The Autumn colours reach Montrondo; a family weekend.

Hiya again,

Friday morning saw us all preparing to leave for Montrondo. There were so many preparations – last minute suitcase packing, loading all the food needed for the 6 of us plus the rest of the family, leaving Phoebe and Henry serviced with food and accommodation outside while we were away, etc, etc. Thus we weren’t able to leave until past 11 in the morning. We went in 2 cars; the 3 girls in one and Eladio, my Father and I in the other and judging by the boots and back of both cars it looked like we were going away for a month and not just 2 days!

O course, it being a bank holiday, we were to face the proverbial traffic jam out of Madrid. It actually took us 3 hours to crawl less than 50 km. Luckily we got to Rueda (about half way) by 2 o’clock, just in time for lunch. The Palacio de Bornos wine cellar is a must on every trip to León and if you ever go, which I highly recommend, you will understand why. They sell the best white wine in the world (remember the name RUEDA) and their ham and cold cuts are of superb quality.


Oli, Copi and Susi at the Palacio de Bornos in Rueda

The Palacio de Bornos in Rueda, the place to stop on the way to León.
We arrived quite late really, but not too late to appreciate the wonderful Autumn colours that have now reached Montrondo. We were greeted by Eladio’s brother, José Antonio, our sister-in-law, Dolores and their oldest son, Miguel – just back from 2 years in London. They are just finishing building their own house in the village next to the family house. You can tell by the beams on their face when they show you round the new house or when you sit round the fire in their new lounge at night that it is their pride and joy.

There was time before dinner for a short walk to Murias (the bigger village down the road). The “boys”, José Antonio and Eladio decided to take us on the old route through the fields where there turned out to be an obstacle for the last lap of the walk and we all had to climb a sort of ditch to get back on to the road. It was actually quite fun.


Eladio and José Antonio by the Peña de Dios (God's Rock) on the way to Murias

Climbing the ditch

Miguel and I on the walk to Murias
Dinner together round the kitchen table was a happy affair and the mountain air guaranteed great appetites from all 10 of us.

Needless to say we all slept well. We had expected cold and damp weather but we were extremely lucky to get lots of sun and it was only cold at night, nothing that couldn’t be remedied by a nice hot water bottle.

The view from our bedroom window the next morning was a wonderful surprise as a family of horses had installed themselves in the field right outside it. In fact the whole village is full of lovely brown coloured horses. They are a lovely sight for sore eyes.

View from our bedroom window
If we were 10 for dinner on Friday night, we were going to be 20 from Saturday lunch till Sunday lunch which, of course, meant a lot of work in the kitchen. But I didn’t mind as I find cooking very relaxing and actually quite creative. Cooking in Montrondo must be a bit like cooking in the army or at a scout camp. You need huge pots and pans and enormous quantities of everything. The only problem is calculating how much food to cook or how much bread to buy. Funnily enough 1kg packet of lentils was enough for 20 people! I would never have known that!

As the morning progressed, the rest of the family who were joining us began to make their appearance. We were to be joined by Eladio’s Mother and his sister Pili and his brothers Isidro and Alejandro plus their respective families.

Saturday afternoon was spent chatting and working in José Antonio and Dolores’ house. Once again we took a walk, this time up the mountain to the “Abedular” (Birch tree wood). It’s quite a walk up but the views are breathtaking. On the way down we were stopped by what must be the last herd of cows in the village which added to the bucolic scenery to be had in all Montrondo.

By the Abedular

A close up of me on the way up to the Birch tree forest (Abedular)

My Father at the Abedular - a 1.5h round trip walk from Montrondo. We did it once and he did it 3 times! Not bad for 88!

Eladio posing in front of the famous Tambarón mountain that towers over Montrondo.

Isidro and Yoli with the Tambarón behind them too.

The last herd of cows in Montrondo?
And all too soon it was Sunday morning and our stay was coming to an end. We had an unfortunate end in that Andrés, Pili’s husband and one of my favourite borther-in-laws, had an accident while the “boys” were cutting branches from trees in one of their fields. He fell off a wall and on to his bad knee and was in such pain he was unable to walk. To add to the bad luck, their daughter Paula had been sick several times in the night and was feeling very shaky. The three of them, of course, had to leave suddenly to go to the hospital in León. News later was that poor Andrés had his leg half in plaster and has to be immobile for 2 weeks and will then to be x-rayed again to see what damage has been done to his knee. I wish him lots of luck from these pages. Sorry Andrés!

