Welcome Lidia, back to Dukan, Phoebe returns to our lives, Lance Armstrong confesses, trouble in Mali and Algeria, my readers on the world map, the perfect storm and other things.

 Sunday 20th January 2013

Roberto, our nephew with Lidia just a few moments after she was born

Hi everyone,

The week has been packed with news both on the home front and around me.  So, yes my readers, there is much more to tell you than last week.  

On Monday I had lunch with my colleague Juan and we enjoyed what later turned out to be my last “normal” meal for a while. We chose Illunbe, just a stroll from Yoigo and spent our time catching up and exchanging stories of how we had spent Christmas.  Lucky Juan went to London.  Of course we talked shop too but as we both remarked things are very quiet at the moment.  Yeah Monday was quiet, but Tuesday turned out to be a remarkable day.

It was remarkable for many things.  There was a very unusual story from Sweden of all countries.  A cleaning lady for the national train company, in her early 20s, took the keys and actually drove a train from the dock outside Stockholm.  I don’t know how she managed to do either or why apart from the lark of it.  What wasn’t funny is that she drove it into a block of housing, causing lots of damage but luckily no one was hurt.  I later read that actually it’s not that difficult to drive a train without any training, but I would certainly not like to try.

Extraordinary news from Sweden about a train escapade

Tuesday was remarkable too because we learned that Lance Armstrong was to confess to doping in a taped interview with the most famous interviewer in the world, Oprah Winfrey.  However we weren’t to learn the full extent until the two part interview was to be broadcast later in the week on Thursday and Friday.  But just this news caused an avalanche of speculation of what he might or might not say.  I was happy to think that he would be remorseful but, knowing him, had my doubts.

Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey was huge news this week

Unaware of any of this, at 13.40 on Tuesday Lidia chose to be born.  Lidia is the second daughter of Ana and Roberto; the latter being our oldest nephew and son to Adela, Eladio’s sister.  This was a big event, a new member of the family and Freijo clan.  Thanks to Marta, Roberto’s sister, I had minute by minute live news and the first photos came just a few minutes after Lidia arrived in this world.  As I write I can feel the emotion.  A beautiful baby was born, a baby that will be loved and cherished and will grow happily into our family.  Welcome Lidia and congratulations Ana and Roberto.

Marta’s real time and minute by minute information told me that the birth had been easy with hardly any pain.  But unfortunately, strong and resolute Ana had problems with the afterbirth and had to be operated on, which slightly tinged the good news.  However everything went ok and Ana is now recovering and Mother and baby are now doing well.  They are now one happy family of four with two daughters like us.

The happy family, now a unit of four after Lidia's birth on tuesday

This photo of the four of them reminded me of the day Olivia was born on 22^nd May 1985 in the San Francisco Clinic in Madrid, so I looked for the photo I knew there was of the four of us on that day in our old albums and here it is.  That was one happy moment I shall cherish forever as I imagine Roberto and Ana will cherish theirs.  I wish them at least as much happiness as we have had.

Their family photo reminded me of ours when Olivia was born on 22nd May 1985

And it was on Tuesday that I took an important decision and it was thanks to my daughter Olivia. She remarked to me that she thought I had put on weight, something I had suspected but didn’t want to hear, something I had been thinking about all Christmas.  I hadn’t weighed myself since September and had eaten far more than I should.  The only Dukan rules I stuck to were having oat bran for breakfast, doing the PP (pure protein) diet on Thursdays and going on our daily walk.  I only wore loose woolen dresses, worried I might not get into my trousers.  However I didn’t think I looked fat so carried on eating normally or rather more than I should.  For the records I did the diet over two years ago and was very successful.  I was also the VID (very important Dukan) of the week and you can read about it here. 

