Feeling like Phileas Fogg, Santander again, Microsoft bought Nokia my old company, home again, a birthday weekend with the Maher sisters in Badalona and other stories.

With three of the Maher sisters at Grainne's birthday party this weekend in Badalona

Hi everyone,

Well this week I felt like Phileas Fogg, the character in Jules Vernes “Around the World in 80 days”, as I have been travelling nonstop since the beginning of the summer.  My trip started in Santander at the beginning of August.  It continued to Montrondo and then home again before we went off again this time to Santa Pola in Alicante.  It was home again from Santa Pola and a few days later we were off to Peñacaballera in Salamanca. Our next destination was London where we had a blast celebrating our 30^thwedding anniversary and visiting Suzy.  We came home at the end of August and then last Tuesday I was off again this time to Santander for the annual telecoms conference which I will tell you about later.  I came home last Thursday and believe it or not the next day Eladio and I went to Barcelona for a 60^thbirthday party.  We were home yesterday but it won’t be for long because this next weekend we will be going to the beach again, this time to Campello (Alicante) with our friends Julio and Fátima.  It will be home again for one night and then the following day, next Monday, I will be off to Stockholm for a communications meeting with my TeliaSonera colleagues.  So now you know why I feel like Phileas Fogg.  Having never read the book I don’t know how Jules Verne’s character travelled, but my voyages have been by car, by airplane and by train. To tell you the truth I’m a bit tired of travelling and could do with a long stint at home.  But it’s not to be. As Olivia said to me this morning when I told her I felt like Phileas Fogg, “good for you” and “enjoy”.  Well I always do “enjoy” so I shall heed my younger daughter’s advice of course.

The last time I was home since I last wrote was on Sunday, the first day of September.  Olivia came back from Menorca, where, for the record, she had coincided with her cousin Juan – the world is truly a small place.  We had the privilege of her company and Dave’s that day when I made my famous Chicken Korma curry.  Oli played tennis with Dave that day and the following – she is truly sporty I have to say.  Meanwhile we spent a quiet day with the dogs.  You might know that Toño and Dolores’ mongrel dog Nuba is staying with us whilst they are in China.  So the house has been full of dogs.  The best photo I got on camera of the three of them playing together is this.

Nuba, Elsa and Norah playing together

I should expand on Toño and Dolores’ trip to China – a ten day tour which includes time with their daughter, my niece Sara.  We have been following their travels via whatsapp and this is a photo Toño posted which I wanted to share with you here.  After all, my travels pale in comparison to theirs, this year at least.  I think they have had a great time but we all laugh as Toño would never have gone there if Dolores hadn’t dragged him, far preferring to spend as much time as he can at their home in the family village, Montrondo.

Toño and Dolores with Sara in China

That Sunday I swam in the pool as I have done most days this summer but this time I tried to get Elsa, our golden Labrador, to join us.  I have only ever seen her in the pool from pictures sent to me by Juli, the girls’ friend, so this time I tried to get her to join me.  I was only partially successful as you can see from the photo.

Coaxing Elsa unsuccessfully into the pool with me

Sunday 1^stSeptember will go down in British television history as the day David Frost, that quintessential English journalist, died.  I well remember him on the BBC and have always thought Spanish journalists could take a leaf out of his book when it comes to nailing politicians or putting them in a corner.  The latter are far too lenient when it comes to interviewing public personalities.  

But Sunday 1^stSeptember family news was more important to us.  It was the day Mario, my very tall and good looking nephew debuted with Ademar, the León handball team which plays in the first division.  We were all very proud of him and I had to record this news in my blog. Well done Mario.

Mario in the Ademar handball team kit

On Monday I worked from home and was very busy finalizing Yoigo’s communication activities at the telecoms congress in Santander, the most important in the year’s agenda for our sector.  Later that day, as usual, Eladio and I went for our hour long “power walk”.  It was a bit of a challenge taking three dogs with us, as you can see in the photo Oli took of us when she spied us as she returned home in her car. She thought we looked very funny.  Do we?

Eladio and I on our walk with the three dogs - sort of challenging

And on Tuesday we all woke up to the news that Microsoft, the internet giant, had bought Nokiathe previous number one mobile phone manufacturer from my beloved Finland.  It shocked many people but for me and my ex Nokia colleagues, it was a very emotional piece of news.  What can I say? How do I feel? Well I worked for Nokia when it was at the top from 2000 to 2006 and in a way forged my career there.  I had good times and bad, so my feelings were mixed when I read the news.  The news was not unexpected really as both companies had entered a joint venture not so long ago.  To me it seems quite probable that the ex Microsoft employee Stephen Elop’s, mission when he was appointed CEO of Nokia was for the company to decline and make the purchasing price for Microsoft much lower than it was when he joined.  After all Microsoft paid a lot less for the Finnish company than it did for Skype.  Does that make sense?  Well in my analysis I think it does.  It also paid a lot less (5.5 billion euros aprox) than Google paid for Motorola a while ago.  For me it seems ironic that now both the companies I once worked for – Motorola and Nokia, in less than a lustrum have been bought up by their once arch enemies.  I felt sad for Nokia really but was not surprised.  They just lost the momentum and went from bad to worse and have been overtaken since by the likes of Apple, Samsung and the new and coming Chinese manufacturers.  The latter should learn from what happened to Nokia and not make the same mistakes.  In simple terms I think that the mistakes are basically a wrong technology direction but even more importantly a lack of listening to your customers and the arrogant behavior of a top player.  These three together are a disastrous recipe.

