The lazy Summer days are coming to an end.

Hi again

Well, we are now well into September and the lazy Summer days are coming to an end. Soon the girls will be going back to University. Oli will be off to the UK for her Erasmus (exchange) year in Falmouth on the 19th September and Susi has been accepted at the Complutense University here in Madrid to finish her degree in Food Science. Olivia is doing a triple degree in Audiovisual Communication, Media Studies and PR + Advertising but will be concentrating on Film Studies in her year in the UK, lucky her! We are going to miss her so much this year.

September also looks like a very good month for finding a job and right now I have quite a few prospects open but more about that when there is some real news.

Meanwhile the weather has changed a bit and we have had quite a few thunderstorms this week where we all rush out to bring in the garden furniture, run round closing hundreds of windows and generally prepare the house for heavy rain. In his rush down some steps the other day poor Eladio fell and bruised his back quite badly but he refused to go the doctor and as is very typical of him suffered, “like a good beast”, in silence.

Eladio is forever outside in the garden and today he finally put up the swings we had brought from our old house. They were bought when the girls were 3 and 4 but are part of our family heritage so we brought them with us.

And, today, we had some old friends round for lunch, Benito and Loli. They were our neighbours when I first came to live in Spain and Eladio and I lived “in sin”. We have kept up over the years on and off, so it was lovely to welcome them to our new house today. The menu – very typical of me – was a Spanish first course of Gazpacho, a Russian second course of Boeuf Strogonof and a choice between an English or Italian dessert of home made Apple Crumble or Tiramisu made by Susana. Susi discovered how to make Tiramisu this week and has repeated the experience now nearly 5 times!!!


Benito and Loli at lunch today.

And, that, as I usually finish off, is all for the moment folks.

Cheers/Masha

A quiet and very hot week. Spain won the Basket Ball World Championship!

Hi again

This week has been very quiet, not much to report really. We’ve just been doing our usual things and enjoying the peace of the last week of August.

It has been the hottest summer in 45 years apparently. We had a break in the middle of August when we came back from Santa Pola but now the hot weather has returned with a vengeance. The forecast for today is 39º, just a bit too much. Thank God for the swimming pool I say. It might seem like a luxury to anyone living outside Spain, but here it is almost a necessity.

As a lot of you know, I am quite a keen sports follower (not a player which is different but a couch spectator) and yesterday it was great to see Spain beat Greece in the Basket Ball world championship final. The final was actually a bit of a walk over whereas the semi finals where much more exciting. Greece eliminated the US team quite amazingly and Spain beat Argentina, the reigning champions by one point only.

Here is part of the the family watching the final (Left to right: Gaby, Susi, José Luis and my Father).




That’s all for the moment folks!
Love Masha

Julio came to lunch

Hiya again

As I said in yesterday's post, Julio came to lunch today for the annual Summer "cocido". Here is a picture to prove it. It was lovely to see him again. Recently he seems to be having lunch around the world with his friends. So, if you visit Juana's blog, you will see he had lunch in Mexico City at the end of last week. Julio and I have very similar tastes and one is certainly sharing a meal around a table with good food and good friends and, of course, good wine.

All the best again

Masha

Cooking with the girls

Hiya again

I thought you might like to see this snapshot of the girls and I cooking in our fabulous new kitchen. We can be often found together making lunch and Eladio took this picture yesterday. We don't look that great, but he captured the atmosphere.

Until next time folks.

All the best/Masha

Pensión El Bosque open again – visitors from Yecla. Lazy August days, visit to Copenhagen.

Hello again

So when it looked like the whole family were back together again, my Father went off to Copenhagen for a week. Not bad for an 88 year old to travel that far on his own. Judging from the phone calls he’s having a great time. My father loves the Nordic countries and this must be his 3rd or 4th visit to the Danish capital. He will have visited Malmo across the bridge (the 3rd biggest Swedish town), Hamlet’s castle in Elsingor, the home town of Hans Christian Anderson and of course the museums, his favourite being one of Viking ships being an old “sailor” himself.

So the 4 of us were left alone together – the nuclear family, but not for long because a couple of days after my Father left, Merce and Josema from Yecla came to visit and The “Pensión El Bosque” was reopened after the holidays. Merce is a friend of the girls from their younger Santa Pola days. They come from Yecla, a smallish town in Murcia famous for furniture and wine, where, according to Josema, Merce’s boyfriend, there are more luxury cars per capita than any other town in Spain! They are guests we will love to welcome again as they came with their arms full of delicious local produce including 2 kilos of wonderful smelling home grown peaches.

So I have been very busy in the kitchen this last week cooking for many hungry young people, but also have had time to enjoy the afternoons spent lazily by the pool, reading, drinking tea and chatting with Eladio. I must add that this is always after a lovely long Spanish siesta.

