Back from the USA, visitors from abroad and a trip to Segovia, a disaster in Poland and other stories.

Bernard, Adele,me and Eladio outside Cándido in Segovia with the Roman Aqueduct

Hi again another Sunday in Spring

The weather has changed for the better and the sun is shining. So I saw fit to change the design of my blog, thanks to the new Blogger templates of course. I hope you like it.

My main headline this week is “Back from the USA” in reference to the famous song but of course to our trip and actually we are still under its influence. The jet lag remained with us for some days and was not helped by the fact that the clocks in our house were a total mess as a result of our not being here when the clocks went forward. So most of the week I didn’t really know what date it was and was mixed up with what time it was too. We keep talking about our trip and looking at the photos and on Friday I took a huge selection to be printed as I’ll be doing a special album on our trip as I do with most and which includes lots of the memorabilia.

We are enjoying all the things we bought and I have been wearing my pink Converse boots with my pink hooded New York sweat shirt which I adore, my I love New York t-shirt with my red Keds as well as the lovely spring cardigans I got from Banana Republic. Eladio has been wearing his Levi gear too and the girls their Abercrombie t-shirts. My Father, of course has been enjoying his Hershey’s American chocolates. When I asked him what he wanted us to bring him from the States that was what he asked for. I had never heard of them but they were everywhere, perhaps one of the few American brands which haven’t crossed the Atlantic.

Me in my pink hooded New York sweat shirt

No longer had we got back then we were to receive our visitors from abroad, Adele and Bernard on Sunday morning. I went to University with Adele and recently met up with her and Sandra and their partners in Brussels. So this was the second time we were meeting in two months after 25 years or so. Adele is a teacher of English at the University of Orleans (I think that’s right) and Bernard is her delightful artistic husband (he copies original masters painstakingly and beautifully) who earns his living as a psychiatrist. I don’t know if I told you their story. To cut it short Adele met her first husband whilst studying French at Nottingham University with me in the late 70’s. They married and she went to live in France where they set up their home and had 4 boys. Some years ago the marriage went sour out of no fault of hers and my darling Adele went to see a psychiatrist. The rest of the story you can guess. Bernard and Adele have now been married some 9 years and emanate happiness and love. They make a wonderful couple. They were visiting Madrid for their Easter holiday and had stayed in a hotel in the centre but were coming to stay as soon as we returned from New York and would be with us until last Thursday.

Bernard and Adele

We went to pick them up on Sunday, Easter day and I made a roast chicken lunch followed by of course the huge Easter egg I was given by my events agency. Thanks girls it was great. In the afternoon we went for a long walk in Boadilla where we got lost and ended up walking for over 2 hours!!! I suppose that might have helped work off the excess chocolate except that we had some more for dinner after the Spanish potato omelette we made for our visitors from abroad, commonly called tortilla here.

We love having visitors and many of them seem to be international which definitely befits this household. Last year Amanda and Andy from the UK came to stay and more recently Pernille and Thomas from Denmark. In July, with great excitement, we will be hosting Oli’s Indian friends from her Erasmus year, dearest Sandeep and Sumit. That is going to be a rollercoaster visit from abroad I just know it.

On Monday we took them to Segovia via the scenic mountain route and they were amazed to see the snow topped mountains outside Madrid in the Sierra de Guadarrama with peaks over 2.000 metres. You can ski there in the winter and it is a popular destination for a lot of Madrileños at the weekend. That amazes most people who probably don’t know that Madrid is actually the highest capital in Europe.

The Peñalara peak in the Guadarrama mountains outside Madrid.  It is 2.428 metres high.

Segovia is a pretty little town outside Madrid famous for its aqueduct, one of the best preserved monuments left by the Romans in the Iberian Peninsula which crosses right across the town and is absolutely spectacular. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and certainly deserves to be so.

The Roman aqueduct in Segovia.

But Segovia also has a magnificent gothic cathedral and 15th century castle which looks like it’s straight out of a fairy tale, both of which we visited of course with Adele and Bernard.

The Gothic cathedral in Segovia.

The 15th century castle in Segovia

Once in Segovia we chanced upon an outdoor exhibition of photographs representing the history of Spain in the last 100 years from Spain’s news agency, Efe. We enjoyed it thoroughly and couldn’t get away. In this photo you can spot Eladio, Adele and Bernard walking around the exhibition.

Adele, Bernard and Eladio at the outdoor exhibition of photos of a 100 year's of Spain's history in Segovia

It was magnificent with some stunning photographs such as this one of 3 nannies competing in a nanny competition in the 1930s.