We did still manage to have a happy lunch all together before packing and closing up the house to go home. Luck would have it again that we had another 6 hours of traffic to face before we got back home.

Despite Andrés’ accident and the traffic there and back , a good time was had by all, not least by my Father. He stayed at a lovely country inn in Murias called El Holandés Errante (The Flying Dutchman) which is actually run and owned by a Dutchman, Hans. He stayed there because it is much more comfortable for him. If you are ever in those parts, it’s a beautiful place to stop for a meal, a night or two or even just for a drink.

And that was our bank holiday weekend in Montrondo.

Cheers till next week
Masha

Lunch with a friend, a funeral, Amazon.com and preparations for a holiday weekend

Hiya again

This week I met up with an old friend, Ramón Pradera who is actually a TV news presenter now. I knew him when he was just a reporter, so I’m very proud of how well he has done. We met through Nokia when I took him on a trip to London for some new phone launch. We stayed at the famous St. Martin’s in the Lane hotel where one night dear Ramón ordered a cigar which turned out to cost 100 pounds! I fit the bill of course!

We had lunch at a great restaurant which belongs to a friend of his. It’s called “Escauri” and serves some wonderful French Basque food. I highly recommend it. Oh, and Ramón has just got married. So congratulations from these pages to you and your lucky wife. ¡Enhorabuena a los dos!

As some of you know, I am an avid reader – of all sorts of genres. So my passion (and my Father’s) is Amazon.com. It’s just great ordering on internet from the biggest library in the world and then having the stuff delivered to your door within days. So this week there were 2 or 3 lovely parcels awaiting me with dvds such as “How green was my valley”, and “Attic” (the story of the people who hid the Anna Frank family during the war in Amsterdam) and books such as “A mighty heart” about the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl plus a couple on the fate of Middle Eastern women. My father’s book last week was “The battle of Japan” – quite a different genre, of course.

This week brought with it, the funeral for Gerardo González, the father of the Spanish family I lived with when I first came to Madrid as a student. The funeral was emotional but also very beautiful. The church was packed with family and friends and I must say my congratulations go to the priest whose homage to Gerardo was perfect. It was as if Gerardo’s spirit was there with us and there was no sad moment, except at the end, of course, when we all crowded round the family to give our condolences.

The funeral brought a little surprise as I saw a colleague from the telecoms sector who I know quite well. We were both surprised to see each other there away from our “natural” habitat. It turned out that he is Gerardo’s son’s best friend from their school days. What a small world!

The week was also full of preparations for our trip to Montrondo at the weekend. Friday 12th October was a national holiday and like most of the population, we were going to take a short break and go away for the long weekend; that is all 5 of us plus the girls’ oldest friend Copi. This meant a lot of meal planning and taking of food as Montrondo is high up in the mountains and an hour away from the nearest shop. More about that in my post on our weekend in Montrondo.

Cheers for now
Masha

An emotional week in many ways.

Amanda and I, still firm friends nearly 40 years on! It was great to have you darling.<

Hi

This week has been marked by quite a few events. First Monday was the anniversary of the death of my amazing Mother on 1st October 1999. She will, of course, never be forgotten. Unfortunately only those of you who knew her will understand why I write “amazing”, because that’s what she was but her story will have to come another day. On Monday too we had a visit from my best friend from school, Amanda who was here until Friday for a girly visit and rest. The 2nd October was the first anniversary with my new company and I must say the job is going fine for the time being. Then there was the news about Gerardo’s passing away which hit me hard in the heart and you will understand why if you read my earlier post to him. And finally there was a reunion with his family on Friday which was probably the most emotional event I have experienced in quite some time.