Tomorrow there will be more cooking as my dear friend Julio will be coming for the now traditional summer lunch of “cocido madrileño”. He comes every year and I always cook his favourite dish, “cocido”. It is actually a very heavy winter dish; a sort of vegetable and meat stew where the main ingredient is the Spanish “garbanzo” or chick peas. So it’s a bit of a contrast to eat it in the summer, but then none of us are really very conventional in this home.

As they say at the end of the cartoons, “that’s all for the moment folks”.

All the best until the next post.

Masha
PS the picture is of Josema and Merce who came to stay last week.

23 years ago today

Today is our wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that we got married 23 years ago today! And here is a picture of the two of us on that happy day and another one of us celebrating our anniversary on Saturday night. Even though I say it myself, we do not look that bad 23 years later.

Suffice it to say and as a friend of mine once told me, you don’t get it much better than we’ve got it and that we apparently are one of the chosen few couples who will make it to our Silver Wedding anniversary in two years time, as now a days the divorce rates are so, so high.

Happy anniversary Eladio and roll on 2008 when we will go all out to celebrate our 25th.

Cheers/Masha

Eladio cutting the leafy tree

Hi again

One thing we had to attend to when we got back home was dealing with the bed of leaves on the garden outside the kitchen. Every day we have to sweep away loads of leaves from one very stubborn little tree which is a little too close to the house. It must have some sort of illness as it never stops shedding its leaves.

So the day after we got back we finally decided to do something about it and Eladio got out the ladder and saw and went to work. And here he is looking a bit like a Spanish mature version of Tarzan. I have to add he had help from Gaby, Suzy’s extremely fit and helpful boyfriend.



All the best till next time/Masha

The Mystery Play of Elche (Misteri d’Elx)

Hi again

The one exception to our routine at Santa Pola was when we went to Elche to see the Mystery Play. We go nearly every year so that is a bit of a routine too. It’s something we both look forward to immensely. It is held late at night because of the intense heat. It starts at 10.30 p.m. and finishes after one in the morning.

It’s difficult to explain but basically it is a sacred musical drama of the death, assumption and crowning of the Virgin. It has been performed since the 15th century in the Basilica of Saint Mary of Elche with special permission from the Pope. It is sung entirely and by men only. Small choir boys sing the part of the Virgin and angels. None of them are professionals and all of them are from Elche. They spend a whole year preparing for the event which has now become world famous. In 2001 it was awarded the title of Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the Unesco.


If you ever get the chance it is something well worth attending.

All the best/Masha


This photo is of the golden palm tree (the Mangrana) holding an angel which descends from “heaven” (a hole in the dome) for the angel to announce the imminent death of the virgin and to give her a golden palm to take to her grave.



Here is a picture of Eladio and me next to the sculpture representing the Misteri.

Lazy days in Santa Pola

Hello again

After our time in Montrondo we went to Santa Pola for our Summer Holidays, that is, my Father, Olivia, Eladio and myself as Susi went to Jerez to join her boyfriend Gaby for her holiday.

So it was lazy days which generally consisted of getting up at 9 ish and going to the beach at around 10. There we would read the newspaper (The Daily Telegraph and El Mundo), have a café con leche – well my Father has now got into the Spanish habit of having a mid morning “caña” or draught cold beer, take a bathe – carefully because of all the warnings of jelly fish which we actually never saw – go for a brisk walk on the beach past the very interesting nude beach – mainly men showing off their private parts – and then back to the flat to make a copious but simple lunch. After the copious lunch came the 2 or 3 hour siesta, then the 2 or 3 hour read – Eladio’s choice was Schopenhauer and mine was Danielle Steele, then maybe a quick walk, a light dinner, a bit of rubbishy television and so to bed until the next day.

Olivia found us so boring she summoned up her boyfriend, José Luis, from nearby Mazarrón in Murcia to come and rescue her which he lovingly did. We, however, did not find our routine one bit boring as we were all doing the things we love to do in life, as in sleeping, eating, reading, walking and going to the beach. Not a bad life! However after 9 or 10 days we were missing our lovely new home and Eladio started getting worried about the irrigation system, the level of chlorine or lack of it in the swimming pool and whether our beloved animals, Ruby the rabbit and Henry the cat were still alive.

So we cleaned up the flat for next time, packed our things and came back to El Bosque to find that most of our worries were unfounded. Apart from a burst pipe in the garden everything was ok.



The photo is of Eladio on the terrace looking extremely brown and relaxed. The photo includes the bouganville plant he so proudly bought at the local market to take back and grace our new garden. He had been after one of them for a long time. Hence the happy expression on his face.

That's all for the moment folks.

All the best/Masha

The Freijo brothers and sisters with their Mother

Hi again

I thought you'd like to see this picture of Eladio, his brothers and sisters outside their original family home in Montrondo. It's not often the 6 are together so we "snapped" at the opportunity.



