Pueblo Ingles Reunion - Theo

A couple of weeks ago we met up with our friends from Pueblo Ingles who, in many respects were the reason we moved to Madrid (and didn't stay in Barcelona) in the first place. Some, like Belen, we see regularly here in Madrid, others like lovely Amalia, who lives in Valencia less often, while the charming Alfonso and Silvano we somehow only seem to meet up with at this now annual event, which is a real shame. [Cesar we of course see very regularly - but he never attended Pueblo Ingles, hence why he ended up taking the photo!]


Very sweetly they had all acquiesced to our request for a non-smoking eatery and had even gone one step further, by booking a vegetarian restaurant, Al Natural, in the centre just off Calle Alcala. We were slightly apprehensive about how Rosie would cope; not with the new faces as she's usually fine after a period of adjustment, which she proved, but with the timing. The booking was for the very Spanish time of 2pm; her afternoon nap is at 2.30pm. Hmmmm. We decided to simply take it in turns pushing her around outside and to switch half-way through.

In the end it worked out fine. When I took Rosie off at 2.20pm not everyone had arrived; when I phoned Kate at 3.10pm then hadn't even ordered!! As it was, we switched 15 minutes later and I still got a starter, Kate coming back in with Rosie moments after they'd served the main course; our group was the last to leave the restaurant (at 5pm!). They'll make Spaniards of us yet!