A busy week, good news for Oli, a Government reshuffle in Spain, a weekend in Barcelona and a happy Monday for Yoigo.

Me in the Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona this weekend

Hi everyone

I’m late with my blog this week but that’s because we came back from Barcelona late on Sunday evening which is when I normally write.

Last week was busy as this week will be too. It started Monday with good news for Oli and if it’s good news for Oli it’s good news for us. In her time with RTVE she realised that she really wants to work in television as a journalist. Thus, spurred on by colleagues, she applied to do the RTVE (Spanish national TV station) master degree in television journalism at the Universidad Juan Carlos 1 in Madrid. The entrance exam was very stiff. There were some awfully difficult questions on today’s political scene and general knowledge. The candidates also had to do a news story on camera after reading just a press release. There were 16 places for 80 candidates so it was no easy feat to get accepted. The good news came last Monday afternoon that she had been accepted. She will start this week on Thursday and the master degree will take about a year and will include 3 months unpaid practice with the RTVE news programmes in the summer. We are thrilled for her. Meanwhile she has gone to Marrakech with Laura and 2 other friends for a nice holiday break. The only thing we have heard so far is that they keep getting lost in the souk which doesn’t surprise me as I did too when I was there.

My beautiful journalist daughter Olivia who was admitted to the RTVE master degree in TV journalism. 
I'm so happy for her.

Monday for me was not so good. I had a dental appointment with my favourite dentist of long ago whom I can now visit as he is on the list of our new medical policy, Cigna. It was nice to see Dr. Garralda again but not so nice to hear that I will need 2 implants and that the treatment will take some 6 months, not to mention the cost. To top the bad news I scratched my recently painted Volvo company car trying to get out of a heavily congested car park in Majadahonda. So, no Monday was not my day, but it was Oli’s.

The week was busy work wise but there was time for lunch with an ex Nokia friend Susana at De María in Majadahonda on Tuesday and on Wednesday with Susana and Mauricio from the PR team I used to have at Llorente y Cuenca. After lunch with them at Laray in Hermanos Bécquer I went to have coffee with my sister and brother in law, Dolores and José Antonio who live nearby. I hadn’t seen them since August. I don’t know why but we no longer see each other as often as before and I miss seeing them. Ah and I also had a girly lunch with the girls on Thursday, the only negative thing being I had to be in a conference call with Sweden at the same time.

José  Antonio and Dolores with their new pet Nuba.  It was lovely to have coffee with them last week

Wednesday was a big day for Spanish politics. It was the day I also realised that daily newspapers really do not bring fresh news anymore. Whilst my whole family were reading The Daily Telegraph, El País, El Mundo and Que, I was at my computer. And it was on Facebook that I found out that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was to announce that morning a major cabinet reshuffle in his government. His number 2, the Deputy Prime Minister, the austere mature lady María Teresa Fernández de la Vega was to leave her position and be replaced by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba who would combine the job with Home Affairs for which he was already responsible. The latter was also a minister under Felipe González. One of the main reasons behind the reshuffle seems to be a need for better communication from the Government especially with the new reforms taken because of the financial crisis. I like to hear that as I am a communications professional. There were many other changes but this was the biggest. I rushed upstairs to the dining room to inform my family reading the papers that the real news was on internet and of course both Eladio and Olivia rushed off to their respective PCs to find out more.

María Teresa Fdz de la Vega leaves the number 2 position in the government after last week's big cabinet reshuffle

Soon it was Friday and Eladio and I went off to Barcelona for a jolly weekend. I use the word jolly as the hotel we were to stay at were offering us a free weekend because of appalling service when I last stayed there. A friend of mine, dear Julio, when I told him the story, urged me to write a letter to the Manager saying I may get some compensation. So for the first time in my life I wrote a very exaggerated letter of complaint and low and behold the manager responded and offered me 2 nights free whenever I wanted. The hotel in question is the new W Barcelona built by Ricardo Bofill. It is located at the end of the Barceloneta beaches right by the port. It is a bit far from the city but you can walk to the Rambla in about 45 minutes, so good for exercise.  The hotel building is quite spectacular and is in the shape of a huge sail with some 26 floors with magnificent views. Once again however the service was lacking in professionalism. However I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and complain again.

The amazing Hotel W where we stayed in Barcelona this last weekend, great place but very badly organised

The drive was long, some 650km which felt like it took forever. The highlight was lunch at Asador La Brasa in Calatayud on the way. The worst part was driving into Barcelona in 1.5hrs of dense Friday afternoon traffic. Once we had checked in, we walked to the Port Vell to the Palau de Mar area and decided upon dinner at one of my favourite places in Barcelona, Cal Pinxo. Here I was able to keep to my protein and vegetable diet by ordering excellent crayfish and sole.

On Saturday we were up early and after a protein breakfast, at least for me, we made our way into the city. We walked to Port Vell and from there to the Paseo de Colón until we reached La Rambla.

Eladio at La Rambla in Barcelona this weekend.  We had a great time.  As you can see the weather was great.

La Rambla was bustling with tourists and was as fun as always. There were lots of living statues, one more spectacular than the other. This was the one I liked best.

