la sobremesa - by Theo

One of the few annoying things about our flat is the horrible glass-topped pedestal table in the living/dining room. It's not very attractive, it's very heavy (and thus can't be moved) and only fits 6 around it, and even then it's a squeeze. Hence we could only invite Belen, Cesar, David and Nataly around for lunch, when really we could have done with a couple more mouths for all the food I'd made.

As I was trying out a couple of new things - a carrot tart, chilled beetroot soup, and baked onion bhajis - I overcompensated with the other dishes I was making, worried that I'd either mess up the new stuff or they'd turn out to be not very nice. So we had toasted goat's cheese with cherries accompanied by a sun-dried tomato salad to start. The former went down very well with Rosie. Then the soup, then buttered asparagus and feta and courgette fritters with the main. It all seemed to go down very well, although Rosie was dubious about the soup, but there's plenty left over.
After all that, we decided in preference to sitting around for la sobremesa (the Spanish word meaning "conversation after a meal") we'd take a little walk, which was convenient as Rosie needed her nap by this point. Nataly had been doing a sterling job keeping Rosie (and herself) amused by reading some of Rosie's books, but it was time Rosie had her siesta.

Being good hosts, we of course put our rooms at our guests' disposal, should they want a siesta themselves, but they were happy to come out to the park, except Cesar who stayed to monitor the pudding in the oven and the Grand Prix on live-stream. We had a little turn around Parque El Calero, stopped for a drink on a cafe terraza and let Rosie play on the slide, before heading back for hot brownies and home-made strawberry ice-cream.

And we didn't even touch the chocolate cake David and Nataly had brought for pudding! We'll just have to eat that in the week. What a shame.

Zonas Infantiles - by Theo

One of the many reasons why Madrid is such a great place to have kids is the sheer number of Zonas Infantiles there are in the city. They crop up everywhere, often (especially in the older parts of the city) in the most unexpected places, squeezed in random spaces, while out in the suburbs they have clearly been built into the town plan. Some are extremely inventive, making great use of local features (swings hanging from the underside of bridges, rope bridges between trees), while others are your more standard "swing and slide" types, though often with modern adaptations - a gently sloping climbing wall rather than a ladder, for example.

We quite like taking Rosie 10 minutes down the road on her tricycle to the Zona in the nearby Parque de Calero, where there are often other children for her to point at. Her level of interaction currently doesn't go much further than that.

However, the past few mornings I've been taking Rosie round the corner to the small Zona near our block. It's very basic - a swing, a slide and two wobbly things - and there's not usually anyone else there at 8.30am, but it's a good time to go, while it's still cool and before the sun hits the metal slide and turns it into a burn hazard. One of Rosie's favourite tricks is to walk up the slide, with assistance, and then come back down. Repeat ad nauseum. The slide was off limits this morning though as the overnight rain had left a big puddle in the lip at the bottom - when is somebody going to design a slide where this doesn't happen?


Anyway, Rosie was quite content sitting in the wobbly car for a while, before asking to get off and putting all the little bits I'd brought on it. Then she did a bit of playing in the dirt - another of her favourite things, stirring it with her hands before grabbing handfuls and watching how it runs through her fingers.

She's getting more confident walking outside now and at one point walked up to the swing and asked to be lifted up. She's never been keen before but I guess when it's on her terms she's happier. Although nothing pleases her more than pointing and cooing at little dogs, many of which passed by.

a brief word on Sol - by Theo

Since May 15th there has been a large, noisy and determined protest going on in Plaza del Sol, the very centre of Madrid. There has been extensive coverage of this in both the Spanish and English press (well, The Guardian at least) and I've been reading the posts on this blog: www.moving-to-madrid.blogspot.com

I'd quite like to go and check it out but haven't yet (family duties come first), so I have nothing really to say about it. And in a way that's odd - there's this huge demonstration going on in the centre of the city where I live and work and it hasn't affected me one iota. It hasn't inconvenienced anyone we know (Anne, our American friend, being they only person we know who has actually been along to it - none of our Spanish friends and acquaintances have). Hardly anyone is talking about it. As far as I'm concerned it might as well be happening on the other side of the Planet rather than a short bus ride away.

