Recovered, Santa Pola, another trip down memory lane, the story of Frank and Julia, Gandía and home again.

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At the top of the Coll de Rates mountain pass with wonderful views.

Hello my friends,

Today is Sunday August 15^th, a bank holiday in Spain which will go unnoticed as it is a weekend and once again it is time to write my blog.  It is also Independence Day in India so happy Independence day to all Indians reading this entry and there are many of you, or so Google blog statistics tell me.

This week has been great.  On Monday Suzy was back from Montrondo and we had a nice dinner together.  However it wasn’t until the next day that we had a full house with both girls for lunch.

Dinner at home with Suzy last Sunday when she came back from Montrondo.

On Tuesday I went to the doctor with my huge bandage and a bit worried I would be prescribed more time with my foot up and immobile.  However I was in for a pleasant surprise.  My ankle was better and the doctor removed the bandage.  Ouch that hurt, as it was stuck to my skin and he did a sort of peeling exercise leaving nasty marks on my leg.  He prescribed an ankle support and told me I could walk but to take heed of how my foot felt.   The good news was that he said I could go to the beach and that the sand and sea would help me recover. Wow I was so happy to be up and about again. I hobbled for the next few days but now I am walking almost normally.
 

The first thing I did with my newly recovered mobility was to go out with Suzy for a cup of coffee; a normal thing to do for anyone who is mobile but something special for me after nearly 2 weeks stuck at home.  Eladio and I decided then to go off to Santa Pola the next day and be back after Olga left on Saturday so’s not to leave my Father on his own overnight.  The girls went away on Thursday, Suzy to Ibiza with her school friends to stay at Erika’s place there and Oli to cover the Sonorama music festival in Aranda de Duero in Burgos for her website http://www.rtve.es/

Suzy on the beach with Erika this week in Ibiza.

Once again we decided not to take any food or shop in Santa Pola and to eat out even for breakfast so’s to make a real holiday of our 4 day escapade to the coast.  We had all sorts of plans to meet up with friends in the area; thus our stay was filled with social activity.  Another upside was that there was little cleaning to do as we had been recently and left the apartment spick and span. 

On the way out we stopped for lunch at one of our favourite places, the Parador in Albacete where we were served a lovely cool gazpacho to offset the tremendous heat outside which was nearing 40ºc. 

Making a toast to my recovery and our short holiday at lunch   in the Parador of Albacete on our way to Santa Pola.

As soon as we had unpacked and set up my pc (and answered my mails, of course) we set off for the beach where we had our first swim of the season and boy was it nice.  The water was clean and the sea as calm as a lake.   We tried my ankle out for a short walk.  It didn’t feel too bad but not yet good enough for the full beach walk.

I had booked a table for dinner at María Picola in the evening, that lovely restaurant on the road from Santa Pola to Elche.  We were welcomed back and enjoyed what we always have there, a superb arroz a banda.

A happy dinner together at María Picola on the first night of our holiday.

The mornings during our stay were always the same, as we are true creatures of habit.  We would have an early breakfast at El Paripé, a bar across the way with superb views of the bay of Alicante.  We would then go for the papers and return to the flat.  Eladio would read them from front to back whilst I worked and facebooked of course.

The view of the bay of Alicante from our breakfast bar, El Paripé in Gran Alacant.  It's also one of the views from our flat.

On Wednesday we had arranged to go and see our long time friends, Benito and Loli who were our neighbours in Saconia in Madrid where we first “lived in sin” before we got married in the early 80s.  They have an apartment on the beach in El Verger near Denia.

Loli and Benito by their apartment block in El Verger near Denia

We went for lunch to a local place called Casa Ramón for a great “fideua” (sort of paella but made with pasta) washed down by what is called “tinto de verano”, similar to sangria.  The afternoon was spent almost entirely at an ice cream parlour called La Jijonenca overlooking the Denia beach.  Here we talked about our old days and caught up on each other’s news.  We have promised to repeat the experience and next time Benito and Loli will be visiting us in Santa Pola.

Lunch with Loli and Benito at Casa Ramón in Denia.