But, in between work, Amanda and I had good fun too and spent a lot of time catching up on each other’s lives. She happily joined in our family routine for 4 days and did the shopping with the men on Thursday and went for a walk with us every night of her stay. She was impressed to see that we do it always, come rain or shine. She was a bit unlucky with the weather and, of course, had been expecting sunshine. Unfortunately it began to rain the moment she arrived and stopped the moment she left. There were some sunny intervals though where we enjoyed meals outside. Amanda loved Phoebe, as you will see from the pictures. But then who wouldn’t. Phoebe is just the most beautiful kitten ever to exist with her little blue eyes and wonderful Siamese type colouring. She loves people’s laps too. In the afternoon she will only go to Eladio’s and we all get jealous but in the morning any lap will do. Funny little thing she is!

Amanda and Phoebe one morning
One eventful outing was to Susana’s boyfriend’s house to give her dog Elsa some medicine. Elsa and her brother Quillo live there together and Elsa has just been neutered. The problem is that Quillo won’t leave her stitches alone and she has had to be restiched and then separated from Quillo in the garage for a week at least. They are so enthusiastic and were so pleased to see us, we had them both literally jumping right on top of us. We tried to take them for a walk which turned out to be mission impossible because of the barking from the other dogs in the neighbourhood.



The three of us had dinner out on Thursday and decided to go somewhere called Los Pescaitos which is usually too full at the weekend. It is an imitation Andaluz restaurant which mostly serves fish but it was actually pretty good. So we will be going back.

On Wednesday, as you know from my previous post, I heard about the passing away of Gerardo and, unable to attend the incineration, I went to see Pili, his wife on Friday afternoon together with Dolores.

That was some reunion. I hadn’t been to their flat for probably more than 8 years. And there, apart from Pili, I was to greet Lucía, her youngest daughter who is the replica of Catherine Z Jones and just like her older sister Irene when she was younger. Then Julieta arrived for the weekend. Julieta had been a bridesmaid at my wedding and is now nearly 40! It was lovely to see her. Finally Gerardo and his wife Vicky and 4 of their 5 amazing kids arrived: Vicky (12) , Ana (6) , Gerardo (5?) and little Irene (1). They were so alive and amusing and such fun, I had the little ones crawling all over me and repeating the behaviour of their Father and Aunts and Uncles when they were small and I was living with them. But, actually, I fell in love with them, the same as I did with the previous generation. I showed them my post to Gerardo and read it out in Spanish and it stirred a few tears from Pili and us all, of course.

Pili. We certainly cheered her up.

Lucía

Julieta
Seeing Gerardo, now aged 42 and a responsible Father of 5 took me back a bit. But I still saw the little boy in him and that lovely twinkle in his eye.

Gerardo and the kids.

Vicky and their youngest daughter Irene.
When we all left, we made the firm promise of holding a proper reunion and not letting so much time pass till we see each other again. I certainly intend to keep that promise.

After such an emotional week, the weekend has been quite lonely, specially because the girls went away. They have been to Ponferrada to visit one of their favourite cousins, Marta. From the multimedia messages I have received, it seems a grand time was had by all.

And finally to add to the emotion of things, I must just mention that my niece Sara who has been looking for a job in London after 2 years in China has finally landed a post with BBVA starting tomorrow. Congratulations Sarita and the best of luck from this page. And I also must mention that the F1 is not over as Hamilton did not classify in the Shanghai GP. There is now only one race left, Brasil next week and the standings are: Hamilton 107, Alonso 103 and Raikkonen 100. Who do you think will win? Place your bets ladies and gentlemen.

And here’s to this week coming up. Hope it’s a great one for you all.

Cheers/Masha

Goodbye Gerardo!

Hi,

When I came to Spain as a student some 29 years ago, I lived with a marvellous Spanish family called González Gálvez in a lovely flat in Madrid. I loved them then and I still love them now even though we haven’t kept up much over the years.

They are part of my past but also a part of my life in many ways.

There was Gerardo the Father, always cheerful smiling, very handsome and someone who lived life to the absolute full. There is Pili, his wife who is indescribable. The only adjective that comes to mind is “endearing”. She is the heart of the family. Pili taught Chemistry at the same school as José Antonio and Dolores and it was thanks to Dolores that I went to live with them.

Gerardo and Pili, a successful good looking couple had 4 children, Gerardo, Irene, Julieta and Toti (Alberto) when I went to live with them. Part of the deal was teaching Gerardo and Irene English every day. It turned out to be mission impossible as the kids enjoyed their time hiding from me or locking me up in the bathroom. However we got on famously and I became very close to them all; so much so that they have been in my heart and mind always even if we don’t see each other so often.