From left to right: Alejandro, José Antonio, Adela, Pili, Isidro and finally Eladio in the yellow and white shirt.

Cheers Masha

Summer Shoes

Hello again

My sisters-in-law and I have the same taste, as you saw earlier with the black and white spotted dress. Well now the same taste is in shoes. When Pili (Ealdio's sister) came to stay last month she was wearing a pair of Summer espadrille with a green bow which I adored. So she bought me a pair when she went back to León. Then Yoli, Isidro's wife saw them when I went to Montrondo, loved them and bought herself a pair in León.

So when we met up in Montrondo last weekend I took a photo of Yoli and I with them on. Unfortunately Pili hadn't brought hers.

They are lovely.
Masha

Montrondo – The Annual Family Gathering

Hello

So once again we all gathered together in Montrondo on the last Saturday in July as we have been doing since the “abuelos” celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary nearly 15 years ago. Montrondo is Eladio’s family’s beloved home village where all 6 of the brothers and sisters were born. It is located high in the mountains in a remote part of the northern province of León. The countryside is spectacular, so green, the temperature at least 15 below Madrid and it is the most unspoiled village I know. In the winter there are only about 8 houses with people in but come the Summer months, the people who were born there return with their families and Montrondo comes to life again.

The only people missing this year were Alejandro’s sons and Miguel. This was to be the second year without Antonio, the “abuelo” whose absence is very much felt on such an occasion.

The annual lunch takes place in the old stable which has been transformed into a make-shift dining room. This year we were 15 “grown-ups” and 14 “children”, the oldest child being Roberto who is now 35 years old!! The news this year is that Roberto and Ana will be marrying in June.

Lots of things took place during the lunch this year, the most important being the presentation of the picture I had spent the last 6 months preparing for her – a framed poster with a picture of all the members of the family with a small message from each of us. My mother-in-law is not an emotional person but this did actually draw a few tears of joy from her.



See the picture of Ernestina receiving the picture and José Antonio explaining it to her. Very sweet indeed.

All in all we spent a great 4 days together. The brothers were busy cutting the tall birch trees in one of the fields surrounding the house, the younger generation spent most of their time turning night into day and day into night. As it was the fiesta time (Santa Marta) there were 2 nights of dancing with an orchestra playing and a make-shift bar set up for some heavy drinking.

We went on many walks, the best of which was to pick raspberries on the hills above Montrondo. It turned out to be very picturesque in a lovely rural sense as we went past a sweet grey donkey on the way up, as well as a large herd of beautiful brown cows and a gorgeous litter of new born kittens.


Here is the raspberry picking group on the hill overlooking Montrondo.

And now we are back home and getting ready for the next part of the Summer as we will be going to the beach on Friday coming, all of us except Susi who went to El Puerto de Santa María in Cadiz yesterday to be with her Prince Charming.

So my next post will come after our time in Santa Pola as there is no Internet there.

Cheers till then.

Job Hunting, Going to the Cinema, Too much chocolate, Iberia Plus dinner, Ruby's latest adventures, Sara (Salita Guapa) came to visit.

Hello again

So, since we came back from Montrondo, we haven’t stopped. I’ve been busy with my job hunting: more interviews but for very funny companies, one of them makes bingo equipment, plus a massive direct mailing to over 100 PR agencies in Madrid (thanks Susi and Eladio for your help printing, writing envelopes, etc). We’ve had time to go to the cinema and went with Fátima last week to see the latest Roberto Benigni film, The Tiger and the Snow. I had loved “Life is Beautiful” but this wasn’t half as good. Eladio hated every minute of the guy’s theatrical acting. He goes a bit too far I must admit. What I can’t understand is why he likes to be seen constantly in his underclothes. He looks so unsexy.

Bit of a down this week on the weight front. I haven’t said much about that for a long time but had actually lost 15 kgs when wows of wows last week I put on half a kilo. I know it is the fault of all the chocolate I have been eating or rather it is my fault for eating too much chocolate. So, yes, once more, I shall have to be stricter. Bloody Hell. Excuse the French!

We also went out to another Iberia Plus freebie dinner. They still don’t realize that I no longer have a gold card but I am NOT telling them! – so much for data bases. It was at the Mesón Cinco Jotas in Pozuelo and of course, we ate and drank too much. When we left at midnight, it was 30ºC. So for all of you UK readers, that is real heat, not what the UK papers are complaining about.

Oh, yes and I must tell you about Ruby’s latest adventures. She has been found twice in a row in the middle of the night floundering in the swimming pool. José, the Rabbit Hero, heard her and got her out. We are not sure whether to blame Henry or not but there is probably nothing else to blame. So from now on she sleeps in her cage at night. Better safe than sorry.

