Diana was born, Kings’ day, a lot of snow and an adventurous dinner at Julio’s.

Our walk in the snow this morning, what a joy.

Hi again

As I begin to write my weekly post this Sunday afternoon in January it is snowing quite heavily outside. We are having a very cold spell with extremely low temperatures for Spain all over the country (-15ºc in Burgos for example) and it was even snowing today in Seville, something nearly unheard of. The cold spell has affected most of Europe and I know for one of people snow bound in the UK this last week where chaos reigned with cancelled flights and closed schools.
A great satellite photo of Great Britain snowed under, or as the Daily Telegraph wrote one day: Great Britain in a deep freeze.
Who will not have noticed the snow will be my newest grand niece, Diana. Diana was born on Monday 4th January to Ana, the wife of Roberto, the son of Adela who is Eladio’s sister. She came into this cold world at the beginning of a new decade in a peaceful and uncomplicated way. Her parents are delighted with her as is everybody around her.
Baby Diana born last Monday 4th Jan.
We sent the proud new parents a gift for the new born baby in the form of a baby hamper, my favourite present for babies from a website called Don Faldón. I judge that very subjectively as I know I would have loved to receive something like that when my girls were born, much more than flowers and plants that only die in the end.
Proud parents, Roberto and Ana, with their newly born baby girl Diana posing by the baby hamper we had sent them to celebrate her birth.
My girls, together with Gaby, Suzy’s boyfriend, are actually on their way back from León from visiting Diana and the family this weekend (see their photos here). In fact they should be walking in the door any minute.

The girl cousins around Ana and Diana this weekend.
And they did walk in and it was snowing and time for our walk and so we braved the weather as you can see here.
Eladio and Norah ready for our walk yesterday just as the snow began.
Very soon everything was covered and cars were having difficulties going up the road and Eladio was threatening not to go out tonight to Julio’s annual dinner (more about that later). I loved the silence the snow brought and the crunchy noise you hear as you step on fresh new powdery snow. It was like that in the fields and we were the only ones on the walk. You had to be careful not to step on puddles which had snow on them as the ice was brittle.

Now I am back and writing again before we leave (or try to leave) for Julio’s annual dinner, something we always look forward to. Let me start before though at the beginning of the week.

On Monday, the day Diana was born, I went into the office mainly because my remote corporate email vpn had expired. It was nice to see colleagues and gauge the atmosphere at work. That day I also went shopping with Suzy and ended up buying 2 coats (pink and and black and white) in the sales which were oh so cheap I went back for another one the next day (white).

On Tuesday, my up day (oh yes I’m still doing up and down days, hahaha) we went out to dinner with Roberto and MariCarmen, to celebrate MariCarmen’s birthday to De Brasa y Puchero in Boadilla.

Wednesday was the 3 Kings’ day (Epiphany) and officially the last day of Christmas in Spain (see previous years' entries on the subject here). Most Spaniards give their presents on that day and the 5th of January, the night before is the biggest sales day of the year. It certainly was in the case of Yoigo where we made record sales. Of course we celebrate Father Christmas so none of us were expecting very much that day. As it turned out, the Kings had left presents for us at Gaby’s house (Suzy’s boyfriend) and at José Antonio and Dolores house too for which we were very grateful.

The day began with breakfast all together where we ate the traditional roscón which you can see here. We bought 2, one with cream for lunch and one for breakfast without cream which we always toast. We got them from a superb bakery called Viena Capellanes thanks to vouchers we get at work. So thanks once again Yoigo for feeding the family, hahaha.
The typical "roscón" cake which is eaten by the ton in Spain on the 3 Kings' day.
As is tradition in this house on the Kings’ day, Eladio’s brother, José Antonio and his family are always invited for lunch. This year we had the pleasure of the company of José Antonio, Dolores and Juan as you can see here in the photo of them round the lunch table. We had a very English meal actually, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.
The traditional 3 Kings' day family dinner with José Antonio, Dolores and Juan.
The next day, Thursday, the weather was infernal and bad enough to thwart our daily walk. We did, however, brave it to go shopping as we had to get a few more presents to give out at Julio’s dinner.

On Friday morning I did something terrible and forgot my date with Elena for coffee nearby. Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind that much and we have rescheduled it to the end of this month. Sorry Elena, how forgetful of me!!! I was making “cocido” for the family that morning and was so immersed I never looked at my diary. Here by the way is the result.