My before and after Dukan photo of 2 years ago.  2 years later I am still slim and intend to stay so

Amazingly two years later I am still going strong, apart from this latest lapsus.  So on Tuesday, spurred on by Olivia, I decided to do two days of attack (PP) and then go on to “cruise” (alternating Pure Protein with Protein and Vegetables (PV).  Being afraid of the scales, I decided to weigh myself after the two days rather than before.  So wow was I pleased to see that in fact I was only 1.6k above my supposedly perfect weight (64.2).  Then after two days after “cruising” I am now only 0.7kg away from my target.  I shall continue and actually hope to reach a kilo or so below so as to have some margin.  For any doubters out there, Dukan works and is not dangerous if you do it properly.  For me now it is a way of life and I am not going back to the fat Masha.  Thanks Oli for spurring me on.

On Wednesday, feeling already lighter and happy, I treated myself to a new red coat (size 42, yes that’s my size) which I bought at a little boutique near one of our super markets. 

It was over a coffee after buying the coat that I read about the helicopter crash in the centre of London, due to fog apparently.  It had crashed into a crane on top of London’s tallest building at about 08h that morning,  The Tower on One St. George’s Warf, and fallen into Wandsworth Road in South Lambert.  The pilot died as did a passerby from Reading.  The chaos that ensued was big, with 80 firefighters tackling the blaze, people being hit by the debris.  The photos conjure up a very Dantesque scene which miraculously didn’t cause more damage as it happened when people were going to work.

The helicopter crash that caused havoc in London this week

On Wednesday morning too I read an interview with Spain’s premiere, Mariano Rajoy in the Financial Times. Used to reading about Spain’s woes magnified in the international press, this was actually quite balanced and even positive and I think it reflects what we are all seeing now, that Spain is on the road to recovery, albeit at the beginning of the road.

Mariano Rajoy was interviewed by The Financial Times this week

 I’m not sure many people were very interested in the interview; the big news coming out of Spain that day being about football, something the world is much more passionate about.  I mean Mariano Rajoy is a pretty grey prime minister and not well known outside Spain, but the person who is object of the football news, who is also Spanish, is famous in all the corners of the world.  I am talking about Pep Guardiola (see, you know who he is right?),  apparently the most coveted coach in the world.  The ex Barça player and coach who is on sabbatical, learning English in New York is now learning German and if you have read the news you will know why. He shunned Chelsea and Manchester United and has signed with Bayern Munich and will be their coach.  The next piece of news is that Raúl (does the ex Real Madrid striker need any introductions?) currently playing for Schalke, will be his second in command.  They both played together in the Spanish national team and will no doubt make a formidable team and the Bundesliga is delighted.  Meanwhile, the world’s second most coveted coach, Real Madrid’s José Mourinho, is in trouble because the team is so far behind Barcelona in the Liga and seems to be on bad terms with many members of the team.  The latest news tells of a nearly hands on fight with Cristiano Ronaldo in the dressing room last week.  I am a fan of Mourinho for many of his facets but think he lacks the ingredient that sets Pep Guardiola above them all: emotional intelligence. 

Nice to know that it is a Spaniard, Pep Guardiola, who is the most coveted football coach in the world

Tennis fans on Wednesday will have been pleased to hear the other big sports news that day: Rafa Nadal is to return to tennis, clear of the injury which has grounded him since the summer.  I love tennis and follow it quite a lot, but when my Father asked how the Australian Open was going, I didn’t know.  That, is because Nadal isn’t playing.  Hopefully he will soon be on form and when my Father asks me for news of the US or French Open I can answer that Nadal is winning.  Yes, I am a Nadal fan, another sportsman with emotional intelligence.

I worked quite a lot this week, going into the office on Monday and Tuesday and this week finally finished my PR plan for 2013, something that I had hanging over me all Christmas.  Actually when I got down to it, it only took a couple of hours. I can be such a procrastinator, a trait I hate in myself. I think I sent it off on Thursday, a day that felt so good, the day I got on the scales and which had me so relieved.  It was on Thursday too that Eladio decided to try out the Sony wireless speaker system I got for Christmas from Sony Mobile Spain as did all the other employees at Yoigo (thanks Dani).  I had hardly looked at it but when Eladio had it up and working – via Bluetooth, I suddenly took interest and connected this SRS-BTM8 model both to my iPhone and to my PC.  I then turned on Spotify and carried on working with my classical collection in the background.  Oh it was such bliss and the sound is heavenly.  How I love technology like this. No doubt we shall be using it too when we have guests for dinner as it is a neat little device you can carry around and connect to nearly anything that has Bluetooth.

