Summer Party in La Rioja, Michael Jackson died, Oli in Guatemala, Suzy away and the end of an era.

Oli enjoying working with underprivileged kids in Guatemala.
Hi again

What a week, what with my Summer Party for over 170 people and then Michael Jackson died.

I’m really late with my blog this week and it’s because I have been overloaded with work for the Yoigo employee and partner summer party. I took 177 people on a two day activity packed trip to La Rioja last Thursday and Friday. It seems an easy thing to say but actually it meant over 3 months of intense preparations. The sensations the work and event caused can be summarised in: total exhaustion, a sense of great fulfilment and now a sort of emptiness. That always happens after a big event and somehow I never get used to it.

For you to get an idea, this was the programme.

It included the company presentation and lunch at the Parador in Santo Domingo de la Calzada and an auto gymkhana (21 teams in Yoigo cars with 8 people each which all went to different neighbouring villages and had to compete against each other doing things like building a 4 metre Yoigo logo in the main square and getting the local mayor to appear in the picture!). It also included a fantastic dinner at the famous Márques de Riscal winery in El Ciego where we had cocktails in the lobby of the hotel designed by Frank O’Gehry, the great Canadian architect who also designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Pretty good photo of the whole group at Márques de Riscal. Rafa, the photographer had to get on a ladder to take it. I love the result. Can you find me?
To top it all, the “Summer party” ended with visits to the centenary wineries in Haro, Cune and Bodegas Bilbainas.

And here is the full set of photos which you can see on Flickr.

Suzy came with me and helped the girls at the agency which made everything much easier for me.
Suzy with Cristina, Gloria, Bea, Nuria and Marina during the party. Her red hair was and is spectacular
She also drove as we went the night before and we managed to have some good moments together.
Me sticking my head through a pilgrim photo call in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The town is on one of the Jacobean Way routes (el camino de Santiago) and is full of pilgrims.
We heard about Michael Jackson’s strange death just after the dinner at Márques de Riscal, apparently caused by a heart attack as he was rehearsing for 100 concerts soon to take place in London. Well that was probably a bit much for someone aged 50, stuffed with barbiturates or whatever and with his eccentric background. I’m afraid to say he never was my favourite character or singer as a matter of fact. Apparently the album Thriller (I had to look that up as I do not know the name of one single song!) by him is still the best selling album in the world but I must be one of the few people on this planet who is not a fan.
The face of a young Michael Jackson as he appeared in the era of the Jackson 5 and their discovery at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem How plastic surgery changed the face of Michael Jackson
Meanwhile Oli continues in Guatemala and is now well into her second week. The experience from what she writes is very positive. She commented that the children she works with have NOTHING. She says they are dirty, poor and dressed in rags and yet have beautiful smiles for her. The photo illustrating this blog above proves it, as does this charming one of her with a little girl.

Suzy is away too. After La Rioja she went to Badajoz for the weekend with her school friends and then yesterday she galavanted off to Santa Pola with her cousins Laura and Alicia (my god daughter) and a friend, Juli to enjoy the beach for a few days. I do hope she will come back soon and start revising for the many exams she has to sit in September!

So this week there are just the two of us and my Father plus our lovely pets, Norah the beagle and Joe and Phoebe our cats. The place seems very lonely without the girls. I suppose we should start getting used to it as soon it will be permanent. Oli will be the first to go as she will be moving out as soon as she returns from Guatemala. I imagine it will be just a question of time until Suzy goes. Oh dear, this is certainly the end of an era in our house and family. I wonder what the next era will bring. I hope that just as much happiness as before.

And that’s it for this week folks.

All the best till next time
Masha

Montrondo, La Rioja, castles in Burgos and Oli in Guatemala. Eta killed again. Quënco, 26 years later.

The family "property" in Montrondo, gorgeous in June.
Hi again

Another week has past and here I am sitting in the shade by the pool this hot first day of summer, 21st June which is the longest day of the year too. Suzy is studying upstairs. Tomorrow she has her last exam before September and is waiting impatiently for her holidays to start. Eladio is finishing his siesta upstairs and doesn’t want to leave the air conditioned room. Grandpa is finishing his and will soon be down for his afternoon cup of tea.

Oli is missing. She’s missing because on Friday she went to Guatemala with her friend Laura to work with under privileged children in a rural area near Antigua in collaboration with an organisation called “Cooperatour”.
Antigua in Guatemala where Olivia is staying.
They will be living with a family and probably actually helping to teach the children. The experience will be fascinating. So far the few messages we have received are brimming with amazement.
Children in Guatemala.
When Olivia’s back she will be moving out. She and her colleague Miriam have found a little place in the Delicias area of Madrid. It sounds very small and pokey but for Oli it means so much as it’s her gateway to independence.