La Rambla is lined with living statues competing for tourists' money.  I thought this one was especially good

From La Rambla we walked to the Plaza de Cataluña and then on to Puerta de Angel, the street they say is the most commercial in town. Here I ventured into Cortefiel and to Zara (keep buying new clothes as I lose more weight-:) whilst Eladio waited patiently outside. Then we walked towards the Cathedral in the Gothic old city and went inside for a quick look. It really is magnificent. What I didn’t like were the semi professional gypsy beggar women outside who give a terrible image of Spain to the tourists who flock to Barcelona in their thousands.

The semi professional gypsy beggar women are not a pretty sight outside the cathedral in Barcelona

We had a coffee in the square by the cathedral to gain some renewed energy before continuing our walk, this time back to the Port Vell and for lunch at Cal Pinxo again. Eladio was very happy to order black rice whilst I kept to my diet by ordering cockles and sole once more.

Eladio enjoying black rice at Cal Pinxo in Port Vell this weekend in Barcelona

It is at Port Vell where the black immigrants sell imitation branded handbags illegally. The bags are attached to strings and then to a blanket so that they can run off fast if the police come by. I always buy a handbag from them that I don’t really need and this time I got the latest Prada model in brown for 13 euros after a very small haggle. The guy who sold it to me was a good looking immigrant from Senegal. I could only imagine the drama that must have gone on in his life for him to arrive and be selling illegal faked goods in Barcelona.

I'm always a sucker for imitation fashion bags at Port Vell sold by black immigrants.

Before going back to the hotel, we went to a market in the town to buy flowers and some produce to take to Grainne’s that night. I went to school with Grainne who has lived in Barcelona or rather in Badalona nearby for many years and I cannot every go Barcelona without visiting her. This time we invited ourselves to dinner. That’s how good our friendship is.

We spent the afternoon lazing and enjoying the hotel. Eladio had a siesta in our room whilst I read the newspaper on the swimming pool terrace which was a magnificent place. For one moment I thought I was in paradise. Later on we visited the small but well equipped spa before dolling ourselves up (well me at least) and taking a taxi to Grainne’s place.

The swimming pool terrace and complex at the W Hotel by the Barceloneta beaches is a sort of paradise

Dinner at Grainne’s is always a pleasure as I feel so at home there. It was Eladio’s first visit but I know he did too. We were joined by Pepe, Grainne’s best friend and a shoe repairer for the record as well as by Marcel, Grainne’s adorable son who is the same age as our daughters. Grainne is a superb cook but I didn’t get to try her great chicken casserole and lemon soufflé as I was determined to stick to my diet and had an omelette and some cooked ham, washed down by caffeine free diet coke (how sad).

With my dear friend Grainne at her house for dinner on Saturday night in Badalona.  We go back such a long way.

And suddenly it was Sunday and the weekend was nearly over. We had a leisurely breakfast and I packed whilst Eladio read the paper by the enormous window overlooking the city and the sea. I must include a picture of the view from the room because it is simply spectacular and one of the salient points of the W Hotel.

The view from our room at the W Hotel in Barcelona

Thus we checked out at midday but before hitting the road decided to do that day’s walk along the Barcelonata beaches towards the Hotel Arts at the other end of the beach from where our hotel was. The walk was splendid in the sunshine with people enjoying themselves on the beach, walking, on bikes, on skates, skate boards, playing bowl and generally enjoying their Sunday morning by the sea.

On our walk on Sunday morning from our hotel in the background, all along the Barceloneta promenade

So with a heavy heart we left, only cheered by the news of Fernando Alonso winning the Korean GP and taking leadership of the Formula One championship. The drive back was long and tedious and lunch was at a pretty nasty roadside cafe near Lérida. We got home late thanks to heavy traffic coming into Madrid but were happy to be home again and welcomed by our lovely daughter Susana who joined us for a makeshift Sunday evening dinner.

Monday was a happy day for Yoigo and deserves a special mention in this week’s blog. It was the TeliaSonera Q3 results and there were glowing references to Yoigo’s performance. We have reached over 2 million customers and look forward to being positive in the last quarter of the year. On top of that we had excellent results in the EPSI customer satisfaction surveys within the countries of the group. If you don’t believe me, just look at this chart of how we are doing in Spain vs our competition.  To think that we have done all this in such a short a time is quite amazing.

According to EPSI Yoigo has the most satisfied customers of all mobile phone operators in Spain!!!

And on that happy note, I leave you until next week. Hope you all have a great week, me too of course. Cheers till next time

Masha

PS Here is the full collection of photos of our lovely weekend in Barcelona

Barcelona again, a Hawaiian Barbecue, a Swedish royal wedding, the girls in Copenhagen and more

The "girls" in Hawaiian dress at yesterday's Barbecue. 

 Good morning my friends,

Another week has passed and here I am writing this sunny Sunday morning when thankfully the brightest star in our lives has returned. It wasn’t like this all week but gradually it made its appearance again.

Let me start from last Sunday if I am to be faithful to the chronological spirit of this blog which is actually my diary. We were joined by our friends Roberto and Mari Carmen on our walk in the late evening. Afterwards we went to dinner to a place we all like but don’t go to that often, La Txitxarrería, somewhere we often take our visitors from abroad. It has such great Basque food I don’t know why we don’t go more often. Mari Carmen, who is a pharmacist, brought me the pills I had ordered from her for my headaches and which you can only get under prescription unless you have a pharmacist friend like me. Thanks my dear. Let’s see if the new stuff works!

I haven’t tried them yet but hardly needed them this week as I only had a few light headaches. Luckily I didn’t have one on Tuesday which was my debut in the Management Team at work. I am the only woman in the team which I suppose has its added difficulties. I was a bit daunted but in the end all my fears went away as everyone was so welcoming. Eladio says I belong to the G8 now which is sort of fitting as the team now has 8 members with me.