One of the photos in the exhibition: a nanny competition in the 1930s

What dragged us away eventually were an empty stomach and the lure of our lunch date. It was at Segovia’s equally famous Mesón de Cándido where the speciality is suckling pig. Below is a photograph of Mr. Cándido himself cutting the pig with a plate, a tradition in these parts. Most tourists think paella is Spain’s national dish but here they are wrong. Paella is a regional dish from the Valencian region but I would never put it in my top ten. Spain has many culinary delights which vary from region to region, many of which are “spoon eating dishes” (platos de cuchara) made with chick peas or other types of pulses. But Spain’s best kept culinary secret must surely be its suckling lamb and pork, both of which are Cándido’s star dishes especially the latter.

Mr. Cándido cutting the suckling pig with a plate, a tradition in Segovia.

We were given a privileged table right by one of the windows overlooking the Aqueduct. Here is a photograph to prove it.

Tuesday was back to work and Adele and Bernard commuted into Madrid to enjoy the delights of the Prado and Thyssen museums. They loved them both but especially the Thyssen Bornemisza which Bernard thought was the best museum he had ever visited. I must go back there then. We had a last night dinner at a favourite Spanish (well Basque) place in Pozuelo with the unpronounceable and impossible to write name of La Txitxarrería. Here we laughed ourselves silly and drank a glass or so too much of Rioja wine and even cider, but hey life is good and a few excesses every now and again do no harm or so Bernard the psychiatrist commented. I totally agree. It was great having them and I really hope we meet again soon. We certainly won’t be leaving it another 25 years hahaha.

Eladio and Bernard outside La Txitxarrería where we went for dinner on their last night.

On Friday, the day after they left, both Suzy and I resumed our diet (the up and down one) and I returned to the gym to start swimming again. I now have to work off all the excesses and get into even better shape for the summer, poor me. The weather, as I said at the beginning, has been so good that we got some of the garden furniture out and we have been sitting outside reading. In fact right now I am writing from the table on the swimming pool terrace listening to Eladio and Suzy talk in the background as I write. Suzy in fact is waiting for her friends and they will be spending the afternoon sun bathing!

New York was great but it's nice to be home. The weekend has been quiet with no visitors, just doing domestic chores including a lot of homemade cooking, mostly soups of various kinds. I make them and freeze some a lot so's there's a big supply for my Father's dinners and ours of course. Here is the pumpkin soup I made today. It's made of pumpkin, carrot, cabbage and potato with a splash of olive oil and skimmed milk as well as salt, pepper and parsley and tastes just great.

The pumpkin soup I made today

I had to do some food shopping yesterday which is something I don’t usually do as that's my Father's and Eladio's responsibility. However we had run out of nearly everything so off I went to the local gourmet store (not the local Mercadona supermarket for me which is where they go).  I combined it with coffee with Fátima, her daughter with the same name and her mother. Her mother lives on and off in Marbella and is always inviting us to use her flat. In fact I think we will maybe in May. I don’t know if I've ever told you but our plan is to retire there; yeah a great big pad within walking distance of a nice beach and shared garden and pool and fabulous views. It has to be big to fit our daughters and their eventual husbands and kids. Staying at Gloria's place in Marbella may well give us a feel of what our plan turned true could be like.

Whilst I was having a coffee with Fátima, a disaster for the people of Poland had already taken place. Yesterday morning President Lech Kaczynski and his wife and scores of other senior Polish figures were killed in a plane crash in Russia near Smolensk. Ironically they were on their way to an event in Katyn to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the terrible massacre there of 20.000 Polish officers by the Russians in the Second World War. More than 95 people were killed in a terrible tragedy for Poland and according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the worst the country had experienced since the war.

The air crash that killed the President of Poland and his wife as well as other top politicians in Smolensk Russia yesterday

The worlds' leaders sent their condolences and even in yesterday nights “el clásico” match between Madrid and Barcelona the players were wearing black ribbons and a minute of silence was held before the match in honour of those who lost their lives in the crash.

The “clasico”(derby in English) is one of Spain's most important sports events of the year and there is a lot of hype around it all sparked by the eternal rivalry between the 2 cities. I of course always want Real Madrid to win even though the matches themselves interest me a lot less than other sports such as cycling or tennis. It was not to be though and the duel between Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo was won by the former who scored the first of Barcelona's 2 goals to Real Madrid's 0.

