A weekend in Montrondo

So this weekend we drove to Montrondo, Eladio’s family’s beloved village, to take Ernestina there after her stay with us. There were no plans for a big gathering as there is the annual one coming up for Santa Marta on the 29th July, but the word spread from brother to sister and all the “grown-ups” ended up spending the weekend together, just 18 or so of us, no big numbers really! It was a lovely weekend, up in the mountains with lower temperatures than in Madrid. My Father had a great time, as you can see in the picture on one of his long walks with Eladio and Toño. We will be going again soon for the annual gathering of all the family when we will be around 30 people. We are certainly looking forward to that. Hectic but fun.

The cat and the rabbit. Who said they couldn’t live together?

So Ruby and Henry finally met face to face. Poor Ruby, Susi’s rabbit lives in a cage on her own in the new house (better than in Río Tajo where she lived in Susi’s room!). So Ruby has been taken out a few times now and allowed out of her cage to romp in the grass. And romp she does but mostly when Henry the cat is on the prey. We have had to be very stern with him but there have been a few hilarious chases. Actually Ruby is faster though and has survived so far. The first picture was taken after a couple of chases and they both seemed to have calmed down a bit. The other is a lovely close up of Ruby.

Eladio and his Mother enjoying her stay at our new house.

Hi again.

Now that blogger uploads photos again, here are some pics of Eladio and his Mother together during her stay. They spend most of their time talking about old times in Montrondo.

It has been lovely to have Ernestina, despite the intense heat. The hightlight of her stay was probably the outing to the Zarzuela operetta called "Doña Francisquita" held in the open air as part of the Madrid summer theatre festival. It started at 10 at night and finished at 1 in the morning. Even the kids were asleep when we got back.


It has been really nice to have her and we hope she will repeat the experience soon.

Cheers/Masha
Strolling round the house
Mother and Son
Chatting by the pool

Busy times: Pensión “El Bosque” , To London and back, looking after the old folk, housewarming party and back to normal. But oh so hot !

The buffet table
The party setting
Me, Ana and Anne
The group. Front Left to Right: André, Mónica, Charo, Marta, Fran. Back Left to Right: Anne, Masha, David.


Hello again

So, yeah I’ve been so busy I’ve hardly had time to write. Also I’m a bit put off writing because I can no longer upload pictures. So now you have a boring blog with no photos. But as you can see this post now has pictures. It seems Blogger prefers the Mozilla Firefox navigator to Internet Explorer and the Norton Anti Virus has to be switched off. So you can now look out for more photos.

Since I last wrote so much has happened: lunch with Julio and Fátima on 29th June, went to the surprise early retirement party for one of Eladio’s ex colleagues, Elena on the 30th. On the 1st July, Pili (Eladio’s youngest sister) and her husband Andrés (my favourite brother-in-law) came to bring us Eladio’s Mother to stay with us for a couple of weeks. They stayed the weekend and José Antonio (Eladio’s second brother down after him) and his wife Dolores came to spend the day on Sunday. Pili and I got some shopping in. We have very similar taste and ended up buying the same skirt in Zara (white with black spots). There is a great picture to prove it.

Then last week Susi who had been in León with her cousins came back to Madrid with her cousin Laura as they were both off to London on 7th July to stay with Miguel, another cousin, who now lives in London and works at Citibank. He actually lives in Hyde Park.

So last week was like running a small hotel with full meals for all guests, including the boyfriends. Most days we were between 7 and 10 for lunch. Just imagine shopping at the supermarket; 2 full trolleys a go. And on the 7th we had another guest, my dear friend Anne (see her blog in the left hand column). I had planned our housewarming party to coincide with her being here so’s she could kill two birds with one stone and get to see most of her Madrid friends who are also mine, in one go.


Susi and Laura went off to London the same day Anne came from London – thus explaining the title of this post. It was Laura’s first trip on an airplane and her first trip abroad, so very exciting for her. Unfortunately their plane left late and they got to Gatwick at about 2 and had to wait for the first train at 5.30 am. From what I can gather on the phone they are having a great time. On Thursday they will be going out to dinner with my great friends, Amanda, Andy, Jake and family who live near London too.

