Seeing Oli off

Hi all,

It seemed the day would never come, but it did. On Tuesday 19th September, Eladio, Susi and I saw beautiful Olivia off at Madrid Airport on her way to spend an Erasmus year in the UK in Cornwall at the University College of Falmouth which belongs to the University of Exeter. She will be there for the academic year but will be coming home both for the Christmas and Easter breaks.

Here you can see the 4 of us, plus the trolley full of her huge suitcase (Samsonite’s biggest), laptop and rucksack. Along with the laptop, Oli also took a webcam and Skype phones to keep in touch with us all while she is away. She will be downloading films to see on the laptop and music for her mp3, so she couldn’t be more technologically up to date for her year away or more in touch thanks to the internet connection provided in her room at the student residence. It’s a far cry from when I went to University where we had to keep in touch using the local phone box and sending and receiving letters via Royal Mail. What a difference!!

She hasn’t taken too long to settle in and has spent the first few days on an initiation course with the other international students – from India, Norway, Japan, France, Germany, Indonesia and Spain. Last night she prepared dinner for a Japanese girl called Shiro in her flat – apparently spag bol. I wonder whether Shiro liked it or what she would prepare in return?

Tomorrow the English students will all be arriving and Oli and Rafa, her Spanish fellow student, will no longer be alone in their flat for 7.

We are not actually missing her yet (apart from today, Eladio’s birthday where her empty place at the table was very obvious) as we talk to her more than once a day. In any case, we shall probably be going to see her in the middle of November so her absence will be much more bearable.

Cheers for now/Masha

Family outing to El Pardo

Today we drove to El Pardo, a town 7km from Madrid to see the Palace. It was the first time since my Father has been here that we have been out together as a family - all 5 of us. The sun shined brightly against the snow on the mountains which was a lovely setting for our visit.

The Palacio de El Pardo is really the old hunting palace of the Kings and Queens of Spain. Today it is also where most state visits are accommodated - quite luxurious I must say.

However its greatest fame is having been the home of Francisco Franco, the ex dictator of Spain from 1940 until his death in 1975. The family apartment within the palace is now a museum and has been untouched since his death. Very revealing were his bedroom (twin beds in quite a small room and a place for praying) and the bathroom refurbished in 1973, not to mention his study where he must have signed all the famous death sentences!!

After the nearly 2 hour guided tour, we walked out into the small town in search of somewhere to have lunch. Funnily enough we ate at a restaurant, "El gamo" where Eladio and I had been at least 15 years ago.

Pictures to illustrate this post are of the girls, my Father and me outside the palace (Oli first left, Grandpa, Susi and me) and Eladio and I in a good close up. The camera was good to us and we both look years younger - probably thanks to the sun glasses.

Great day all in all. We must plan more.
Cheers/Masha

Christmas highlights at Río Tajo, 5. Dec 05

Long time no write - I'm getting lazy but shouldn't so here's an update on activities here at Río Tajo this Christmas tide. Being out of work gave me lots of time for preparations and this year there was even a countdown master plan with elaborate menus (Christmas is all about eating, blast it) and secret present lists.

Quite a lot of wining and dining took place which included 2 now traditional meals - dinner with Mar and Mariano (my and our La Vanguardia journo neighbours). This year's dinner took place at our house and was the most exciting one yet as Mar and Mariano have just adopted Sam a 3 year old Chinese boy who is delightfully affectionate. He was a real plus to the dinner. Since then Mariano has been successfully operated after a cancer scare. We love them so much.

The next celebration meal on the agenda was with Julio and Fátima (my best pals). We all ate so much Julio needed a siesta afterwards. As is typical with Fati, she was only an hour late and, of course, no apologies on arrival!!! We ate the great fillet steak we had bought at a trip to Mercamadrid at the beginning of December.

In Spain the most important event is the Christmas Eve dinner but more about that later (and some pics) as we are off to the cinema to see Luther - people go to see the Narnia Chronicles and King Kong, etc but when you have a philosopher for a husband and a daughter (Olivia) immersed in journalist studies, you go to see more cultural things. Last time I studied Luther I was about 12 so I won't remember much. Well I'm back now (film was actually quite good) so I will continue where I left off:

Yes, Christmas Eve. It will probably have been our last Christmas Eve dinner here at Río Tajo. A very quiet and lovely dinner as usual; this year all prepared by me and not our household help cum cook Ana who made last year's dinner. Anyway my perushki (Russian pasties) are better than hers!!! This year just the family, no lonely strays like darling Berk Saglik a Turkish guest we had last year.