Messi, the Argentinian player for Barcelona who scored their first goal in their victory against Madrid yesterday

Sunday, the day after the clásico, has been quiet and filled with the domestic tasks I mentioned above plus dealing with lots of laundry. After writing my blog I am looking forward to a bit of reading in the shade and to our friends, Roberto and MariCarmen, coming to join us on our walk this evening. In sum the kind of Sunday I needed after coming back from the USA.

And that's it for this week. Hope you all have a good one,

Cheers for now Masha
PS You can see the full set of photos of Adele and Bernard's visit here.

A very special reunion weekend in Brussels

The 3 of us together last weekend in Brussels, reunited 30 years after we left University. From left to right, me, Sandie and Adele
This is how we looked in 1978 or 1979 when we were at Nottingham University together. I don't think we've changed that much. Thank God we didn't leave it another 30 years.

Hi again midweek, here I am multi-tasking and at my desk at home with a bit of a headache but I just have to write this post as otherwise it will soon be the end of the week and time to write the next.

No sooner had I come back from Barcelona than I was leaving again for Brussels as you may well have read in the post I published on Monday. So what was the reunion all about you may ask? It was something really special. We were going to Brussels to stay with Sandra who lives just outside the city in Fort Jaco in a lovely block of flats called Villa Hermes (very fitting for my elegant and jet setting friend). We were to be joined by Adele who lives in France near Orleans and her lovely psychiatrist husband Bernard who is also quite an artist as we were to find out later.
The designer block of friends Sandie lives in. Very impressive.
I went to Nottingham University with them both more years ago than I would like to admit. They studied French and I studied Spanish but they did Spanish subsid so we got to meet.
The Trent Building at the University of Nottingham where our friendship was forged over 30 years ago.
Adele lived in the same hall as I in the first year, Nightingale Hall. In the second year I lived with Sandra (also known as Sandie) in Church Avenue and in my final year I lived with Adele at Cromwell Road. I have kept in touch with both of them over the years and had seen Sandie twice and quite recently too but with Adele it had been over 25 years since we last met. That was at her home town in Boroughbridge near York when both of us had just been Mothers. Now our children are grown up and we are middle aged. However our friendship was very strong and this weekend we took off just where we had left off and it was as if we were young girls again, except that we weren’t quite so short of cash nor were we desperately looking for boyfriends, hahaha.
Nightingale Hall, the all women's hall of residence Adele and I lived at in our first year at Nottingham University.
A word about these wonderful women before I start recounting the weekend. Adele is a fun loving delightful person to have around. She has not changed one iota. She loves food like I do and has the most amazing hair I have ever seen. When we were at University Adele’s main ambition in life was to get married and be a Mother. She used to prepare superb dinners which always included home-made pizzas and cheese cake. Today Adele is the perfect Mother and wife and also an excellent professional and now a teacher of English at a French University. She comes from a family of 5 brothers and sisters and has 4 boys herself; Johnathan, Benjamin, Nicholas and Tom whom I would love to meet one day. Bernard is her second husband. He was her therapist when she split up with her first husband. There’s a big story there.

Sandra is not easy to describe. She is a bundle of fun to be with and has the most outgoing character I know. She speaks to anyone and everyone in any language you want. Her background could not be more exotic: born in India from an Italian Father and a Jewish Hungarian Mother, Magda who had to be hidden from the Nazis during the Second World War. There is a very big story there and I hope one day Sandie writes it. When we were at University, Sandie was a cut above the rest. She had her own car which was unthinkable in those days and used Christian Dior perfume years before we ever did. Today she lives in Brussels and works for Price Waterhouse. Her partner is Jeffer London, a lovely American from Connecticut who specialises in corporate training or I think that is what he does. Amazingly they met at the Toastmasters Association, one Sandra has recommended me to join and which intrigues me. I will be going along to my first meeting with the Madrid branch next week.

Our three men, a French psychiatrist, a Spanish philosopher and ex priest and the American were to have a great weekend too as their cultural level and general interests were on an absolute par. But of course if they were our partners how wouldn’t they get on?

And now on to the weekend and everything we did.

We were up early last Thursday and Suzy drove us to the airport for our midday flight. I took advantage of the lovely shops at the enormous Terminal 4 to buy my friends some Spanish Loewe perfume as well as Spanish delicacies such as ham and good Rioja wine to contribute to the meals.