Much has been written this week about the news. There have been jokes too and I particularly found this picture a clever piece of work.  You might like it too.

A joke about Microsoft buying Nokia but it wasn't a joke

On a personal note, many of my ex colleagues posted all sorts of comments but the one I liked best came from my dear Finnish friend Anne. She was once my boss at Nokia and we had so much fun together.  I couldn’t have put it better. She wrote this: “ref to big N news today; it´s like when your family breaks up and then a few years after one of the parents re-marries. Break up is sad and takes time to process, maybe there is a little hope of things getting back to what it used to be. But no, that wedding invitation puts a stop to any silly ideas you might have had. Life´s gotta move on. So am joining the many ex´s in expressing my gratitude for the great ride back in the day and wishing good luck to all”. I couldn’t have put it better and want to join her in thanking Nokia too for the ride, it was great.  I travelled the world with Nokia: all over Europe, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Shanghai, Morocco, you name it I was there with journalists on some very exotic trips.  I organised and went to some amazing events too.  I have just dug out a photo together with Anne when Nokia staged their incredible “Totally Board” snow event in blazing sunshine in Seville in 2004 I think.  Here it is, for you Anne.  Thanks Nokia for connecting people the company’s best trait.

With my dear friend Anne  - just one of the great moments with Nokia

That morning when I went to work for an early meeting before I left for Santander, I was hit with sad news.  One of the Yoigo family, José Luis, from the technical department, had died the night before from a sudden heart attack.  He was only 40 and leaves behind a very sad family. My own heart went out to his family and his colleagues at work who were devastated. It was truly a sad day for Yoigo. 

Life went on of course and it was with a heavy heart that I made my way to the airport to catch the small airplane to Santander in the north of Spain.  I was greeted with sunshine and soon made my way to the hotel, the one I always stay at, the Silken Río opposite the Sardinero beach.  This is the view from the hotel.

The view of the Sardinero beach from my hotel window in Santander

I had lunch with Julio after which I worked from my room. There was time though for a wonderful walk on the beach that afternoon.  The day was dedicated to Julio with whom I have been coming to Santander for at least 13 years now.  That night I walked into town with him and his friend Luis and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, La Bombi.  Here is a photo of us there.

With Julio in Santander

Wednesday was busy and I spent most of it working from my room. That afternoon I sent out a press release to communicate our great new mobile tariffs – the “infinitas” where for our postpaid customers, voice is now totally for free and they just have to choose how much data they want.  We also launched the advertising campaign which you can see here.

That evening, before the traditional Yoigo party for all the participants at the conference, I hosted a dinner for our distributors at the nearby restaurant De Luz, which is a beautiful English style house and garden.  Here is the photo I took just as I entered the path to the restaurant.

Casa De Luz in Santander is a very special place

After dinner a vintage car came to pick us up – it was all part of our Great Gatsby themed party which was to take place nearby at Buenas Noches Santander, a great venue right on the beach and opposite our hotel.

With my team from the PR Agency Ketchum by the vintage car we hired for our Great Gatsby part in Santander

I think this year’s party was possibly the best we have ever hosted in Santander.  You can judge for yourselves from this set of pictures.  One I particularly like is with the group of journalists who report on all the news that comes from the telecoms conference we were all attending.

With some of the telecoms press at the Yoigo Great Gatsby party in Santander

People partied until past four in the morning but I made a discreet exit at around one in the morning as the next day I had to be up early and bright and fresh for our presentation at the conference.  It went off well but the conference was running late and I had to leave the mini press gathering with my boss afterwards in the hands of Carlos from my press agency Ketchum, if I was to catch my plane to Madrid.  Luck had it that Julio and Luis were on the same flight and we enjoyed a humble sandwich for lunch at the airport before we took off.

You can see the set of photos I took at the conference this year on this link.

 I was happy to see the papers the next morning when Eladio showed me El País, before I had even seen our daily clipping service.  There was a lot of expectation in Santander about Yoigo offering fixed services and that was what had been discussed after our presentation.  I am happy with the media coverage we achieved, especially this particular clipping.

I always get a kick out of good media coverage for Yoigo like this in El País last week

But my mind was soon on to other things as Eladio and I were off to Barcelona that morning and we had to rush to catch the AVE (high speed train) which was leaving the Atocha train station at 10.30.