My cocido - Cocido madrileño is a very Spanish dish from the Madrid area which consists of different sorts of meats and bones and chorizos with chickpeas, potatoes and vegetables. The stock is used to make a wonderful soup with noodles which is served as a first course. It is the speciality of this household by the way.
In the afternoon we went to the cinema, not before visiting Leroy Merlin to get Eladio’s Christmas toy from my Father, a badly needed leaf blower which you can see him using here and which is going to come very much in handy in our huge garden.

Eladio and his new toy, a leaf blower.
We went to see a Spanish film called Celda 211 (celda means a prison cell) and was about a prison mutiny. It was quite violent as I had predicted but had a fantastic plot. Afterwards we went, of course, to have dinner to our favourite restaurant, La Alpagatería, where we dined at our favourite table, number 7. I do like tradition, don’t I?

Friday, actually, was also the day Spain took over the European Union Presidency, a big day for Spain as you can read here.

On Saturday, when the girls had gone to León, we had visitors for afternoon tea. Suzy’s friend, Rocio’s parents, Esmeralda and Juan came to see us to get advice for their trip to India in March. We hadn’t seen them since the girls were at school and it was nice to catch up and chat about India for 2 or 3 hours. You will remember that is was with Rocío the girls visited India in October.

And that brings me to Sunday, now yesterday as I have broken off to write this blog post several times now. Sunday of course was the day of the snow and the annual dinner at Julio’s house with Fátima, our best friend who lives nearby and who worked with me both at Motorola and Nokia.

As I said at the beginning of the post, it had begun to snow and Eladio was worried about us driving to Madrid. However nothing was going to stop me or the girls cancelling the dinner. After all it is a once a year event and means a lot to us all. So we ventured out very cautiously and slowly. It took us 1.5h to get to Julio’s house but we made it!!! It was mainly thanks to our wonderful car, a Volvo XC90 which is not only a 4WD but has a magic “W” button which we reckon stands for “winter”. Suzy drove there and Oli drove back. You are great drivers girls!!!

Dinner as usual was fantastic, the food being provided by Julio and Fátima, including the traditional roscón with cream which we all adore. Credit also goes to Fátima’s mother for making 2 delicious tortillas. Thanks Gloria.
The annual dinner at Julio's this year, a bit of an adventure to get to but well worth the effort.
And this morning we woke up to the heaviest snow fall we have seen in the last 10 years and certainly the heaviest at our new house. The first thing I did of course was to rush outside with Norah and take photos to remember the day before it melted.

You can see the whole selection of the photos of the snow at our house and also of our walk in the snow with the girls and Norah here on Facebook.

The snow, however, did not melt and is still here. In fact we are trapped at home, the only way out being with the Volvo which actually Oli has just taken to go to work this afternoon. Eladio’s Open University classes have been cancelled this afternoon the same as all schools and Universities in the area. This is a big day for Spanish weather, quite extraordinary.

It was so extraordinary, the four of us decided to go for a walk in the snow with Norah which turned out to be pure magic as you can see in the photo illustrating this post and in the photos in the link above as well as this video I have uploaded to You Tube. and in another one where Eladio and Suzy have a snow fight, haha. Good watching!

And on that magical note, I leave you until next week.

Hope you all have a great one. Cheers till then
Masha

Happy New Year, the family is growing and love at first sight.

Me and my wonderful husband on New Year's Eve this year.
Hi again, my first post of the New Year. I have just realised that I have more than 30.000 readers, that’s a lot of readers for a private blog and I wish them all a very happy new year. 2009 was a wonderful year for me and hopefully 2010 will be just as good. I would not dare to ask for better. For starters Eladio and I will be going to Brussels in February for a reunion with my Nottingham University friends, Sandra and Adele and then in March there is our much awaited trip to New York to look forward to. Hopefully there we will meet up there with my cousin André, our long lost friends Rosa and Angel and of course Javier and Ana. Yeah it’s gonna be good as the Americans say:-)

What was also good was the run up to the New Year. The week after Christmas was quiet and we spent our time looking after Eladio’s Mother who tends to need a lot more company than my very independent Father. To fill her time we gave her knitting to do and she knitted us all woolly socks and a scarf for Suzy. We also took her out, with my Father of course. Once we went to Zielo, the new shopping centre in Pozuelo which she loved. We all spent money here, at the bookshop (a gold mine in cheap English books), at the perfume shop (yes, “Lola” by Marc Jacobs for Fátima for Christmas) and also at the superb super market, Sánchez Romero.
Lola by Marc Jacobs, my favourite perfume at the moment.
Soon her stay with us came to an end and on Saturday 31st we set off, just the 3 of us to León for New Year’s Eve and of course to take Eladio’s Mother home. Olivia had to work and Suzy stayed behind probably out of solidarity, I don’t know. It was the perfect excuse for my 90 year old Father to stay behind too as I think late night rowdy and multitudinous dinners are something that tire him out. They tire us out too as you will hear later.