The nicest thing that happened this week was Sara (Salita Guapa) coming to visit with her parents, José Antonio (Eladio’s beloved brother) and Dolores. As you must have read by now Sara is currently living and studying in China and only comes home twice a year. We had a lovely family day together with good food, siesta, swimming pool and plenty of time to catch up with eachother’s news.


The 3 cousins together, Susi on the left, Sara in the middle and Oli on the right.


The group photo, the 2 families around the lunch table.


A great picture of José Antonio and Dolores.


Oli has gone to Galicia (a village near Santiago de Compostela) this week with her Universitiy pals, Laura and Ana, so we will be small numbers this week, just Eladio, Susi, Grandpa and I.

Cheers till next time
Masha

The girls

So Susi and Laura came back from London today. Alicia, Laura’s younger sister and our God daughter came back with us from Montrondo to welcome them back too. I couldn’t resist taking this picture of the 4 of them looking great in their new London dresses. Also I couldn’t resist adding this picture of darling Oli who looks lovely in the new yellow dress she bought to go to José’s sister’s wedding this weekend while we were in Montrondo.


Cheers/Masha

A weekend in Montrondo

So this weekend we drove to Montrondo, Eladio’s family’s beloved village, to take Ernestina there after her stay with us. There were no plans for a big gathering as there is the annual one coming up for Santa Marta on the 29th July, but the word spread from brother to sister and all the “grown-ups” ended up spending the weekend together, just 18 or so of us, no big numbers really! It was a lovely weekend, up in the mountains with lower temperatures than in Madrid. My Father had a great time, as you can see in the picture on one of his long walks with Eladio and Toño. We will be going again soon for the annual gathering of all the family when we will be around 30 people. We are certainly looking forward to that. Hectic but fun.

The cat and the rabbit. Who said they couldn’t live together?

So Ruby and Henry finally met face to face. Poor Ruby, Susi’s rabbit lives in a cage on her own in the new house (better than in Río Tajo where she lived in Susi’s room!). So Ruby has been taken out a few times now and allowed out of her cage to romp in the grass. And romp she does but mostly when Henry the cat is on the prey. We have had to be very stern with him but there have been a few hilarious chases. Actually Ruby is faster though and has survived so far. The first picture was taken after a couple of chases and they both seemed to have calmed down a bit. The other is a lovely close up of Ruby.

Eladio and his Mother enjoying her stay at our new house.

Hi again.

Now that blogger uploads photos again, here are some pics of Eladio and his Mother together during her stay. They spend most of their time talking about old times in Montrondo.

It has been lovely to have Ernestina, despite the intense heat. The hightlight of her stay was probably the outing to the Zarzuela operetta called "Doña Francisquita" held in the open air as part of the Madrid summer theatre festival. It started at 10 at night and finished at 1 in the morning. Even the kids were asleep when we got back.


It has been really nice to have her and we hope she will repeat the experience soon.

Cheers/Masha
Strolling round the house
Mother and Son
Chatting by the pool

Busy times: Pensión “El Bosque” , To London and back, looking after the old folk, housewarming party and back to normal. But oh so hot !

The buffet table
The party setting
Me, Ana and Anne
The group. Front Left to Right: André, Mónica, Charo, Marta, Fran. Back Left to Right: Anne, Masha, David.


Hello again

So, yeah I’ve been so busy I’ve hardly had time to write. Also I’m a bit put off writing because I can no longer upload pictures. So now you have a boring blog with no photos. But as you can see this post now has pictures. It seems Blogger prefers the Mozilla Firefox navigator to Internet Explorer and the Norton Anti Virus has to be switched off. So you can now look out for more photos.

Since I last wrote so much has happened: lunch with Julio and Fátima on 29th June, went to the surprise early retirement party for one of Eladio’s ex colleagues, Elena on the 30th. On the 1st July, Pili (Eladio’s youngest sister) and her husband Andrés (my favourite brother-in-law) came to bring us Eladio’s Mother to stay with us for a couple of weeks. They stayed the weekend and José Antonio (Eladio’s second brother down after him) and his wife Dolores came to spend the day on Sunday. Pili and I got some shopping in. We have very similar taste and ended up buying the same skirt in Zara (white with black spots). There is a great picture to prove it.

Then last week Susi who had been in León with her cousins came back to Madrid with her cousin Laura as they were both off to London on 7th July to stay with Miguel, another cousin, who now lives in London and works at Citibank. He actually lives in Hyde Park.

So last week was like running a small hotel with full meals for all guests, including the boyfriends. Most days we were between 7 and 10 for lunch. Just imagine shopping at the supermarket; 2 full trolleys a go. And on the 7th we had another guest, my dear friend Anne (see her blog in the left hand column). I had planned our housewarming party to coincide with her being here so’s she could kill two birds with one stone and get to see most of her Madrid friends who are also mine, in one go.


