker jokes should bring laughs from children but groans from the adults.  Some of my favourites this year were: “What did the dentist say to his wife when she was making an apple pie? Want me to do the filling?”, “My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli.  He was pulled in by a strong currant”, “Why did the scarecrow win so many awards? Because he was outstanding in his field” or this one: “Why are graveyards so noisy? Because of all the coffin”. Fun eh?  The man in the photo below is apparently the author of these jokes we found in this year’s Robin Reed crackers. 

The man who creates the jokes for Robin Reed crackers

You can see more photos of that very special dinner party here.

Yesterday Saturday was a quiet day with nothing much to report.  In the evening, following Mar and Mariano’s recommendation, we went to see the film The Life of Pi.  I had my doubts but had seen the trailer and as it was about an Indian boy and animals I was interested. The story, which turned out to be too fantastic for me, is about a 16-year old boy named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who suffers a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.  The bit in the boat with the tiger is far too long and I found myself looking at my watch towards the end hoping the film was going to finish soon.  Afterwards we had a meal at Foster Hollywoods where it was far too loud to enjoy.

The Life of Pi, not a good choice I'm afraid

For the records yesterday was the King of Spain’s birthday of which there has been much news in all the media.  TVE (Spanish national television) broadcast an interview with the 75 year old monarch which we missed on Friday as it coincided with our dinner party.  When I have a moment I will watch it here later. I used to be a fan of Don Juan Carlos, but since the episode with his elephant hunting in Botswana and the financial scandals of his son in law, Iñaki Urdangarin, I’m afraid I have lost a lot of the respect I once had for him.

Today, is his day, I suppose, Kings’ Day. On Kings’ day in Spain it is a tradition to buy or make a roscón and there are all sorts of varieties.  My favourite is the one without a filling which you can cut and toast, but others prefer the one with whipped cream in the middle.  We always have it for breakfast on this day.

The roscón we had for breakfast this morning

Right now as I write this week’s report, lunch is cooking in the kitchen.  I will leave off now and write about it later, as I do want to record our family Kings’ Day, the last day of Christmas this week and not leave it until next Sunday.

I have resumed writing now; sitting at my desk with a cup of tea after our walk with the dogs and with Suzy who joined us today.  Olivia is on the point of leaving with her boyfriend Miguel for Valencia.  She will be working with him there this week where he will be her cameraman. They are going to have a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing their live reports.  

Being an Anglo Spanish family, we always mix traditions so for our Kings’ Day lunch today I made a very British meal, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings: gravy, brussel sprouts and roast potatoes.  This is probably my favourite English dish as it is my Father’s. 

Kings' Day lunch today

This was followed by my trifle which I am a bit tired of by now and by the Robin Reed crackers, the last until next Christmas.  Then of course we gave our presents.  Each person had bought a present for the other member of the family, picking a concealed name for what is called “mystery friend” present giving here; except that we all ended up knowing who had bought them.  I got an iPad case from Olivia for the tablet and keyboard which will come in handy especially on short trips. Eladio got a red jumper from me that I really hope he wears but suspect he might not as he said it was very bright.  You can see all the photos of our family Kings' Day here too.

Then the rest is history, clearing things away as today was Oufa’s day off, a long siesta to digest the big meal and then finally our walk and here I am now rounding off this week’s blog post on this last day of Christmas.  Tomorrow we will be taking all the Christmas decorations down and life will go back to normal.  

As I leave you my friends, I wish you a great week ahead and as I wrote earlier a very happy New Year.

Cheers and here’s to 2013!

Masha

Christmas at home, my films of the week, more dinner parties and finally an iPad

Sunday 30th December 2012

 

All of us on Christmas Eve

Hello again

I hope you have all had a great Christmas.  Ours was great and the best thing is that Christmas isn’t over yet.

Let me start this week from last Sunday.  The highlight that day was watching the Indian film My Name is Khan with Eladio in the lounge after dinner. It was a film recommended to me by Sandra when we visited her in Brussels in November and I loved it.  You would too I’m sure.  The story is about an autistic Indian boy whose mission, after the 11^th September, is to meet the American President to say “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist”. To whet your appetite you can see the trailer here.

One of my films of the week

Monday was Christmas Eve, always a lovely day.  I spent most of it preparing for our family dinner and made all our usual favourites that we normally only eat on that most magical of nights: potato salad, prawn cocktail, smoked salmon, perushki (little Russian meat pies), homemade ham croquettes and of course bacon rolls.  The innovation this year was lobster salad, delicious. This was followed by Oufa’s brownies of which we still have some left over, one week later.