It rained all the way, as it had done all week but of course that didn’t deter us from stopping at the Palacio de Bornos in Rueda for a coffee and, of course, a plate of delicious ham. Unfortunately I couldn’t have the lovely Rueda white wine owing to a stubborn headache. From Rueda we drove straight to León and to Pili and Andres’ house where we to have lunch. We were greeted outside by Andrés and Mario and their adorable dalmation puppy, Trebol and it was love at first sight. Trebol has brought much joy to the family and seems to have united them even more. They are all in love with it and treat it as a new born baby and as a new member of the family. I don’t think they can envisage life without Trebol and I can quite understand.
Me and Trebol, love at first sight.
The afternoon was spent at Eladio’s other sister, Adela’s house where his Mother lives. However before we left (it’s only across the road), I helped Andrés create a Facebook profile which I hope he will be using regularly. One by one we all arrived at Adela’s to be together but also to celebrate her son Roberto’s 38th birthday. Roberto is the oldest of the nieces and nephews and is fact about to be a Father. Here is a picture of Ana, his wife, on 31st December very much pregnant as she was actually due yesterday. We are waiting for news of the birth of their daughter Diana which will make the whole family very happy.
Ana, Roberto'w wife, due to deliver Diana any day now.
Alvaro, Alejandro’s son also came to visit with his “wife” Bea and their adorable one year old Liam who had us all, the women at least, enchanted as you can see in the photo. Bea is also pregnant and expecting a little girl in February so the family is really growing. Here, by the way, is a video I took to capture Liam's visit.
All the women in the family crowded round Liam the first great grand child
The afternoon ended and we all left to get ready for the dinner but before some of us went on a quick walk to work up an appetite and get rid of the lethargy created by sitting down all afternoon in a crowded atmosphere.

Dinner was to take place at Amancio, somewhere we have been many times over the years. The food is great but maybe the place itself could do with some renovation.
The outside of the Amancio restaurant in León where we had dinner on New Year's Eve, nothing special but the food is superb
This year we were only 19 people. Marta and Fernando, Suzy and Oli and Alvaro were missing and Roberto and Ana too, although they came for coffee afterwards. As usual I contributed to the celebration with lots of funny hats I had acquired at the Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor and with crackers as well as a raffle at the end of the dinner of all sorts of bits and bobs I had accumulated over the year, well in fact over 2 years as last year we were in India. This all seemed to be much appreciated as I was given a standing ovation at the end of the dinner.
The family at the New Year's Eve dinner this year.
Of course after dinner the younger generation went off for more celebrations and we “oldies” went back to Pili and Andres’ place where most of us sunk into the sofas and sat watching the stupid programmes on the TV that seem to saturate all stations at this time of year. We didn’t get to bed till past 3. Very kindly Pili and Andrés had lent us their bedroom so we should have got a good night’s sleep. In the end I woke up feeling like something the cat had brought in (and I had hardly drunk the night before I promise) and Eladio had symptoms of the beginning of a cold. We both spent most of the day feeling awful and the journey back was difficult for us both. I think the older you get the worse for wear you feel when you do not respect your normal routine.

We were very well hosted and Andrés took me out for a coffee to the superb cafeteria they have beneath their flat, Flecha and where we bought some cakes for my Father who always says that’s where the best cakes are made in Spain. Andrés also took me for a long walk along the river Bernesga near their house whilst Eladio watched the Vienna New Year Concert which, of course, my Father was also watching at home.

Pili put on a splendid lunch again and we were 13 round the table on New Year’s Day. Adela contributed with some lovely local fare called “botillo” which is known as “llosco” in Montrondo. We were all so full. I have been trying to do my “up and down” diet despite the Christmas period and it has proven tough. It will be much easier when all the eating is over.

It’s nice to be home again. Christmas is nearly over but not quite as Wednesday 6th January is Kings’ day and we will be having another special meal. We will be joined by José Antonio and Dolores making it even more special.

And as I come to the end of this first blog post of the year, I must send birthday greetings to our friend Mari Carmen whose birthday it is today. We will be celebrating with her and her husband Roberto on Tuesday at yet another dinner.
Meanwhile have a great week and a fantastic year 2010.

Cheers/Masha
PS you can see the rest of the New Year's Eve photos in León here on Facebook.

My year in Facebook status updates 2009

Hi

In my last post I published my year in photos thanks to a Facebook application. Now I have just done my year in Facebook status updates and I think it's so great I want to post it here on my blog.