Bliss and heaven come out of this neat little device, a Sony wireless speaker system

 Whilst we were working and enjoying the music in the background, our female cat, Phoebe, was sleeping on the best sofa upstairs.  Phoebe and Joe have been somewhat ousted from our lives due to the presence of the dogs, but Phoebe in this last week has returned to our lives.  She comes in with Eladio when he goes to get the papers from the post box and whilst the dogs are safely out of the way in the kitchen.  She then spends her day in between eating from her bowl in the TV room and sleeping on the best sofa in the lounge. She even lets us cuddle her which is rare as she is a very shy animal.  I caught her on camera and edited the picture below where her colours match the beautiful pink and beige mohair blanket we bought in Ezcaray.  I love it so much it is now my screen saver.

Phoebe our cat who has returned to stay blending in with the mohair blanket on the best sofa

That evening and it being my first PV day, I made a delicious Dukan approved salad which I posted on the Facebook Dukan pages and on Instagram and got some flattering comments.  Nice eh?

A nicely edited photo of the 100% Dukan salad I made for one of my "PV" days this week

That night I would have wanted to watch the first part of the Lance Armstrong interview but it would have been at 3 in the morning, so I skipped on that and instead read the transcript of the interview on the BBC website the next day.  And boy did he confess, he admitted in yes / no answers to having doped through all the Tours of France he won.  If you didn’t see the interview, you can read the transcription here.  He also admitted to being a bully, something I already knew, and thankfully he admitted to bullying his soigneur Emma O’Reilly.  I had hoped for more names to come out of people involved in his doping but that is something he avoided.  I was disappointed too that he did not admit that Frankie Andreu’s wife, Betsy’s story was true of how he told doctors when he was hospitalized for cancer, all the forbidden drugs he had taken.  I had to wait until yesterday morning, Saturday, to get the transcript of the second part of the interview which was aired again at 3am our time.  You can read that here too.  Was he remorseful?  Well, for Lance I think he was.  He nearly cried whilst talking about his son Lucas who tried to defend his Father by telling his fellow pupils that he was innocent.  That, apparently, was when Lance decided to stop living the lie and told his son the truth and then the world.  I think he can only feel better now that he is no longer living a lie.

Lance getting emotional in the second part of the interview with Oprah Winfrey

Lance was the big news of the week, but really more important is and was what has been happening in Mali and Algeria; both ex French colonies.  The Al Qaeda terrorist group is causing trouble again and threatening interests in Europe.  On Friday 11^th January militant Islamists invaded the north of Mali.  French troops have gone into fight them, together with troops from other African nations to prevent the country from becoming a terrorist state.  And this week, the same terrorist group, in reaction to the French intervention, stormed a gas plant in Algeria and kidnapped tens of hostages working there who were from many different countries.  Nearly 40 have been killed, first by the terrorists during the siege and then in the ensuing storming by Algerian troops.  At least the European Union is totally united in this crisis which I hope ends soon.

This brings me onto the next topic in this week’s blog.  It always amazes me to see, not only how many readers I have, but all the different places they come from.  You are probably wondering how I know.  It’s thanks to Cluster Maps which monitors the countries you all come from.  Of course the map doesn’t tell me who you are but it does tell me where you are from. The map looked like this last week.

It always amazes me to see how many countries in the world the readers of this blog are from

The top ten countries in descending order are: US, Spain, UK, India, Belgium, Germany, Canada, France, Netherlands and Italy.  The list goes on and includes all sorts of remote countries but I just took a look and there are no readers from Mali or Algeria.  It’s also interesting to see which are the most read posts and very recently one I wrote in October, entitled “My novel of the week, Jimmy the creep, a courageous girl, Oli reporting on the Red Cross day, a Chinese writer, the truth about Lance Armstrong, a funny peace prize, a national holiday and family lunches and the film about the Spanish family that survived the Tsunami.” is now the fifth most read entry and I seriously wonder why. But only you can tell me.

