Eladio flanked by his 2 girls Oli (left) and Suzy (right) on his birthday this week.Hello again
This week was my dear husband’s birthday, 2 days after Autumn began. It has brought with it cooler weather and we can no longer have dinner outside on the terrace. How sad because I so love the long Spanish Summers.
Eladio doesn’t particularly like the number of this year’s birthday so I won’t include it. Suffice it to say he is aging gracefully and to quote his best friend Roberto, “está en perfecto estado” (he is in a perfect state)! I can vouch for that and I suppose you can see that too from the photos of his birthday.
Eladio and the home made birthday cake (actually you can see the unpopular number)I have been preparing frantically for a big press and employee event this Monday coming and only had one week to do it in. Of course experience helps but even if you delegate for nearly all of it, it’s still a big job. I have done so many events over the years but they are still stressful and you only relax when they are over. I must add here that the location is just great and has the added ingredient of being the “House of the Duke” (La Casa del Duque) from the most popular TV series of the moment in Spain, “Sin tetas no hay paraíso” which is a dreadful name for a superb series. It’s actually a very modern style American loft type flat with practically no walls; not my style but perfect for the event.
The surreal photo shoot refers to a fun moment at work this week. We were taking some photos of my boss on a motorbike for the event on Monday and El Mundo was coming also to take photos for an interview to be published this Sunday. So there we were a load of people and equipment, traipsing up and down the office. When we reached the reception area on our way to the car park to take photos of they bike, there was a fully dressed bride there! Everyone thought I had hired her for the photos and the photographer wanted her on the bike with my boss for the photo on Sunday!!! I hadn’t hired her. She turned out to be an advertising agency stunt but the whole office still thinks I did it. What can you do when you have that sort of reputation!! Actually it was a great stunt!.
So what else happened this week? Well, I had lunch with Pieter at Fast Good on Monday which was great for catching up on the office gossip I so miss as I work at home.
On Thursday I had lunch with the girls at De María in Majadahonda. It’s full of amazing Lamborginis and Ferraris outside which I later learned is because of the Atlético de Madrid Football club players' patronage as their practice ground is across the road from the restaurant.
I also went out last night with Eladio to further celebrate his birthday and we chose the very smart and posh restaurant Pedro Larumbe. I think Eladio was suitably impressed. Highly recommendable but not cheap I must say.
This week, I got news of 2 very enterprising friends. The first was one Isabel Aracil who I read about in the newspaper in an article about the difficulty she has had to educate her children in the Alicante area of Spain in Spanish. That’s another surreal story actually.
Isabel's story in the paper
I know Isabel because she was my account executive with the famous Burson Marsteller PR agency when I worked for Motorola. I briefly spoke to her some years ago when she told me she had inherited a big old run down house in inland Alicante which she and her husband were going to turn into a rural hotel. So I when I read her story in the paper this week I googled her and came up with this lovely place called Hotel Masfontanelles. It looks absolutely great. Fortunately I will have a chance of trying out the place, well at least the restaurant, as it turns out that Masfontanelles is very near our pad in Santa Pola. I can only add “well done Isabel”.
The other enterprising friend is Anita Oca, who I found through Facebook this morning. Ana was an internee who worked with me at Motorola nearly 10 years ago. She went on to work in marketing in companies like Kelloggs and L’Oreal and now owns a company called La Reina Oca which organises great weddings and events to judge by the website. Well done too Ana. I love the name (Queen Duck) which must have been a doddle to think up as her surname is Oca (Duck) and her partner’s surname is Reina (Queen). I shall certainly keep them in mind when it comes to organising my daughters' weddings.
But they won’t be getting married soon I can assure you. Suzy is starting what we all hope will be her last year at University this Monday. Oli is finishing her stint with the documentary programme, “Informe Semanal” and before she starts work on 6th October will go for a short but well deserved holiday to Istanbul with Eladio on Wednesday. Hopefully they will bring me back lots of pashminas, some tea and Turkish delight for my Father. I can imagine Oli having a field day in the Bazar!!! Have a great time you two.
And that’s all for the moment folks.
Cheers
Masha
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