Hope you like it.

Cheers midweek / Masha

Christmas comes but once a year, Spanish and English traditions, 2009 in pictures and Happy New Year to you all.

Some of my photos of 2009 in a picture collage. I hope 2010 is just as good.
Hello again

Today is Sunday 27th December and the most important days of Christmas are now over. Christmas comes but once a year as the title of this week’s blog says and for me it is always magical and much awaited. And every year I write about it in my blog as you can see here. As ever they were great as a lot of thought and preparations were put in to make them so. But let me tell you first about the run up to Christmas and then how we spent it here at home with the family, somewhat extended this year with the visit of Eladio’s Mother.

Last week on Monday we woke up to quite a big snowfall. It was actually big enough to make us snowbound until mid afternoon, mostly because our drive is so steep. Our plans therefore for Christmas shopping with the “abuelos” (grandparents in Spanish) had to be put off until Wednesday. Being snowbound has its advantages so I spent the morning cooking perushki which are Russian meat pies. Norah of course thoroughly enjoyed the snow which she had never experienced before. You can see a full set of pictures here.
The snow that had us housebound on Monday.

On Tuesday, with the snow mostly gone, I went into work for a meeting and also to receive a friend, Marta Acebo, from our Nokia days who wanted to pick my brains about PR. It was lovely to see her and I hope my input was useful.

Tuesday was also the Spanish Christmas lottery draw known as “El Gordo”. It is one of the biggest Christmas traditions here in Spain and unites people across the country. When I first came to live in Spain I couldn’t understand why people spent money on it and I was cross with Eladio for buying tickets when we earned so little. Now I couldn’t perceive Christmas without buying a ticket or two. However once again we didn’t win a cent.
The El Gordo Christmas lottery, a truly Spanish tradition.
I didn’t win the lottery but I did contribute to my boss winning a poll for the telecoms executive of the year in a publication called El Economista. I spent at least 10 days canvassing for votes and had people working specially on it, including Juan my nephew. We won hands down with more than 11.000 votes. It was an interesting exercise for me which I actually thoroughly enjoyed. You can see the full results of the poll here.

Not only was I canvassing last week, I was also putting the final touches to the last of the many Yoigo Christmas activities, the last being the making and sending of a Christmas gift to our external contacts and partners. This year we made chocolate in the shape of “muñecos” which are a sort of cartoon dolls that we use in advertising. To judge by the comments in emails I got, people loved them. I have one but want to keep it as a sample and just cannot bear the idea of digging my teeth into the lovely chocolate creation. And this is what it looks like:
The Yoigo gift of chocolate we made in the shape of the "muñecos" (cartoon dolls)
On Wednesday I did a good Christmas deed, together with my friend Fatima, when we visited our friend Julio who is convalescing at his parents’ house after having been in hospital because of a duodenal ulcer. I mentioned in my blog last week that today, 27th December, we would be having our annual Christmas dinner at his house. Due to his illness, that has now been postponed until January. We took him some chocolate and a poinsettia plant, so typical in Spain at Christmas. I think we must have cheered him up and hopefully he is now well on the road to recovery.

Wednesday was also the day we took the “abuelos” out for a family lunch (yes all 6 of us). We meant to go to my Father’s favourite, Vips, but it was full and instead we went to Ginos. My Father later told me that Christmas started for him on that day. I’m glad. In the afternoon we all went to El Corte Inglés (Spain’s top department store) to do more Christmas shopping and as an excursion for the abuelos. I think though in the end we tired them out but I know for one my Father enjoyed it immensely. Most of my own Christmas shopping was done with Suzy on odd afternoons in the last 2 weeks and finally our Christmas tree looked like this.
The Christmas tree with all the presents ready for Christmas Day, another truly British tradition.
And on 24th December, Christmas arrived in what is known here as “Nochebuena” (Christmas Eve)here in Spain. Everything was ready including the fillers for the girls’ stockings my Mother had knitted for them when they were children. It is a tradition from my own childhood. The girls put out the stockings and I fill them with all sorts of little wrapped up enticing objects and put them back outside their rooms. Even though they are now in their 20’s the girls insist I carry on the tradition every Christmas. Here you can see the empty stockings hanging on the tall boy outside their rooms waiting to be filled on Christmas Eve.
The girls' stockings, a truly British Christmas tradition and one we love.
Nochebuena is as important in Spain (and many other countries in Europe) as Christmas Day in England and is celebrated with a special dinner with tables groaning with the finest delicacies. In our house we have the best of both worlds and celebrate Christmas with both Spanish and English traditions. Here you can see our Christmas Eve or Nochebuena table for which I had been cooking for 2 whole days.
The family dinner on Christmas Eve, a truly Spanish tradition called Nochebuena.
The next day, Christmas day, evolved as it always has for me and the children and had as much magic as it always has. The highlights are of course the present opening ceremony after breakfast and the midday traditional English Christmas lunch with all the trimmings including crackers. I, at least, was delighted with my presents: charms for my Pandora bracelet, black leather long gloves, pretty ear warmers and wonderful perfumes. Even Norah got a present this year as you can see in this picture.
Norah opening her present - bone and dog biscuits which were very much appreciated, hahaha.
Eladio and I just before we opened the presents on Christmas Day. Eladio is wearing a bow tie which accidentally matched my blouse. He looks great with it on.
The other Christmas photos can be viewed here.