When I first fell in love with Eladio who was a priest at the time, they accepted us with open arms. In fact they were probably the main guests at our wedding after my family and the 2 daughters, Irene and Julieta, were my bridesmaids. They also put up some of my guests, including my dearest friend Amanda who they also knew from her visit to their house when I was living with them. Amanda got on famously with them all too. It was their car which, driven by dear Gerardo, was used to take me the church on my wedding day. And Gerardo, a cookie monster when he was 13, is now the proud Father of 5 children!

Then when I was pregnant with Susana, Pili became pregnant too, very late in life and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Lucía, just a few months after me. Very, very unfortunately darling Pili became blind afterwards. It must have been a nightmare for her and a great difficulty in life still. I will never forget when I went to see her at the time. She opened the door, looked at me and asked me who I was? I said, “Pili, I’m Masha can’t you see me?” to which she replied, “No, I can’t but you just tell me who you are and I will hug you”. That brought a few tears to my eyes and still does, even as I am writing this.

And I am writing this post today because yesterday they rang me to tell me that Gerardo had passed away on Tuesday night after fighting an aggressive lung cancer. He was only 69 and too young to die and leave his wonderful wife a widow. I cannot get them out of my thoughts and so many memories come back.

As I wrote to Pili in a text message yesterday I have only good memories of Gerardo. He was a great enthusiast of life and his family. He was successful, he was generous, he was witty and he was handsome. He had a smile constantly on his face and above all he had a knack of making people feel welcome. My parents came to visit me when I lived with them and not only did they invite them for dinner, but Gerardo took my Father out on a couple of occasions. He took him to a Real Madrid match and to his golf club, both of which my Father will never forget.

He was a true gentleman and will be much missed by his family and friends but he will never be forgotten.

Goodbye Gerardo. Enjoy your beer and “marisco” up there, smile down at us and why not light up a cigarette and enjoy it now you can.

It was a pleasure to have known you.

Forever Masha

Oli's make over in Mia

Hi again

I just wanted to tell you that next week brings something very exciting for Olivia who has just finished her Summer work practice at the Mia magazine. In next week’s edition which will be available in the newsagents on Thursday they will be publishing a make over they did of her back in August. And here are some advance photos of the shoot. She looks great. Congratulations darling.


Cheers Masha

Lots of men in the house, a diet of sorts, lunch with Julio and Fátima, the birth of "Público", the Doctor's prescription, Fergus came to stay.

Hi again

As I started to write this post, I thought that not much had happened this week. But actually that’s not true as it has been a very busy week.

We have had the builders in still working unsuccessfully on the guest room! We have had men in to put guttering up on the roof and we have also had men in to mend a burst pipe. And we have also had the painters in to renovate the façades of the balconies which were a bit crumbly. So, all in all, there have been a lot of men around!

This week saw the beginning of my diet. Susi, my daughter who is studying Food Science worked out a diet for me. She, along with Olivia, have been watching out the whole week to make sure I don’t stray. So life, food wise, has been a little unfair.

I had lunch with my “best buddies”, Fátima (or Pin) and Julio from my Nokia days. From this page here goes a big congratulations to Fátima for her new job in marketing. So, no more RFQs, eh darling? We went to Tony Romas and stuffed the greatest ribs in town but were careful on the desert.

On Tuesday evening I went to the opening party of the new daily newspaper, “Público” and took Olivia with me who is studying journalism. Público claims to be a radically left wing paper and really is. The launch advertising campaign included a man with a T-shirt saying “Fuck Bush” which has now been withdrawn as they did not have George Bush’s permission!!!! The party was big but rather boring I’m afraid but there were loads of people I knew so it was quite good from that aspect.

On Thursday I went to the Doctor about my back. The final verdict is that I have slight wear and tear on my neck (cervical chords), should lose some weight (I know, I know) and do more exercise. When I boasted about our hour long daily walk I was told that that was only good for the circulation and that maybe I should try “pilates”!!!

Friday we went out to dinner with our dinner buddies, Roberto and Mari Carmen and it was a late celebration dinner for Eladio’s birthday. We had postponed it because of my back. And here, I am afraid to say, the breaking of my diet began. Funnily enough their present to Eladio was a book by the famous Spanish heart specialist, Valentín Fuster on how to look after your health!!!