We had planned to return home via a real memory lane for both of us.  We were to take the mountain road from El Verger, via Orba and Parcent and climb up the Coll de Rates mountain pass to visit Tárbena, Bolulla and Callosa before heading back to Santa Pola via Polop, La Nucia, Benidorm and Alicante.

The mountain road which means so much to me and which leads to Coll de Rates, Tárbena, Bolulla and Callosa

Tárbena, Bolulla and Callosa (Callosa de Ensarriá or D’en Sarrià in Valenciano) were the 3 main villages of my “Callosa days”, the time when I first came to Spain with my parents and which, if you don’t know the story,  you can read about here. The drive was like a venture into the past and the views from the roads as heavenly and magical as always.  I love the view of the little village of Parcent driving up to the Coll de Rates mountain pass which is some 700m high.  That doesn’t sound very much but then sea level in Spain is  measured from Alicante nearby so it is of course extremely high up.  The views from Coll de Rates are breathtaking and never cease to amaze me.  I had been here many times before but probably not in the last 20 or 30 years so it was very special to be there again.

Eladio at the top of the Coll de Rates mountain pass with breathtaking views on both sides.

Our next stop was Tárbena, a tiny little medieval village that nestles in these dry and rocky mountains and by almond trees which grow on terraced land and which are or used to be the main stipend for the village.  I hadn’t been back to Tárbena since the late 70’s and this visit was my real trip down memory lane because it was here I fell in love when I was 18 with a local boy who was studying to be a doctor and the reason I learned  Spanish. I had to visit the place, at least one more time in my life ,and didn’t feel good about taking Eladio with me but I think he understood.  The village was in fiestas and the main square felt much smaller to me than I had remembered it.  We walked through it and towards the house where the boy lived, in Plaza Santa Ana.  It looked closed up.  I didn’t want to meet anyone, just to see where it all began and remember my youth.

The little village of Tárbena which brings back so many memories of my youth.

From there we drove to Bolulla, the tiny village further down the valley where my famous Aunty Masha had bought a ruined house for a song in the early 70’s.  I love Bolulla and understand why so many English people have bought houses there (thanks to my Aunt of course).  We walked into the only bar that was open and came across a group of them who immediately wanted to know who we were.  Everywhere we went I told people I was La Señora María’s niece.  They all knew of course who she was and some of them remembered me.  I have so many memories of Bolulla from our many summers spent there and in Callosa in the 70’s and 80’s and in a way consider it to be my village.

Bolulla, my village in Spain.  I carry this image in my heart.

We walked down one of the prettiest streets there and spoke to 3 old ladies (Rosario, Jimena and non Castillian Spanish speaking Vicenta) for some time, remembering the past and talking about the people I knew; Esperanza, la Señora Elvira, Molina, Pepe the taxi driver and of course my beloved Sra. Julia and Frank (Francisco) Vácquer. 

With 3 old ladies in Bolulla talking about the past.  Vicenta in black, Jimena in blue and Rosario the hairdresser in orange.

Frank was the mayor of Bolulla when we first went there and I remember spending the first nights at his house  as Aunty Masha’s place was in no condition to sleep in (there was even a donkey in the main room when she bought it!).  Frank had lived in Brooklyn and had a wonderful New York accent with limited vocabulary.  But he was our ambassador and we loved him.  He was married to Serafina who spoke French and was what was called a “pied noir” for having lived and worked in  Algeria.  Serafina was always ill and had to be looked after by Frank.  Funnily enough she outlived him.  There is a saying in Spanish:  “mujer enferma, mujer eterna” which means “an ill woman lives forever”.  Señora Julia, a sweet old lady with white hair who must have been a beauty in her youth, lived opposite my Aunt and was our other reference in the village.  We learned later, with great secrecy, that Frank and Julia had been sweethearts when they were young but their love had not been allowed to prosper. I never knew why but suspect they were still in love when I met them.  Frank would speak with reverence whenever he mentioned Julia.  In the late 80’s something terrible happened.  Julia was in a car with her daughter and her grandson, a boy I had given English classes to.  He was driving and the car had an accident and skidded off one of those treacherous mountain roads I love so much.  They fell to their death, 3 generations in one go.  It was a tragedy for the village and I suspect especially for dear Frank Vácquer.  Frank died a few years ago, but there will always be a place for him in my heart and in my memories.