The rest of the time, including Boxing Day was spent lazing around, eating too much plus an enormous amount of chocolate and also watching films we had hired. As I had chosen them I ended up watching them more or less on my own. So what did I hire? Well, Good, Amazing Grace and Miss Austen Regrets, all rather historical and academic but just up my street. Last night though we changed the genre and decided to watch one of the Indian “Elements Trilogy” by the Indian director Deepa Metah called Earth which is about the religious strife associated with the formation of Pakistan when the English finally granted India their home rule and independence. We had previously watched Water, an amazing story of the mistreatment of widows in rural India and may well watch Fire tonight, the last of the trilogy, all very recommendable, especially if you are fascinated by India like we are.

Christmas comes but once a year as I wrote above, but it hasn’t gone yet. For me it doesn’t go until 6th January, Epiphany and also the very much celebrated “Reyes” or Kings’ day when most Spaniards give their presents. My nephew Mario, the son of Pili and Andrés who were with us last weekend, got his Kings’ present early this year, in the shape of a wonderful little Dalmation puppy called Trebol. It’s absolutely adorable as I’m sure you agree when you see this photo.
Trebol, the dalmation puppy Mario got for Christmas.
And it is with Pili and Andrés and the rest of Eladio’s family with whom we will be celebrating New Year’s Eve next week in León. We will in fact be staying at Pili’s (Eladio’s sister) and will be meeting Trebol of course.

And talking about next year, I did 2 great collages of my year in photos thanks to an application in Facebook as you can see here and in the photo illustrating this post.
Another collage of my photos in 2009. Great little application from Facebook.
And on that note I leave you and hope you will all enjoy the rest of Christmas and of course New Year’s Eve. I also wish you all a great 2010. 2009 has been fantastic for us and so I hope 2010 will be another good year. We already have nice trips to look forward to: Brussels for a reunion with Adele and Sandie in February and a week in New York in March. Isn’t life great?

Happy New Year to you all

Masha

So cold, more parties, a real reindeer, back to El-Aaiún, Pili, Andrés and the “abuela came” sad news and a Happy Christmas from Yoigo and from me.

Suzy and I posing with the real reindeer at the Yoigo children's Christmas party last week.
Hi again,

Here I am at my desk again writing this week’s blog entry and it’s Sunday 20th December, just 4 days to Christmas. If you are English you would say there were 5 days, but the Spaniards (and most of Europe) celebrate Christmas Eve, the 24th, so there are only 4 days to go. You can tell too that Christmas is on its merry way (to quote Becky Leonard) by all the snow that has fallen recently (well just a sprinkling in Madrid) and by the extreme cold. I do not remember it being so cold in a long time. Believe it or not we saw -8ºc on our way home last night. And there is talk of temperatures below 20ºc in some parts of Spain. Today in fact it is colder in Madrid than in Helsinki (-5ºc). It makes you wonder what the world is coming to; quite bizarre. Funnily this coincides with the celebration this week of the world climate summit in Copenhagen. I have only read the headlines but it seems it has been a disappointment in many ways.

This week has been another week of parties and pre Christmas celebrations. Right now as I write, thankfully, all my professional Christmas commitments are over and I can finally concentrate on our own. But let me tell you about them first.

On Wednesday I went to the Ketchum (my PR Agency) 20th anniversary cum Christmas party held at Moma (a well known discotheque in Madrid where I for one have organised quite a few events). There were many people there and the night seemed promising. However the 2 most common blunders took place, rather strange coming from a PR agency, which were a severe lack of food and far too long speeches from people I at least did not know very well. Also, nothing else of any great interest happened except for an eternal video of people known to the agency (including me) sending their congratulations. So when it was a decent time to leave I made my exit and rushed home in time to be with Eladio before going to bed.

