Happy New Year, our trip to León, a special dinner party, Christmas cracker jokes, Kings’ day and other stories.

Sunday 6th January 2013

New Year's Even in the afternoon in León last week

Hi everyone.

Today is 6^thJanuary, Kings’ day (Epiphany) and the last day of Christmas. It has been good, as always but I think we are all in great need of a rest from the festivities and general over eating.

Let me start from last week. On Sunday last, 30^th December, we took my Father and Eladio’s Mother to have tea and Christmas cake at Suzy’s flat in Villanueva de la Cañada, some 10km away.  Ernestina, my Mother in Law, who is not used to travelling in a car, thought she lived very far away but for me it feels like round the corner.  It was to be a special treat for both of them but mainly for my Father who is very home bound.  Juli, the girls’ friend, was there and once again served as our official photographer. We were joined later by Olivia, but a bit too late for her to be in the photo.

Tea and Christmas cake at Suzy's last Sunday

Monday was New Year’s Eve and Eladio and I left for León to celebrate the New Year with his family.  The girls always prefer to stay in Madrid with their friends. Ernestina, my Mother in Law came with us and we stopped, as always at Palacio de Bornos for a glass of wonderful Rueda wine and a plate of ham.

Plate of ham and wine at Rueda on our way to León for New Year's Eve

We arrived in sunny but cold León just in time for lunch at Eladio’s sister, Pili’s house where we were staying.  Later we would all meet up at his other sister, Adela’s house to be together and of course celebrate her son, Roberto’s 41^st birthday.  The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of us all, or nearly all of us, that happy afternoon last Monday.

Eladio with some of his brothers and sister, from left to right: Isidro, Toño, Eladio and Pili

Dinner this year was to be at Eladio’s brother, Isidro’s home in the downstairs party room they have created.

Dinner with the family on New Year's Eve in León

We were 24 around the long table, with the older generation at one side and the younger generation at the other.  As usual there was far too much food, but it was all delicious, especially Yoli’s tiramisu for dessert.  Just before midnight we unwrapped all the mystery presents I had brought as we waited for the magical moment of midnight to arrive when we would eat one grape per chime of the clock and then drink champagne and hug each and every one of the family.  It was at that moment I missed my daughters most and had to make do with a whatsapp message in lieu of a hug.  I sat next to my beautiful sisters in law, Pili and Yoli and the three of us reflected that we had been celebrating New Year’s Eve together for more than 30 years.

With my lovely sisters in law on New Year's Eve, Yoli on the left in red and Pili on the right

2012 has been a great year, absolutely nothing to complain about and all I can wish is for 2013 to be just as good.  The photo below is a collage I created on facebook of some of the photos that represent this year.

My year in photos

I wish you all a happy New Year and thank you so much for reading this blog; so many of you from all the corners of the earth.  It always amazes me to know how many people read this blog and find my life interesting.  Thanks for following me.  I hope this year will be good for you and me.

Happy 2013 to you all

New Year’s Eve ended late, as always, after lots of dancing by some of the members of Eladio’s family but I was glad to get away just after 2 in the morning in dire need of some sleep.

Ist January is always a bit of a down day for me.  It takes some time to get used to the New Year.  Before leaving, we took a walk with Pili and Andrés towards San Marcos, that beautiful building and Parador which is a landmark in León.

Eladio, Pili and Andrés outside the historic and landmark building of San Marcos in León on 1st January

We left León at around 13h and on our way home stopped at the Parador in Benavente for lunch.  Here we enjoyed a delicious plate of the local chickpeas (garbanzos) which we had been looking forward to all morning.

The chickpeas from Fuentesauco at the Parador in Benavente.

You can see the rest of the photos of our trip to León here.

 

It was good to be home again after an exhausting but enjoyable New Year family celebration.

On Wednesday we enjoyed watching Olivia reporting live on the television on TVE1.  The story was about a mega New Year’s Party which had been cancelled at the last moment because of counterfeit ticketing.  You can see her here if you fast forward to 11.30 and 12.45.