The meeting went on for hours and I had a train to catch to Barcelona which I was afraid of missing but didn’t want to leave the meeting early on my first occasion. Luckily I caught it by the skin of my teeth. So why was I going to Barcelona mid week? It was to attend what I thought was an international PR conference but turned out to be the annual meeting of the PR measurement industry. Luckily there were other people like me; customers of that industry and I was really interested to see how social media and digital news was impacting all our work. The best thing about the three days was the networking and being at an international conference with people from all over the world. I made great friends with Audrey and Susanne from Germany and Tim from the UK.

With Susanne and Audrey at the Amec summit dinner at the restaurant Miranda del Museu overlooking the yachting club in Pau de la Villa.  Amazing place but the food nothing special.

The conference had its interesting parts but some of it was a somewhat technical and you heard people talking about automated measurement of sentiment, human analysis and machine analysis. I was interested to listen and see a guru of the industry called Katie Paine who everyone was telling me not to miss. She is an American lady, larger than life and extremely full of herself and someone you cannot miss in a crowd. You only have to go to her Twitter page to find out why. Here she says: “I've been called The Queen of measurement, but I prefer Seshat, the Goddess”. She was certainly no goddess to me, more of a pain to excuse the pun. I actually interrupted her presentation to ask her what she meant by “kick butt indicators”, such an Americanism I was sure more than half the audience didn’t understand. I think I might have floored her but maybe she has such an ego that that is impossible.

Katie Paine at the conference, the so called "queen" of PR coverage measurement.

We stayed at the Meliá, a supposed 5 star hotel just off the Diagonal and round the corner from a great shopping centre, La Isla (L’Illa in Catalán). It was fine but nothing special and I am no fan of modern sky scraper hotels with very masculine décor and furniture. The best thing was the bar and the big screen TV which was transmitted all the World Cup matches. Here they made the best mojitos I have ever come across, but then I haven’t been to Brazil.

The great  mojito I had at the Melia Hotel bar after the Amec summit dinner.  Tim called it the alternative to mint tea! 

In Barcelona I also had time to see my great friend Grainne and her son Marcel. One night I was invited to dinner at their place in Badalona and the evening was like something out of a comedy. We were joined by Grainne’s “boyfriend” Dan, a gorgeous looking Rumanian and Pepe a lovely man in his 60’s who has been Grainne’s friend for years. He had been married to a Scottish woman but his English was limited. I asked him what he did in life and when he said he was a “cobbler” I thought I didn’t understand. But yes, he is a traditional shoe maker and what a lovely guy he is. Dear Grainne made us all some very hot goulash at which even Dan complained. However we filled our plates with potato and salad to counteract the paprika and the lovely homemade Florentine tart did the trick in the end. In essence we spent the whole night laughing and I was made to feel part of Grainne’s group of friends even though I was meeting them for the first time. I think it all has to do with our going back so long ago to our school days but then again without the marvelous chemistry between us, the feeling wouldn’t be the same.

Pepe, Grainne and Dan the Rumanian.  We had a great evening at Grainne and Marcel's

Barcelona was as at its best and despite the Catalanism I love the place. I made sure I had time to walk down the Diagonal and got as far as La Rambla de Cataluña where I bought some great espadrilles at a shop called Mar Bessas (apparently a classic shoe shop in Barcelona) and S’carpa (sorry no websites) which I am delighted with. My suitcase was  of course bulging to the limit when I tried to close it on the last day. But my good old green Samsonite always closes in the end, especially if you sit on it. You can see the whole set of my photos from this trip here:

And now I have reached Friday of this week but I have totally forgotten to tell you what happened on Monday and it was important. So here I go. Monday was an historic day for Suzy and for us as she took her very last exam which if she passes will give her a degree from the Madrid Complutense University in Food Science and Technology. She was nervous but the exam went really well. We won’t get the result until the middle of July but we are very confident. She has been working hard for the last month or so, locked up in her room and only coming out for meals. Now she can look forward to a worry free Summer for the first time in many years. Have a great time darling. Soon you will be flying the nest and I will miss our moments together.

Also on Monday Oli returned from her fascinating trip to Brazil. We hardly had time to hear from her but at least managed a family lunch on Monday after which I wasn’t going to see her again till today. She brought us a beautiful Brazilian hammock which is proudly hanging between two trees in the garden by the swimming pool. Thanks darling!

Eladio having a siesta right now in the hammock Oli brought back from Brazil.

Oli had to go to work the same day she arrived which must have been challenging. She will have found her colleagues immersed in news about the World Cup and I was happy to read this piece she did on the atmosphere in Brazil related to the event.

Oli on a boat in Brazil recently.

But back to chronological order. I was home on Friday afternoon and as soon as I had unpacked Eladio dragged me off to Media Markt to buy a big flat screen TV for our room. Why would we want another television you may ask and be right of course? We have many TVs in this house but mainly watch it from our bed at night and the one in our room is probably 20 years old and failing. It is a typical 26” Sony TV from the late 80's but my eyesight is just not good enough to see it from the bed. So of course the alternative is a big flat screen. We didn’t want to spend much money and in the end chose an LCD 47” LG set which hopefully they will be installing next Wednesday. Eladio is very excited but I am less so. When I buy something I like very much  I need to use it straightaway to feel excited and this wasn’t the case on Friday. Yeah we paid for it but won’t see it till Wednesday. For you to understand: when I was a kid and my Mother bought me new shoes, I would put them on in the shop and when I went to bed I would put them on a chair at eye view in order to see them as soon as I woke up.

