Returning to the home of Tata
It has been a really busy couple of weeks. After I got back from California I was one week in the office getting caught up, gearing up for our Miami Vice launch next week (fingers crossed!) and doing lots and lots of laundry. Not that I have an overwhelming amount of clothes, but my washing machine is like other things here and is very small. I can only fit one sheet and pillowcase at a time. It takes 3.75 hours to wash and dry, so to do one bed's worth of linens it takes 2 loads and 7.5 hours. Don't even get me started on the duvet cover...So anyway I did a bunch of laundry, got caught up on my sleep and over my jetlag, went in to work last Monday and found out I needed to leave that afternoon for a conference in Marbella, Spain! It seems I was inadvertently left off the original invitation and everyone was already there. I called the travel agent we have to use --and in typical fashion they couldn't confirm anything for me, or even which airport I could fly out of. So I raced home, packed a few things and took the train out to Gatwick airport. I finally got on a flight that landed at Malaga airport around 1am. I was excited in a way to be flying to Spain.
Malaga, if you knew me back in 1995, was where 'Tata' was from. Tata was the mother or the apartment I lived in in Madrid during my study abroad. The same Tata who fed me tripe broth 5 days a week because it was cheap and had the red rotary phone with a padlock on it so we couldn't use it. She called me 'Leonor', belched and farted like mad, and was generally pretty cute. Anyway, I digress... I was excited to be going to Spain. Marbella, I found out, while beautiful, seemed to be 90% inhabited by Brits!
It actually ended up being a great set of meetings - very tiring with early starts, meetings all day, then dinners beginning at 10-11pm in true Spanish fashion. It was called our 'International Sales & Marketing Conference' and essentially it was all of my colleagues in marketing, together with their sales directors, from all around the world, getting together to meet, share ideas, etc. Russians, Japanese, Brazilians, Aussies, French, Spanish, Swedes, Mexicans, Germans...the list goes on! We didn't really get any free time (I was hoping to hit the beach!) but I did get an couple of hours the last afternoon to hit the hotel spa, which is honestly the nicest spa I've ever been to! While it wasn't paid for by the company, it was probably the best 75 Euros I've ever spent! Their description--which doesn't do it justice--says 'The charm of the spa at Hotel Villa Padierna is defined by combining the physical and the psychological wellbeing. With 8 different types of aroma, steam, herbs and mineral baths, there is something for all the possible tastes and lovers of baths.' I opted for the Japanese foot reflexology treatment, which was just heavenly, and thoroughly enjoyed all of the various steam rooms, turkish baths, and saunas.
The most interesting part was getting a 2:20am flight out of Malaga airport on Friday morning, landing at Gatwick at 3:30am, sleeping on a bench for a couple of hours (with all of the summer backpackers -- and a couple of families which seemed a little odd), and greeted my dad as he flew in from Texas at 7am. There was no rest for the weary that weekend, as we walked around many many different areas of London searching for a new neighborhood for me. I am getting increasingly fed up with the never-ending construction around me, and want to be ready, should I ever be able to get out of my lease. We also did a 10-mile walk along the Thames path, which was just lovely. We walked from Waterloo to Putney right along the river the entire time--then into Fulham, which is currently sitting at the #1 spot of new neighborhoods. Unfortunately, Piccadilly wasn't able to join him this time, but I did get some cute pictures and am hoping to see her soon.
While I didn't seem to manage any pictures of the river walk itself, here's a couple from along the way. We stopped at a big park called Battersea Park (near the old power station) for a drink and a sit down, and what do we find but some bagpipers! Another shot right along the river of a very out-of-place-looking (but beautiful) pagoda , given to the city by the emperor of Japan. And another one of a cutely named pub.
posted by Eleanor @ 10:12 am
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