It was Eladio’s first journey on the AVE and he was thrilled.  My job has taken me many times on this train and to Seville and Valencia and I no longer feel thrilled but always enjoy the trip.

It was Eladio's first trip on the AVE (high speed train) on Friday and he was impressed

The journey (621km track) takes just under 3 hours to Barcelona and the maximum speed is some 300km/h.  Spain, as you probably know, is one of the leading nations in the world in high speed railways.  You will probably remember the recent train accident in Santiago but let me tell you that that train was not technically a high speed train or rather the track wasn’t.  Eladio and I were happy to know that all the top safety measures of both were in place on our trip on Friday.

We were going to Barcelona to join my ex school friend Grainne for her 60^th birthday party in nearby Badalona, a dormitory town on the coast of some 200.000 inhabitants 15 minutes away from the capital and where she has lived since she came to Spain more than 30 years ago.  It was going to be a real school reunion as her sister Brenda (one of my best friends at St. Joseph’s college which we joined when we were aged 11) was coming too with her husband Ian and two of their three beautiful daughters, Laura and Beth.  Also coming were their two older sisters, Anne and Susan.  I hadn’t seen the four Maher sisters together since their mother’s funeral in 1972, more than 40 years ago. She died when she was 56 and the tragedy of her death made an enormous mark on all the girls. I was a living witness to how it affected Brenda mostly as we were very close and I used to go to her beautiful house in Redburn Drive in Bradford most nights to study with her. The Maher family was very much a part of my teens, so it was wonderful to be reunited, this time with all four sisters, as well as Brenda’s daughters and Anne’s husband Harry and Susan’s husband Oli (Oliver). Another school friend was coming too, Ellen and her husband John, so the weekend turned out to be not only a wonderful birthday but also a great school reunion.

Grainne had booked those of us she couldn’t fit into her flat, into a simple but very comfortable hotel right on the beach, one of two only in Badalona. I’m not quite sure why but for some reason Badalona has been kept away from the tourists and the beach seems to be used only by locals which we found quite refreshing.  We booked into the Hotel Miramar but as our room with a terrace and sea views wasn’t quite ready we decided to cross the railway line via the tunnel and go across to the only restaurant we could see on the beach.  It was the very unattractive looking “Doncella de la Costa” but boy was their “fideua” (like paella but made with thin noodles) delicious. This is what it looked like before we polished it off.

Fideua at Doncella de la Costa on Friday in Badalona.  It was fab.

We spent the afternoon, or what was left of it, on the beach sitting on our hotel towels and enjoying the sun until it decided to disappear.  We bathed too but not a lot as it got deep very quickly and the waves were quite strong – indicative probably of the storm coming the next day.  As you can see in the picture, the clouds were already gathering.

On the beach at Badalona on Friday afternoon

Later we went back to our simple but comfortable and big room to get ready to go to Grainne’s pad for dinner with her family.  Grainne is the most welcoming, warm and charismatic person I know and she had thrown a wonderful party ahead of the official birthday celebration taking place the next evening.  We spent a great evening on her terrace where I laughed until I cried together with her sisters and their friend Maggie.  All I can say is that it was one of the best nights I have had in years.  This photo of Grainne, Brenda and I cracking up with laughter says it all.

Laughter is always guaranteed with Grainne and Brenda

The quality is not great and that’s probably because we were all laughing so much. Here is another picture of that great evening, this time with more members of that wonderful impromptu party.

Fun and laughter with the Mahers and their friends and family on Friday night at Grainne's place

Saturday was a full day.  It started with a splendid breakfast with Grainne’s sisters at the hotel, after which I went shopping to the Calle de Mar. I was in search of something summery and comfortable to wear as my jeans were boiling.  I found a great pair of blue cotton trousers very soon and then visited Grainne and Brenda and co for a quick cup of coffee.  The rest of the morning was spent with Eladio by the swimming pool at the yachting club opposite our hotel where we relaxed on sun beds for a minimal entrance fee of 3 euros each thanks to an agreement with the hotel.  We were soon joined by Anne and her lovely husband Harry. 

Eladio at the pool by the beach at the Yacht Club in Badalona on Saturday morning

Lunch was there too where this time we had a sea food paella and it was just as good as the fideua the day before. This was the creamy paella we enjoyed on Saturday and which we just couldn’t finish this time.

Paella just for Eladio and I on Saturday in Badalona at the Yacht Club

Just as we joined Anne and Harry again and who have different eating times, it began to rain so we all headed back to the hotel.  It rained and poured and we were worried Grainne’s party that night on the beach at the Paradis “chiringuito” would be washed out.  We spent the afternoon relaxing in our hotel room where we watched the televised Olympic Games candidacy competition for the 2020 Olympics between Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo. The decision wouldn’t be made until the voting later that night.  It was only when we were at the party that we found out that Madrid was knocked out in the first round.  Tokyo was the winner in the end. We were disappointed but not surprised, suspicious that it was because of the economic crisis Spain is in the throes of.  This was the third disappointment for Madrid and I suspect that the “competition” is usually decided beforehand and would suggest the Olympic Committee do away with this ridiculous process and just decide for themselves which city is the next one to host the games. I am sure a lot of Spaniards agree with me. 