From Media Markt we went food shopping for the barbecue we were having on Saturday. Part of the stuff was bought at Sánchez Romero and part of it at Supercor. Sánchez Romero is Spain’s best supermarket and I just wish I could do all my shopping there but it is prohibitively expensive. Then we went out to dinner, to celebrate the TV Eladio said. Actually we don’t need an excuse to go out to dinner so off we went to De Brasa y Puchero in Boadilla and savoured a superb Salmorejo (thick gazpacho from the Córdoba region) amongst other things.

On Saturday we were up early to prepare for the first barbecue of the season. Our friends, the González-Gálvez family, were coming and we were to be 16, 6 children and 10 adults. So a lot of organisation and preparation were in order. Tables had to be laid, fresh flowers had to be arranged in vases, the barbecue fire had to be ready to light and of course food had to be made. So what did we offer our guests? You could probably guess I made salmorejo for the first course. Then of course we had a variety of sausages and meat served with jacket potatoes and salad. The dessert I was especially happy with as it was new creation and is actually very easy to make. I served mixed fresh berries and stoned black cherries in small glasses and covered the fruit with whipped double cream which I then topped with either meringue or biscuit. and another cherry. Here you can see what it looks like.

The new Summer dessert I made for yesterday's barbecue.  Nice eh?

At 2h our dear friends arrived and we greeted them with Hawaiian party fare. We all dressed up, even my Father and Gerardo managed to take a self timer photo of all us which was no mean feat as it was difficult to place the camera. I also did a video at the beginning of the party which you can watch here on You Tube.

Group photo at yesterday's barbecue.

We all had a grand time, the kids with Norah and Norah with the kids (she must have stuffed so much that she hasn’t wanted to eat since). I feel so at home with this family, the family I lived with in Madrid when I was a student and love them all dearly. I love their kids too who all have the same bubbly personalities as their parents Gerardo and Irene and Viky and Tomas. It was great to have you guys. We will do this again next year. You can see the full set of photos here on Facebook.

The very much needed siesta yesterday at the barbecue: Norah with little Irene.

As I am writing we are waiting for a call from the girls from the airport. I haven’t seen them all week as I went to Barcelona and on Friday when I returned they had already gone to Copenhagen for the weekend to stay with Pernille and Thomas and their daughters Julia and Alberte. I will have told you many times before who they are. To recap Pernille was our Danish Princess au pair when the girls were small whom we all fell in love with and have kept up with ever since. They will be back later this morning and I am dying to hear all about their weekend.  By the way here are some of the photos from their visit.

Suzy and Oli at Pernille and Thomas' house.  In the photo with Pernille, her Mother and the 2 little girls: Julia and Alberte

Meanwhile a real Princess got married yesterday in Stockholm. Crown Princess Viktoria aged 32 was to marry her commoner fitness trainer boyfriend Daniel Westling agedc 36. All of Sweden and Scandinavia were immersed in the wedding which of course was transmitted live. Here you can watch the most romantic speech ever from Prince Daniel who is now called HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland. He called Viktoria “Princess of Sweden, the Princess of my heart” and told how he was not a frog like in the fairy tales but that the first kiss did not transform him into a prince. He also told the story of how Princess Viktoria wrote him 30 letters in one night, one for each of the days she was going to be away in China and separate from him. He said that said a lot about her. The speech and video transmitted pure love and I just hope that this Royal Marriage is lasting and that Viktoria and Daniel are happy for ever after as in all fairy tales.

The Crown Princess Viktoria  and commoner Daniel Westling yesterday at their fairy tale wedding in Stockholm

Who is definitely living a fairy tale is a young man called Pau Gasol. He went down in the history of Spanish sport as being the first Spaniard to win the American Basket Ball championship commonly called The NBA. Well this last week he did it again, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers team. Well done Pau, another first for Spanish sport.

The Spaniard Pau Gasol winning his 2nd NBA, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Who are not living a fairy tale, but rather a nightmare are the English and Spanish teams at the Football World Cup in South Africa. England has not been able to score and on Friday drew with Algeria. Imagine! Even worse was Spain’s fate against Switzerland in their opening match on Wednesday. Switzerland is supposedly the weakest in the G Group (Spain, Chile, Honduras and Switzerland) but beat Spain on Wednesday. The next match is on Monday against Honduras but the Spanish team, as usual, will probably not make it through to the quarter finals. There were high hopes as always in this competitions which are now somewhat dashed, disappointing a nation who needed a respite from the current depression, something success at the World Cup would have given them.  I hope these are my famous last words and that Spain does indeed actually get through.

And on that note, I leave you hoping you will all have a great week. Me too I hope.

Cheers till then

Masha

Barcelona again, a 3rd anniversary, dinner at Irene’s, a family trip to La Rioja and remembering Aunty Masha

The 5 of us together at the Márques de Riscal winery in Elciego.
Hi again

Well here I am this Sunday afternoon writing from our room in the Parador in Calahorra in La Rioja region of Spain. The girls are in their room resting as is my Father in his. We are on the awaited family trip to La Rioja. Soon though we may get together to watch the “clasiquísimo” derby as Barcelona will be playing Real Madrid later on this evening. I will probably just about tolerate the match and continue writing my blog as there is a lot to tell this week.