Oli on the television on Wednesday

Of note on Wednesday too, our walk which was a bit later than usual was rather a highlight that day because of the incredible red sky which always makes me remember walks with my Father when I was a child.  I learned from him that wonderful saying: “red sky at night, shepherds’ delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning” and which I have passed on to my own children.

The red sky at night we encountered on our walk on Wednesday this week

Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable day.  I took Eladio shopping in the morning for Kings’ day presents.  At home we give all our presents on Christmas day but we also celebrate Kings’ Day with token presents.  Spaniards, however, do it the other way around and today is the most important day for them.  While we were out we also bought new beds for the dogs, as theirs were ready to be binned after so much use and washing.  Right now they are still getting used to them as you can see in this photo below.

The dogs got new beds this week but they are not too keen yet

We were home just on time to watch Olivia live on the television again reporting on TVE1.  This time the story was about illegal car racing. You can see her here if you fast forward to 13.45h.

Olivia interviewing a policeman about illegal car racing on Thursday this week

Friday was the day we were having a special dinner party at home.  Our friends, Mar, Mariano and their 10 year old Chinese adopted son, San, were coming for dinner.  Mar and Mariano are journalist friends go way back and Susana gives homework lessons to San and when she can’t make it Olivia takes her place.  

For the occasion I made a typical English fruit and jelly trifle, a favourite with most members of the family.  It was the first time in many years as I had stopped making it because the jelly wouldn’t set.  I read on internet that that is because certain fruits interfere with the setting process and for the record the main culprit is fresh pineapple.  I put strawberries in the trifle I made on Friday and violà it turned out to be perfect.

The fruit and jelly trifle I made for the dinner party this week

It was to be a wonderful evening.  They always arrive late and bring loads of presents and this year was not going to be different.  This is the only dinner party at home the girls like to be a part of and as I always want them to be with us, Friday’s event was extra special for me. 

The special dinner party on Friday for Mar, Mariano and San

For San I think the highlight was the crackers. And that comment brings me on to the subject which is included in this week’s headline.  Crackers are not a tradition in Spain but of course they are in England where they are an essential item at Christmas.  I buy mine online and the best ones I have found are from Robin Reed.  I’m sure San is more interested in the bang and the gift inside, but what I like best are the jokes.  As they are always puns and in English they are impossible to translate for Spanish guests.  Apparently the best cracker jokes should bring laughs from children but groans from the adults.  Some of my favourites this year were: “What did the dentist say to his wife when she was making an apple pie? Want me to do the filling?”, “My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli.  He was pulled in by a strong currant”, “Why did the scarecrow win so many awards? Because he was outstanding in his field” or this one: “Why are graveyards so noisy? Because of all the coffin”. Fun eh?  The man in the photo below is apparently the author of these jokes we found in this year’s Robin Reed crackers. 

The man who creates the jokes for Robin Reed crackers

You can see more photos of that very special dinner party here.

Yesterday Saturday was a quiet day with nothing much to report.  In the evening, following Mar and Mariano’s recommendation, we went to see the film The Life of Pi.  I had my doubts but had seen the trailer and as it was about an Indian boy and animals I was interested. The story, which turned out to be too fantastic for me, is about a 16-year old boy named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who suffers a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.  The bit in the boat with the tiger is far too long and I found myself looking at my watch towards the end hoping the film was going to finish soon.  Afterwards we had a meal at Foster Hollywoods where it was far too loud to enjoy.

The Life of Pi, not a good choice I'm afraid

For the records yesterday was the King of Spain’s birthday of which there has been much news in all the media.  TVE (Spanish national television) broadcast an interview with the 75 year old monarch which we missed on Friday as it coincided with our dinner party.  When I have a moment I will watch it herelater. I used to be a fan of Don Juan Carlos, but since the episode with his elephant hunting in Botswana and the financial scandals of his son in law, Iñaki Urdangarin, I’m afraid I have lost a lot of the respect I once had for him.

Today, is his day, I suppose, Kings’ Day. On Kings’ day in Spain it is a tradition to buy or make a roscón and there are all sorts of varieties.  My favourite is the one without a filling which you can cut and toast, but others prefer the one with whipped cream in the middle.  We always have it for breakfast on this day.