Anyway, back to Grainne’s birthday party.  Whilst we got ready to go out, thankfully the rain ceased and we were happy her birthday on the beach would be a dry event.  We left the hotel to find the rest of our friends at a bar opposite.  Soon the four Maher sisters were together in all their finery and this is the photo I took of them.  It’s great isn’t it? 

The 4 Maher sisters are just as colourful in life as they are in this  picture taken of them on Saturday just before Grainne's birthday party at Paradis in Badalona

From left to right they are standing in order of age downwards.  Far left is Susan who lives in Ireland and looks just like their Mother and who has jet black hair even though she is in her mid 60s, followed by Anne who lives in Manchester, then Grainne from Badalona and on the far right, my class mate Brenda who is a nurse and lives in Manchester too. 

The party was fabulous. All of Grainne’s important friends were there and the atmosphere she created was unique.  The food was superb too and we spent the night talking English and Spanish. Anne made a great speech all about the different men in Grainne’s life and I had the honour of translating for her non English speaking friends. The photo of me with Grainne, Brenda and Anne at the party is the one illustrating this week’s blog and I love it.  It was just great to be with the Maher sisters this weekend.  As I said to them all, I just hope we don’t have to wait another 40 years.  I suspect we won’t.

Eladio and I, being the early birds we are, left early and went to have an ice cream on the Rambla before we returned to our hotel room.  The news that Rafa Nadal had got through to the US Open final where he will meet Djokovic today, somewhat lessened the disappointment at Madrid not winning the Olympic candidacy for 2020.  The irony here is that if Spain had been judged for its sporting prowess Madrid would have won hands down. But that wasn’t to be so.
 

We were up early on Sunday too and enjoyed breakfast with Ellen and John.  Later we had to pack and get ready to go but before leaving we went to Grainne’s flat to say goodbye to everyone.  Grainne, if you read this, it was a fabulous weekend, thanks for inviting us and I hope to see you here in October as you promised.

Our train was leaving at 13h from the Sants train station in Barcelona and we bought our lunch at the station to enjoy on the journey.  Afterwards I napped for a while and very soon we were slowing down and entering Atocha station. Here we paid a hefty parking fee (over 80 euros) and drove back home in the warm sun.  It was great to be back again to be greeted by the dogs and to greet the people at home; my Father, Fátima, Olivia and her friend Dave.

And today is Monday 9^th September, the day most Spanish schoolchildren go back to school.  Friends of mine have been posting photos of their small children in uniform throughout the day which made me nostalgic for the days when Suzy and Olivia would pose for our camera on their first day back after the holidays.  I have a photo of them together every year but especially like the first one taken in 1988 when we had just moved into our previous house.  The school was then called Alonso Madrigal after which it turned into St. Michael’s and where the girls, I think, were very happy pupils.  This is them in autumn 1988 when they were 3 and 4 years old.  Weren’t they cute?

Suzy and Oli's first day at school in Boadilla in 1988 they were just 4 and 3 years old

In a way Olivia had her own particular first day at work today, in that she has a new timetable which I gather she is not very happy about.  Instead of working from 07.30 to 14.30 she now starts at 12.30 midday and works until 21.30. On the bright side she will be able to sleep longer in the morning.  Suzy doesn’t have a job at the moment since she left for London in May.  But last Friday she had an interview with a catering and party design company in London which I think went very well.  So maybe, cross your fingers, she will be experiencing her first day at work there too very soon.

And that my friends, is it for this week.  I look forward to a quiet few days at home until we go away again this weekend, this time to Campello near Alicante which you will read about in next week’s post.  Meanwhile I wish you all a great week,

All the best 

Masha 

PS You can see more photos of our stay in Badalona this weekend here.

Changes at Yoigo, to Stockholm and then Santander, the girls in Valencia, Conchi, customer 20 million and finally home to stay

Sunday 9th September, 2012

Changes at Yoigo, to Stockholm and then Santander, the girls in Valencia,  Conchi, customer 20 million and finally home to stay

Outside the 7th floor of the TeliaSonera HQ in Stockholm

Hi everyone,

You will have noticed I didn’t post anything last Sunday.  That’s because I have been travelling and so busy.