Susi and Laura went off to London the same day Anne came from London – thus explaining the title of this post. It was Laura’s first trip on an airplane and her first trip abroad, so very exciting for her. Unfortunately their plane left late and they got to Gatwick at about 2 and had to wait for the first train at 5.30 am. From what I can gather on the phone they are having a great time. On Thursday they will be going out to dinner with my great friends, Amanda, Andy, Jake and family who live near London too.

So yeah, then came the Housewarming party. While Anne was at the hairdressers I started the cooking and preparing for the party (meat loaf, chicken salad, prawn salad, tortilla, trifle, apple crumble, etc.). Suffice it to say, many of our friends came (Marta + Fran, Miguel Angel Muñoz, David and Charo, Fátima and Julio, Mónica and André, Anita Valdivieso, Manuel to name a few). Anne helped us to set the scene on the swimming pool porch and it looked lovely: tables of 6 with table cloths, flowers and candles, the main table groaning with food (all labeled of course) and the house lights all on. The result can only have been good as all the food was eaten and people stayed till 4 in the morning.

The next day after another quick shopping spree, Anne left for London and things quietened down. Oli and José Luis also left for Mazarrón, Murcia. They wanted to get away from the heat. It has been soooo hot these last few weeks, in the 40ºs which for my poor Father is a little too much. He keeps saying his favourite month in Spain is January!!

So the house is no longer full, just Eladio, his Mother, my Father and me. Yesterday we went to José Antonio’s house for lunch and an old friend of their family and distant cousin, Elenita (a 78 year old nun) joined us. Quite a cry away from last week’s times here in El Bosque but very relaxing. So here we are looking after the old folk and enjoying the house to ourselves. At least there is no more non-stop cooking for 8 or 9 every day and a bit less sheet washing and changing and we can relax a bit too.

So that’s our news for a while. On Saturday we will be off to Montrondo (Eladio’s family village) to take his Mother there to be with his sisters who are there on holiday.

So will write again after that.

Cheers to you all.

Love Masha
Pili and me in our identical Zara skirts.

Settling In

Well now that we are nearly all sorted out, with most things in their place and many missing, of course, we’re going through a settling in period. Sometimes I have the feeling I’m on holiday or in a hotel – especially when I go in our super duper bathroom. And when we talk about “home” we usually mean our old house. It is our house ok but it still doesn’t feel like home. I think these things take time.

Some things are frustrating. We have 4 tvs , 3 digital receivers and 2 aerial men have been and gone and we still can only get Tele 5 on one of the TVs. The problem there is that I only really ever watch one programme a week and that is “Hospital Central” on Tele 5! And the one TV I can see it on is the only TV the World Cup can be watched on, so yes, a bit frustrating. To get even more football, we are getting Canal + installed but they are having trouble with putting the antenna on the roof as they hadn’t expected such a big house.

We are very “home bound” at the moment and tend to live in our own little world only going out occasionally to do the shopping. Our only other outing is our daily walk which is not as nice as the one at our old house, but the exercise is the same, thank God. So we must start to socialize again. One way will be with the housewarming party on the 8th July next which I am busily preparing in my mind. The invitation has gone out already though. Something lovely to look forward to.

The girls are having their 2nd housewarming party tonight and there will be more than 30 guests. A barbecue has been planned and dear Susi bought nearly all the meat there was in Carrefour. Thank God Eladio and I are going out to dinner! The problem is that when we get back at 11ish their party will only just be starting and it takes place on the terrace just beneath our bedroom., so there is no escaping it. Well you never know, we may just join them.

The family are fine. My poor Father is dealing with the hot weather as best he can but confessed the other day that his favourite month in Spain is January! Eladio has lost 3 kgs thanks to the removal and is now worried he is on the decline or getting old and is bent on eating more than usual. It’s very funny. I wish I had lost weight with the move. I am losing but the rhythm is about a kilo or less a month. I think the ice-cream a day (Magnum) might have something to do with that. The girls are going through the end of term, just before the Summer hols phase and are have finished their exams. Susi just has to finish a dissertation on food hygiene. So, of course, it’s Summer party time.

And that’s all for the moment folks

All my love
Masha
PS Sorry no pics again. Blogger just won't upload them and I don't know what the solution is.

New home, new life. Moving in: the removal men and Henry the cat. And yes we now have internet again!

Hello again

Well as predicted this new post is being written from our new house with a brand new internet connexion. It's great to have internet back at long last. Thanks Telefónica!!

So here we are finally, adapting, adjusting, settling in, opening mountains of boxes and then dragging the empty ones down the drive to be picked up by the town council, washing, cleaning and more or less never leaving the house as there is so much to do. But the essentials are up and running: deep freeze, fridge, electrical appliances, tv, internet and a new telephone line.