This time last week, Suzy and I were on our way to Barcelona on the AVE as the high speed train is known here. It takes just over 2 hours and since it came into operation many people stopped taking the plane, one of them being me. It was Suzy’s first trip and here is a photo of her with the free sun glasses that came with the Cosmopolitan magazine.

My mission in Barcelona was to attend the CMT international conference and also to site inspect possible locations for a press conference in February. Suzy joined me and we stayed at one of my favourite hotels, 1898 right on the Ramblas and very near the Mercado de la Boquería which we visited twice to buy fruit for ourselves and some amazing chocolates for my Father.
Suzy by one of the fruit stalls at the famous Mercado de la Boquería on Las Ramblas.
There was plenty of time for pleasure so on Sunday night we had dinner, as I do every time I come to Barcelona, with Grainne and with Marcel her son. It was a great evening catching up on the past (well we did go to school together) and on the present.
Suzy and Grainne
There was also time for walking and Suzy and I made our way, of course, to the beach, to the Barceloneta area and along to the Hotel Arts. The temperature was most agreeable with the thermometer reaching the early 20ºs at midday. We went again when we visited Bestial, a great restaurant, which is practically on the beach and which was the location we finally chose for our event in February. Great place!
Suzy and I on the beach in Barcelona.
Barcelona was great, as always. The trip was just slightly dampened by the theft of Julia’s iPhone when we went for dinner on the second night. Julia is an Austrian friend of Susana’s from when they both worked on the Nokia N-Gage tour some years ago. We hardly noticed when a man came up to our table and placed a piece of paper on it. He was asked to leave but later we realised he had stolen Julia’s phone right under our noses and we hadn’t seen him do it. Hopefully the restaurant will be able to claim insurance.

You can see the full set of photos of our trip to Barcelona here on Facebook.

Soon we were home again. On the Thursday I had the Yoigo 3rd anniversary press conference with things to announce so Wednesday was spent working non-stop on last minute details. The conference went really well. We held it at Eco Bar Spa in Paseo Rosales in Madrid. As we were announcing a new tariff of 6 cents per minute, we had built a giant 6 with over 15,000 lego pieces which took 3 days to build. You can see me posing by it with my new red glasses (classy eh? Or not? – not sure yet really) and the rest of the photos here.
Me and the giant lego 6 at the Yoigo press conference on its 3rd anniversary this week.
And this week was also the week we had dinner at Irene’s. Irene is Irene González from the González-Gálvez family, the family I lived with as a student in Spain in the late 70’s and whom I have written about many times recently as we have re-established contact and now see each other for dinner quite often.
Dinner at Irene's, from left to right: me, Gerardo, Vicky, Irene, Tomás
We hadn’t been to Irene’s house before and it’s lovely and cosy and beautifully decorated. Thomas, her husband, did the cooking and got full marks for a great vichyssoise and cod with peppers. We also got to meet their older kids, Paula and Tomás. The small ones, beautiful Celia and Nacho were there too to greet us before going to bed. We were joined, of course, by Irene’s brother, Gerardo and his lovely wife Vicky. Here are some more photos of that great evening. Our next meeting will in February and we look forward to that.

That was on Friday and the next day, yesterday, we were to leave for Calahorra in La Rioja. The most difficult part was getting all of us in the car on time (09.30h) with the luggage. It was mission impossible and it was only achieved at 10.15 with very grumpy girls. Our first stop was just outside Burgos at the famous Hotel Landa Palace. It was too early for lunch so we made do with refreshments. We always stop there on our way to the north and back and love the place for the atmosphere and food.
Oli, Suzy and me at the Landa Palace near Burgos on our way to La Rioja.
A couple of hours later we finally arrived at Calahorra (the vegetable capital of Spain by the way) which is nearly 500km from Madrid. Yesterday’s programme was lunch at the Parador, exploring the town, a walk, a lovely long rest in our rooms and then dinner at La Rana del Moral, recommended to me by a friend at work, Pilar. It was a great recommendation.
The girls and I in Calahorra yesterday.
And today was dedicated to the Márques de Riscal winery in Elciego. I have been there many times but it was new for my Father and Olivia and, in fact, neither the girls nor my Father had ever visited a winery or bodega as they are known here.

The Márqués de Riscal winery is apparently the oldest in La Rioja but it is also famous for its hotel which was built by the Canadian architect, Frank O’Gehry. It is spectacular and very modern, in sharp contrast to its surroundings, which have probably not changed much since the last century.
Frank O'Gehry's Márques de Riscal hotel in Elciego
Elciego, the village where the City of Wine is located, is very pretty and typical of the area with its church and spire and cobbled streets.
The four of us in Elciego
After the visit to the winery and the village, we made our way to the hotel to the table we had reserved at the magnificent 1860 restaurant (1860 was the year the bodega was established). This was perhaps the most significant moment of the weekend’s programme.

You can see the full set of photos of our trip to La Rioja here.

Tomorrow we will be going back to Madrid and both Eladio and Oli will be in a bit of a rush as they have to work in the afternoon. I have a busy week ahead of me but not quite as stressful as last week, thank goodness.

I cannot finish this post without referring to my dear Aunty Masha. Last year today she passed away. She always seemed so eternal to me and was an important reference point in my life, as my Mother’s youngest sister and the maternal family member who was closest to me. She really was a character as you can read about her in my post from last year.