Since I last wrote, lots of things have happened.  To start with there were changes at work.  On Tuesday 28^th September, TeliaSonera (our Mother company) and Yoigo appointed a new CEO.  That won’t mean much to many of you, but to me it means a change in boss.  My charismatic young Swedish boss, who took me on board just under 6 years ago, Johan, is leaving to head up Orange Switzerland.  It has been a rollercoaster 6 years with him at the helm of Yoigo and he will be sorely missed by the sector and his employees, me too, if I have to admit it.  But for him who always said he would only be here temporarily, it was time for a new challenge.  He is very much responsible for the great position he leaves our company in, with its 3.3 milliion customer and ever growing popularity in Spain.  The new CEO, my new boss, is Eduardo, who up till now was head of sales and marketing.  He is a great professional and charismatic too, although in a different way, so Yoigo’s future is in really good hands.  I have been much involved, of course, with the communication around this and am happy and relieved the media took it really well and of course for the good coverage I contributed to.  And there has been lots, but I especially like this article in today’s Cinco Días which if you can read Spanish you might be interested to take a look at here. But more about that later.

That week was really busy and hectic, not just because of the news I had to communicate but also because I had to prepare for our participation the following Monday in Santander at the annual Spanish telecoms conference where literally all the big guns from the sector gather, including the Minister of Industry.  To cap that, I had to fly to Stockholm on Wednesday for a team meeting with my communications colleagues from TeliaSonera Mobility Services, the division in the company that encompasses the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as Spain.  

So off I went on Wednesday morning to Stockholm. On the way out I was lucky to get a seat on the only direct flight which gets you there at just past 2 in the afternoon.  I wasn’t to be so lucky on the way back on Friday and had to fly via Amsterdam, making the already long journey even longer.  I was pleased to arrive to sunshine, something which you don’t see often in Stockholm.  I was also pleased to be staying at my favourite hotel again, the lovely Skeppsholmen Hotel on the little Island of Skeppsholmen just outside the city centre.  It is of course surrounded by the sea.  Gamla Stan is just in front and on the other side you can see the incredible Vasa museum.

The Hotel Skeppsholmen in Stockholm where I love to stay.  It's a home away from home.

I just love walking from the hotel by the Baltic Sea to the town centre, and as always, when I arrive and have a few hours to myself, after settling in and dealing with anything urgent at work, I head towards the Galerian shopping centre. 

On the walk from the Skeppsholmen Hotel to the centre of Stockholm

Here I love to browse the low cost Swedish clothes shops such as Lindex, Vero Moda or Kappahl.  Funnily enough this time I didn’t find anything that attracted me.  So I wandered to the pretty little street called Biblioteksgatan where I briefly entered another Swedish store I like, Peak Performance.  But it was at Jackpot, a Danish brand I am also fond of, that I found what I wanted in a pretty flowery skirt in pink hues.  Needless to say, I wore it the next day for our first day of meetings.  I always love to wear something I have just bought; bit of a child really. You might be amused to hear that whenever I go into a shop in Sweden they talk to me in Swedish, thinking I am Swedish.  It's obviously the colour of my hair but I do find it rather funny.

The flowery skirt I got at Jackpot

That night I had dinner on my own at the hotel where I always enjoy their fabulous open prawn sandwich.  It was quite warm in Stockholm but not warm enough for me to eat outside, although it must have been for the Swedes as the restaurant at the hotel was only serving outside.  Thank goodness for the blankets they provide and the outdoor heating, otherwise I would have been frozen.  Later I was joined by my Lithuanian colleague Indre and we had a good chat sitting covered in blankets and in the dark in the gardens of the hotel.  This was in sharp contrast to how I had been sitting the night before at home, on our lovely terrace and lit swimming pool at nearly midnight where, of course, it was much warmer.

The terrace at home at night.  A lovely place to be

That night when I was having dinner on my own, Eladio was sending me whatsapp messages from the terrace.  And, as he knew, I would be missing our lovely dogs, Elsa and Norah, he sent me this delightful picture of them.

Beautiful Elsa and Norah

On Thursday I was up early to take a walk before our meeting started at TeliaSonera’s head office in Stureplan.  It started at 10 am sharp and it was good to see my colleagues again, Oyvind from Norway, Mette from Denmark, Timo from Finland, Indre of course from Lithuania, Kaja from Estonia and Anna, Karin, Nicholas and Linda from the head office in Stockholm.  We had lots to discuss and our heads were full of information when we took a break for lunch at the nearby Scandic Hotel. The afternoon meetings were held on the 7^th floor lounge from where you get great views of Stureplan and the spires of buildings in the Nordic capital.  The photo of me illustrating this week’s blog is of me on the terrace of the 7^thfloor during one of our breaks.

That evening, we had a team dinner just outside Stockholm in a parkland called Djurgardsbrunnwhich our Swedish colleagues told us was very up market.  We were to have a typical crayfish dinner together but before we would be playing “boules”, the French bowling game which is played a lot in Spain too where it is called “petanca”.  My image of this game is of old men playing it in villages in Spain but actually the game was good fun and is apparently much in fashion in Sweden.

The team I am part of in TeliaSonera, about to play boules.