Much more fun was the Yoigo children’s party on Thursday which was a blast. There were 90 children plus their parents and they all had to fit in the office reception area and cafeteria. The star of the show was a real reindeer with a false Father Christmas in a false sleigh where the kids and their parents could have their photo taken. It caused an absolute sensation. Everyone asked me where we had found it. The answer is quite simple, from a company that has animals for adverts and television. All sorts of other activities and games took place such as pass the parcel, t-shirt and biscuit workshops, a soap bubble show etc and all the kids got given a passport with the activities to be stamped. Suzy was with me helping as was her friend Copi who we hired to paint the kids faces. They had a great time and of course when they left there were presents and a bag of sweets to take home too. You can see more photos here.
Suzy helping at the Yoigo Children's Christmas party. Great picture.
No sooner had the Yoigo children’s party finished I was off to yet another party, this time to the ex Motorola Christmas dinner at Clérico (an Argentinian joint) in Las Rozas. If you are not familiar with my time with Motorola (the company I worked for from 1990 to 1999) you can read about it here. Suffice it to say my time there forged great friendships with a unique set of people who get together every now and again to catch up on our news but mainly to reminisce about the good old Motorola days and Thursday evening was no exception. Thanks Vicky and Nuria for organising it.
Me at the Motorola dinner flanked on my left by Nuria Caballero and Carlos Grima and by Ruben Tabarnero on my right.
The same night of the Motorola party, the Saharawi activist, Aminatou Haidar, was flying back to her home town, El-Aaiún, a city in the western Sahara, founded by the Spanish in 1928 but managed by Morocco since 1976. The Polisario group seek the independence of the area which the Moroccan government simply consider another province. Aminatou Haidar, as I wrote last week had caused a huge political problem to the Spanish government. She was entering Morocco from Spain 2 or 3 weeks ago and apparently changed her nationality from Moroccan to Saharawi in her passport. Thus she was not allowed entry and was returned to Spain. Since then she set up siege and went on a hunger strike in the airport of Lanzerote in the Canary Islands. She was offered Spanish nationality but refused and the situation fast became stale mate. And very suddenly last week, after intervention from the European Union, she was finally allowed by the Moroccan government to return to El-Aaiún.
Aminatou returned home last week and I'm sure the Spanish government is very happy it's all over. I am too.
And soon the weekend was here and brought with it the visit of Eladio’s mother who has come to stay for Christmas. Pili (Eladio’s sister) and her husband Andrés (a great fan of this blog, thank you Andrew) brought her which made for a great weekend all together.
Pili and Andrés at breakfast this morning.
The highlight was a visit to Madrid on Saturday night to the Plaza Mayor, via a very busy Puerta del Sol, and the Mercado San Miguel. Eladio and I got some more tree lights at the former and some much needed and hard to find cranberry sauce from the market. It was cold but we enjoyed walking the very populated streets. Of course there was time for some tapas in the old town, as you can see in this photo of the four of us in “el Mesón del Boquerón” which unfortunately does not have a website.

From there we dared to walk all the way to Génova, to the Bice restaurant, right next door to the Partido Popular’s headquarters (Spain’s right wing party) and one of my favourites in Madrid.
The entrance to the very stylish Bice restaurant (Italian) in Madrid.
There we were to be joined for dinner by José Antonio and Dolores who unfortunately couldn’t make as they were meeting Miguel at the airport and his plane was late. You can see all the photos of the weekend here on Facebook.

And this brings me to the sad part of this week’s entry. This blog is usually full of positive content but of course life has its ups and downs and sometimes, whether I like it or not, I have to record them too.

On Monday I heard that my dearest friend Julio had been taken into hospital with a duodenal hemorrhage. He was, of course, later diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer which may well have been caused by stress. Thankfully he is now out of hospital and on the 27th December we will be going to what is now a traditional Christmas dinner at his house and one of the highlights of the season.

The next negative piece of news is that Dolores will be operated on tomorrow. She has some cysts which are not dangerous but growing. Hopefully she will be out the next day and ok in time for Christmas with her family. I wish her the very best from these pages.

The sad news, though, refers to our friends Roberto and MariCarmen. Last night we got a message to say that Roberto’s nephew, the only son of his sister had died suddenly playing basket ball in Vitoria where they live in the north of Spain. He was only 27 and the other went to the doctor to complain about a pain in this chest. It was dismissed as a muscular pain and he was told to continue life as normal which he did. Then the other day at the end of a basket ball match he began to feel faint, collapsed and died just as the ambulance arrived. My heart goes out to his family but especially to his Mother and Father. This is a terrible story which we cannot imagine every happening to us.