And on that note, I will end this week’s blog post.
Until next time, Masha.

Spring in November, a very busy week, new internet applications, luxury food shopping, getting ready for Christmas and the spice of life

Tweetdeck, a great tool to manage your social network accounts.
Hi this sunny November morning.

Today is 21st November and the sun is still shining. It seems more like spring than nearly winter, as a taxi driver commented to me the other day. We have had constant good weather for months and months now and in fact this summer was the 3rd hottest recorded ever. I am off to Barcelona today and I know it will probably be even warmer there. Would you believe I have hardly worn a coat yet this Autumn.

I will be going to attend an international seminar organised by the CMT (government body that regulates the telecoms market in Spain, where everybody who is anybody in the sector will be invited.
It will take place at the Gran Teatre Liceu on the Rambla, a beautiful building in a great location.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu in La Rambla in Barcelona where the CMT conference will take place this week, an ideal place.
Whilst I’m in Barcelona I will take the opportunity to site inspect possible locations for a press conference I will be organising during the Mobile World Congress in February. I’ll be killing two birds with one stone so to speak.

I hardly every travel for my job with Yoigo, whereas I was forever on the road with Motorola and Nokia. So going to Barcelona today seems quite exciting. Suzy will be coming with me so I’m guaranteed to have a good time when I’m not busy. Tonight for example we will be meeting Grainne and Marcel, a must every time I go to Barcelona and on Monday night we’ll be going out with Julia, Suzy’s Austrian friend from the N-Gage Tour some years ago.

This week has been extremely busy. On Monday we had an interview with a financial rag called Nuevo Lunes. Thursday was the busiest. It started with a visit to El Economista which was both a breakfast meeting with the editors in chief and then a live online interview where my boss and I had to answer readers’ questions which were sometimes very candid. Our answers were transparent, direct and fun as you can read here in Spanish.

Then we had to rush back to the office as our blogger event was starting. At Yoigo we have a very frank relationship with this new kind of media; the ones who write about technology and our company. They are experts in their fields and more demanding than journalists. Some would call them freakies but I don’t. They were coming to a Yoigo at home event and it was the first time they were visiting the offices. Of course I had gone all out to put on a great event. The theme was “home” so the waiters were dressed in dressing gowns, the tables in the cafeteria had bunches of coloured sweets, there was a table football and darts and as a final touch we gave them a pair of microwaveble slippers as the goodbye gift. Here you can read just one of their impressions. That was one stressful day but thankfully everything went fine.

And Friday brought with it a pleasurable lunch (interview) with ABC with one of my oldest media acquaintances, Fernando who is now the Financial Editor in Chief and the new reporter on telecoms, María Cuesta. It was a good end to a busy week.

On the social front, on Tuesday I had lunch with María and Pilar from Yoigo. It’s good to make friends in the company and I don’t have that many as I work mostly from home. On Thursday, yeah the very busy Thursday, we went out with José Antonio and Dolores to Eco Bar and Spa Madrid which is where I am organising a press conference this Thursday. We went to check out the food which is absolutely superb. It was great seeing them. Somehow we are losing contact with them. José Antonio is Eladio’s next brother down and possibly his closest. When the children were younger we saw a lot of them but sadly that is not so any more. In fact we see them more in Léon than we do in Madrid. I wish they were more in our lives really.

Then the weekend came and Juli, the girls’ lovely Colombian friend came to stay. He was up early yesterday morning and as he is an internet freakie, I got to get 2 new internet applications. One is called Tweet Deck and is a great tool for managing your Twitter and other social network accounts in one. Thus I can control here both my accounts and Yoigo’s. It’s great.

The second application is Google Wave, the next thing in email (and more) that was apparently developed by Google engineers who had to spend one year on a beach in Australia developing it, or so the story goes. Right now it’s only in beta and only works with invitations. Juli, of course, managed to get one for me. Now I have to think what to do with Google Wave.
Google Wave. I still have to figure out how it works.
It’s funny how I love new internet applications. Not many women of my age are interested but I am. I wonder if it has anything to do with wanting to be always one step ahead in everything. That’s me, always up to date. On the other hand applications like these help you organise your life in more ways than you can imagine. I laugh when people ask me: “but how do you have the time?”. Of course I have the time, posting stuff on social networks takes seconds and can be done in between many other tasks of the day.

And that brings me to the next topic in my headline, luxury food shopping. Yesterday Eladio and I went to visit a new shopping centre in Pozuelo called Zielo (pronounced the same way as heaven in Spanish). The place is amazing but not enough to impress me who has seen one too many shopping centres in the world and come to believe they are pretty much all the same. What most attracted us was the supermarket, Sánchez Romero. It is Spain’s most up market chain of supermarkets and is where I hear Real Madrid players do their shopping. There were Christmas hampers on sale for 3000 euros. It’s not quite Fortnum and Mason but Spain’s equivalent; spotlessly clean with the most enticing produce on its shelves. I bought some peeled garlic in a jar plus raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and billberries - the ingredients of the afternoon snacks of my diet. And, by the way, I have now lost 8 kilos. I’m so relieved you can’t imagine.