Dear Frank (Francisco) Vacquer's house at the main entrance of Bolulla. 

From Bolulla we drove to Callosa, the village where my Mother bought our house, but it was too late and dark to visit this time.  Soon we were back in our flat in Gran Alacant in Santa Pola and the trip down memory lane was now just another memory.
 

Thursday we spent at Gran Alacant and went to the local market there to buy Eladio some more summer shorts.  He seems to ruin all of them with bleach or paint stains so was in need of some new ones.  He was a bit of an unwilling customer but I managed to cajole him into buying 3 pairs.

Buying shorts for Eladio at the local market in Gran Alacant.  The unwilling customer!

In the afternoon we went to the beach again for another bathe and walk, this time the long one.  Most people go  to the beach in the morning but we always like to go when the heat is over and when most of the people have gone.  We are funny aren't we?

On our beach at Santa Pola, it's actually the Arenales beach.

In the evening we went to Darby’s Chippy for some amazing fish and chips.  It’s a very tacky thing to do but when you have lived away from the UK for so long, fish and chips is something, I, at least crave for.  The owner, a character from Scotland, greeted us warmly and thanked me especially for the mention of his chip shop in my blog!  He must have read the entry about it.  I was bowled over!  The portions we got were enormous and I think it was in lieu of a thank you for my positive write up which you can read here if you are interested. I’m also reproducing the photo of the chip shop owner if you haven’t seen it before.

Darby's fish and chip shop in Gran Alacant, great little find and the only one in the vicinity

Friday was our last day at home as we were leaving on Saturday.  The weather took a turn for the worse as it always does in the middle of August, except that we never seem to remember.  I was going to spend the afternoon by the pool overlooking the sea but it began to rain.  The temperature dropped and of course we hadn’t brought any warm clothing, not even a jumper and certainly no umbrella.  That evening we were due at Jacky and John’s for dinner.  Jacky, a childhood friend and actually my best friend, Amanda’s neighbour in Bradford, now lives with her family in a small village in Murcia on the border of the province of Alicante, in a hamlet called Collado de los Gabrieles.  We drove through an enormous thunder storm with lightening and as we left the apartment I thought guns were being fired.  Thunder storms in this area are always terribly fierce.  Maybe that’s because of the proximity to the sea.

Dinner with Jacky and John and their son Rafi, was great.  It was nice to speak English all evening and John’s curry was superb.  We could have chatted all night but it was dark and we had a long journey home so we left at Cinderella time, at around midnight with promises of going out to dinner together the next time we came. 

Dinner at Jacky and John's was one of the highlights of our trip.

Soon it was our last day, not that our holiday was very long, just 5 days.  We were going to  Gandía to have lunch with Irene and Tomas and their family before making our way home to Madrid.  Irene who is now the proud mother of 4, is the daughter of the González-Gálvez family with whom I lived in 1978 during the year I spent in Madrid as a teacher as part of my 3^rd year studies at Nottingham University.  We have kept in contact every since but  more so since the Father, Gerardo, died.  Irene and her husband Tomas have been spending their summers in Gandia on the coast of Valencia since they were children and it was here they fell in love when they were teenagers.  This was the first time I was to see them here and I loved the flat and the location which is right on the beach front. 

With Irene González at their flat in Gandía. 

Tomas who is obviously a good chef, had prepared a great local rice dish called “arros a forn” which is rice cooked in the oven with many ingredients.  It tasted delicious, as good as it looked.

Great oven baked rice dish made by Tomas and called "arros a forn".

It was a delight to be with the whole family as on other occasions we had not been joined by their older kids, Paula and Tomás, just the little ones, Celia and Nacho and I was actually meeting Paula for the first time.   It was funny to see Irene with her 17 year old look a-like daughter Paula, as for me Irene is still the little girl I tried to teach English to, albeit unsuccessfully because of the terrible tricks she used to play on me. But time of course has passed, over 30 years.  

Lunch yesterday with Irene, Tomás and family in Gandía.