The move took place over 2 exhausting days in great heat. There were 3 lorries and 10 men. I must talk about the men because it was a very interesting group, besides the fact that some of them were extremely fit and good looking, so Susi and I thought!!!! The foreman, Ernesto, was the only Spaniard and wow did he work hard; he was so fast I wondered if he was going to have a fit with so much activity. Then came Jerry, the good looking Bulgarian who was extremely happy to be in charge of the content of Olivia's room (more boxes came out of Olivia's room than any other room in the house!!! - in the new house she has 2 rooms!! One is for sleeping and the other is her study!). In fact there were about 3 Bulgarians, 2 Peruvians, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian and 1 Indian.

Dismantling the lounge in Río Tajo
The van outside Río Tajo.
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So many things going on. Santa Pola, Aunty Masha, a trip down memory lane, lunch with Carmen Cafarel, bitten by mosquitoes, just 4 days to go,

Hello again.

Sorry I haven’t written since the anniversary weekend in León but I have been so busy and, as predicted, there will be no internet until we move to the new house. Once again I am writing from Fátima’s house.

So much has been going on. After León, Eladio, my Father and I went to Santa Pola to our beach flat for a short holiday before the removal. We had a very relaxing time, apart from Eladio, who suddenly decided to paint the flat. It was hard work but the result is very pleasing.

We took the time to look up my “famous” Aunty Masha who lives nearby in Benidorm and whom we hadn’t seen for about 3 years. Aunty Masha is my Mother’s beloved younger sister who was once an actress (she is still beautiful with her whitish blonde curls and plastic hip at 79) and ran away from here home in Bulgaria to fight for Tito in Yugoslavia at the age of 15. She also escaped the communists and made her way to France in the late 50's. She is living history but a bit too large for life. It is thanks to my Aunt that I am now living in Spain but that story will have to be told another day. The short version is that she bought a small house in a village in the mountains of the costa blanca around 30 odd years ago and that from then on I spent all my youth years holidaying in that area where I fell in love several times and of course learned the language.

The 4 of us went on a trip down memory lane and visited Callosa the town or pueblo where my Mother bought a house in Calle de las Flores (see picture of my Father and me). We wandered down the winding streets (see picture of my Aunt, my Father and me) which haven’t changed since we first went. Then we went to have lunch at Algar, a beautiful and very special place – a sort of oasis in a valley of orange and lemon orchards famous for its waterfall. On the way back we went to have a coffee at the very bar Eladio and I started our romance which has lead to a happy life together of
more than 20 years now.


Have just realised that this half of this post has been deleted. Strange things are happening with blogger, one being that I can no longer publish photos - very frustrating.

So what has been deleted from this post are the bits on the lunch with Carmen Cafarel (head of Spanish TVE), virulent mosquitoes biting me and that there were only a few days to go till removal day, 5th June.

To summarise, I was invited by the Chairwoman (Pilar Gómez Acebo) to a lunch organised by the Spanish Federation of Business Women (FEDEPE)where the guest speaker was Carmen Cafarel. Carmen, a University professor was appointed by the Spanish PM, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and in her speech she described her astonishment at being appointed and how she was finding the job.

Thankfully now the itching and pain caused by the ****** mosquitoes on our daily walk are now over, but they gave me hell at night for more than a week, so much so I had to go to hospital.

That's all for the moments folks

LOL/Mashad
PS Photos are of the 3 of us walking in Callosa (me, Aunty Masha and my Father), Daddy and I in our old street, Calle de las Flores and me outside the Vimi bar where our relationship was forged.

Anniversary

Anniversary

Still no internet at home, so here you have me writing from Yoli’s house in León where we have spent the night. So, got to be quick as we are off to have tapas and drinks before lunch and we woke up at 12. What a lovely life here in León (at the weekends!).

Well, yesterday was the 20th May and the 1st anniversary of the passing away of Eladio’s father, Antonio. We all want to remember him always so a memorial mass was arranged in Montrondo – the family village about an hour north of León – yesterday at one o’clock, time enough for the Madrid families to get there.

It was wonderful meeting all again as we hadn’t been together since New Year. There were very few people missing; Alejandro’s sons, Juan and Sara (Salita guapa) who is in China. The surprise of the day was Miguel who came from London specially for the event. Some of us were in the know (me of course) but his parents were amazed.

Apart from the family and we were 25 people, other people came from the village, as well as cousins from nearby villages and León. The mass was made even more emotional when Olivia read out some beautiful words she had written for the beloved “abuelo”. She got such a lump in her throat Susana had to go out to the altar to read out the end. It made quite a few of us cry.