And this week I learned a new meteorological term in Spanish and it was: “ciclogénesis explosiva”.  There was a lot on the news about the weather, snow and wind and flooding, especially in Galicia in the north of Spain, and this new term came up in all the descriptions.  Not knowing what it meant, I Googled the term to see what it was called in English and was amazed to see that the translation is “perfect storm”.  This is a term in English I have heard of before, mostly in relation to Hurricane Sandie but I didn’t really understand it.  I looked up the definition and here it is: “a particularly violent storm arising from a rare combination of adverse meteorological factors”.  More interestingly, it seems to be a sort of buzz word or over used term to describe other situations, not only about the weather and this is the non meteorological definition: “an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically”. I read that it was used a lot to describe the financial crisis when it started in the US. So this week when the financial scandal emerged to do with the ex treasurer of the ruling party in Spain, the Partido Popular, Luis Bárcenas, and the story of his pocketing money and giving payouts to fellow party members, I thought that the term was particularly apt for the situation Mariano Rajoy must be finding himself in.  Just as he is restoring Spain’s image abroad and dealing slowly with the financial problems, he has been hit with this.  Financial scandals in Spain are big and nasty, just as sex scandals are in the UK and US.  So let’s see how Rajoy fights his particular “perfect storm”.  

Whilst the wind was blowing in Galicia where coincidentally Mariano Rajoy is from, the weather was quite benign in Madrid this weekend.  Yesterday Saturday, with the excuse of having to go and get a goodbye card for Bea and Johan’s farewell party that evening, I drove to Plaza Norte 2 to see what the sales had to offer.  Of course I was motivated by the good news the scales brought me and was delighted to buy a size M black down coat from Zara, a red lace dress, pair of turquoise jeans and a white jumper from H+M, both my favourite shops.  Do I need more clothes? Of course not, but since I lost weight two years ago, shopping for clothes is one of my favourite past times.

I was sort of shopping for a new dress to wear to Johan and Bea’s farewell party last night at La Lumbre de Cacique, but in the end chose a dress that would go well with my new red coat.  Johan was my charismatic Swedish boss who left Yoigo this last September and I still miss him.  It was nice to hear from him last night that he misses me too.  There were over 100 friends and ex colleagues of theirs present, many of them Swedes who of course stick out amongst the smaller and darker Spaniards.  I look forward to photos of the event which I hope Bea will post on Facebook soon, as I had such a good time, I forgot to take photos.

Suzy went off this weekend to stay with friends in Lozoya del Valle, a village in the mountains of Madrid and was worried there would be snow.  As I haven’t heard from her since I will have to wait to know if there was when she comes for lunch today.  Meanwhile Oli has been here with her lovely boyfriend Miguel and they will be happily leaving for Valencia after lunch today and will be working again together all of next week.  I look forward to seeing her on television; something that always gives me a kick.  Lucky Oli and Miguel will be taking the following week off and going skiing to Baquiera Beret, Spain’s most fashionable skiing resort.  I offered her what I thought was my lovely skiing outfit bought a few years ago when I organized staff event in Baqueira for Nokia.  The equipment which I acquired through the famous Spanish skiing family, Fernández Ochoa, was rejected by her as “out of date”.  It was, of course, a great excuse for her to do some skiing clothes shopping with Miguel at Decathlon and as I viewed her bright turquoise down jacket I sort of agreed my kit was out of date, although a lot warmer. 

I will also be going away next week.  I am looking forward to a sight inspection trip to Barcelona on Wednesday to look for suitable venues for Yoigo’s activities at the up and coming Mobile World Congress.  What I most look forward to though, is dinner with Grainne at her home in Badalona on Wednesday night, which you will hear about in next week’s post.  

Meanwhile, I wish you all a great week.   