We left in the early evening as we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us and were anxious to get home as soon as possible because my Father was alone at home.  We were greeted by a very excited Norah who hates to be alone.  My Father was also happy to see us.  I had brought him a huge bag of all sorts of English chocolates which I had bought at Quicksave, the English shop across the way from our apartment which I am sure won’t last him very long.  I don't know if you know but even at 91 he is still a bit of a chocolate monster!  So it's quite obvious where I got my sweet tooth from then isn't it? 

And now we are home again with another trip for our memories.  You can see the full set of photos  here and a specfic album of our visit to Irene and Tomas in Gandía here.

But we are not home for long. This week we may be going to Peñacaballera to see friends.  At the end of August we will be going to Santander for a big telecoms conference and then in September we shall be off to Israel and Jordan.  October heralds more trips, one to Stockholm for a communications’ get together and a weekend in Barcelona.  Meanwhile we look forward to the visit of Katheryn and Phil who will be visiting us this Tuesday.  It will be nice to have some British visitors, especially for my Father.  Kathryn and I were at school together so her visit will be another trip down memory lane.

That’s it for this week.  Hope you have a good one.

Cheers Masha

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.

The girls’ trip to India continues, itchy feet, more Lis Salander and dinner with friends

<"The girls" in the Punjab in local dress. Sumit had bought them the outfits (kameez I think they are called) as part of their Diwali presents.
Hi

We are well into October and last night the clocks went back which, for me at least, is always difficult to adjust to. Autumn has made its entry and I wore winter clothes for the first time this week. However this weekend the sun has been radiant and we even had Sunday lunch outside today.

The girls’ trip to India is coming to an end and they have had a fantastic time. Last week when I wrote, they were in Simla and then headed back to Chandigarh to spend one more night and day with their friends Sumit and Sophie. Oli told me later they had been treated like princesses by these wonderful Indian friends and their families. Sophie and her mother, who cried when the girls left, even gave them a foot and head massage.

From the Punjab they took the night train to Jaipur, known as “the pink city” and the capital of Rajasthan where they stayed at the Madhuban hotel recommended by their guide book. The journey must have been quite an experience as the train was not luxurious. They complained about people burping, the smell and the noise. As Oli described in Facebook, “India moves with the sound of the claxon” and she felt “in between silk and cow flap”.
Great picture from Olivia and illustrates India's contrasts very well.
Well that’s what India is all about, contrasts. They love the people, the colour, the culture and are enjoying every moment. From Jaipur they went to Jodhpur, “the blue city” with their driver. Yes, with a driver, what luxury. Well actually it’s only costing them some 20 euros a day! Jodhpur seems to be their favourite place, in the heart of Rajasthan as this is where they have been able to walk along its crowded and colourful streets and feel India as it really is, rather than through a window. Here they stayed at a lovely little guest house for 10 euros a night, called the Haveli guest house which has fantastic views of the magnificent fort from its rooftop.

The blue city of Jodhpur as seen from the fort (taken by us in December).
Yesterday they were in Pushkar, that holy city with the famous lake and Brahma temple where hippies used to flock and still do. It is where I fell ill so my memories of the place are not so good. They will also be visiting Varanasi, the most important holy city in India which sits by the even more holy Ganges River. They will be back on Thursday and we will welcome them with open arms. This will be one of the most important trips of their lives. They are looking forward to eating western food again. They have enjoyed the local food but after nearly 3 weeks it can get tiring. You can see the full set of photos, well the ones they have posted from India, here on Facebook.
The temple in Pushkar which attracts so many people, it's so crowded.
I have been enjoying the girls’ trip vicariously so to speak and have been also thinking about my next trip. I was actually inspired by 2 ladies in the street last Monday who were complaining about their offsprings always travelling and that got me thinking that life was short and it was time to plan our next trip. So where to, I asked myself?