You will notice we played with our coats on, as it was threatening rain.  We also drank pink Spanish cava which helped to warm us up.  Dinner was held in a wonderful summer pavilion which we had just for ourselves.

The summer house or pavilion where we had our crayfish dinner

We were to be served a huge dish of Swedish crayfish which is a sort of big headed shrimp with a small tail that is salty and comes from the river.  It tastes quite good but it is a hell of a lot of work to shell and your stomach never seems to fill.  

The crayfish we were served

It is apparently a Swedish tradition to have crayfish at the end of Summer and the Swedes make a party of it, wearing hats and bibs and hanging up Chinese looking paper lanterns.  And this was exactly what we did.  I must say the whole affair was great fun and a good experience.  That night we were joined by Charlotte who heads up the PR for Telia Sweden.  It was good to see her again.

My team ready and dressed for the crayfish dinner.  What  a laugh

You can see the rest of the photos of my visit to Stockholm here.

Friday morning came and the meeting started early but I had to leave before it ended as my flight was leaving early, or should I say my flights as I went via Amsterdam to return to Spain.  I didn’t get home till quite late and as far as I can remember neither of my daughters were around.  Olivia had just come back from a short holiday in Almería with Miguel and had started working that morning with her TV programme, La Mañana de la 1.  I wasn’t to see her again until yesterday.

I hadn’t seen Suzy since before she went to Galicia the previous weekend and wasn’t to see her until I came back from Santander.  It just seems I hardly see her these days which I can sort of understand as she’s moved away from home, but on the other had I miss her a lot.  One thing is for sure, since she has moved out and broken up with her boyfriend, she looks absolutely radiant and seems very happy.  I especially love this photo I found of her Facebook.

Suzy looks radiant these days.

I have to say too that Olivia looks equally radiant here in Almería in this  photo taken by her new beau Miguel. I think he has a lot to do with her current state of mind actually. I love to see my girls looking happy and radiant and right now that is how I see them.

Oli on holiday in Almería

On Saturday morning, Eladio and I were up early when I had pack again and at about 9.30 we were on the road again and on our way to Santander.  Santander is a beautiful city on the north coast of Spain and we go there every year for the telecoms conference.  In fact I have been going nearly every year for 12 years and always look forward to it. 

The drive is just over 4 hours, so with one stop in Rueda for a glass of wine and ham, we arrived at our destination, the Hotel Silken Río, where we stay every year, at lunchtime.  As soon as we had checked in, we had lunch by the Sardinero Beach at the very slow Mondo Nuevo. We spent the afternoon on the beach which was pleasant enough and actually not too cold to bathe, but the temperature was only about 21ºc, so part of the time I had a towel around my shoulders to protect me from the cool wind blowing on this usually pleasant beach.

The Sardinero beach in Santander

I couldn’t really enjoy my “free time” as I was constantly in touch with my events agency about the production of our rather ambitious presentation for Monday.  Working remotely suits me fine, but sometimes technology works against you, as it did when I received the We Transfer file but wasn’t able to view the flash presentation as my PC wouldn’t install the programme necessary to see it. That night, however I relaxed over dinner at La Bombi, a great favourite of mine with Eladio and my colleague Juan Manuel and his wife Amparo.  Above all, I always enjoy the walk from the Sardinero beach along the Avda. Reina Victoria, past wonderful English looking mansions,  to the vibrant Puerto Chico.

On Sunday morning I was up early and met with Bea and Nuria at the cafeteria across the road to go over the presentation.  I was very pleased with the result, the animated production in flash created by Angel and his team at Iralta Films.  There was only one minor adjustment to make before putting it on show the next day at the conference.  Judge for yourselves here in the video of the presentation which is the best way to see it if your flash programme is not the latest hahahaha: 

Thus, with the presentation ready and all things under hand for our party for the attendants of the conference on Monday night, I was able to nearly fully enjoy Sunday relaxing with Eladio and with my great friend Julio who joined us for lunch that day.

With Eladio in Santander last Sunday

We spent the afternoon on the beach but again it wasn’t very warm, although the water was great and we bathed quite a lot.  We also walked up and down the Sardinero beach often to work off the lunch and get some much needed exercise.  On Sunday night, Julio and I duly walked down to the Puerto Chico with Juan Manuel and his wife to the Zacarías restaurant.  Here we had dinner, as we do every year with the girls from my events agency, QuintaEsencia, Bea and Cris and with Isabel and Carlos from my press agency, Ketchum.  It is our bit of fun before the hard work begins on Monday.