Being the end of November I am of course gearing up to Christmas. Thanks to dear Amazon. Com the girls now have some lovely low fat (i.e. without chocolate) advent calendars. And thanks to Emma Bridgewater we now have a stock of lovely crackers which are nearly impossible to find in Spain. And some not so low fat Roses chocolates are also on their way. We won’t, however, decorate the house till mid December.
One of the boxes of Crackers from Emma Bridgewater
And the box I like best with the festive Union Jack.
That is all the news for this week. Life however, at least for me, would not be as exciting if there wasn’t something to look forward to and I always need something to look forward to in my life. So what are we looking forward to you will ask? Of course, travelling, as that is the spice of our life. To start with the whole family will be going to stay at the Parador in Calahorra in La Rioja next week (all on points by the way!).
The Parador in Calahorra where we will be going next week.
Then in February we will be going to stay with Sandra in Brussels who I went to University with. Adele, another friend from University will be coming too. Our husbands will have their own programme which already sounds like a sort of joke as one is American, one is French and mine of course, is Spanish. Eladio is a little reluctant but I know we will have a great time.
La Grande Place in Brussels.
The other trip we are looking forward to is to the capital of the world, the big apple, otherwise known as New York City. That will be at the end of March for 8 nights with Eladio. I have travelled all over the world but would you believe I have never been to New York. I can’t wait, it’s going to be good. It’s great to have something to look forward to.

And on that note, I’ll sign off. Hope you have a good week.
Cheers
Masha

Barcelona, the MWC, parties, men in black and meeting old friends. Culture, Catalán and home again.

Me on the rooftop of Casa Mila (La Pedrera) by Gaudi on Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona.
Hi again

This time a week ago I was writing my post on the high speed train to Barcelona. The week went by really quickly and I came home exhausted but happy on Thursday evening.

So what did I get up to in Barcelona.? Well, of course, I went for the MWC and most of my week was taken up with activities around the congress but I did a lot of other things too.

The trip started with the TeliaSonera get together on Sunday evening at the Reunion Café near the Rambla. Thankfully that was a quiet start which meant an early night. Here I met up with my European colleagues over tapas and wine.

Oli joined me on Monday and we shared a room at the Hesperia President Hotel on the Avda. Diagonal which is very central. As I walked out on Monday morning I realised it was just across the road from my favourite night club (well actually the only one I know) called Luz de Gas; quite a coincidence. As a treat for Oli’s arrival I organised a massage for her and for me in our room on Monday evening and a very nice Colombian lady did a great job of relaxing our muscles and also giving us tips on how to keep fit.

On Monday evening we went out to dinner with Grainne and her son Marcel. Grainne and I go back a long way as we went to school together. She lives in Barcelona so every time I go we make a point of meeting up. We went to Agua, one of my favourites and had a very spirited night where we spent most of our time laughing.
Grainne and Olivia
Meanwhile the MWC was going on. Here I saw lots of old and new colleagues and made a point of visiting the Nokia Siemens Networks hospitality suite which is always my point of reference. I also visited the Nokia press outfit and greeted old colleagues and the Golla stand (great Finnish designer of mobile phone and pc bags) where I picked up a lovely pink camera case for my new Canon (unfortunately dropped by Oli in Amsterdam and remarkably still working!). I also visited Palm to see Xavi as well as Genaker to see Miquel. MWC for me is about seeing people. It’s actually quite difficult to see the people you want to as everyone is busy and the place is seething with people. I never managed to see Claire despite our numerous phone calls and was distressed to hear she had been robbed on her last night in Barcelona! The crisis has affected the congress in that fewer people went this year. Each taxi driver had a different estimate but overall I think there were about 10.000 people less than last year when approximately 60.000 attended.

On Tuesday morning it was the TeliaSonera press conference which I went to just in case there were questions on Yoigo which of course there were. I was also busy with final touches to our press materials for our own press conference the following day. But before that there were some parties to go to.

The first party was the Ericsson splash out at the Fira itself. Wow was that big. However it started at 18.30 with dinner which was far too early for me. I didn’t really know many people so soon made my way back to the hotel to join Oli and wait for Gloria and Ana from the events agency as we were going to another party and then on to dinner. We went to Miquel’s bash at the Xalet de Montjuic, a wonderful location with great views of Barcelona “la nuit”. We caused a bit of a sensation, 3 pretty girls and I walking into a male dominated party and they would hardly let us leave. I always call the MWC “Men in Black” and if you went you would understand why! When we finally got away we made our way to another great restaurant in Barcelona called Nichel where once again ours was the only all female table.