So, while I applaud those people trying to make themselves heard and the peaceful manner in which they are going about it, one wonders whether they are actually likely to achieve anything when, outside of the square, their demonstration is having so little impact.

Sunday with the Lahoz-Frosts - by Theo

We had a lovely day out today at Kirsty, Juanmi and Emily's place in Rivas. It had been far too long since we last saw them, so we invited ourselves down - I cooked to try and compensate for the invasion!

Rosie and Emily seemed to get on fab; it was really the first time that Rosie has properly acknowledged her and responded to her. Rosie still wasn't sure of course - our daughter is nothing if not cautious - preferring to sit next to Emily and point but not-quite-touch her. However they both enjoyed doing a bit of wordless call and response at various points, particularly (and hilariously) over lunch. I think Kirsty was a bit miffed that Emily, 22 months and bilingual, wasn't showing off her English and Spanish vocab!

Callejeando - by Theo

For our third and final San Isidro outing we decided to go and catch some of the circus and street theatre acts that were taking place over the weekend. The whole programme was entitled "Callejeando", which means "loitering", an odd-choice, though I guess it was what the crowd ended up doing. Staged in three Plazas in the cosmopolitan barrio of Lavapies, the programme repeated itself at various set times, so after an early lunch we headed over, aiming to make the two o'clock show of Arcane.
This was essentially a trapeze show but using the axle of a giant wheel instead of the more traditional bar-on-a-rope-swing. As the troupe responsible were French, Les Philebulistes, they of course had to load their show with thoughtful movements, sentimental music and pensive posturing from the bare-chested performers, much like the man-and-digger dance we'd seen a couple of years ago. Frankly they could have ditched all that and gone for more somersaults. Rosie wasn't impressed, preferring to try out her tap dancing on a metal bench.


Next we met up with our friend Anne and moved round the corner for Les Colporteurs' performance of Les Etolies, another French troupe (there were also Spanish and Dutch artists performing). However, they were very good, with some impressive feats of balancing and grace, and at least the "story" of their high-wire act was easy to follow and more universal.
Boy-meets-girl and vice versa, boy pursues girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy then rejects girl for being clingy and literally walks all over her. This had Kate yelling "misogynist!" from the sidelines. However boy has a change of heart/mind/testicles (delete as appropriate) and takes girl back, at which point she realises what a jerk he is, tries to push him off the wire, fails, so leaves him in a dignified manner, which naturally brought a loud cheer from Kate (I would have clapped too but I was holding a flagging Rosie).

By which point it was nap time for our daughter so I duly walked back in the vague direction of home while she slumbered in the buggy.

Planeta Madrid 2011 - by Theo

One of our favourite events of San Isidro celebrations past has been the Planeta Madrid Concert. Previously this free world music event has been held in a bare, muddy lot in Legazpi, but this year it was thankfully moved to Parque Enrique Tierno Galvin near Mendez Alvaro, where we first lived when we came to Madrid.

It's a gorgeous shady park, with a purpose-built amphitheatre offering great sight-lines and acoustics; the only question was why they didn't hold the concert there the previous two years!

Another welcome change, for us at least, was the 12pm start time (the finish stayed the same - midnight). Great for us, as it meant we could get there after Rosie's first nap, have a picnic and stay for a good four hours or so, rather than the 45 minutes we managed last year! Not so great for the performers though, as most Spaniards just haven't got the hang of early starts and many would still be in bed at that hour. There were barely a hundred people there when the first act, Kucha Mala, a lively Spanish-Russian collaboration got under way and numbers didn't swell much during the afternoon, with the audience mostly restricted to fitness fanatics out for a run or families with young children (and thus no chance of a lie-in!) Crazy really, but there is a sad apathy among Madrileños for local events (one of my Madrid-born-and-raised friends didn't believe me when I told him there was a carnival in Madrid), although it might also be to do with the fact that the park is possibly one of Madrid's best kept secrets, being hard to access due to railway lines on two sides and being in a relatively new barrio.