As I don’t want to end on a sad note, I thought you might like to see and do the Happy Christmas quiz from Yoigo, the company I work for, which I have worked on with my events agency. It is also, of course an e-card to wish our customers and friends a very Happy Christmas. You can enjoy it and try it out here.

I also wish you all a great Christmas. We are nearly all ready here at home, as you can see from the photo of this year’s tree (look out for dear Phoebe too in the photo, hahaha).


And that’s it for this week. When I write next week Christmas day will already be over, but this time next week will also be Sunday 27th which is the date for the much awaited dinner at Julio’s, something to look forward to. Until then,

Masha

Well into December, happy with myself, Aminatou Haidar, a political problem, a good deed, new toys before Christmas and more.

Aminatou haidar, the human rights defender and political activist on a hunger strike in a Spanish airport in the Canary Islands, a big headache for Spanish international politics and the main news in Spain these days.
Hi again

Today is Sunday again and we are now well into December. While I’m writing Eladio and my Father are practising that wonderful Spanish sport, the siesta and the girls are away in Navacerrada, a small town in the mountains outside Madrid, for a girly weekend.
Navacerrada in the mountains outside Madrid.
It’s cold outside but sunny and soon we will be going on our walk and then our friends, Roberto and Mari Carmen will be coming for a cup of tea. The lounge is nearly ready for Christmas but I am leaving the lights and decorations for when the girls come back to do it together and maintain the tradition. Of course when we do we will have the King’s College Choir singing carols in the background. I mean, what is Christmas without carols?

Today is my down day. If you read my blog last week you will know I am doing the Up and Down diet where you fast one day on 500 calories and eat up to 2.500 the next day. It may seem like the latest fad diet but for me, for the moment, it is working and I have now done it for nearly 2 weeks. All in all I have now lost 10 kilos since I started in September. I feel so much happier with myself and this time I am very motivated.

The diet doesn’t stop me going out for meals, but only on the “up days”. So last Sunday we went out with Roberto and Mari Carmen to Las tres nueces in Boadilla and yesterday Eladio and I enjoyed dinner out at La Vaca Argentina in Las Rozas, one of our favourites. We hadn’t been for a while and it was nice to see the staff recognise us and welcome us back.

Who certainly won’t be going out for meals is a lady, who, at least in Spain and in Morocco, is now even more famous than she was before. I refer to Aminatou Haidar, human rights defender and political activitist also known as the “Sahrawi Gandhi”. She is on a hunger strike at a Spanish airport in the Canary Islands after being expelled over her refusal to accept Moroccan nationality. Right now she is one of the Spanish Foreign Ministry’s main problems and the hottest topic in Spanish and, of course, Moroccan politics. She is now into the 26th day of her hunger strike.

If I am reporting on the week, I should really start from where I left off, last Sunday. Last week was a bank holiday and we were together quite a lot as a family with a nice family lunch on Tuesday. That day too I did a good deed and accepted being interviewed by two unknown students studying journalism who contacted me via Facebook. They were doing a project on communication in Yoigo so were very eager to contact me. As they didn’t have much time, I agreed to meet them on Tuesday which was a holiday. Eva and Alvaro, very sweet kids, were obviously very nervous but asked all the right questions. Later I sent them more information and am now looking forward to seeing their finished work for which they will hopefully get a good mark.

The week went pretty fast after the bank holiday. Of note this week I went to the hairdresser and accentuated the new cut (short at the back and longer at the front) a bit more. On Thursday I attended the second round of a pretty mundane and very uninspiring coaching course for too many people. We are about 23 people and get shut in a room without windows for 5 hours which for me is impossible. The course leaders, nice people but lacking in charisma want to make a team out of us but the group is too big and the idea doesn’t seem to grab any of us, especially because we do not work together on a regular basis. I am not looking forward to the next sessions. Thankfully they are on a monthly basis.

This week was also the week we held our employee Christmas party organised by “the one and only” of course. Thankfully everything went well, no hitches, no complaints and a lot of fun. Big thanks go to my friend Pedro Delgado, the famous Spanish sportsman and ex cyclist, who was my MC and did a brilliant job. He is so special and I love him dearly as do most people in Spain.
Pedro Delgado when he won the Tour of France in 1988. He is a legend in Spain and a much loved personality even today.
Friday was difficult as the office party left me with a small migraine. I hardly drank but being up late was enough to start it off. I had a date with Juana, a friend, for a coffee and some advice on marketing communications as she has an interview tomorrow. Hope she gets the job. She certainly deserves it.