Sandie met us off the plane and of course the hugs were huge. She drove us in her nice convertible Saab (would Sandra choose any other type of car?) to her lovely home in Fort Jaco outside Brussels. Her flat is perfect and homely and tidy and beautifully decorated with a mixture of modern and oriental and full of books and wonderful objets d’art But I didn’t expect less. We all felt completely at home there and frankly I could have moved in.
Sandra's lovely flat, lots of space and lots of light with great simple decor. Above all it's a comfortable home.
We left Eladio with the plumber whilst the 2 of us went to get bread and other provisions from a superb supermarket, the likes of which I have never seen in my life – wow was it luxurious. Very soon Adele and Bernard arrived off the tram and were waiting for us near Sandie’s house. That meeting was emotional and beautiful. I think we both had tears in our eyes. My eyes are smarting as I write that. It was lovely Adele darling to see you again after so long. You are just the same.

Very soon we were joined by Jeffer and preparations began for the lovely dinner Sandie had ready planned for us which included an Indian chicken dish. We drank champagne to celebrate and took endless photos. Here is one of the 3 men who look just as happy as we were.
Our 3 men, from left to right: Bernard (Adele's husband), Jeffer (Sandie's partner) and Eladio.
On Thursday we were up nice and early as we didn’t want to waste a precious moment of our long weekend. Jeffer had to work so the rest of us made our way to Brussels to see some of the sights and we did so by tram.
On the tram going into Brussels from Fort Jaco on Friday morning.
We got off at the lovely square called Le Petit Sablon and walked to Le Grand Sablon nearby and the first thing we did was stop at the world famous Wittamer pâtisserie for a coffee and one of their very tantalising cakes. They brought us a tray of them and the choice was hard. Both Adele and I have a sweet tooth and enjoyed many cakes during our reunion. It was like being back at Nightingale when we used to have chocolate Easter egg eating competitions (I was a bit bulimic, I must admit).
Adele faced with a difficult decision: which cake to choose at the world famous Wittamer Pâtesserie in the Grand Sablon square.
We were all eager to go the Royal Museum of Fine Arts to see the Flemish masters such as Breugel and also the Magritte Museum and here we spent a happy few hours enjoying the wonderful art. My love of René Magritte, the famous surreal Belgian artist comes from our University days and the wonderful lectures we had from the lecherous Doctor Cardwell whom both Adele and Sandie well remembered.
Admiring the Flemish Masters in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.
The Rape, in this painting a woman’s face is made up of the essential features of her body as René Magritte described it himself. I find it fascinating as I do most of his art.
From the Museum we made our way to a great bakery cum restaurant called Le Pain Quotidien where everybody eats round a big wooden table. Here we ate lovely food including rhubarb crumble, uummmm. I was delighted to find out that there is an establishment in Madrid which I know I will visit soon.
A shot of the inside of Le Pain Quotidien bakery, great place, an establishment which was a recurring theme in our reunion weekend.
Later we went into the china shop called Gien (from the name of the town in France) and bought some lovely plates with an Indian motif. I have found them on internet and know I will soon be ordering some more.
The beautiful plates we bought with Indian motifs from the Gien china shop in Le Gran Sablon.
From the Gran Sablon square we walked to La Grand-Place which some King once said was “le plus belle lieu du monde” which I hope is spelt write as my French is a bit rusty. We spoke a mixture of French, Spanish and English all weekend which was great fun. I agree with the King but think it is not the most beautiful place in the world but one of them. All Belgian towns have a Grand-Place like most Spanish towns have a Plaza Mayor.
In the Grand-Place in Brussels. You cannot visit Brussels without going there. It is really magnificent.
Then Sandie took us to the Galeries St. Hubert which houses the Galerie de la Reine and Galerie du Prince and is a glazed shopping arcade supposed to be one of the first shopping malls in Belgium or maybe even Europe. Here we visited the chocolate shop Neuhaus and bought some superb chocolate. Well, of course, Belgium is famous for its chocolate and deservedly so too.
The Neuhaus chocolate shop in les Galeries St. Hubert.
Later we walked round other monuments such as the Royal Palace and the Cathedral which is magnificent, very Gothic and similar to ones I have seen in France.

After a day full of sight-seeing and culture we headed home by tram again for a rest and to recharge our batteries before going out to dinner at Sandie and Jeffer’s favourite restaurant nearby. As you can see we enjoyed it immensely but mostly our own company.
A fun dinner on Friday night at a cozy little place round the corner from Sandie's flat in Fort Jaco.
The next day, Saturday, the men went off on a cultural expedition to visit Leuven the home to one of the world’s oldest Universities. We girls had our own programme. The first thing we did was call Sandie’s Mother Magda who lives in London on Skype. Neither Adele nor I had seen her since University and were very impressed to see how well she is doing and how innovative she is at 84, using skype and Facebook for example. She still drives and has a very active social life. Well done Magda. Right now I am waiting for you to accept me as your friend on Facebook.