Meanwhile, Eladio and I spent the better part of the week between Montrondo and La Rioja.
Eladio's parents' house in Montrondo and where all 6 "children" were born.
We went to his village to receive the furniture we had ordered from Ikea the week before for our room and for the room the girls sleep in.
The lorry with our furniture outside the house in Montrondo.
We spent a happy time cleaning and clearing as much as we could (you could clean for a year there and you would still have to go on). There was some time for walks and a quick visit to see Primo who is building a small house next to where he was born. It’s called “El Huerto” and is right now the passion of his life. He gave me the first lettuce of the season which we enjoyed later both for lunch and for dinner. Lettuce from his orchard in Montrondo tastes so much better than from a supermarket I must say.
Primo outside the unfinished house, El Huerto, he is so lovingly building.
We were quite happy with the end result, although Ikea had made a mistake with a couple of items which means we will be going back again. Going back again means yet another 400 odd kilometre drive. However as we still have a few more finishing touches to make to both rooms, we don’t really mind going back. The problem is fitting a date into our already busy diary for this month and next.
A view of our "new" room.
The other finished room where the girls sleep when they go to Montrondo. I thnk they only went once a year before as their slepping conditions were dreadful. I hope that changes now.
You can see the whole set of photos here on Facebook.

From Montrondo we drove to La Rioja as I had to visit the “city of wine” in Elciego, belonging to the Márques de Riscal wine makers. It is here that I am taking the Yoigo staff and partners to dinner during the Summer Party next week. The object of my visit was to make sure the dinner went perfectly. I was also on a mission to make sure the cocktail takes place, not in some characterless wedding lounge but in the grounds of the hotel itself. The hotel is unique and was built by the famous architect Frank O’Gehry. Gehry is famous in Spain for having designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, sometimes hailed as the most important structure of our times.
The spectacular Márques de Riscal hotel in Elciego, La Rioja.

On our way we drove through that quintessential Spanish province of Burgos. We stopped for petrol at about lunchtime and we were in luck as in the very village we had stopped at there was a castle restaurant cum hotel which was irresistible to us. In turned out to be more impressive on the outside and the food not the best we have had on our travels.
The castle hotel in Olmillos de Sasamón in Burgos, quite a find on our way to La Rioja.
On our way back we visited another castle in Burgos or rather palace, this time the Hostal Landa Palace. We stopped here to do a quick site tour as this will be the stopping off place for the Yoigo summer party participants next week.
The Landa Palace in Burgos
The Landa Palace, hotel, bar and restaurant, is just outside Burgos and is somewhere we have been stopping every time we go north. We have never stayed at this 5 star hotel which looks very promising but have often tasted the great Burgos delicacies it offers such as morcilla or suckling lamb. This is truly the best roadside restaurant we have every found in Spain.

We drove back on Friday afternoon just on time for an important date. That evening we were going to have dinner with Irene and Gerardo and their partners at Qüenco.
The unpretentious little Andaluz family run restaurant in Madrid which has remained unchaged since our wedding.
Qüenco is where we celebrated our wedding on 21st August 1983. My Spanish family was a big part of it. Gerardo, who was 18 at the time, drove me to the wedding and his sister, Irene, was one of my bride's maids.
Gerardo and I during the wedding celebration at Qüenco 26 years ago. In the picture too, my best friend Amanda and Gerardo's youngest brother, Toti.
Qüenco has become one of their favourite places but we hadn't been back since the day we married until last Friday.
Me flanked by Tomás on my right and Gerardo on my left at Qüenco.
-Eladio flanked by Viki on his right and Irene on his left at Qüenco.
The reunion was great, even the waiters remembered us. We shall be returning. By the way, the salmorejo is out of this world.
You can see the whole set of photos here on Facebook.

That’s what we’ve been up to this week. We were away in own little world in Montrondo and in La Rioja, very disconnected from what was going on in the world as I only used my pc for work purposes.

It was therefore a bit of a shock to learn when we got back that ETA terrorists had killed once again. This time their victim was Bilbao anti-terror chief Eduardo Puelles García who was killed in a car bomb attack. Spain is in a state of shock this weekend. When will the terror end I ask myself?
The car bomb in Spain on Friday
This flag with the symbolic black ribbon can be seen everywhere now in protest for the killing.
On an international level I learned there were disturbances in Iran after the general elections which the radical candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won. The protests are about the supposed electoral fraud which seemingly robbed the more liberal candidate, Hoseein Mousavi, of presidency. Will there ever be a democracy in Iran I wonder?
Disturbances in Iran. Could this be the beginning of a movement towards democracy?
That’s what this week brought. I know what lies in store for me in the week coming up but more about that in my next post.

Cheers for the moment.
Masha