After the mass, we all walked slowly back to the house for an impromptu lunch. Each family had brought food which we put on the big table in the kitchen and we all sat round eating, talking and catching up with our news. It was great to talk to everyone but I was specially happy to talk to darling Marta (one of my favourite neices: actually they are all favourite) who is living in Ponferrada with her dishy football player husband Fernando, commonly known as Ministro. Poor Marta is plagued by dreadful headaches. She is also working hard at conceving which is proving difficult. My heart goes out to her.

We drove to León in the late afternoon to take Susi and Oli to the bus station as they had to go home to study (I wonder). A lovely picture of them buying sweets for the journey just like old times.

And last night we went out to dinner, all the brothers and sisters plus my fathers and had a very tasty Italian meal at a restaurant called Casablanca.

Today we shall be staying for lunch at Yoli and Isidro’s. I can smell the cocido from the kitchen . I think it is safe to say that Yoli is the best cook in the family.

Tomorrow will be Oli’s 21st birthday – AMAZING! And the next day we will gallavant off to Santa Pola. So next week will be a good relaxing week before preparing for the move.

Don't know when I'll next write, what with not having Internet and going off to Santa Pola for a week. So meantime, cheers to you all.

Love Masha
PS pics are of us all in the kitchen in Montrondo, the younger generation and the older generation. Also one of the "younger generation" outside, plus the one of the girls buying sweets (chuchis).

Still no Internet + moving house soon

Hello again.

Long time no write, that’s because we are still without Internet at home. I don’t want to go into the why, suffice it to say the whole story is like a Kafkian nightmare. We just asked our service provider to increase the broadband speed to 4 megas and the result has been no ADSL for 3 weeks and no land line for 2 weeks. It’s a battle between Wanadoo and Telefonica which I think no one will win. So here I am writing from Fátima’s house. It now looks like we will no have no internet until we move to the new house in 3 weeks time (Yes, 3 weeks time, more about that a bit later).

There have been a few ups and downs lately. The University project is now over. Despite the success of the Mario Vargas Llosa project, there isn’t really any more work for me. On the other hand, another project – selection process for a big US multinational, fell through in the end after more than 7 interviews. There were 4 of us left at the end but I didn’t make it. That has been ongoing for over 2 months now, so I’m sure you can understand my disappointment. But you have to get up and fight again which I will, of course.

However, the fact that I’m not working will be a blessing in disguise for moving house. We will be moving in on the 5th and 6th June. It seems a Herculian task, sorting out and deciding what to take from this house after 18 years here – you cannot imagine the junk, plus the moving itself but also the unpacking and deciding what to put where in the new house. Today Eladio and Olivia went downstairs to the old toy room to decide what to throw away what not. I went down in the middle of it and was just on time to save Celeste (Barbar’s wife) who Eladio referred to as “esa elefanta”.

Not much to report otherwise. Oh yes, Eladio and I went out to a freebie dinner invited by Iberia Plus last Thursday. Funny thing I have just lost my gold card as I hardly fly anymore but they obviously haven’t updated their data base yet! The whole thing was very corporate and a bit stiff – a fancy restaurant with tables only for couples and a huge menu to get through but nothing else. But, in any case, a freebie is always appreciated.

So that’s about it for this post. Oh, yes, Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix today, just ahead of Michael Schumacher to the delight of crowds of over 130.000 people Yes, yes, I am now getting into Formula 1 like most of Spain is.

Next time I write, it may well be from the new house.

All the best

Masha
PS Photos are of the new house, the front and the back (with the pool).

No Internet connection at home - What I've been up to since I last wrote, including the Dr. Honoris Causa ceremony for Maria Vargas Llosa at the UEM

Hello again.

You were probably wondering why I haven’t been updating my blog more often. The reason is that we have had no internet connection at home (or a landline) since the beginning of last week. They are supposed to be updating the broadband, so they say.

It’s amazing how frustrating it is not to have Internet. I have had to resort to my dear old Communicator which is ok for emergencies but is incredibly slow. After all it is only GPRS and not 3G.

So here I am writing from the University.

I have been quite busy with the Doctor Honoris Causa event to Mario Vargas Llosa last Wednesday. It went very well and seems was a lot better than last year. Great picture of me with the man himself. I was impressed with him. He has so much stature and most of all, charisma.

Then I had lunch with my HR friends from Nokia – Jill and Zenaida – and we had a good old gossip about Nokia. We ate at Mood’s in Majadahonda and it was a lovely girlie lunch.

Friday was my daughter Susana’s birthday which we celebrated in a family fashion: birthday cards, pressies, cake and candles plus a lovely lunch. Then she had a party for her friends in the evening at home.

This weekend was a long bank holiday, thanks to Labour day on 1st May and 2nd May is Madrid’s main holiday.

Monday 1st was my father’s 87th birthday which again we celebrated in a family way. We had a guest in Alberto, Eladio’s old boss. He joined us for the day which was very relaxing and ended with a great walk in the countryside around us.

