'Where do I begin.....................?'
(Remember 'Love Story'? Love means never having to say you're sorry? Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal? Remember 1970?)
Anyway, here I am, home again after a wonderful five week holiday. How can time go so fast? It stretched ahead of me like a piece of elastic............
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| This is the actual plane that took us to Madrid, Rob tracked the flight!! |
Dubai was a quick two day catch-my-breath stopover with Catherine and Stuart. Then the two of us flew to Madrid, on our secret mission! We dropped our luggage off at our tiny apartment and Irina came by to collect us. And off we set to surprise Andrew.
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| Our little apartment, close to a pizza outlet! |
Or so we thought!! He acted surprised, but he said that he knew all along as I had explained too thoroughly why we weren't coming! Too many reasons and too much information, which made him realise that we would be there for his birthday!
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| A staged surprised look! |
Mateo and Emma soon realised that we were part of the family and accepted us fully! Andrew's birthday lunch was pizza and wine, eaten at one of the many outside restaurants and it was delicious! Irina had organised a surprise evening at a nearby wine bar with his friends and it was a wonderful evening, enjoyed by everybody, especially the Birthday Boy. Sadly, Catherine could only stay for a week, and I moved in with the family when she flew home.
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| The birthday cake that Irina organised, delicious!! |
I decided to stay an extra week in Madrid and Stuart kindly organised the change for me. That gave me just over three weeks with the family, and I enjoyed every minute getting to know the children, playing with them, going to the park with them, and of course catching up with Andrew and sharing many bottles of wine in the evenings! And giving my knees, back and hips a chance to recover before the next day! The weather was perfect, we had two cloudy wet days during my stay, and the rest of the time was sunny and warm. I watched the season turn to spring and the trees dress themselves in bright green.
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| Emma and Mateo in the mountains. |
I know that every granny says their grandchildren are special, but mine really are! They speak Spanish to Irina, English to Andrew and they understand both languages completely! They are gorgeous and clever and they adore each other. Mateo shares everything with Emma, and she copies everything that he does. Mateo was on school holidays over Easter, so our days were busy and there are several jigsaw puzzles that I can do with my eyes closed! Both of them love books and Mateo became a competent and highly successful player of 'Monopoly Deal' a complicated card version of the old board game!
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| Aren't they gorgeous? |
And we ate. There is something special about sitting at a table on a pavement with plates of jamon, olives and potato crisps and glasses of wine or beer, watching the world go by! Curries, paella, Thai and Chinese food, all is available and it's all delicious!
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| Andrew and Catherine waiting for pizza, the wine has arrived! |
And then, all too soon, exhausted and happy and ready to come home, I flew back to Dubai for a week of recovery!I am joking of course, but I had forgotten just how tiring children can be and I wanted to be involved as much as possible so they would remember me! Catherine and I went out for lunch and we enjoyed the live show 'Stomp' one evening and a delicious meal at an Iranian restaurant one evening. But the heat was rising and the last days I was there registered over 40 deg, too hot for me!
A last airport trip in the middle of the night, an early morning flight and there was Cape Town, wet and cold!
And Rob and Alfie to meet me!
Home and happy!
2 comments:
you cannot believe how I've enjoyed chatting, hearing all about the holiday and the family, and seeing these gorgeous pics, they are extra special children!so glad to have you back x
It's always hard to say goodbye, and gets harder the older I get somehow. But it's always good to get home again!
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