Eladio’s birthday and the broken cake!

Hi folks

So today was Eladio’s birthday. I don’t think he would like me publishing his age on my blog so I will refrain from doing so. Suffice it to say he looks as young and gorgeous as ever. My Ukranian cleaning lady, Zena, agrees!

Here’s the birthday boy opening his presents and here is the birthday boy sitting down to a groaning breakfast table, laid for best in our new dining room.

Susi and I went all out in our preparations as there is nothing we like better than organizing parties and special menus, as you will all have gathered from many of my posts. Lunch was itsy bitsy and included home made “humus” and pitta bread, gambas al ajillo (prawns cooked in garlic and olive oil) and many other delicacies.

The piece de la resistance was the home made chocolate, cream and m+ms cake which we had difficulty making yesterday. It’s a standard house recipe but yesterday it refused to come out as it should. Midway, the cream turned to butter twice while being whipped so Susi and I had to go out and get some more. When we got back she had to go and Eladio took her place, helping me. He promptly helped me by putting the top layer on without adding the cream. To remedy that he took it off again and, of course it broke into various parts!!! It then had to be reconstructed with more chocolate. We finally placed m+ms to hide the cracks but instead of hiding them, they sunk into the cake making the cracks even bigger.

Despite all the difficulties and mishaps, it tasted delicious, to judge by the long siesta we had afterwards.

Oh, yes and the presents. My Father bought him a lovely adidas track suit (for our daily walks), Susi bought him a practical gardening book – well he is the in-house gardner – and I bought him an indoor tropical plant, basically because I realized we might have a huge garden but we don’t have any vegetation in the house.

Olivia was dearly missed today. Love you darling.

Until next time/Masha

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

Life is beautiful! And I have some news … Read on.

Hiya again.

This weeks’ post was going to start off with other news but just as I began to write I got a message with some very good news from my best friend Amanda. Amanda and I go way back as we met when we were 11 and had just started at Grammar School in Bradford, dear old St. Joseph’s college. And we have kept up ever since and are there for each other in the good times and the bad.

It was her birthday last week and I rang to say Happy Birthday – the funny thing is I hardly ever ring her or send a card and this was the first time in years, but then again the birthday was a change of decade. So when she replied that she had had a nasty birthday present, in that she had a bad mamograph result with suspected breast cancer, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – cancer is no stranger to either of us; her Father died early of cancer, her husband Andy lost his first wife to the same disease, my Mother died of lung cancer and not so long ago, my Brother too of skin cancer. So the news was serious. Amanda told me she would have the results today, Monday and meanwhile would postpone her birthday celebrations. Well, she probably had a horrible weekend but this morning she got the result and it was BENIGN!! And, as she says, “will live”. And,. So I say, “Life is indeed beautiful”. Congrats Amanda darling. Now, there is no excuse to come out and see us one weekend!!

Life is beautiful, and, as you will agree from the picture, my dear daughters are beautiful too (Susi on the left and Oli on the right). Oli is finally going to the UK tomorrow and is spending most of the day packing and unpacking until she gets the suitcase to the right weight of 25kgs. We will miss her but I just know she is going to get so much out of this.



And now for some news from me. Most of you know that after a year at home, or rather selling our old house, finding a new one and moving in, I was itching to get back to work. Well, I have been very busy with interviews in August and September. I was actually in 3 job processes. And now I have a very enticing job offer from a French telecoms company and will be starting work on Monday 25th next. Because I haven’t signed the contract yet, I won’t tell you the name until I begin. The job itself is, of course, the position of Communications Manager which, I’m sure is no surprise to any of you.

So, there you have it, Life is Beautiful.

Cheers Masha

Storks busy and romance in the air

Hiya all,

This post is dedicated to some of my girlfriends: Anne, Zenaida, Juana, Fernanda and Mónica. Obviously there is some romance in the air and storks have been busy or soon will be.

Anne has found someone special in her life and I am so happy for her. Zenaida is 6 months pregnant and looks radiant. Mónica will be getting married on the 14th October (but very unfairly the wedding will be in Germany in one years time). Juana is pregnant again – if you follow her blog you can see daily how far gone she is and also how old or big Santi is getting - and Fernanda has just given birth to Jerónimo in June in Mexico City. So, as you can see, a lot of good news all around.

Congratulations girls!

The picture is of beautiful Fernanda with her new born baby.

Cheers/Masha

The Gardner and a Full House

Hello again

Here I am writing again this Sunday morning. Last night Eladio and I watched the Constant Gardner. The plot doesn’t have much to do with gardening but the title fits Eladio quite well. Here is a great picture of him spraying pesticide on some of our plants.



The constant gardner!

One of the plants is the lovely Hibiscus which Ana Valdivieso brought us for our housewarming party at the beginning of July. Ever since it has produced a new flower nearly every day; quite incredible.



Ana's plant

I also wanted to show you this lovely single pear on the small pear tree we inherited from the previous owners. It has been growing for months now, getting bigger every day. I wonder who is going to eat it?




The pear tree


And today we have a full house as last night all the bedrooms were full. The girls had a dinner party and some of the guests slept overnight. They have all been waking up at different times this morning and they will all be staying for lunch. So it’s like a non stop party for them. And as I am writing, at least 20 chicken legs are roasting in the oven.

I’ll leave you now to attend them.

Enjoy the photos.

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.