So yeah, then came the Housewarming party. While Anne was at the hairdressers I started the cooking and preparing for the party (meat loaf, chicken salad, prawn salad, tortilla, trifle, apple crumble, etc.). Suffice it to say, many of our friends came (Marta + Fran, Miguel Angel Muñoz, David and Charo, Fátima and Julio, Mónica and André, Anita Valdivieso, Manuel to name a few). Anne helped us to set the scene on the swimming pool porch and it looked lovely: tables of 6 with table cloths, flowers and candles, the main table groaning with food (all labeled of course) and the house lights all on. The result can only have been good as all the food was eaten and people stayed till 4 in the morning.

The next day after another quick shopping spree, Anne left for London and things quietened down. Oli and José Luis also left for Mazarrón, Murcia. They wanted to get away from the heat. It has been soooo hot these last few weeks, in the 40ºs which for my poor Father is a little too much. He keeps saying his favourite month in Spain is January!!

So the house is no longer full, just Eladio, his Mother, my Father and me. Yesterday we went to José Antonio’s house for lunch and an old friend of their family and distant cousin, Elenita (a 78 year old nun) joined us. Quite a cry away from last week’s times here in El Bosque but very relaxing. So here we are looking after the old folk and enjoying the house to ourselves. At least there is no more non-stop cooking for 8 or 9 every day and a bit less sheet washing and changing and we can relax a bit too.

So that’s our news for a while. On Saturday we will be off to Montrondo (Eladio’s family village) to take his Mother there to be with his sisters who are there on holiday.

So will write again after that.

Cheers to you all.

Love Masha
Pili and me in our identical Zara skirts.

Settling In

Well now that we are nearly all sorted out, with most things in their place and many missing, of course, we’re going through a settling in period. Sometimes I have the feeling I’m on holiday or in a hotel – especially when I go in our super duper bathroom. And when we talk about “home” we usually mean our old house. It is our house ok but it still doesn’t feel like home. I think these things take time.

Some things are frustrating. We have 4 tvs , 3 digital receivers and 2 aerial men have been and gone and we still can only get Tele 5 on one of the TVs. The problem there is that I only really ever watch one programme a week and that is “Hospital Central” on Tele 5! And the one TV I can see it on is the only TV the World Cup can be watched on, so yes, a bit frustrating. To get even more football, we are getting Canal + installed but they are having trouble with putting the antenna on the roof as they hadn’t expected such a big house.

We are very “home bound” at the moment and tend to live in our own little world only going out occasionally to do the shopping. Our only other outing is our daily walk which is not as nice as the one at our old house, but the exercise is the same, thank God. So we must start to socialize again. One way will be with the housewarming party on the 8th July next which I am busily preparing in my mind. The invitation has gone out already though. Something lovely to look forward to.

The girls are having their 2nd housewarming party tonight and there will be more than 30 guests. A barbecue has been planned and dear Susi bought nearly all the meat there was in Carrefour. Thank God Eladio and I are going out to dinner! The problem is that when we get back at 11ish their party will only just be starting and it takes place on the terrace just beneath our bedroom., so there is no escaping it. Well you never know, we may just join them.

The family are fine. My poor Father is dealing with the hot weather as best he can but confessed the other day that his favourite month in Spain is January! Eladio has lost 3 kgs thanks to the removal and is now worried he is on the decline or getting old and is bent on eating more than usual. It’s very funny. I wish I had lost weight with the move. I am losing but the rhythm is about a kilo or less a month. I think the ice-cream a day (Magnum) might have something to do with that. The girls are going through the end of term, just before the Summer hols phase and are have finished their exams. Susi just has to finish a dissertation on food hygiene. So, of course, it’s Summer party time.

And that’s all for the moment folks

All my love
Masha
PS Sorry no pics again. Blogger just won't upload them and I don't know what the solution is.

New home, new life. Moving in: the removal men and Henry the cat. And yes we now have internet again!