Monday was our big day, a really hard and intense day of nerves and worrying that everything would go off ok.  With that I meant our presentation and party in the evening but mostly the former.  This year both my old boss and my new boss presented and they wore t-shirts with “I’m new” and “I’m old” which had everyone in stitches, just the right tone we wanted.  The presentation was technically very good but also the content and messages we wanted to get out; especially the fact that we would soon be entering the enterprise market and would be offering a low cost roaming tariff.  To end the presentation in true Yoigo style, a Gospel group came on to sing a song  “Yoiguización” to the sound of “Oh Happy Day”.  It was difficult to get the very staid “men in black” audience to react and I think they only did so when our “show” ended.  Someone posted a video of the grand finale, where I am told I am dancing to the Gospel song.  Frankly I prefer not to look at it.  I am also told it has made the rounds on internet via You Tube and that even the Secretary of State, made a reference to it when he closed the conference a few days later.

Our presentation in Santander was well received as usual!

Later we had a long round of questions with the press who seemed pretty impressed with our performance as well as with our intentions for Yoigo in the near future.  So, all in all, the big day was going very well.

I had time to go back to our hotel, join Eladio on the beach and have a quick swim and walk before going up to our room to get ready for the evening’s events.  First there was a Yoigo dinner to attend at the Posada del Mar restaurant.  We have dinner here every year before our big party begins at the Sailing School nearby, and we were in good hands with waiters such as Dani who knows us from other years.

The annual dinner at La Posada del Mar in Santander on Monday night

At 23h on the dot we crossed the road to our party which was just starting and to which all the attendants from the conference are invited.  I think nearly 300 people attend, so quite a big crowd including manufacturers, operators, media, bloggers, distributors and friends, such as the owner of the Zacarías restaurant who always turns up. This year we had created various areas with activities related to our new 10 commandments or our values.   The best one for me was the “transparent” activity which consisted of a small inflatable swimming pool with two huge transparent balloons which you got  into. They were then inflated and sealed and then floated on the water.  I spent the whole time inside my bubble or balloon laughing.  It was a great night and even I enjoyed it when I don’t usually enjoy my own parties, but somehow I felt really relaxed after the stress of the day.  Also it was great to be surrounded by so many friends and colleagues, such as Eduardo F, Julio and my ex Nokia boss Félix. However, as I am always a bit of a Cinderella, I slipped away at about 1.30 am when the party was in full swing.  I walked back to our hotel feeling tired but relieved another Santander participation was over and that all had gone well.

Just loved the transparent balloons at the Yoigo party in Santander this year

I have to mention here that although I have been going to Santander every year for the last 12 years, the first time I ever came here was on the ferry from Plymouth in England.  So when I saw the Brittany Ferry on Monday afternoon going past the Magdalena Peninsula where the conference takes place, I just had to take a snap for the sake of nostalgia.  How could I have known when I first took that ferry that my whole future would be in Spain and that I would be coming back to this lovely coastal town for professional reasons so often?  If I had been told then that that would be my future I would never have believed it. 

The ferry in Santander that goes to Plymouth in England.  I went on one the first time I ever came to Santander.

On Tuesday I was up quite early eager to see the press coverage from Monday’s activity and I was not disappointed.  Then all that was left to do was to have breakfast, pack, check out and hit the road again.  

We were home in the early afternoon and happy to be so, but as always after a big event I have a sort of empty feeling, a sort of anti climax and need time to settle in again. 

The girls were away.  As you will have seen from this week’s headline, they were in Valencia.  And no they were not on holiday.  Olivia had been sent by her TV programme to cover the news there this week and she was staying with Miguel.  I was so busy I only managed to see her once on the TV when she reported on a nasty case of marital violence.

Oli reporting live from Valencia this week

I knew Olivia would be in Valencia this week but had no idea about Susana.  At the last minute, when we were in Santander, her company, Aramark, asked her to go to Valencia in connection with an internal programme her company is implementing in Spain.  So off she went too and also stayed with Miguel, although she could have stayed at a hotel if she had wanted.  I thought that was a lovely coincidence for them and a bit of a fluke really. So, no neither of them were at home when we returned.

Suzy in Valencia this week

On Wednesday and Tursday I was very busy, working on the communication of customer 20 million within the TeliaSonera Mobility Services group (basically their operations in Europe: Nordic and Baltic countries and Spain – for the record the whole TeliaSonera group has actually some 175 million customers).  It appeared that they had reached that number on Friday August 31^stand that the customer was Spanish.  It took some time to find out who she was but we did eventually.  Her name is María Concepción (Conchi for short) Tejedor. She is a 47 year old civil servant working for the Ministry of Public Administration in Madrid and she bought her subscription in a Yoigo shop, owned by Adela, in Las Rozas just outside Madrid.  It took us some time to convince Conchi that she was indeed our “winner” and to get her to agree to include her name in the press release.  She had no problem about that but balked at the idea of her photo in a press release or on social media which is perfectly understandable.  It was my job then to coordinate with Sweden, the photo shoot at the shop, an interview, a press release as well as an article and video for the group’s intranet.  And everything had to be done in just one day.