The roscón we had for breakfast this morning

Right now as I write this week’s report, lunch is cooking in the kitchen.  I will leave off now and write about it later, as I do want to record our family Kings’ Day, the last day of Christmas this week and not leave it until next Sunday.

I have resumed writing now; sitting at my desk with a cup of tea after our walk with the dogs and with Suzy who joined us today.  Olivia is on the point of leaving with her boyfriend Miguel for Valencia.  She will be working with him there this week where he will be her cameraman. They are going to have a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing their live reports.  

Being an Anglo Spanish family, we always mix traditions so for our Kings’ Day lunch today I made a very British meal, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings: gravy, brussel sprouts and roast potatoes.  This is probably my favourite English dish as it is my Father’s. 

Kings' Day lunch today

This was followed by my trifle which I am a bit tired of by now and by the Robin Reed crackers, the last until next Christmas.  Then of course we gave our presents.  Each person had bought a present for the other member of the family, picking a concealed name for what is called “mystery friend” present giving here; except that we all ended up knowing who had bought them.  I got an iPad case from Olivia for the tablet and keyboard which will come in handy especially on short trips. Eladio got a red jumper from me that I really hope he wears but suspect he might not as he said it was very bright.  You can see all the photos of our family Kings' Day here too.

Then the rest is history, clearing things away as today was Oufa’s day off, a long siesta to digest the big meal and then finally our walk and here I am now rounding off this week’s blog post on this last day of Christmas.  Tomorrow we will be taking all the Christmas decorations down and life will go back to normal.  

As I leave you my friends, I wish you a great week ahead and as I wrote earlier a very happy New Year.

Cheers and here’s to 2013!

Masha

Diana was born, Kings’ day, a lot of snow and an adventurous dinner at Julio’s.

Our walk in the snow this morning, what a joy.

Hi again

As I begin to write my weekly post this Sunday afternoon in January it is snowing quite heavily outside. We are having a very cold spell with extremely low temperatures for Spain all over the country (-15ºc in Burgos for example) and it was even snowing today in Seville, something nearly unheard of. The cold spell has affected most of Europe and I know for one of people snow bound in the UK this last week where chaos reigned with cancelled flights and closed schools.
A great satellite photo of Great Britain snowed under, or as the Daily Telegraph wrote one day: Great Britain in a deep freeze.
Who will not have noticed the snow will be my newest grand niece, Diana. Diana was born on Monday 4th January to Ana, the wife of Roberto, the son of Adela who is Eladio’s sister. She came into this cold world at the beginning of a new decade in a peaceful and uncomplicated way. Her parents are delighted with her as is everybody around her.
Baby Diana born last Monday 4th Jan.
We sent the proud new parents a gift for the new born baby in the form of a baby hamper, my favourite present for babies from a website called Don Faldón. I judge that very subjectively as I know I would have loved to receive something like that when my girls were born, much more than flowers and plants that only die in the end.
Proud parents, Roberto and Ana, with their newly born baby girl Diana posing by the baby hamper we had sent them to celebrate her birth.
My girls, together with Gaby, Suzy’s boyfriend, are actually on their way back from León from visiting Diana and the family this weekend (see their photos here). In fact they should be walking in the door any minute.

The girl cousins around Ana and Diana this weekend.
And they did walk in and it was snowing and time for our walk and so we braved the weather as you can see here.
Eladio and Norah ready for our walk yesterday just as the snow began.
Very soon everything was covered and cars were having difficulties going up the road and Eladio was threatening not to go out tonight to Julio’s annual dinner (more about that later). I loved the silence the snow brought and the crunchy noise you hear as you step on fresh new powdery snow. It was like that in the fields and we were the only ones on the walk. You had to be careful not to step on puddles which had snow on them as the ice was brittle.

Now I am back and writing again before we leave (or try to leave) for Julio’s annual dinner, something we always look forward to. Let me start before though at the beginning of the week.

On Monday, the day Diana was born, I went into the office mainly because my remote corporate email vpn had expired. It was nice to see colleagues and gauge the atmosphere at work. That day I also went shopping with Suzy and ended up buying 2 coats (pink and and black and white) in the sales which were oh so cheap I went back for another one the next day (white).