New York has always been at the top of my list of most desired places to visit and somehow I have never managed to go there except in transit at JFK airport and that doesn’t count. My itchy feet, an expression my Father used to use to describe my brother – it definitely runs in the family, wanted to go during the December bank holiday. However I had to contend with Eladio’s sort of procrastination: he has lectures on Mondays, it would be too cold in January and February so how about May? Well I didn’t want to wait till May so got out the calendar to see which Monday he would be free and lo and behold, he would be free at the end of March. And there and then I booked our flight and hotel. We are going for 8 days and will enjoy the experience enormously. It’s lovely to have something to look forward to and visiting perhaps the most famous city in the world will be a great experience for us both. I am already working on the programme as I do with all our trips.
The world famous New York sky line. We'll finally get to see it next year in March.
On a more humble level, we have another little trip to look forward to and that’s with the girls and my Father to the Parador in Almagro in the middle of November. More than anything it’s a family trip as we don’t often go away with the girls.
The 16th century Franciscan Convent which is now the Parador in Almagro, Ciudad Real and where we'll be going with the girls and my Father in November..
There we will be visiting the Tablas de Daimiel national park which has been in the news a lot recently because believe it or not, it is burning underneath. Apparently it is the peat that is burning from lack of water even though it is supposed to be a wetland; well that’s dry Spain for you. We will also have some good quality family time, walking, reading and enjoying good food at the lovely 16th century Parador which was once a convent, in the pretty town of Almagro in the province of Ciudad Real.
The Tablas de Daimiel, the smallest of Spain's national park which we will be visiting when we go to Almagro in November for a family weekend.
Meanwhile at home, life is quiet without the girls. I went into the office 3 times last week which is a lot for me and, this week, envisage going even more. Now the work is creeping up and will crescendo around Christmas time. I have 4 events plus a whole load of other stuff on my plate. But I don’t mind being busy as what I hate is long term inactivity and I need constant new challenges.

The weekend has been fun as we had more social activity than usual. On Friday we had a date for dinner with the González-Gálvez family at Gerardo and Vicky’s house and Irene and Thomas were also coming along. We haven’t seen each other for years and years and now we see each other regularly. It’s great to have found them again. Gerardo and Irene were the kids I gave English lessons to when I lived with them from 1978 to 1979. They were in their early teens and I was just 21 yet we struck a friendship for life. Today Gerardo is the proud father of 5 (adorable Vicky, Lucía, Ana, Gerardo and Irene) and Irene the proud mother of 4 (Paula, Thomas, Celia and Nacho). For me they are still my fun loving kids with the same sparkle in their eyes.
The dinner table at Gerardo and Vicky's house on Friday night.
We were offered champagne and Georgian caviar in Viky and Gerardo’s elegant and big yet cosy home while the kids were shooed away. Irene, the smallest couldn’t resist being near us and promptly fell asleep on the sofa. Lucía, aged 12, was the perfect Mother’s help and kept the dishes moving, bless her.
Little Irene's experience of Friday night's dinner party.
Dear Lucía who helped her Mother so well at the dinner party on Friday.
You can see these photos and more here on Facebook.

And last night I had a date with Lis Salander, that wonderful crime fiction heroine in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, Millennium. As you probably know I finished all three and was missing the unconventional, fearless, brilliant hacker so when I heard that the second film was coming out this weekend in Spain I grabbed 2 seats at our favourite Cinema, Equinoccio in Majadahonda for last night’s evening session.

It was good, yes, quite faithful to the book but maybe had less impact on us than the first film. I am wondering now when the last film of the trilogy will come out but then Lis Salander will only remain in my memory. Oh well, maybe I will reread books 2 and 3 which I skimmed through so fast I must have missed out on a lot of detail.

Afterwards we had dinner at La Alpargatería with our friends Roberto and Maricarmen. We hadn't been there for ages and it was nice to be back and to sit at our favourite table, number 5.
La Alpargatería in the Equinoccio leisure centre, one of our all time favourites.
I have come to the end of this week’s post and Eladio is urging me to go for our daily walk, an hour earlier as dusk will come earlier after the clocks have gone back. So I will leave you now and post the photos later.

Hope we all have a good week. Mine will start well as tomorrow, Monday, I will be having lunch with my best friends, Julio and Fátima whom I haven’t seen since the Santander telecoms conference at the beginning of September.

Cheers for now / Masha.