Christmas Day was purely English and as traditional as always - only change being we had capon instead of turkey; otherwise NO concessions. The day starts with the girls (now aged 20 and 21) finding Father Christmas' stockings in their rooms and we all go ooh and aah at everything they find. Then breakfast in the dining room with the best tea set. Once everything is put away and we are washed and dressed the opening of the presents starts. We go for volume in our house rather than quality, so we are often opening presents for nearly 2 hours - one at a time, of course, all "washed down" by a nice box of Cadbury chocolates.

The rest of the day consists of making the Turkey (or capon) lunch with all the trimmings (thanks again Anne for the sage and onion stuffing, etc), eating it, clearing away and then having a Spanish siesta for about 2 hours. There is NO dinner in the evening and the left overs get eaten on Boxing Day. The day finishes off with a family film we all watch together (with bloody chocolates again). This year it was the Choir Boys; lovely!!

Another highlight is and was dinner at Julio's. Julio is one and we are 6: Eladio, Masha, Susi, Oli, my Father and Oli's boyfriend José Luis. The rule is that the girls can only bring their boyfriends if they have been going out with them for more than a year and a half and, of course, that is never Susana's case. Fati also came this year so in the end we were 8 in Julio's delightful bacherlor flat. As usual the food was out of this world - most of it came from a very good catering group called Mallorca. Here we also exchange presents, each one with oohs and ahhs, too and this year Julio taught us all a game, the objective of which was to make us all drunk. Certainly a night to remember.

Well, Christmas isn't over. There is still New Year's Eve to come and that is always quite fun in our family. Tomorrow, as always we will travel up to León in the north of Spain to spend the evening with Eladio's family. With all his brothers and sisters, their offsprings and boyfriends and girlfriends there will be about 30 of us. The only sad note will be the absence of Eladio's father who passed away in May.

And after New Year's Eve comes "Reyes" or the Feast of the Three Kings on the 6th January. That is when Spaniards traditionally gave and still give their presents. As we love celebrations in this family, we will certainly be celebrating that too.

But meanwhile here are some photos to illustrate this post:

Top left Julio, Fátima and me at Julio's dinner

Top right: My Father, Susi, José Luis + Oli at Julio's dinner

2nd row left: My Father, Susi and me on Christmas Eve

2nd row right: Eladio and his girls on Christmas Eve

centre 1: Susi showing the thongs she got on Xmas morning.

centre 2: Eladio and I on Christmas Eve

Last photo: dear Sam stroking Henry our cat.

All in all a very nice Christmas time.

Cheers to you all/Masha

My husband, Eladio's surprise early retirement party - Madrid 25th June 2005

In July I organised a surprise retirement party for my darling husband Eladio. It took me 3 weeks and with a little help from my friends and daughters we created a great do. We held the party at home in the garden and more than 40 people came, including some old colleagues he hadn't seen for 20 years or so. We also created a little album with the graphic history of his life - cool! The girls sang (beautifully - Oli cried when she sang Edelweiss for him) and his brother Alejandro had us in stitches with a comic act at the end of the night.

It was difficult for me to keep the secret for so long and I was having kittens on the last day. The hardest thing was getting him out of the house for the party to be created - the chairs and table, food, banners, balloons, people to arrive and park in another street. My friend Fátima texted me to say everything was ready. When we got out of the car Eladio saw the balloons and thought the girls were having a party and so suggested we went out for dinner so I had to drag him in.
The pictures are of his surprised face, the people waiting for him and lovely one of his mother hugging him - his Mother now in her 80's and not very mobile had made a huge effort to be there.

Mummy and the girls

This is a photo of the girls and me. Susi on the left of me and Oli (next to the window) on the right of me.
Oli hates this picture but I love it cos I look so young. It was actually taken when we went to Pernille and Thomas' wedding in Copenhagen some 5 years ago.
Published on my blog 13.9.05

My family

I am Mother to Susana (aged 21) and Olivia (aged 20). They are stunning looking girls. Susi is studying Food science (the idea that as she loves food so much she might as well study it) and Oli is doing Media studies - well actually it's a triple degree in media studies, advertising and audiovisual communication.

I have been married to Eladio for over 22 years now. It's quite normal for me but often some of my English girlfriends ask me if we are still together. Well we are and that proves that some marriages can be successful. Eladio has just retired (early retirement) after being a teacher of philosophy and before that a Catholic Priest.


My Father, Charles Courtenay Lloyd, now 86 is going strong. He is shortly coming to live with us - he will be moving out of his house in Bradford (UK) after 40 years. But he's looking forward to being with us all here in Madrid.

Pictures are of Eladio (relaxing in the garden at home), Olivia in the middle (at Amanda's wedding do) and Susi (close up) on the right.

Published 14th September 2005