On Tuesday, my up day (oh yes I’m still doing up and down days, hahaha) we went out to dinner with Roberto and MariCarmen, to celebrate MariCarmen’s birthday to De Brasa y Puchero in Boadilla.

Wednesday was the 3 Kings’ day (Epiphany) and officially the last day of Christmas in Spain (see previous years' entries on the subject here). Most Spaniards give their presents on that day and the 5th of January, the night before is the biggest sales day of the year. It certainly was in the case of Yoigo where we made record sales. Of course we celebrate Father Christmas so none of us were expecting very much that day. As it turned out, the Kings had left presents for us at Gaby’s house (Suzy’s boyfriend) and at José Antonio and Dolores house too for which we were very grateful.

The day began with breakfast all together where we ate the traditional roscón which you can see here. We bought 2, one with cream for lunch and one for breakfast without cream which we always toast. We got them from a superb bakery called Viena Capellanes thanks to vouchers we get at work. So thanks once again Yoigo for feeding the family, hahaha.
The typical "roscón" cake which is eaten by the ton in Spain on the 3 Kings' day.
As is tradition in this house on the Kings’ day, Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and his family are always invited for lunch. This year we had the pleasure of the company of José Antonio, Dolores and Juan as you can see here in the photo of them round the lunch table. We had a very English meal actually, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.
The traditional 3 Kings' day family dinner with José Antonio, Dolores and Juan.
The next day, Thursday, the weather was infernal and bad enough to thwart our daily walk. We did, however, brave it to go shopping as we had to get a few more presents to give out at Julio’s dinner.

On Friday morning I did something terrible and forgot my date with Elena for coffee nearby. Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind that much and we have rescheduled it to the end of this month. Sorry Elena, how forgetful of me!!! I was making “cocido” for the family that morning and was so immersed I never looked at my diary. Here by the way is the result.

My cocido - Cocido madrileño is a very Spanish dish from the Madrid area which consists of different sorts of meats and bones and chorizos with chickpeas, potatoes and vegetables. The stock is used to make a wonderful soup with noodles which is served as a first course. It is the speciality of this household by the way.
In the afternoon we went to the cinema, not before visiting Leroy Merlin to get Eladio’s Christmas toy from my Father, a badly needed leaf blower which you can see him using here and which is going to come very much in handy in our huge garden.

Eladio and his new toy, a leaf blower.
We went to see a Spanish film called Celda 211 (celda means a prison cell) and was about a prison mutiny. It was quite violent as I had predicted but had a fantastic plot. Afterwards we went, of course, to have dinner to our favourite restaurant, La Alpagatería, where we dined at our favourite table, number 7. I do like tradition, don’t I?

Friday, actually, was also the day Spain took over the European Union Presidency, a big day for Spain as you can read here.

On Saturday, when the girls had gone to León, we had visitors for afternoon tea. Suzy’s friend, Rocio’s parents, Esmeralda and Juan came to see us to get advice for their trip to India in March. We hadn’t seen them since the girls were at school and it was nice to catch up and chat about India for 2 or 3 hours. You will remember that is was with Rocío the girls visited India in October.

And that brings me to Sunday, now yesterday as I have broken off to write this blog post several times now. Sunday of course was the day of the snow and the annual dinner at Julio’s house with Fátima, our best friend who lives nearby and who worked with me both at Motorola and Nokia.

As I said at the beginning of the post, it had begun to snow and Eladio was worried about us driving to Madrid. However nothing was going to stop me or the girls cancelling the dinner. After all it is a once a year event and means a lot to us all. So we ventured out very cautiously and slowly. It took us 1.5h to get to Julio’s house but we made it!!! It was mainly thanks to our wonderful car, a Volvo XC90 which is not only a 4WD but has a magic “W” button which we reckon stands for “winter”. Suzy drove there and Oli drove back. You are great drivers girls!!!