Cheers everyone,

A depressing task, searching for a cottage in Ireland, Oli reporting from Valencia, Zero Dark Thirty and other stories

Sunday 13th January 2013

It is a depressing task to take down the Christmas Decorations

Hi everyone this cold Sunday in January. 

I am writing from the kitchen, half cooking and waiting for the girls to come and half scouring the web for a cottage in Ireland.  The dogs are asleep at my feet and I can hear them snoring.  Oufa is laying the table, my Father is walking in the dining room with the help of his zimmer frame and Eladio is at his desk downstairs.

The week has been a bit uphill, after all the Christmas festivities.  On Monday, a cold and foggy day, Eladio and I had the depressing task of taking down all the decorations one of my most hated tasks of the year.

We both remarked that actually the task took only a short while, about half an hour, whereas putting them up is a much longer activity.  In any case all signs of Christmas have now disappeared, unless you count left over chocolate and turrón of which, unfortunately, or fortunately there is still some left.

It was just over a week ago that we started searching for a cottage in Ireland for our summer vacation.  I was prompted by an email from Sykes cottages with whom we booked our cottage in Gargrave, West Yorkshire in 2010. We have always wanted to visit Ireland, but I as I don’t know the country I asked for advice from friends on Facebook and boy did I get information.  The general consensus was to go to the West Coast or the South West.  We have scoured the web, rung agencies and looked at countless numbers of properties.  The problem with the internet is that yes you see photos and read reviews but can’t actually see where they are unless you have the address which you can use to see them properly using Street View on Google Maps.  Finally we booked this lovely looking cottage by the sea on the much recommended Dingle Peninsula, near Tralee.

The deceiving picture of the cottage we booked in Ireland

It looks lovely doesn’t it?  So we booked it, as we saw that the best properties were fast becoming unavailable, and paid our deposit to what seemed the biggest website for cottages in Ireland; Imagine Ireland, funnily enough based in Skipton in Yorkshire.  You can see the description and more photoshere.  This morning as I saw I had the address, I decided to look the place up on Google Maps and this is what I saw; rather different from what we thought we had booked.  The problem is the eyesore cottage on the right and also the rather drab surroundings.

The real picture of the cottage we have booked as seen on Street View Google Maps

I felt very cross with Imagine Ireland and have written to them to complain. I think we will try and cancel and are now scouring the web again.  So watch this space and cross your fingers we have better luck in our next search.  What I am really looking for is a pretty cottage by the sea and in a small village with three bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, lovely décor and wifi – not easily fulfilled when searching the sites for cottage to let.

Meanwhile, this week Olivia has been in Valencia, staying and working with her TVE cameraman boyfriend Miguel and it looks like they had a whale of a time.  Later I heard that in 4 days she had done 7 reports but I’m afraid we missed quite a few as either she didn’t warn us or I was away from the home.

Oli and Miguel "working" this week in Valencia

Tuesday saw her reporting on free flats for people with no homes in Carlet in Valencia and on a school bus accident in Xativa.  You can see her in this link if you go to 12.10 and 13.46.

Wednesday saw her reporting about Calendar girl like Mothers who were fund raising for a school bus.  The item was national news and Olivia had already reported a few months ago on the beginnings of the initiative.  You can see the clip here if you go to 13.44

Olivia live on TVE1 on Wednesday reporting on the Spanish "calendar girl" Mums.

The story she reported on Friday was from Santa Pola, near Alicante, where we have our holiday apartment.  The floor of a local school collapsed and children fell in the hole.  The story, again hit the national news. You can see it here if you go to 12.14.  I’m afraid I missed it as I was doing the food shopping with Oufa.

The highlight of the week was Suzy’s visit for dinner on Thursday evening.  The house was so empty without the girls after Christmas, so it was great to have Suzy’s company that evening.

The other highlight was the trip to the cinema on Saturday night.  The Oscars are coming up and there are quite a few films we were and are interested to see such as Ana Karenina, Twice Born with Penelope Cruz, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty.  We chose the latter as the subject, the hunt and killing of Osama Bin Laden by the CIA, interested us both equally.

