Sunday, September 30, 2007

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 The launch advertising campaign included a man with a T-shirt saying “Fuck Bush” which has now been withdrawn as they did not have George Bush’s permission!!!!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

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