The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of the 6 of us just before starting.  You may wonder who took the photo. It was Juli, the girls’ Colombian friend and my sort of adopted son who would have been alone that night as his Mother and brother have gone back to their native country to live.  Thanks to Juli I now have a great collection of Christmas photos which you can see here.  Some of them are panoramic, a great gimmick on my new iPhone, like the one below of our Christmas Eve table which you can see in all its glory before we devoured nearly everything on the table.

This was what our table looked like as we sat down to eat on Christmas Eve

After dinner, the grandparents, my Father and Eladio’s Mother went to be bed and we stayed up drinking champagne in our lovely Christmassy lounge.  We played Trivial and Eladio and I actually won!

Playing Trivial after dinner on Christmas Eve

The next day was Christmas Day and we celebrated it as we always do according to the English tradition I was brought up on at home.  In Spain the main celebration is Christmas Eve and not much happens on Christmas Day but in our house we celebrate both.  The day starts with the girls opening their stockings, stockings that my Mother knitted for them when they were children and which we treasure.

The girls' Christmas stockings knitted for them by my Mother when they were small

Then we have a special breakfast all together in the dining room, after which the most looked forward to moment of the year takes place, the opening of presents around the tree in the lounge. 

Sitting down to open the presents on Christmas Day

We go more for quantity than quality but this year the presents were a little more generous than usual.  Eladio was especially happy with his present from my Father and I, an HP laptop I acquired from my friend David S.  Thanks David, Eladio is delighted and now technologically up to date.  In the album of photos one I especially like is of my Father smiling at receiving one of his favourite books, the World Almanac and Book of Facts.

My Father with one of his presents

While everyone is putting away their presents or trying something out, it is my job to make the Christmas lunch which takes a few hours.  The menu on Christmas day is traditional too: roast bird, this year a capon instead of turkey, roast potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts, sage and onion stuffing and never to be forgotten cranberry sauce.  The dessert, of course, is Christmas pudding this year accompanied by shop bought brandy butter instead of white sauce.

Here is probably my favourite photo of my Christmas album, all of us sitting down to lunch on 25^th December.  Notice too again the table is adorned with crackers as the festivities wouldn’t be the same without them.

Lunch on Christmas Day

After lunch a siesta was in order and that was when I had a little accident and fell over a ladder in our room which was there to change a light bulb.  I hit my big toe and it was so painful I had to get Eladio to give me a painkiller injection.  That certainly did the trick, except that I could hardly walk until the next day.  Even now I can feel a little pain but am walking nearly normally.  There was nothing to do but take a rest, so we decided to watch a film in the TV lounge which at Christmas has the fire lit.  Believe it or not, our choice was Holocaust, or rather part of the series we hadn’t seen, perhaps not the best choice for Christmas Day.

Tuesday was Boxing Day which is not a holiday in Spain.  Both girls worked and Oufa returned home. Lunch on Boxing Day is always leftovers of which there were plenty.  On that day, in the afternoon, as on many days at Christmas, Eladio and I read in our Chrismassy lounge which looks lovely with all the special lights and the candles on.  The abuela (my Mother in Law) asked me why I lit them if we have electricity.  I suppose candles for her bring back memories of when there was no electricity and it is hard for her to appreciate them as an atmospheric enhancer. I have been playing most of the week with the panoramic photo application on my new iPhone and love this photo I took of the whole lounge as described above.

Our Chrismassy lounge, the photo is taken with the Panoramic app on my iPhone

The highlight on Boxing Day was a trip to the cinema to see the new British musical version of Les Miserables directed by Tom Cooper.  I had no idea it was a musical and at the beginning was a little put off but as the story continued I became mesmerized.  Suzy was watching the same film with her friend Elena and boyfriend Antonio and at the end we both looked at each other and realized we were both crying.  The film is absolutely marvelous and I loved Russel Crowe who played Javert the police inspector. Hugh Jackman is equally good as Jean Valjean. But I cried most when Anne Hathaway who plays Fantine sang I dreamed a dream.

Anne Hathaway singing I dreamed a dream in Les Miserables

Afterwards Eladio and I had dinner at nearby Gino’s and couldn’t stop raving about the film over our pasta and risotto.  If you haven’t seen it yet, please go, you won’t be disappointed.