A controversial but great film

In Spanish it is translated as The Darkest Night so I was curious to know what the original title meant.  I learned that it is a military term meaning, “thirty minutes after midnight”.  It’s up for an Oscar but has received much criticism for its apparent promotion of torture.  I hate torture and found the scenes brutal, as did Maya, the CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain although we are constantly reminded throughout that valuable information was gained by its use.

The filmmakers have also been accused of being provided with classified documents to make Zero Dark Thirty directed, by the way, by Kathryn Bigelow. The film had us rigid in our seats taking in every word and scene of the hunt that took 10 years.  The portrayal at the end, of the US Navy Seals storming the compound in Abbottabad on 2^nd May 2011 in the hope of finding Bin Laden; something not confirmed until they made their entry, made me remember the famous picture of the US President and staff watching the real scene live.

Barack Obama and his staff watching the real thing

Later I read that one of the Seals, Matt Bissonnette has written a book, “No Easy Day” which contradicts the official storyline of the killing of the most famous terrorist to walk the face of this earth.  We were made to believe that the former had put up opposition but Bissonnette reveals he had already been hit in the head when the Seals entered his room and that he posed no threat.  Whatever the truth is, we never saw the body and nor did we see it in the film and will never know exactly what happened.  This film, however, I think, gives a very good clue of that very long night and the ten years running up to it.

We discussed the film avidly afterwards over dinner at Ginos at the far too crowded Equinoccio leisure centre in Majadahonda.  We thought it was a great film but decided that from now on we will go on Fridays to avoid the endless queues for overcrowded and noisy restaurants which make me want to run away.

And today is Sunday and we have just had a big family lunch.  Suzy went with Juli to pick up Oli from the Atocha train station where she arrived from Valencia on the AVE (high speed train).  I had to conjure up a big meal out of leftovers of our roast lamb lunch from yesterday and a new lentil soup Suzy wanted me to make. 

Spanish lamb roasted the English way, how I like it best

And now the house is quiet again, Suzy and Juli have gone and Oli will be joining them soon.  Eladio and I will go for our walk and then continue to scour the web for that perfect cottage which seems to escape me.  And tomorrow will be Monday again and the start of another week.

Meanwhile I wish you a good week ahead,

Cheers for now

Masha

Happy New Year, our trip to León, a special dinner party, Christmas cracker jokes, Kings’ day and other stories.

Sunday 6th January 2013

New Year's Even in the afternoon in León last week

Hi everyone.

Today is 6^thJanuary, Kings’ day (Epiphany) and the last day of Christmas. It has been good, as always but I think we are all in great need of a rest from the festivities and general over eating.

Let me start from last week. On Sunday last, 30^th December, we took my Father and Eladio’s Mother to have tea and Christmas cake at Suzy’s flat in Villanueva de la Cañada, some 10km away.  Ernestina, my Mother in Law, who is not used to travelling in a car, thought she lived very far away but for me it feels like round the corner.  It was to be a special treat for both of them but mainly for my Father who is very home bound.  Juli, the girls’ friend, was there and once again served as our official photographer. We were joined later by Olivia, but a bit too late for her to be in the photo.

Tea and Christmas cake at Suzy's last Sunday

Monday was New Year’s Eve and Eladio and I left for León to celebrate the New Year with his family.  The girls always prefer to stay in Madrid with their friends. Ernestina, my Mother in Law came with us and we stopped, as always at Palacio de Bornos for a glass of wonderful Rueda wine and a plate of ham.

Plate of ham and wine at Rueda on our way to León for New Year's Eve

We arrived in sunny but cold León just in time for lunch at Eladio’s sister, Pili’s house where we were staying.  Later we would all meet up at his other sister, Adela’s house to be together and of course celebrate her son, Roberto’s 41^st birthday.  The photo illustrating this week’s blog is of us all, or nearly all of us, that happy afternoon last Monday.

Eladio with some of his brothers and sister, from left to right: Isidro, Toño, Eladio and Pili

Dinner this year was to be at Eladio’s brother, Isidro’s home in the downstairs party room they have created.

