Thursday 25 November 2010

old haunts and old friends - by Theo


One of the very first restaurants we went to when we arrived in Madrid was an excellent Indian restaurant on Calle de Echegaray, in central Madrid, when I met for the first time some old friends of Kate's, the Frosts. Now, nearly two years later, with both families being one more in number, we met up again for a delicious, if late, Sunday curry. We even sat at the same table!

Ian Frost, the patriarch of the clan, went to school with Kate's dad - that's how far back the connection goes, and his and Jill's daughter Kirsty lives here in Madrid, along with her husband Juanmi and, now, baby Emily, who is 6 months older than Rosie. Sadly Emily wasn't feeling too well, but we (Kate, Rosie and I) had a lovely time nonetheless, with Rosie delicately munching on a poppadom. Funny to think how much has changed for both families since we last met there, and how much better we all know each other.

The following day, Monday, we were back in the same area, although one street over, at the delicious Artimesa on Calle de Ventura de la Vega. One of the first veggie restaurants we'd found in Madrid, we hadn't been for ages but picked it as the spot to meet up with Clara Molden, an old University friend of mine, and her friend Nat, both former Madrid residents here for a long weekend. Clara was always an amazing photographer, with her pictures regularly featuring in various Magazines I was involved with back in Bristol, but I hadn't seen her for sometime - she now lives in London and works for a picture agency, her photos now gracing the front-covers of British broadsheets. It was lovely to see her again, reminisce and hear about her work; what she's achieved at such a young age, in a very competitive and male world is incredibly impressive. She's been on 4 week long hostile environment training, photographed numerous stars and occasionally taken the odd, mundane shoot as well! How ironic then that none of thought to take any photos!

Sunday 21 November 2010

The Pub Quiz Ringer - by Theo

Last Tuesday I got an email from my old student, Javi, inviting me to a pub quiz that Thursday night. I hadn't seen Javi for a while so I accepted; the last time we'd been to a pub quiz together it had been organised by the first school I worked at here in Madrid, Cambridge House, and we'd done rather well, coming second and winning €100 in the process. However, money wasn't the motivation; it would be nice to get out for a change. I also decided to invite my friend Jon (who knows Javi) along as well.

So Jon and I turned up at O'Neils in Calle Principe - as you might guess from the name, it's an Irish pub - to find that, as I suspected, it was yet again the Cambridge House pub quiz. I said hello to my former boss and some old colleagues, then found Javi. Most of the teams there seemed to consist of Cambridge House teachers and their students, with the odd boyfriend/girlfriend thrown in. Not Javi's. He was the only Cambridge House student in the team. The others, Paulo, Pablo and Angel, were Spanish friends of his, plus Pablo's American girlfriend Kasey and a German intern, Karl, who worked with Angel. We then co-opted a Cambridge House teacher, Alanna, as the rules stipulated we had to have a CH teacher on our team, and her US housemate Ryan, and christened ourselves "The Magicians".

It soon became apparent that our team existed for one reason only - Javi's desire to win! We were pretty much all ringers. I was there for the geography and history round (8 out of 8, I thank you) while Angel and Karl ruled the entertainment round, Jon contributed some humdingers to the general knowledge, with pretty much everyone else pitching in at least twice. By the time the final round, music, came we were five ahead of our nearest competitors, guaranteed a podium finish and needing only 6 out of ten to secure first. In the end we only managed 5 (there were some terrible and very modern choices) but it was more than enough - the €150 first prize was ours!

After we split it 10 ways it just about paid for my three pints of Guiness!

Thursday 18 November 2010

Ouch! By Kate

Theo and I are basically peaceable types. Well, we both rabbit on a fair bit and have a tendency to speak in loud voices, but it would take a lot for either of us to lash out in anger. We're Pen Mightier Than The Sword people on the whole.

So where has our daughter's violent streak come from?

I've sported myriad red marks from Rosie's pinching fingers, had blood drawn by her scratching nails and a ribbon of bruises decorating my shoulders from her over-zealous rooting.

As evidenced in the clip below, all hair is fair game.


But what's most disturbing is the casual nature of Rosie's savagery. I say "ow" and she thinks it's a huge joke. She just laughs and pokes a finger in my eye.

Wearing Rosie in the sling has become an especially hazardous business. Although, the comedy value of observing her expertise at tweaking Theo's chest hairs can't be understated. Who said schadenfreude was dead?

Sunday 14 November 2010

damn...forgot the camera! - by Theo

We keep forgetting the camera, which is unlike us, and rather annoying as there have been a fair few photos ops of worth lately.
First of all we had a lovely afternoon over at Bianca and Ollie's (Stephane was away) on Tuesday. It was yet another public holiday, and Kate had volunteered my chefing services to Rosie's pal Ollie's Mum. Ollie's got a nice big carpet to roll/sky dive on, as well as plenty of toys, and they were both quite chuffed to see each other, which was very sweet. Bianca grabbed a few shots, but we were sadly sans camera.
The next occasion was just pure forgetfulness on our part, as we were at home when one of Kate's former employers Brigid popped round for lunch. Originally from Liverpool Brigid is great company, but as she's such an international jet-setter, dividing her time between Madrid and Amsterdam, we rarely get to see her, which is why it was doubly a shame that we neglected to get a photo of her with Rosie.
Clearly we had not yet learned our lesson as we again forgot to take the camera with us yesterday when we ventured out for a walk in the old Royal hunting grounds and former civil war battlefield, the Casa del Campo. Our friends Rebecca and Fermin had invited us for a delicious veggie lunch at their posh new pad in Aluche and suggested a pre-lunch constitutional in the park beforehand. A marvelous idea and sadly one that will have to make do with with this blog by way of documentation.

Friday 12 November 2010

fussy eaters

I've cooked for a fair few fussy eaters in my time. Mentioning no names - you know who you are! ;-) - there have been those with self-imposed regimes, the vegans and manic-organics, and others whose various, often quite bizarre allergies (or, possibly, phobias) forced me to rather drastically change my culinary habits. None quite top my darling daughter however.

It's not so much the fussiness that gets me, more the unpredictability. Just three weeks ago she couldn't get enough of some of my culinary creations: pear, broccoli and chickpeas flavoured with clove; red lentils, squash, ginger and garam masala; puy lentils, coconut, leek and sweet potato; carrot, coriander, roasted pepper and lentils. Rosie would happily gobble down up to three ice-cubes worth, perhaps followed by some natural yoghurt. Finger food, however, held zero interest to her, with the possible exception of the fun game of throwing something on the floor so Mummy and Daddy have to pick it up.

That's all changed. For the past couple of days the roles have reversed. Even the normally rapturously received greek yoghurt has prompted whingeing, while many previously favoured purees are now given the hamster cheek treatment: she'll keep accepting food, but rather than swallow it keep in in her cheeks until it reaches a critical mass where upon, with no small ceremony, it is expelled, bib-wards. However, she has now developed a serious interest in finger food - cheese on toast, pasta, roasted veg and mango are all top treats as far as the little tot is concerned.Babies. There's fussy buggers. But we love ours!

Saturday 6 November 2010

Hands up!


The latest fun game with our darling daughter has been to put things on her head and watch as she delicately and predictably tries to reach up to grab them.


It's wonderfully cute, especially as her arms are still baby-sized and not really long enough.