Hello again

Well as predicted this new post is being written from our new house with a brand new internet connexion. It's great to have internet back at long last. Thanks Telefónica!!

So here we are finally, adapting, adjusting, settling in, opening mountains of boxes and then dragging the empty ones down the drive to be picked up by the town council, washing, cleaning and more or less never leaving the house as there is so much to do. But the essentials are up and running: deep freeze, fridge, electrical appliances, tv, internet and a new telephone line.

The move took place over 2 exhausting days in great heat. There were 3 lorries and 10 men. I must talk about the men because it was a very interesting group, besides the fact that some of them were extremely fit and good looking, so Susi and I thought!!!! The foreman, Ernesto, was the only Spaniard and wow did he work hard; he was so fast I wondered if he was going to have a fit with so much activity. Then came Jerry, the good looking Bulgarian who was extremely happy to be in charge of the content of Olivia's room (more boxes came out of Olivia's room than any other room in the house!!! - in the new house she has 2 rooms!! One is for sleeping and the other is her study!). In fact there were about 3 Bulgarians, 2 Peruvians, 2 Ecuadorians, 1 Colombian and 1 Indian.

Dismantling the lounge in Río Tajo

The van outside Río Tajo.

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So many things going on. Santa Pola, Aunty Masha, a trip down memory lane, lunch with Carmen Cafarel, bitten by mosquitoes, just 4 days to go,

Hello again.

Sorry I haven’t written since the anniversary weekend in León but I have been so busy and, as predicted, there will be no internet until we move to the new house. Once again I am writing from Fátima’s house.

So much has been going on. After León, Eladio, my Father and I went to Santa Pola to our beach flat for a short holiday before the removal. We had a very relaxing time, apart from Eladio, who suddenly decided to paint the flat. It was hard work but the result is very pleasing.

We took the time to look up my “famous” Aunty Masha who lives nearby in Benidorm and whom we hadn’t seen for about 3 years. Aunty Masha is my Mother’s beloved younger sister who was once an actress (she is still beautiful with her whitish blonde curls and plastic hip at 79) and ran away from here home in Bulgaria to fight for Tito in Yugoslavia at the age of 15. She also escaped the communists and made her way to France in the late 50's. She is living history but a bit too large for life. It is thanks to my Aunt that I am now living in Spain but that story will have to be told another day. The short version is that she bought a small house in a village in the mountains of the costa blanca around 30 odd years ago and that from then on I spent all my youth years holidaying in that area where I fell in love several times and of course learned the language.

The 4 of us went on a trip down memory lane and visited Callosa the town or pueblo where my Mother bought a house in Calle de las Flores (see picture of my Father and me). We wandered down the winding streets (see picture of my Aunt, my Father and me) which haven’t changed since we first went. Then we went to have lunch at Algar, a beautiful and very special place – a sort of oasis in a valley of orange and lemon orchards famous for its waterfall. On the way back we went to have a coffee at the very bar Eladio and I started our romance which has lead to a happy life together of
more than 20 years now.


Have just realised that this half of this post has been deleted. Strange things are happening with blogger, one being that I can no longer publish photos - very frustrating.

So what has been deleted from this post are the bits on the lunch with Carmen Cafarel (head of Spanish TVE), virulent mosquitoes biting me and that there were only a few days to go till removal day, 5th June.

To summarise, I was invited by the Chairwoman (Pilar Gómez Acebo) to a lunch organised by the Spanish Federation of Business Women (FEDEPE)where the guest speaker was Carmen Cafarel. Carmen, a University professor was appointed by the Spanish PM, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and in her speech she described her astonishment at being appointed and how she was finding the job.

Thankfully now the itching and pain caused by the ****** mosquitoes on our daily walk are now over, but they gave me hell at night for more than a week, so much so I had to go to hospital.

That's all for the moments folks

LOL/Mashad
PS Photos are of the 3 of us walking in Callosa (me, Aunty Masha and my Father), Daddy and I in our old street, Calle de las Flores and me outside the Vimi bar where our relationship was forged.