Dinner with the family on New Year's Eve in León

We were 24 around the long table, with the older generation at one side and the younger generation at the other.  As usual there was far too much food, but it was all delicious, especially Yoli’s tiramisu for dessert.  Just before midnight we unwrapped all the mystery presents I had brought as we waited for the magical moment of midnight to arrive when we would eat one grape per chime of the clock and then drink champagne and hug each and every one of the family.  It was at that moment I missed my daughters most and had to make do with a whatsapp message in lieu of a hug.  I sat next to my beautiful sisters in law, Pili and Yoli and the three of us reflected that we had been celebrating New Year’s Eve together for more than 30 years.

With my lovely sisters in law on New Year's Eve, Yoli on the left in red and Pili on the right

2012 has been a great year, absolutely nothing to complain about and all I can wish is for 2013 to be just as good.  The photo below is a collage I created on facebook of some of the photos that represent this year.

My year in photos

I wish you all a happy New Year and thank you so much for reading this blog; so many of you from all the corners of the earth.  It always amazes me to know how many people read this blog and find my life interesting.  Thanks for following me.  I hope this year will be good for you and me.

Happy 2013 to you all

New Year’s Eve ended late, as always, after lots of dancing by some of the members of Eladio’s family but I was glad to get away just after 2 in the morning in dire need of some sleep.

Ist January is always a bit of a down day for me.  It takes some time to get used to the New Year.  Before leaving, we took a walk with Pili and Andrés towards San Marcos, that beautiful building and Parador which is a landmark in León.

Eladio, Pili and Andrés outside the historic and landmark building of San Marcos in León on 1st January

We left León at around 13h and on our way home stopped at the Parador in Benavente for lunch.  Here we enjoyed a delicious plate of the local chickpeas (garbanzos) which we had been looking forward to all morning.

The chickpeas from Fuentesauco at the Parador in Benavente.

You can see the rest of the photos of our trip to León here.

 

It was good to be home again after an exhausting but enjoyable New Year family celebration.

On Wednesday we enjoyed watching Olivia reporting live on the television on TVE1.  The story was about a mega New Year’s Party which had been cancelled at the last moment because of counterfeit ticketing.  You can see her here if you fast forward to 11.30 and 12.45.

Oli on the television on Wednesday

Of note on Wednesday too, our walk which was a bit later than usual was rather a highlight that day because of the incredible red sky which always makes me remember walks with my Father when I was a child.  I learned from him that wonderful saying: “red sky at night, shepherds’ delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning” and which I have passed on to my own children.

The red sky at night we encountered on our walk on Wednesday this week

Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable day.  I took Eladio shopping in the morning for Kings’ day presents.  At home we give all our presents on Christmas day but we also celebrate Kings’ Day with token presents.  Spaniards, however, do it the other way around and today is the most important day for them.  While we were out we also bought new beds for the dogs, as theirs were ready to be binned after so much use and washing.  Right now they are still getting used to them as you can see in this photo below.

The dogs got new beds this week but they are not too keen yet

We were home just on time to watch Olivia live on the television again reporting on TVE1.  This time the story was about illegal car racing. You can see her here if you fast forward to 13.45h.

Olivia interviewing a policeman about illegal car racing on Thursday this week

Friday was the day we were having a special dinner party at home.  Our friends, Mar, Mariano and their 10 year old Chinese adopted son, San, were coming for dinner.  Mar and Mariano are journalist friends go way back and Susana gives homework lessons to San and when she can’t make it Olivia takes her place.  

For the occasion I made a typical English fruit and jelly trifle, a favourite with most members of the family.  It was the first time in many years as I had stopped making it because the jelly wouldn’t set.  I read on internet that that is because certain fruits interfere with the setting process and for the record the main culprit is fresh pineapple.  I put strawberries in the trifle I made on Friday and violà it turned out to be perfect.

The fruit and jelly trifle I made for the dinner party this week

It was to be a wonderful evening.  They always arrive late and bring loads of presents and this year was not going to be different.  This is the only dinner party at home the girls like to be a part of and as I always want them to be with us, Friday’s event was extra special for me. 