Dinner as usual was fantastic, the food being provided by Julio and Fátima, including the traditional roscón with cream which we all adore. Credit also goes to Fátima’s mother for making 2 delicious tortillas. Thanks Gloria.
The annual dinner at Julio's this year, a bit of an adventure to get to but well worth the effort.
And this morning we woke up to the heaviest snow fall we have seen in the last 10 years and certainly the heaviest at our new house. The first thing I did of course was to rush outside with Norah and take photos to remember the day before it melted.

You can see the whole selection of the photos of the snow at our house and also of our walk in the snow with the girls and Norah here on Facebook.

The snow, however, did not melt and is still here. In fact we are trapped at home, the only way out being with the Volvo which actually Oli has just taken to go to work this afternoon. Eladio’s Open University classes have been cancelled this afternoon the same as all schools and Universities in the area. This is a big day for Spanish weather, quite extraordinary.

It was so extraordinary, the four of us decided to go for a walk in the snow with Norah which turned out to be pure magic as you can see in the photo illustrating this post and in the photos in the link above as well as this video I have uploaded to You Tube. and in another one where Eladio and Suzy have a snow fight, haha. Good watching!

And on that magical note, I leave you until next week.

Hope you all have a great one. Cheers till then
Masha

Family for the 3 Kings’ day, goodbye Christmas, congratulations Mario and "reise fieber"

Susi in the morning of the 3 Kings' day by the tree. Funnily enough the 3 Kings brought us a few goodies this year!
Hi again
Just as we thought our visitors were over for this Christmas, we got a surprise call on 4th January from Alejandro, Eladio’s younger and somewhat unpredictable brother at times. Pili and Andrés had just left for Mérida and we were not expecting anyone else for a while. Alejandro rang to say they were thinking of either going to Galicia or Madrid for Reyes (The 3 Kings). Eladio said he was welcome anytime, of course, but would he please let us know his final plans for the sake of logistics. And they did come, but at about midnight the next day when we were just going to bed!!!

We were very pleased to welcome them and settled them in for the night after sitting and chatting for a bit. José Antonio and Dolores were coming the next day for lunch, so 3 of the 6 brothers and sisters would be together for the final Christmas festivity.

Lunch was thus a big affair as we were to be 9. So I made very British roast lamb and trimmings which I hope they liked. I was not without help as Marisa lent a very welcome hand.

In the afternoon we spent time in our candlelit lounge and Alejandro played my Grandmother’s piano, much to the delight of my Father. To work off the lunch and get some appetite for going out to dinner, we took our visitors on our daily walk which we extended in length for the occasion.

Dinner was at Los Pescaitos, the place we discovered with Amanda in Boadilla and a good dinner it was in all respects. Some of it was spent reminiscing on how I had met Eladio which was, of course, through Dolores. She reminded she had told me at the time that he would make a great husband!!! Well, she wasn’t wrong there was she.

Eladio, Alejandro and Toño at Los Pescaitos

The 6 of us at Los Pescaitos

Toño and Dolores very romantic together. You look great.
And today, 7th January is a national holiday which for us has been spent resting a bit after the excesses of Christmas. Today we also put away all the decorations, lights and trees which is such a sad affair. And here are the pictures to prove it.

Eladio putting away the Xmas stuff

Tomorrow will be the start of a new chapter in our lives. The girls have to face stiff annual examinations (some final) and I have a lot of work to do preparing for media activities at the 3GSM congress in Barcelona next month, to mention just one heavy task coming up.

Eladio and I have something to look forward to and that is our still unplanned 25th wedding anniversary honeymoon. Will it be China, will it be India, will it be Vietnam, Africa, where will it be and when? I am already travelling in my mind and each time I visit flight pages such as edreams, for example, I begin to feel the “reise fieber”. I don’t know if that’s how you spell it but it’s a German term my Mother used to use every time we used to travel and is equivalent to “butterflies” in your stomach from the excitement of travelling.

There will me more about that when we have done some more planning.

Just before I sign off, a word of congratulations to Mario and his Castilla León handball team who won the championship played this last week in Mérida. They beat Madrid to play the semi final against Galicia. They then beat Galicia and faced Cataluña in the final which they won yesterday. It is a great feat to be national champions.

Cheers till my next post.

Masha