Awful coffee. Rattlesnakes. Even Spanish omelettes in a JAR! Miriam’s Californian nightmare
MOST people would revel in the luxury existence afforded only to the wealthy elite of Silicon Valley. But not Nick Clegg’s wife. Miriam Gonzalez Durantez started complaining about her new life in California as soon as her husband took up his £4 milliona-year job at Facebook last October – and she hasn’t stopped since.
Although she now lives in a £7million mansion complete with pool and spa, she repeatedly bemoans the local food, dangerous wildlife – and even the weather.
‘Next time anybody asks me how is life in “sunny” California, we are going to have the mother of all talks. Two months raining… and counting!’ Ms Gonzalez Durantez posted on Instagram in February.
As an international lawyer, she has to wake up early to make phone calls to Europe due to the eighthour time difference. ‘Having been up since 5am in conference calls, my life does not feel “star quality” at all!’ she revealed.
Ms Gonzalez Durantez returns monthly to London for work, and – posting a photo of an icy landscape taken from her aircraft window – she wrote: ‘Greenland, the only interesting bit of the looooonnnngggg London-California flight.’
American cuisine has also left avid cook Ms Gonzalez Durantez underwhelmed. ‘P-l-e-a-s-e import proper coffee into this country,’ she pleaded in April.
She was also horrified to find a Spanish omelette potato mix sold in a jar, complaining: ‘There should be an international convention forbidding treating tortillas [omelettes] like this.’ But she took small comfort in a can of Heinz spaghetti, announcing: ‘Found this in the “British corner” of my local US supermarket.’
On a visit to London, the motherof-three stocked up on six bottles of Nando’s peri-peri sauce, calling it ‘the London food that my children miss the most’. She added: ‘Back to the London pollution – and yet this is where I breathe best…’
The 51-year-old also wasn’t happy when her home suffered a blackout after high winds brought down electricity lines. ‘We had a power outage,’ she wrote, ‘and apparently this happens from time to time when there is wind (!)… There is certainly more to Silicon Valley than meets the eye.’
She has railed against American bureaucracy too, writing shortly after her arrival: ‘One week and a half in California and I already had to fill in 63 registration forms – and no, not even all of them were online! Next time any Brexiteers complain about European bureaucracy, just point them to the US.’
She added: ‘Oh dear, this is what I have become! What other country calls foreigners “aliens”?’
She was also left frustrated with US healthcare, revealing how she had to spend nearly 50 minutes waiting for a simple vaccine at a clinic. ‘Please do not let anybody here touch the NHS!’ she added.
In mid-April, she visited a beach swathed in a zipped-up hoodie and sweatpants, complaining about the bitter cold compared with her native Spain, where she would normally visit the beach ‘with the bikini, sun umbrella, folding chair, a beach mat and a cooler box with beers and watermelon’.
She was nonplussed to find beach signs warning of sharks, and on other outings appeared bemused by signs warning of rattlesnakes and mountain lion, and advising hikers to ‘fight back’.
‘I scream if I see a mouse,’ she posted, ‘so guess what the chances are I will “fight back” if I see a mountain lion!’ Still, she does seem to be enjoying the spectacular Californian coastline, and as she drove across the iconic bridge above Big Sur, she posted ‘Driving into Big Little Lies’, referring to the hit television drama.
Former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick lost his seat as an MP at the 2017 General Election.
He joined Facebook as vicepresident of global affairs and communications last October.
Despite his new role, Clegg, 52, is virtually unknown in the US. Even at Facebook he is just one of dozens of corporate vice-presidents competing for a few minutes of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s time each week.
And Ms Gonzalez Durantez revealed that she doesn’t always want her husband by her side.
In November she is set to receive an award for her charity work, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.
‘Your husband says he is coming with you!’ she wrote. ‘Come on!’ She added a video of a parrot shaking its head, above the word: ‘NO.’
‘What other country calls foreigners aliens?’