And although it is not Christmas yet I have already received some gifts including some lovely new toys. Yoigo gave all the employees a fantastic ham but also an LG notebook pc which is such fun. It’s white, extremely light and comes fully equipped. I also got a new Nokia phone, the N97 as mine was on its last legs. So this weekend I have been busy playing with both devices, synchronising contacts, installing programmes such as Spotify (how I love that) and generally getting them ready for use. I am not techy but do love new IT equipment.
My lovely new notebook PC which will be great for travelling
And now my husband has woken up from his siesta and it’s time for our walk. So on that note I will leave you until next week.

Goodbye till then
Masha.

Parties, getting into the Christmas spirit, the up and down diet, and Spain won the Davis Cup.

The 5 of us, Grandpa, Suzy, Oli, Eladio and I wish you a Happy Christmas.
Hi again

This time last week we were in La Rioja for the family weekend which was great. We are now, of course, drinking lots of the Márques de Riscal wine we brought back. It was a nice family trip and we even had snow on the way back as you can see in this picture Suzy took from the car somewhere between Logroño and Burgos.
We hit serious snow on our way back from La Rioja last week.
And now it’s the Constitution and Immaculate Conception bank holiday but this weekend we will not be going away. Before I continue, just a few words of congratulations to my Finnish friends as today is their Independence Day.

The week was short as we came back on Monday but as busy as most of December is always for me with all the Christmas events I have to organise for work and of course for home. On 1st December we also celebrated Yoigo’s 3rd anniversary with a staff party with cake and champagne to boost people’s morale and get them into the party mood. You can see some of the photos here.
The cake we had for Yoigo's 3rd birthday, it was wonderful.
This week too I went to a party not actually organised by me (!!!!!!!). Huawei (the very much up and coming Chinese telecommunications company and not “hu aa thei?” as someone from Nokia commented on my Facebook the other day) invited all of Yoigo to an evening out on Thursday at Lolita’s Lounge in Madrid. More and more I am realising that I prefer to stay at home in the evenings and don’t really enjoy places with lots of people. I far prefer small dinner parties with people I care about.

And next week will be the Yoigo employee party which I am, of course organising. It’ll take place at Ouimad and will be for about 180 people as it’s with partners. So on Friday I went with the girls from my events agency down to Madrid to the Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor to scout for fun stuff for the party. We also visited the newly restored Mercado de San Miguel which is the latest and most in place in Madrid to buy gourmet food and have tapas. It lives up to its reputation certainly and is a very recommendable place to visit. There I actually found an English Christmas pudding and of course bought one as well as some lovely goodies for my Father such as “rolos” (chocolates).
The Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid.
At the Plaza Mayor I began to get into the spirit of Christmas and decided to buy a new crib (called “belén or nacimiento in Spain) as ours is years old and falling apart. When I brought it home we immediately put it in the lounge which is very early for us. Usually we don’t put up the tree and decorations until the middle of December. However the Christmas spirit was already in me and yesterday I got permission from the rest of the family to put up some of the decorations. I was not allowed, though, to put up the tree or the lights until later.
The small crib or "misterio" as it is known here which I bought on Friday at the Christmas market in the Plaza Mayor, now gracing our lounge.
Then yesterday Suzy and I went shopping and I ended up doing some of my own Christmas shopping (and paying for some of theirs, hahaha) and in the afternoon Eladio and I wrapped them up. After lunch Suzy, Oli and Juli sent me a Christmas e-card with elves which was just so much fun I immediately started playing with the tool. You can see the 5 of us here, including Grandpa, all dressed as elves and dancing our hearts out. This elf tool is so good. Try it out yourself here if you want. I also did a Christmas photo which is the one illustrating this post.
Happy that I have done some Christmas shopping. Here you can see the parcels all wrapped up in the lounge.
Most important of all, this week Suzy and I began a variation to our diet. I read about the up and down diet in the Daily Mail recently. Basically you eat well on one day and semi-starve on the other. The days you eat well are called the “up days” and the fasting days are called the “down days”. We started after La Rioja last Tuesday and it seems to work. But oh, how I love the up days. Today is an up day and we will be going out to dinner with Roberto and Mari Carmen. Whoopeee!!!

And an up day must have been had by the Spanish national tennis team when they beat the Czech Republic yesterday and went on to win their 4th Davis Cup. Congratulations Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer, Verdasco and Feliciano López. This has been a great year for sport for Spain. Hopefully Spain will perform as well in next year's World Cup in South Africa. We will see.
The Spanish Davis Cup team celebrating their 4th win yesterday.
And on that note this blog post ends.

Cheers to you all till next week.

Masha