Still, we managed to persuade a couple of Madrileños to join us. Belen and Cesar and their five year old nephew Hugo made it at the positively early hour of 1.30, bearing tortilla and cheese, and just in time for Toom Pak, a sort of Spanish version of stomp with added flames and angle-grinders, who managed to get what little crowd there was involved.

Any hopes the organisers might have had of the event picking up later in the day and attracting the numbers it had in previous years were truly scotched by the weather. The cloudless blue skies that greeted us as we left our house gave way to impressive anvil clouds that bubbled up from the sierra to the north. In the end, even Cesar's positive thinking couldn't keep away the thunderstorm the weather forecast had predicted, and we made it to the car just as a vicious wind heralded the first drops of rain. Not such a shame for us, as by then it was 4pm and we would have had to go within the hour in any case, but such as shame for the show. Hopefully Madrileños will start waking up, literally and take advantage of the amazing events on their doorstep.

Noche de Fuego - by Theo

It's San Isidro weekend, which means the city is laying on loads of free events to celebrate its patron saint. I'd been meaning to go out and take some night time photos of Madrid, so when I saw one of the events was a fire display on the riverside I immediately requested a late pass from Kate and invited our photographer friend Anne along.
Starting from the beautiful old Puerta de Toledo, now pedestrianised, we walked past the Vicente Calderon Stadium (home of Atletico de Madrid) through the brand new Manzanares river park. It's very well done, with lots of interesting use of spaces (swings under road bridges) and lights, and a haven for cyclists, runners and roller-bladers. Dodging these, we finally made our way to the Puente del Rey, which is where the Noche de Fuego began.
From the brief glance I'd had at the San Isidro programme I'd thought it was going to be a firework display, but actually it was a fire show, with various arrangements of flames along the river and adjoining paths. Some large, some small, some static, some in motion, it was all very magical and photographer's dream! There were certainly plenty of cameras around, with the illuminated Royal Palace and cathedral helping to create a stunning backdrop.

For all the lack of enthusiasm for San Isidro that my students had demonstrated, the place was packed, mostly with Spaniards, who had all brought their children along, despite the fact it was getting on for 11pm. Some little girls were dancing like mad in front of the beautifully laid out stage area where two musicians were creating looped soundtracks. Their frantic movements and long shutter speeds helped create awesome photos, leaving them (as I explained to their father who was worried about them blocking my shot) as faint, ghostly images.

Up, Up And Away By Kate

First Rosie did the important things, like learn to land safely on her nappy-padded bottom when falling backwards; judge the grabbing distance of passing furniture or parents for emergency handholds; and sprint up and down our corridor on tip-toes while pushing her trolley.

Then came gap-crossing - a step unaided from one improvised safety-rail to the next. Followed by free-standing - preferably while sorting through Mummy or Daddy's underwear drawers.

Next Rosie started launching herself forward for a couple of steps before dropping to the more familiar position of all-fours. Then, a couple of days ago, she put one foot in front of the other, let go of the dining chair and just kept going.

It's no wonder it's taken Rosie three months to get herself from cruising (walking while supporting herself with the walls and furniture) to walking unaided. She's nothing if not cautious and methodical when approaching a new physical challenge. Something she definitely doesn't get from her father who is, by his own admission, as sure-footed as a two-legged mountain goat and apt to forget to look before he leaps.

But I digress.

As a parent, it is an extraordinary thing to see the once-helpless creature, who couldn't even hold up her own head fifteen months ago, now tottering cheerfully along on two legs.

Rosie herself seems fairly unfazed by her new ability. As far as she's concerned, it's simply a more practical way of getting from A to B while holding a toy in each hand.