Wednesday morning was the Yoigo press conference breakfast which we held at a great little Catalán bar cum restaurant called Matamala on Rambla de Cataluña, not to be confused with La Rambla which unfortunately some people did! The turn out was amazing, some 24 journalists and the atmosphere created was very us, in that it seemed more like a meeting of friends. So much so was this that some of the journalists stayed on to write their news wires which we were to see published on line whilst we were still clearing up!
Behind the scenes, Gustavo and Carlos removing the photo call after our press event
I wasn’t free until midday but when I was I went with Oli to the Port Vell for lunch with Martita, an old friend from my Nokia days who happened to be in town on business. We went to a great place recommended to my by Julio called El Merendero de la Mari. It was good to see Marta in great form and happy in her new job. We were lucky to be able to eat outside and enjoy the Barcelona sun. Marta and I
In the afternoon Oli and I had time for culture. We walked from the Port Vell all the way to the Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera) in Pº de Gracia and visited this gem of a building built by the famous Catalán architect Antonio Gaudí.
Casa Mila or Pedrera on Paseo de Gracia by Gaudi.
I had visited it before but was equally fascinated. Here we visited every nook and cranny and took photos of nearly everything we saw, specially on the roof top with its incredible mosaic encrusted chimneys and view of the unfinished cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, also by Gaudi and perhaps his most famous building.
Oli on the rooftop of Casa Mila
Wednesday evening brought with it the party I had been organising for weeks for my ex Nokia Networks colleagues from our stint together from 2000 to 2004. And here I had help from the girls at Quinta Esencia with the activities. Thanks to Marc, we went to a great place called Raco d’en Cesc, recommended by the Michelin Guide and frequented by local politicians and football players. What a great find it was too. If you ever go, be sure to ask for the duck canaloni with foie sauce which is heavenly.
The ex Nokia Networks party - group photo, oh such fun!
The girls had made a great poster and badge for everyone based on the Cartoon Networks logo and characters. Also we held the ex Nokia Network awards where we voted with giant hands for all sorts of fun categories, such as “the most missing person”, “the person who sent the longest e-mails”, “Mr. most suitable bachelor 2000” etc. I was very surprised and flattered to win the Miss Nokia Networks 2000.
The Cartoon Networks poster where each one of us was a cartoon character!
The evening was such fun and we all made speeches on what our time with the team meant to us and remembered all sorts of things which had us all laughing endlessly. But the evening had to end and when it did we of course went for a night cap. And where did we go for the night cap? To Luz de Gas of course. A good time was had by all and we have all agreed to repeat the experience next year. We shall certainly be going back to Raco d’en Cesc.

Thursday was ours for the taking and we had all day to enjoy Barcelona as our train wasn’t leaving until 5 in the afternoon. After a leisurely breakfast and packing, we left our suitcases in reception and made our way on foot to the Picasso Museum in the old quarter (el barrio gótico). On our way we visited the Palau de la Música, a singular and very beautiful building in itself. We both enjoyed the Picasso museum and learned a lot about him and his work. He was very prolific and started painting seriously from the age of 15 going from a classical style to his own type of impressionism right through to cubism, including his blue and pink periods. He was pretty obsessed with the Spanish painter Velázquez to judge from his copies of the old masterpieces to over 50 versions of the Meninas. He sure was prolific! He was also obsessed with women and was married several times. What an amazing guy!!!
The Picasso Museum
The reference to Catalan is a must for me in this post. In Cataluña the official language is Catalán and, mainly for political reasons, Castilian Spanish is slowly being eradicated. You hear both languages in the street but in the state schools Catalán is dominant, so much so that many parents complain. As a Spanish speaker I can understand a lot of Catalán but cannot talk it. It is like a mixture of French, Spanish and Latin. In Spain you are supposed to respect it and it is politically incorrect to criticise or laugh at it. However a lot of people living in Cataluña are immigrants from South America or Spaniards from other areas and do not speak it. I was in stitches when I saw a sign saying “Pis en venda” which actually means “Piso en venta” (flat for sale) but which could be understood as “pee for sale” in Spanish!! That’s a very strange business I thought to myself. I asked my Colombian masseuse what she thought of the language and she didn’t hesitate to say “Español mal hablado” (Spanish spoken badly). I heard similar remarks from two taxi drivers. This is the last thing that Catalan politicians want to hear but they are blind to the fact that this is actually true.

From the Picasso museum we made our way to a very popular restaurant called Bestial right by the sea and next to the famous Arts Hotel. We had a quick lunch and an even quicker walk on the beach before we rushed to our hotel to pick up our luggage and drive to the train station only to find out that our tickets were for Wednesday and not Thursday!! So we had to get another ticket and take the next train. In 2.5h hours we were at Atocha station in Madrid and half an hour later at home and in time for dinner with the family.
Oli on the Ave, the high speed train, going home. She was watching Slumdog Millionaire on her mac.
It was lovely to be home again, to see the family but most of all to see my lovely puppy Norah. She is now completely recovered and has grown a lot.

On Friday I got back into the swing of being at home, caught up on my work and had lunch with the family. In the evening Eladio and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire, a film from the British director, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) which is nominated for the Oscars tomorrow and which I really wanted to see as it is set in India. I loved it. If you haven’t seen it, this is what it’s about:
Jamal is an 18 year old from the slums of Mumbai who against all odds is on the brink of winning the top prize on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He’s accused of fraud but then tells twelve stories which piece together his life, explain how he knew the answers and finally uncover the reason why he went on the show in the first place (from the Slumdog Millionaire fan club in Facebook).
The enchanting Jamal as a small boy in Slumdog Millionaire
Afterwards we went to a new Lebanese restaurant near home in Boadilla called La Cachimba. It was great, inexpensive and superbly decorated. We will be returning.

On Saturday we took Norah for her second vaccination and she behaved beautifully. She loved the outing even though it was in my arms. The thing is she cannot go out of the house or for a walk until she has had her third vaccination and that isn’t for another two weeks. So she’s getting a bit frustrated all cooped up in the kitchen. We try to make up for this by supplying her with all sorts of toys or holding her whilst trying to read the newspaper which is not easy. Today she had another bath. I’m not sure she’s very keen but she sure looked lovely afterwards!
Norah, posing at the vet
And that’s about it for this week. It has been a very full week but, as always, it’s great to be home. Tonight we are going out to dinner with Roberto and MariCarmen but more about that in next week’s post.

Cheers/Masha
PS you should be able to see more photos of Barcelona here: