Family
Last Friday I travelled to Madrid on my ex-sister-in-law's car. My trip from Santander to Madrid was not the easy way southwards. I wanted to retrieve an overcoat from a house of my mother's in Ezcaray, La Rioja. Therefore I rolled out of bed at 6:20 and started the journay at 8:18 a.m., travelling eastwards to Bilbao for one hour, then southwards to Ezcaray for more than another hour, to benefit from the highway speeds. Else I would have spent four or five hours on a winding way through mountainous terrain.
I had a lot of difficulties to get that overcoat. First I had to find the gardener of my mother's, he had the 8-in.-long, 1 lb. key of its wooden outer door. I didn't know but the name of the gardener and the whereabouts of his home. Fortunately I found someone who could help me find the gardener. I promised him to return the key to him in a little while.
The little while turned out to be an hour. I inserted the big, ancient, burden key in the hole of the large hand-made iron lock and managed to unlock it. Then searched in my pocket for a bundle of keys and tried several on a U-shaped lock attached to rings in the door and its frame, until I found the right key. Then I entered the garden and passed before the main entrace French doors. They can be opened only from the inside, so I continued to a lateral kitchen door faceing South, to the Río Oja, the river that lends the province its name.
The kitchen door has two locks. I had a lot of keys and spent some time looking for the corresponding keys. One of them refused to turn. Many minutes later, I managed to make it turn and opened the door. A fluorescent stripe was on, flooding the office with its light. I passed, entered the kitchen and continued to the lounge. Then I opened some window panes for the sunlight to enter.
I searched one wardrobe and some chest drawers for the overcoat but could not find it. Knowing that the majority of wardrobes were placed in the upper stories, I climbed upstairs and could not open a door from the stairs. It was locked and I had to phone my sister Paloma for instructions to find its key, an eight-inch-long hand-made iron key. Once the door was unlocked, I looked into four or five wardrobes until I found my overcoat. I collected some items that my sister needed, locked everything, returned the garden-door key to the gardener and continued my trip, heading North to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, then West to Burgos and South to Madrid.
I entered Madrid at 3 p.m. and I could then see my son, my daughter and my kitten -which could not properly meow when she saw me, and was eager to be launched paper balls for her to haunt.
In a while, I met with some friends to have lunch (a late one, even by the Spanish late lunch standards). I was gifted a big box of chocolate bon-bons.
Then I was phoned by my sister Susana. I was going to spend the night at her's, in her company. She told me that my in-law, her husband, had suffered a brain hemorrage, and she had scared to death until told that the stroke had not been severe. He is now recovering. They were just in front of a Seville big hospital, the Virgen de la Macarena Hospital, having a coffee before journaying back, when the stroke came.
I visited my mother and my sister Paloma, his husband Gavrick and their son Tomás (or Thomas, as his father calls him). The items I had collected were expected by Paloma, who thanked me. I told them of my in-law's stroke. They worried badly but I reassured them.
I went to Susana's home in Galapagar, one hour away from Madrid, and took care of their son and daughter. I got there at night after unsuccessfully searching them in Madrid, where they study. The latter had got the 'flu and caughed a lot, and was covered with blankets.
On the next day, last Saturday, I cared that she took medical care and cooked for us all. Two Spanish omelettes, one being a no-onion one. Rice à la Milanesse. And fruit. While I was cooking, we were visited by a policeman, but I knew he was a cousin of mine that I had not seen for twenty years. He spent an hour with us.
At night, I drove to Madrid and bought a bus ticket to Santander. Then I had my daughter Natalia accompany me to the cinema. It was very difficult to get there and to find a parking place, it cost us two hours, immersed in traffic jams and then traversing overwhelmed narrow streets. But the film was gratifying.
After returning my daughter home, I travelled back to Galapagar, verified that the girl showed no fever and went to bed.
On Sunday, my sister's boy and girl were invited to have lunch at a nearby place. I also was invited, as a result of my being in their charge. I happened to be sort of a distant in-law relative to them. Lots of little children and lots of joy, a very good wine and meal enough to supply a little army.
I called my sister Susana several times during the day, to be informed that another brain hemorrage episode had happened to my brother-in-law and that the blood pressure was dangerous. But a news was good: he had recovered sensibility and his speech ability had improved a little.
I returned my sister's children to Galapagar. The girl's cough and fever had worsened. My trip to Santander would start at 0:30 a.m. next Monday, from Madrid. My brother Antonio, who had come to Madrid on last Monday, spent some days with her daughter and taken her to Santander on last Friday, would return her to Madrid next Monday. So, my sister Susana's daughter Maria would be alone in Galapagar on Monday, and feverish. I had to cook for her -his brother would eat at his Grandmother's, in Madrid- and convince her to eat it at midday.
I cooked broccoli in Béchamelle creamy sauce, which turned out to be one of her preferred meals. I also prepared a salad -boiled potato, raw sliced tomato and lettuce, olives, ham strips, all seasoned with a little salt, a very little vinegar and some generous pourings of olive oil- and a tableful of cheese, chorizo, dry sausage slices, prosciuto and ham, so that my nephew and some of his friends could have dinner. I had a boiled potato for dinner and made Maria have a hot mug of milk with two little spoonfuls of sugar.
I then drove again to Madrid, spent half an hour looking for a parking place and parked my ex-sister-in-law's car there, leaving its keys at my brother's ex-mother-in-law's, some eighty yards away. After spending a little while there, I went to the underground and travelled to the bus station, where I awaited for my trip back to Santander to begin.
I read a book for a while, watched The Two Towers on the bus (but the earphones hurted my ears -too big to fit in them) and slept for most of the trip's duration, awakening just a little while in the few stops along the night.
When the bus reached Santander at 6 a.m. this Monday, there were only four taxi cabs awaiting at the bus station. So, when the bus stopped, I caught my luggage and run --run upstairs, quicker than anybody, and got the first cab in the line.
A minute and some kilometers later, I was with my brother (he works by night lately) and we left at 8 a.m. I discovered I had lost the book I was reading. We both needed to sleep, but he had to buy a new computer at 12 p.m. and I had to have lunch with my almost-ex-father-in-law at a town 30 miles away from here, today being his birthday. So I did.
This evening, I went to teach maths to one of my pupils. Two hours and some euros later, I returned home, phoned Susana for news -his husband's blood pressure is low and stabilized, his movements have improved, a new TAC scanning shows no utter damages-, had dinner, read my friends' postings in LJ and started to post this.
Whew but I'm tired!
I had a lot of difficulties to get that overcoat. First I had to find the gardener of my mother's, he had the 8-in.-long, 1 lb. key of its wooden outer door. I didn't know but the name of the gardener and the whereabouts of his home. Fortunately I found someone who could help me find the gardener. I promised him to return the key to him in a little while.
The little while turned out to be an hour. I inserted the big, ancient, burden key in the hole of the large hand-made iron lock and managed to unlock it. Then searched in my pocket for a bundle of keys and tried several on a U-shaped lock attached to rings in the door and its frame, until I found the right key. Then I entered the garden and passed before the main entrace French doors. They can be opened only from the inside, so I continued to a lateral kitchen door faceing South, to the Río Oja, the river that lends the province its name.
The kitchen door has two locks. I had a lot of keys and spent some time looking for the corresponding keys. One of them refused to turn. Many minutes later, I managed to make it turn and opened the door. A fluorescent stripe was on, flooding the office with its light. I passed, entered the kitchen and continued to the lounge. Then I opened some window panes for the sunlight to enter.
I searched one wardrobe and some chest drawers for the overcoat but could not find it. Knowing that the majority of wardrobes were placed in the upper stories, I climbed upstairs and could not open a door from the stairs. It was locked and I had to phone my sister Paloma for instructions to find its key, an eight-inch-long hand-made iron key. Once the door was unlocked, I looked into four or five wardrobes until I found my overcoat. I collected some items that my sister needed, locked everything, returned the garden-door key to the gardener and continued my trip, heading North to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, then West to Burgos and South to Madrid.
I entered Madrid at 3 p.m. and I could then see my son, my daughter and my kitten -which could not properly meow when she saw me, and was eager to be launched paper balls for her to haunt.
In a while, I met with some friends to have lunch (a late one, even by the Spanish late lunch standards). I was gifted a big box of chocolate bon-bons.
Then I was phoned by my sister Susana. I was going to spend the night at her's, in her company. She told me that my in-law, her husband, had suffered a brain hemorrage, and she had scared to death until told that the stroke had not been severe. He is now recovering. They were just in front of a Seville big hospital, the Virgen de la Macarena Hospital, having a coffee before journaying back, when the stroke came.
I visited my mother and my sister Paloma, his husband Gavrick and their son Tomás (or Thomas, as his father calls him). The items I had collected were expected by Paloma, who thanked me. I told them of my in-law's stroke. They worried badly but I reassured them.
I went to Susana's home in Galapagar, one hour away from Madrid, and took care of their son and daughter. I got there at night after unsuccessfully searching them in Madrid, where they study. The latter had got the 'flu and caughed a lot, and was covered with blankets.
On the next day, last Saturday, I cared that she took medical care and cooked for us all. Two Spanish omelettes, one being a no-onion one. Rice à la Milanesse. And fruit. While I was cooking, we were visited by a policeman, but I knew he was a cousin of mine that I had not seen for twenty years. He spent an hour with us.
At night, I drove to Madrid and bought a bus ticket to Santander. Then I had my daughter Natalia accompany me to the cinema. It was very difficult to get there and to find a parking place, it cost us two hours, immersed in traffic jams and then traversing overwhelmed narrow streets. But the film was gratifying.
After returning my daughter home, I travelled back to Galapagar, verified that the girl showed no fever and went to bed.
On Sunday, my sister's boy and girl were invited to have lunch at a nearby place. I also was invited, as a result of my being in their charge. I happened to be sort of a distant in-law relative to them. Lots of little children and lots of joy, a very good wine and meal enough to supply a little army.
I called my sister Susana several times during the day, to be informed that another brain hemorrage episode had happened to my brother-in-law and that the blood pressure was dangerous. But a news was good: he had recovered sensibility and his speech ability had improved a little.
I returned my sister's children to Galapagar. The girl's cough and fever had worsened. My trip to Santander would start at 0:30 a.m. next Monday, from Madrid. My brother Antonio, who had come to Madrid on last Monday, spent some days with her daughter and taken her to Santander on last Friday, would return her to Madrid next Monday. So, my sister Susana's daughter Maria would be alone in Galapagar on Monday, and feverish. I had to cook for her -his brother would eat at his Grandmother's, in Madrid- and convince her to eat it at midday.
I cooked broccoli in Béchamelle creamy sauce, which turned out to be one of her preferred meals. I also prepared a salad -boiled potato, raw sliced tomato and lettuce, olives, ham strips, all seasoned with a little salt, a very little vinegar and some generous pourings of olive oil- and a tableful of cheese, chorizo, dry sausage slices, prosciuto and ham, so that my nephew and some of his friends could have dinner. I had a boiled potato for dinner and made Maria have a hot mug of milk with two little spoonfuls of sugar.
I then drove again to Madrid, spent half an hour looking for a parking place and parked my ex-sister-in-law's car there, leaving its keys at my brother's ex-mother-in-law's, some eighty yards away. After spending a little while there, I went to the underground and travelled to the bus station, where I awaited for my trip back to Santander to begin.
I read a book for a while, watched The Two Towers on the bus (but the earphones hurted my ears -too big to fit in them) and slept for most of the trip's duration, awakening just a little while in the few stops along the night.
When the bus reached Santander at 6 a.m. this Monday, there were only four taxi cabs awaiting at the bus station. So, when the bus stopped, I caught my luggage and run --run upstairs, quicker than anybody, and got the first cab in the line.
A minute and some kilometers later, I was with my brother (he works by night lately) and we left at 8 a.m. I discovered I had lost the book I was reading. We both needed to sleep, but he had to buy a new computer at 12 p.m. and I had to have lunch with my almost-ex-father-in-law at a town 30 miles away from here, today being his birthday. So I did.
This evening, I went to teach maths to one of my pupils. Two hours and some euros later, I returned home, phoned Susana for news -his husband's blood pressure is low and stabilized, his movements have improved, a new TAC scanning shows no utter damages-, had dinner, read my friends' postings in LJ and started to post this.
Whew but I'm tired!