The Yoigo shop in Las Rozas where Conchi bought her subscription

I was rather pleased that customer number 20 million was from Yoigo.  Conchi, as I wrote in the article and press release, made “the right choice”.  She chose our very popular “infinita tariff” and the fantastic Samsung Galaxy S3 through our attractive financing programme where Conchi was to save at least 200 euros off the retail price. 

I had hoped to have a quiet Friday to do the food shopping with Ivanka, but had to go into the office for another interview with my new boss.  Cinco Días wanted to do an extended bio on him for this Sunday’s edition and had lots of questions to ask.  When you organize interviews, you are always worried how the journalist will write his or her piece.  Will it be favourable, correct, have the messages you want to transmit?  And you are always slightly nervous as you begin to read the published bit of news you had a hand in organizing.  And today was one of those days.  The article came out today. Thankfully it was very favourable, although the journalist, not from the telecoms section, had mixed up Yoigo with TeliaSonera and said we had 20 million customers, when in fact we have 3.3m.  Mistakes like this cannot be “controlled” by the communications manager (my job) because journalists never show their articles to us before they are published.  And this, my friends, is the difference between PR and advertising.  Advertising you pay for and control. PR or rather editorial you do not pay for and you do not control, but and the big but here is that the latter carries far more credibility.  Hence there is far greater risk and emotion in the job of the PR manager than the marketing manager.  You can read the article here by the way.

By Friday evening, I needed a bit of relaxation, so invited Eladio out to dinner.  We went once again to La Txitxarrería in Pozuelo and enjoyed their great gazpacho and steak, the latter being the best in the area in my opinion.

Yesterday Saturday I was very tired.  Ivanka was due to have 3 days off, after having stayed at home last weekend, so Eladio and I had to do the food shopping.  Normally I don’t mind doing it but missed Ivanka putting everything away at home.  I spent the afternoon by the pool sun bathing and reading an easy book.  I can only concentrate on more serious books when I am totally under stressed and relaxed, so I am rather ashamed to admit that this weekend I have devoured two Danielle Steele books.  But she did the trick, she took my mind off work and I finally wound down.

Yesterday Saturday was the day before last of the end of theTour of Spain.  Funnily enough the cycling family was in Santander this week and I missed them by hours.  The day of the stage from Santander was the day Alberto Contador became the leader of the General Classification, robbing the red rather than yellow jersey from the ever popular “Purito”.  And yesterday was the last mountain stage ending in the mountains just outside Madrid and we were all wondering whether Contador would be able to keep the jersey and win the Vuelta or whether his rival Valverde (from the Movistar team) would snatch more time from the leader and eventually win this year’s edition.  That didn’t happen.  Contador lost some time, but came away unscathed and still the leader.  Today, the last day, is the traditional non competitive stage where the leader is always respected.  So a bit later on this afternoon he will be officially crowned this year’s winner.  

Last night I went to dinner, as I do nearly every year, with my friends from the Tour of Spain, Carlos de Andrés, the TVE commentator and Pedro Delgado, ex cyclist and winner of the Tour of France and Spain and Carlos’ fellow commentator.  We were joined by Pedro’s wife, Ludi, Sergi and his wife, as well as Miguel Angel and his young and pretty companion Rebeca.  This year Olivia came with us too and brought her new boyfriend Miguel who is not unfamiliar with their world as he works as a cameraman for Spanish TVE in Valencia.  Most of the night, we spoke about cycling, but also about how I first met them all.  Believe it or not, that was now 20 years ago when I worked for Motorola and was involved in the Motorola Cycling Team.  Sadly I told them that I had heard that Motorola Spain would be closing down soon. That is hard to imagine and deserves a longer mention in this blog when the time comes.  We had dinner at a restaurant in the centre of Madrid called Las Tortillas de Gabino a place we have had dinner at before with Pedro and Ludy.  I was glad and not unsurprised  to hear from Miguel Angel, Pedro’s ex team mate, that in all the stages of the Tour of Spain there had been just about as many signs and banners cheering on or in pro of Pedro Delgado as there had been of Alberto Contador.  Pedro stopped cycling in the early 90’s yet his popularity has never decreased in this country and he is a well loved public personality.  I can vouch that he is just as people imagine him and am proud to be his friend. 

Dinner on Saturday with my friends covering The Tour of Spain.  Something of a tradition.

It was a great dinner as always and also nice for me to still feel part of the cycling world after all these years.

Today is Sunday, everyone is asleep or watching the television, either the Vuelta or the F1 and now that I have finished this week’s blogpost, I shall go and sit by the pool with our dogs and carry on reading my rubbishy Danielle Steele book, after which it will be time for a light dinner and walk with the dogs.  Tomorrow is Monday and a start of another week.  This week I will be at home and hopefully there will be no more globetrotting for a while.  This time I am finaly home to stay after so many weeks of travelling.  And I look forward to it, to our walks, to reading and being with my family.

I wish you all a great week.  All the best

Masha

PS You can see the rest of the photos of my trip to Santander here.