This weekend we have had Fergus to stay. Remember him from last week? Well I think he had a grand time with the girls and their friends. From what I heard 4 of them shared a whole bottle of vodka on their first night out. They were back after 5 each night so very obviously a good time was had by all. It’s good to note that Fergus has finally found a flat to live in. This week he will be beginning his classes at the school in Fuenlabrada. Good luck Ferg; just don’t talk so fast to those Spanish kids.

Eladio and I went to the cinema for the first time in ages yesterday. We went to see "Mighty Heart" with Angelina Jolie. It's about the death of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist from the WSJ who was kidnapped and killed in Karachi. The story and film are awesome; so much so I have just ordered the book on Amazon.com. I'm afraid I broke my diet again as we went to the Alpargatería for dinner afterwards. It is, as you probably know, the restuarant we go to most but actually we hadn't been there for months and months.

And tomorrow brings a visit from my best friend from England, Amanda. We went to school together and have kept in touch ever since. So this week there will be a lot of catching up to do.

Till next week/Masha

PR and girlie lunches, Rudyard Kipling, a boyhood dream and another birthday

Hi again

Last week, in between being a put out a bit thanks to my back ache which is now receding, thank God, I managed to squeeze in a couple of PR and girlie lunches. The PR lunch was with Víctor, a friend and colleague from way back. He is one of the partners of the PR agency, Perception + Image with whom I have worked most over the years. They now do my press tracking and are the best at it in Spain. The reason for the meeting was to see their new offices in Las Rozas; quite impressive. But the best thing was lunch at Gobolem which turned out to be quite a PR encounter as both Víctor and I knew people on at least 3 of the other tables and there were only 5 with people on them! It was fun to greet Mamen from my Placement agency last year, looking as beaming as ever.

Lunch with Víctor also brought with it memories of a wonderful poem by Rudyard Kipling called If. Yes, we got quite philosophical about the sort of person you have to be to do PR and, of course, we both identified ourselves fully with the advice in that great poem. And here are the first few lines just to get you into the spirit. If you are English you will probably recall reading this poem in class at school many years ago.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

The girlie lunch was less philosophical, of course. It was with my dear friends Jill, Zenaida and mother-to-be Ana. As you can see from the photo, they are looking great.

Jill, Ana, Zenaida (from left to right)

And the boyhood dream, you will ask? Well, it’s very simple. Eladio has always dreamed of having a table tennis table and has surfed the web quite a lot recently in search of one. He was a bit hesitant because of the price but when I reminded him his birthday was coming up, he immediately decided to order one and then promptly instructed us NOT to buy him anything for his actual birthday. And did we take any notice? Of course not, because a birthday without unwrapping presents, a card and a cake is simply not a birthday.

His lovely table arrived on Friday but with a set of assembly instructions which looked like Chinese to me. Well, Eladio is persistent and never gives up and Saturday saw him spending the morning assembling his precious table which was up and ready for playing by lunch time.

The girls trying out the new table tennis table
Sunday was his birthday and he was 36 or so he told us. That doesn’t make much sense as we have been together for over 24 years, does it? Well, anyway, he is looking splendid. And to celebrate it with him we had José Antonio and Dolores for lunch that day. Fergus came with them and Fergus was to remind me most of the day of my start in life in Spain. Fergus who is English, aged 22 and studies Spanish at Sheffield University in the UK, has come to Spain as an assistant teacher of English in a school in Fuenlabrada as part of an exchange with the British Councill and part of his University degree. He is at a bit of a loose end at the moment because his job hasn’t started yet and he is looking for accommodation which is proving quite difficult. However, I know he is going to have a great time and that things will all work out in the end. If you are reading this Fergus, believe me, this year is going to one of your best.

Eladio and the birthday cake. Flanked by Fergus on the left and my Father on the right.
Next week brings with it the birth of a new newspaper in Spain, “Público” and, hopefully, I shall be going to the opening party. The following week will be great as my “bestest” friend Amanda will be coming to see us. Let’s just hope her “new” room will be finished on time. I don’t want to complain here about the length of the renovation which is now into its third week. No comment!!

Cheers again from here.
All the best/Masha