How Skype Keeps Our Family Close

Note: This blog post is written by the dad who continues working in Minnesota. 

Being apart from my wife and kids in Madrid and visiting them only a couple times during the year has been tough for me.  Fortunately, daily Skype Internet-video-conferencing keeps us close.  I have Skype set up at home and in my office and need only a mouse-click to call my family – it’s easier than dialing a phone.  The Menkens-in-Madrid have Skype on their home PC and iPad and using a mobile hot-spot can video chat with me from anywhere.  I’ve chatted with them riding the bus through town and have watched my boys' soccer practice.  See the screen-shots below.  And it’s all FREE!

Daily Skype chats mimic regular life; sometimes we have great talks and sometimes the boys are just horsing around, but we're still integrated in each other’s lives and are still a family unit.   Here’s a sampling of Skype screen shots from the past eight months. 

 Sharing daily news.

Telling a joke.

Skyping from the bus traveling through Pozuelo.

Watching futbol practice.

Talking about school.

Christmas cuddle.

Make believe patricide. 

Playing piano recital songs for dad.

Talking about life. 

Saying “Good night.”

Math Practice Day, February 26, 2012

Harry and Charley and three other 5th graders were invited to enter a math competition. The first round was within the school where the 5th and 6th graders compete against each other. Then the next round would be the top 4 going on to compete against other schools.

The boys down in the apartment garden.

Before the first round Harry and Charley invited their three friends over to practice. They did do quite a lot of math that weekend but here they are having fun with their school friend Adrian.

Harry and Charley and two 6th graders got through to the second round which is in April at a University in Madrid.

Camomile Day, February 24, 2012

Billy ended up with very itchy ears and bumps all over them. I had brought camomile lotion to England but left it there to cut down on weight and thinking that I could just buy some here. Well the day I needed some we went to various shops including pharmacies with the intent on buying some for Billy's ears.
We had no luck, nobody had any and then finally one pharmacist said she had some camomile seeds that if we put them in boiling water we could make our own lotion (or tea as others would describe it). This is what we finally did, to relieve Billy of the irritation.

Instead of having the convenience of lotion we made our own and soaked tissue paper in it to put over Billy's rash.

Pancake Day Tuesday 21st February 2012

It was Carnival Day and the children in my school came dressed up as their favourite characters. In England it is Shrove Tuesday which is pancake day.

First course with cheese, ham and spinach.

Even Billy admits this a good way to make him eat spinach.

And there it was half gone with no complaining.

Dessert with chocolate and Strawberries.

 

 

Sunday 19th February, 2012

The Recartes kindly invited us over for the afternoon and served our favourite Spanish meal - Chicken fillets, fries and tortilla.

6 hungry boys enjoying their meal.

 Soccer, tennis and the film "Journey to the Centre of the Earth II" followed. A good day had by all.

Saturday Futbol with Historical Sights

Saturday 18th February 2012
We were on the A6 on our way up to Alpedrete, Villalba, North West of Madrid to a football game against Atletico Villalba. Paul the father of one of the boys' soccer friends, Pablo, and also our kind driver, told us about the sights. We had past on this road many times before but had not known what we were looking at.

Franco's home on the hill.
View from A6, from Pozuelo del Alarcon to Alpedrete, Villalba.

The loan house on the hill was Franco's home.

On the otherside of the A6 not too far away is Franco's tomb and the valley of the fallen.

The highest memorial cross in the world is more than 150 meters (>450ft) high.
The tomb of Franco and Jose Antonio Primo de Riviera.

It took 18 years to build, started in 1940 when Franco wanted a
Monument of National Atonement after the Civil War finished in 1939.

Billy warming up with his coat on. The day started off cold.

Harry and Charley warming up, still cold but all coats off.

 A game of soccer that we lost but later the boys wanted to go out in the sun and play more.

Outside our apartment garden.

Although there is a little snow on the mountains there is much less than usual. It has been a warm and dry winter.

Retrieving the ball.

Charley climbing back up.

Apartment to the left, light rail to the right and bus stop straight ahead.

Harry