Sunday was one of those days where I joked “open a business, they said. it will be fun, they said”. We spent 7 hours or so going to pick up a used huge, heavy-as-heck, life-crushing freezer. All in the name of saving a thousand euros (which is not insignificant, to be fair). I didn’t even do anything except complain and watch, but I have a good understanding why all of this stuff ends up in the landfills and people buy new things.
Let’s back up, shall we!!
We hosted a going away party in Mazál last Monday. One of our Greatest Employees Ever is moving to Korea so he and his wife invited a “small intimate group of close friends” – a cool, casual 40 people. I wish I had 40 close friends! We put out a spread of fairly healthy party food and people seemed to enjoy it.
Lest you think they only served fruits and vegetables, there was also homemade tortilla de patatas, chocolate chip cookies and a chocolate peanut butter cake.
I had breakfast with a friend that used to live here in Madrid and I haven’t seen in about 3 years. I would show a picture of us but I look terrible so I can’t do that. Instead, here is a picture of my challah french toast (from Mazál). Beautiful presentation, but I told them to reduce the amount of granola because who wants granola on french toast? I am amazed that the customers can order this as a dessert and finish it.
The rest of the week flew by in a blur. We are well under way in the renovations of tova, our new bakery. Actually, the “renovations” are pretty much done at this point. We are now just waiting on a huge lamp that will be delivered in 6-8 weeks as well as stainless steel shelving. It will take awhile I assume.
Some things never change (2025)
2020:
Here is how tova is looking. We are uncertain about the ceiling color, but have decided to listen to our design-whisperer interior designer and allow everything to be installed before deciding to change the color.
Here is now:
And here is what ChatGBT created when I asked it to show me what it would look like with a completely blue ceiling and the stainless steel display case that we will eventually have:
Should we be afraid or impressed that ChatGBT can do that?
Besides Sunday, it was a great weekend. On Friday I did my favorite thing – a grand tour of 3/5 of our spaces to check in, do “quality controls”, and sit at the bar and eat pancakes (Allen’s pancakes!).
When they served me the pancake, I thought “no way someone can eat that much butter”. Guess what? They can, and they did, and they (I) enjoyed it very much. Then I went to the Embassy and did something that I can’t remember, then went home and watched tv like the couch vegetable that I am. Friday afternoon TV watching is my favorite. No one needs me, no one talks to me, Madrid feels quiet, the weekend is ahead. We had a chill Friday night – enjoyed a snacky dinner al fresco on the terrace.
Saturday I got myself up and out for a run by 9:30am. Every time I do that I vow that I will do that every weekend, and yet…it doesn’t happen. I was able to motivate myself to get out by 9:30am because I had brunch plans with friends! I made fresh fruit salad and challah french toast. Some people were eating the french toast with NO syrup. The horror!
Everything was delicious – there was shakshuka, a homemade quiche thing, avocado, fresh bread, tahini, french toast and fruit. And coffee, always coffee! After breakfast, we spent hours making summer bracelets 🙂
You can see a couple of the bracelets I made in this picture:
That afternoon we went to a concert for one of my friend’s boyfriend’s band. They were great!!!
Saturday night was extra fun. Luis and I tried out CHUCK CHUCK CHICKEN and both loved it. Those things in the top left corner are “corn ribs” – essentially fried corn (still on the cob) then sprinkled with spices and cheese and they were the best, most interesting thing I have had in a long time. It was all very good and I would go back (and I almost never say that!).
We took a long walk after dinner and since we weren’t feeling tired (and this is around 1am — #Spain!), we went to BINGO! I have never been to Bingo as an adult. It was interesting, fun, and extremely embarrassing when I YELLED “Linea!” without realizing that actually only one person can win Line Bingo. Apparantly one person wins line bingo and then it moves onto the entire board. How was I supposed to know that?! I wanted to crawl under the table and hide because everyone laughed haha.
Us and the 80 year olds.
We very switfly lost about 30€ (even though I declared that we would spent 10€ max). It’s so easy to just keep playing since each card is 2€. If you pay with a 10€ note, they give you back 8€ in 2€ coins so it’s easy to just say “ok one more”. Luis went a few weeks ago with friends and his friend won 700€ and Luis won 32€ so I guess someone wins.
And then Sunday. We had plans to go pick up this “not very big, not very heavy” freezer that would take “an hour and a half to two hours, tops” and then go to the pool. We packed bathing suits and everything. Spoiler alert: no pool happened.
We rented a huge van that Luis expertly drove and only hit one curb.
We drove 30 minutes to someone’s house where they had this “not very big” but actually HUGE A$$ freezer in their house. Thankfully they helped Luis inch this insanely heavy mammoth towards the door, squeeze it in their elevator, squeeze it through the door frame of the building, roll it away with a dolly and down a scary ramp (I couldn’t even watch because I was sure either Luis was going to be crushed or the freezer was going to fall and break).
They asked for someone’s help on the street to load it into the back of the truch like a casket with a dead body and then we carefully drove it to tova, where Luis’ brother came to help unload it.
Luis spent a good 30 minutes lying on the dirty, dusty floor to install the legs (they had been taken off to allow it to fit through the door frame), while Luis’ brother stood there supporting it’s weight. Luis was dripping in sweat.
I watched and ate a sandwich (the one seen above) because I was hangry. We drove the van back to the place we rented it from, contemplated the pool and then just went home. The freezer made it, we think it will work, and we vowed to never, EVER do that again. Luis, as the absolute gem that he is, did not complain once. He never does.
Back to work!