The special dinner party on Friday for Mar, Mariano and San

For San I think the highlight was the crackers. And that comment brings me on to the subject which is included in this week’s headline.  Crackers are not a tradition in Spain but of course they are in England where they are an essential item at Christmas.  I buy mine online and the best ones I have found are from Robin Reed.  I’m sure San is more interested in the bang and the gift inside, but what I like best are the jokes.  As they are always puns and in English they are impossible to translate for Spanish guests.  Apparently the best cracker jokes should bring laughs from children but groans from the adults.  Some of my favourites this year were: “What did the dentist say to his wife when she was making an apple pie? Want me to do the filling?”, “My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli.  He was pulled in by a strong currant”, “Why did the scarecrow win so many awards? Because he was outstanding in his field” or this one: “Why are graveyards so noisy? Because of all the coffin”. Fun eh?  The man in the photo below is apparently the author of these jokes we found in this year’s Robin Reed crackers. 

The man who creates the jokes for Robin Reed crackers

You can see more photos of that very special dinner party here.

Yesterday Saturday was a quiet day with nothing much to report.  In the evening, following Mar and Mariano’s recommendation, we went to see the film The Life of Pi.  I had my doubts but had seen the trailer and as it was about an Indian boy and animals I was interested. The story, which turned out to be too fantastic for me, is about a 16-year old boy named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who suffers a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.  The bit in the boat with the tiger is far too long and I found myself looking at my watch towards the end hoping the film was going to finish soon.  Afterwards we had a meal at Foster Hollywoods where it was far too loud to enjoy.

The Life of Pi, not a good choice I'm afraid

For the records yesterday was the King of Spain’s birthday of which there has been much news in all the media.  TVE (Spanish national television) broadcast an interview with the 75 year old monarch which we missed on Friday as it coincided with our dinner party.  When I have a moment I will watch it herelater. I used to be a fan of Don Juan Carlos, but since the episode with his elephant hunting in Botswana and the financial scandals of his son in law, Iñaki Urdangarin, I’m afraid I have lost a lot of the respect I once had for him.

Today, is his day, I suppose, Kings’ Day. On Kings’ day in Spain it is a tradition to buy or make a roscón and there are all sorts of varieties.  My favourite is the one without a filling which you can cut and toast, but others prefer the one with whipped cream in the middle.  We always have it for breakfast on this day.

The roscón we had for breakfast this morning

Right now as I write this week’s report, lunch is cooking in the kitchen.  I will leave off now and write about it later, as I do want to record our family Kings’ Day, the last day of Christmas this week and not leave it until next Sunday.

I have resumed writing now; sitting at my desk with a cup of tea after our walk with the dogs and with Suzy who joined us today.  Olivia is on the point of leaving with her boyfriend Miguel for Valencia.  She will be working with him there this week where he will be her cameraman. They are going to have a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing their live reports.  

Being an Anglo Spanish family, we always mix traditions so for our Kings’ Day lunch today I made a very British meal, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings: gravy, brussel sprouts and roast potatoes.  This is probably my favourite English dish as it is my Father’s. 

Kings' Day lunch today

This was followed by my trifle which I am a bit tired of by now and by the Robin Reed crackers, the last until next Christmas.  Then of course we gave our presents.  Each person had bought a present for the other member of the family, picking a concealed name for what is called “mystery friend” present giving here; except that we all ended up knowing who had bought them.  I got an iPad case from Olivia for the tablet and keyboard which will come in handy especially on short trips. Eladio got a red jumper from me that I really hope he wears but suspect he might not as he said it was very bright.  You can see all the photos of our family Kings' Day here too.

Then the rest is history, clearing things away as today was Oufa’s day off, a long siesta to digest the big meal and then finally our walk and here I am now rounding off this week’s blog post on this last day of Christmas.  Tomorrow we will be taking all the Christmas decorations down and life will go back to normal.  

As I leave you my friends, I wish you a great week ahead and as I wrote earlier a very happy New Year.

Cheers and here’s to 2013!

Masha