PR lunches, the company of the leader of the opposition, getting interviewed by Metro, it snowed, went to see Babel, lunch at Benito and Loli's

Susi rushing out into the garden for a photo when it was snowing

Me posing on the sofa with the new cushions and lamp
Hi again.

Well another week went past and it’s now the end of January. It has been a busy week work wise again but I managed to squeeze in quite a bit of socialising, specially at lunchtimes.

On Monday I had lunch with Ketty Rico, the chief editor of Mia which is Spain’s equivalent to Woman’s Own. We met at Bice, which is the where we met for the first time a few years ago. We had illustrious company at the table next to us, in the leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy and one of his right hand men, Angel Acebes. They were both a lot thinner than you see them on the television and their conversation was very mundane and quite domestic – they spent most of the time talking about their kids!

Tuesday I was invited to lunch by the chief editor of a telecoms magazine and I was most surprised to be taken to the restaurant where Eladio and I celebrated our registrary wedding over 20 years ago and which I hadn’t visited since then – Chiquito Riz. It’s a classic Madrid restaurant which specialises in fish.

One of the week’s highlights was when I was interviewed by a newspaper called Metro –one of the free newspapers. The agreement was that as it was for a page on professional people they would interview me about my career but then it turned out all the questions were about work!! They took ages getting the right photo and I think I know why as I just wasn’t feeling like I looked particularly good.

It has been getting colder and colder this week and finally yesterday, Friday, it snowed. In some parts of Spain it has been really heavy snow and temperatures in the mountains as low as –15ºC (what a difference to the +20ºC in Barcelona last week!) but here we just got snowflakes which didn’t settle.

And last night Eladio and I went on our weekly visit to the cinema, this time to see Babel, one of the films nominated for the best foreign film. And it was one of the best I have seen for a long time and I actually came out crying. The film is set in 4 locations which could not be more different, rural Morocco, San Diego in the US, Tijuana in Mexico and finally in Tokyo. The contrasts are very acute but the story in each location is interrelated. I won’t say any more for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, except that I highly recommend it. Then we had dinner at Gino’s and a bit too much lambrusco which gave me a headache last night. I never learn ……

This morning we went to Ikea to get some more bits and bobs for the house, including some cushions for a lovely wicker sofa we have bought for the girls’ landing, plus a lamp to go with them. Of course, the first “person” to sit on them was our dear cat Henry.

For lunch today we were all separate as Eladio and I were invited to our friends, Loli and Benito’s. Loli put on a splendid table, full of delicacies such as octopus, prawns and Spanish cured ham amongst other things.

And that just but about sums up this last week’s activities worth mentioning as everything else was routine or too domestic to tell.

Cheers until next time
Masha