Sandie then drove us to Waterloo outside Brussels – yes the place where the battle took place. We didn’t go to see Wellington’s monument I’m afraid but to shop at the British store there called Stonemanor. Brussels is full of Eurocrats and people from all over the world and is a real melting pot so it was no surprise to find an English supermarket. I stocked up on all sorts of chocolate, bacon, sausage rolls, pork pies and kippers, very English produce which I knew would be much appreciated at home especially by my Father. And I was not wrong. The pork pie was his lunch the day after we came home.

From there we made our way to another Le Pain Quotidian near Sandie’s house for yet another coffee and mouth watering cake. As we were having a girly morning, the obvious thing was to continue shopping so we had a good look into the shops in Fort Jaco. I bought some lovely heart shaped coloured bowls I had seen at Sandie’s flat and they are now gracing my kitchen and will forever be called “the Brussels bowls”. There was a stop at Pierre Marcolini which Sandie called “the Armani of chocolate” and where I bought some lovely coloured macaroons and pure white chocolate (all for the up days of course!).

We had a picnic lunch at home with the boys and in the afternoon everyone did their own thing. Jeffer and Eladio stayed to have a siesta, Adele and Bernard went shopping and I went with Sandie to enjoy the spa at the David Lloyd Leisure centre nearby and of which she is a member. The place is superb and housed in a chateau type building.
Sandra outside the luxurious David Lloyd leisure centre in Fort Jaco where we enjoyed the spa on Saturday afternoon.
Here we swam outside in the warm pool and then did a few lengths inside before going for the treat: the enormous jacuzzi, the sauna and the Turkish bath. We chatted throughout, catching up on so many years and I told her about how my brother died and she sympathised with me as only a very close friend can. Darling Sandie I am so glad to have you back in my life.

Our last dinner together was in town and we headed there in 2 cars past the Avenue St. Louis and streets with names like Franklin Roosevelt and Montgomery. Sandra reminded me that the Allies had liberated Belgium in the war and there are memories of that throughout the city and I imagine the whole country. Today Brussels is a thriving city and considers itself the capital of Europe. Without the European Union it would not be so. The city itself has good parts and bad and the beautiful old buildings are often overshadowed by ugly looking modern ones and the contrast is strange. Apparently there was not much town planning in the past.

Dinner had to be in the centre so we made our way to La Grand-Place making a small detour to touch the Everard’t Serclaes statue and of course see the Manneken Pis. The story goes that a King (don’t know which one again) lost his little boy and promised to build a statue where he was found if he was ever found. He was found and at the time was doing a “pee” so a statue of him doing that was built and has now become the symbol of Brussels.
Eladio and I by the Manneken Pis, an obligatory photo to take in Brussels.
On our way to meet the others in a bar in Le Grand-Place fittingly called “Le Roi d’Espagne” Sandra, Eladio and I bumped into a group of very lost looking Spanish tuna singers. We immediately asked them to sing which they did as you can see in the video I have uploaded to my You Tube videos. They were too embarrassed to walk into a bar and sing for money as they would in Spain so of course Sandie and I lent a motherly hand and in they walked and sang to the delight of everyone inside, including a very loud group of students from the Lebanon.
Sandie and I with the Spanish Tuna singers from Seville whom we encountered by the Manneken Pis. What fun!
We had dinner at Scheltema, a nice traditional place just off La Grand-Place and once again we had the time of lives laughing and eating as you can in this picture.
The 6 of us at the Scheltema restaurant on the last night. More fun again.
And suddenly it was Sunday and our last morning together. Our flight and Adele and Bernard’s train was at about 3 pm so there was still time for some more fun together. Jeffer and Sandie took us to the Marolles area which houses the antique market on a Sunday. Here we visited yet another café, L’eau chaude, a delightful little place. In the same street we came upon a small jewelry shop where I bought some great necklaces for the girls and I and which have proved to be successful.

And very soon it was time to go and say goodbye with promises of seeing each other again soon. Adele and Bernard will be coming in April to visit Madrid. I am so happy that these lovely friends have reentered my life and have brought their partners with them. The plan is to have a similar meeting every year. I will keep to that promise as I know they will too.

Thanks girls and boys for the amazing and emotionally pleasing weekend. See you again soon. Love

Masha
PS you can see the full selection of photos of the reunion weekende in Brussels here on Facebook.