So, all in all, pretty quiet but speckled with family celebrations.

Photos are of my Father just before his birthday (beautiful blue eyes!), Susi receiving her present and me with Mario Vargas Llosa (and the Rector and the Dean)

That’s all for the moment folks

Love/Masha

So what happened this week?

Hello again,
After the Easter holidays, there was a reurn to family life and routine. It’s so nice to enjoy meals together as a family; that’s so important for communication. We all go off and do our things but at meal times we have a chance to catch up on everyone’s lives and also talk about the things that are most important to us and at the moment, that is moving house.

Olivia has been extremely busy this week. She doesn’t always tell us what she’s up to but I do now that she’s been creating 3 adverts for the University competition next week called “Out of the Box”. But she did manage to go out to dinner twice with her lovely boyfriend, José Luis.

Susi came back from Jerez a bit depressed because after having such a lovely Easter Holiday she has exams to face next week. The first one is on Church Doctrine! That’s because she goes to a Catholic University. Oh well, she’s always got her Father to help her. The other thing that depressed her is that she and her boyfriend Gaby had a breakdown in Cordoba on their way back from Jerez and the clutch has to be replaced, all of which means he won’t have a car for a while; so with one thing or another she won’t see much of him.

Eladio has been busy checking out removal companies, getting things repaired and painted in the house on the Insurance, plus his usual looking after the garden and house in his very cheerful fashion. And, of course, he has been preparing his University tutorials.
Another thing he spends time on is looking at the pictures of the new house, over and over again – well I do too, of course. He has also found it on Google Earth.

Grandpa or Daddy has followed his usual routine of making his breakfast, going for his pre-ordered Daily Telegraph from the kiosk, going for a morning walk, lunch with the family, little nap or read, then another walk, this time with the family, more newspaper reading, dinner, news on the TV and so to bed. Not a bad life eh? This was peppered with a visit to the oculist because he had caught or got conjunctivitis which is over now and also one to the ear specialist for a check up. He sees and hears very well for someone of 86 and needs no new glasses and certainly not a hearing aid.

And me, what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been busy with the last minute preparations for the Doctor Honoris Causa of Mario Vargas Llosa next week at the University. I must say I was a bit disappointed in him when one of his secretaries sent me his “speech”. I was looking forward to some wonderful words, only to find that it was a repeat of the speech he had given in 1995 when he got the Cervantes Literary prize. Bit of a cheat really.

Working at the University you get the chance to enjoy and immerse yourself in the cultural activities going on. And this week there were books on sale for 1 euro as part of the Book Week promotion. But also I went to a conference about the Transition to Democracy in Spain and listened to quite an amazing character, Santiago Carrillo who was the leader of the Spanish Communist Party and supposedly the 3rd most instrumental man in the process, after the King and Adolfo Suárez. Carrillo is now 91, a heavy smoker and amazingly fit. I was astonished to see him talking without notes and also to hear the voice of a much younger man. People asked all sorts of questions about the politics of the time. If I had dared I would have asked him what was the secret of his amazing health and longevity.

Also I had a visit from the Director of the boys choir from El Escorial who will be singing at the Doctor Honoris Causa. It was lovely to talk about choirs and music and specially about that choir which is one of the best in Spain (Monserrat too). I had used them once before at a Nokia press Christmas event and they are marvellous. Rolando gave me a couple of their cds. I can't tell you how great I felt driving home and listening to Pie Iesu and the Brahms Lullaby! Just lovely!

And what else? Well, yes, a dear friend Rafa Gómez who is a renowned sports photographer in Spain, came to see me at the University as he will be doing the photos for the Doctor Honoris Causa next week. He had some great news, as he will be following the Formula One world Championship to take the photos of Fernando Alonso for the sponsor’s advertising campaigns.

Rafa came home for lunch with me, following my Volvo on his super motor bike. We came home to previously cooked spaghetti Bolognese. Susi had prepared the rest and laid the table. She also made the spaghetti and it was a good job she made the whole packet as Rafa had 2 enormous portions. He ate more than the rest of us altogether, amazing. He then ate the salad, some trifle and a cornetto!! Then he got on this bike and rode home to Madrid!!

Not much more to report. Am now writing here at my computer on Saturday night on a rainy Madrid weekend. We went out last night, so tonight we are staying in.

Tomorrow we will be going to Ana’s house for lunch, that is the whole family except Oli, who will be busy on some advertising activity. Ana who is a neighbour of ours was our home help for 4 years until about a year ago. We miss her so much, but most of all her cooking.

That’s all for the moment folks.

Cheers
Masha

Pictures are of Rafa and Susi sitting in the sun after the spaghetti bolognese and of the location of the new house on Google Earth.