On Thursday Eladio and I went shopping, mainly for me to get presents to take to Julio’s annual dinner which was taking place that evening at his bachelor flat in Madrid.  This year was the first year the girls would not be attending and I was a little sad but could not do much to change things.  We picked up Fátima from her house down the road and by 9 were approaching Julio’s block of flats.  As usual it felt like getting inside a fortress with so many gates to go through and numbers to press. He had everything ready, the table laid, the music on and soft lighting too.  He served us a glass of Arzuaga red wine from the Ribera de Duero region.  Arzuaga is a place I organized a Nokia team building event some years ago when both Julio and Fátima attended and Eladio knew too because I took him there on the site inspection trip.  We all agreed it is one of our favourite wines. Here are my friends sitting down just before dinner.

The dinner party at Julio's on Thursday

The best part of dinner at Julio’s is the cream filled “roscón” he always serves at this traditional dinner.  We took a piece home for my Father for breakfast.  I had brought along some crackers and sparklers.  I must say my favourite joke this year is this: “Why did the donut maker give up his job?  He was fed up with the “hole” business”.  Then it was time for opening the presents; most of which were quite predictable as, being the close friends we are, we had told each other beforehand what we wanted.  For the record I got one of my favourite perfumes: Flower bomb by Victor Rolf. Julio being Julio soon got tired and was yawning so ushered us out of his home before midnight which I actually appreciated.

Friday 28^th December was the day of the innocents, the equivalent in Spain to April Fools’ Day and there were jokes and fun pieces of news all over the internet and on TV.  My favourite was one I found that said Yoigo had been bought by Google allowing the American company to enter the operator business in Europe.  Whoever the artist was he or she had even designed the logo.  I don’t suppose anyone believed the story of course, but I did find it funny.

Friday 28th was the day of the innocents and I found this misleading piece of news that Google had bought Yoigo!

That evening we were having guests again for dinner  -  yes, yet another dinner party.  We had invited our friends Roberto and Mari Carmen, who, although recently divorced have a very civilized relationship.  They loved our lounge too and commented that Christmas was really here in our house. I hope they liked the dinner too.  Here is a picture of me at the table with everything ready, just before they arrived.

All ready for the dinner party at home on Friday for Roberto and Mari Carmen

I had made lobster salad with mango and avocado for starters and baked salmon and fresh asparagus for the second course – a really easy dinner to make actually.  Roberto and Mari Carmen brought the wine and a delicious apple pie from my favourite gourmet store, Mallorca.  It was good to host our friends as we haven’t seen much of them since they separated.  

And yesterday was Friday and I had an appointment at the Apple Store at the Grand Plaza 2 shopping centre.  I went to check my new iPhone was ok as the battery doesn’t seem to last.  I got some good advice from the Apple Store trainer, Leticia, who told me to “calibrate” the battery at least once a month.  That means letting the battery run out completely, then leaving it another hour until charging it completely again and then when the battery is full, leaving it to charge for another hour.  

Before going to the Apple Store I had already made up my mind I would be buying myself an iPad as my Christmas present to myself.  Of course I could live without one and I don’t really need it but I know that it will be very useful when travelling or using around the house.  And so I bought one, a white 16gb iPad 2 with wifi and 3G.  Here it is, together with the wireless keyboard and cover, just before my own personal unboxing.

My iPad and accessories just before unboxing yesterday

I am so pleased to say that I finally have an iPad, a device I always thought I didn’t really need.  But now that it is set up, I am already in love with it.  One of my favourite applications is the BBC iPlayer where for just over 7 pounds a month you can see lots of series, films and documentaries, many of which I enjoyed in my childhood such as Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers, Oliver Twist, etc.  I will also enjoy my Amazon Kindle account on the iPad, something I was not using on my black and white Kindle.  

And today is Sunday and the abuelos (grandparents in Spanish = my Father and Eladio’s mother) are looking forward to visiting Suzy’s flat this afternoon where we are all invited to tea and some Christmas cake. Maybe I should add that I sent Oufa there to clean it yesterday especially for their visit.

Tomorrow, of course, will be New Year’s Eve and Eladio and I will be leaving mid morning for León where we look forward to seeing the New Year in with his family, but more about that next week.

Meanwhile I wish you all a great New Year.  All I wish is for 2013 to be just as good as 2012.  Have a blast my friends,

All the best/Masha