Yesterday was Susan’s last Sunday in Sevilla and she treated me to this fabulously decadent lunch at Manolo León. Some of you may remember that after the erroneous second prognosis last October, when I was told that I maybe had a year to live, we (Nog, Pablo & I) went to Manolo León for a “post-prognosis party” in order to, well, eat like there was no tomorrow and get shit-faced. And so it was nice to go back there under more pleasant circumstances.
Yesterday was also the summer solstice, which ended up feeling a bit like Christmas…
Before and after lunch Sue and I made trips out to Tres Mil Viviendas because both of us had been cleaning out our closets and we didn’t want to just throw the stuff away. We hoped that some of the poor families living in Sevilla’s very own “pre-fab slum” would be able to use the clothes, which included stuff that the Kidlet had outgrown but was still in very good condition. And on our second trip we brought a carload of toys, dolls, games and a few other items that wouldn’t be making the trip to Florida, including a kiddie tent in the shape of a castle and a flashy pink tricycle.
On the first trip we didn’t see anyone around, but we noticed that there were a couple of inflatable plastic pools outside one of the buildings, which were packed full of kids when we returned after lunch. There was also a group of adults and children under one of the building canopies and it looked like a few families were having lunch outside. Well, as soon as the pink tricycle made an appearance women and children started running towards us, the kids grabbing the first colourful toy or doll they could reach and then running off with their treasures. Then one of the women came up and said “are there any clothes? I have four children!” and Sue showed her and the others the bags of clothes we had left earlier. As the mothers started going through the bags we drove off and it just felt so good to have brightened up their day a bit. It suddenly felt like Christmas in the middle of a very HOT summer solstice afternoon.
It feels good to give, doesn’t it? I bet those kids had a great weekend with their new toys 🙂
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That sounds like a wonderful day. How great that you were able to see the things you brought to donate being claimed.
I’m so sad for you that Susan is leaving so soon. What a wondeful friend she is. (And too bad I won’t get to meet her. I’m still hoping to be coming ot Sevilla in September, by the way, but we have to hold off on making our plans for a few more days.)
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That was the really cool part – seeing the people actually taking the stuff away. We weren’t sure after the first trip if anyone would check the bags and see that there were clothes in them, even though we left some open.
Yeah, it’s very sad to think that a week from now Susan will be gone … so I’m not thinking about that right now. We have another “date” tomorrow after I finish getting my pre-chemo blood work done at the hospital. I’ll walk over to her place afterwards and we’ll take the rest of the stuff I’m inheriting over to my place and then maybe a last tapa lunch together. On Wednesday Sue’s boss will be in town and on Thursday I’ll be getting another chemo infusion, so from Thursday to Sunday I won’t really be up for much. But I hope we’ll be able to get together for at least a little while on Saturday.
We can start making plans for September in a few more days, alejna? Oh boy!
By the way, the lunch was a starter of pastry filled with prawns, leeks & cream cheese in a salmorejo sauce, which was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted in my life. Main courses were grilled pork tenderloin and tuna in a white sauce with soya prawn crackers and toasted almonds. And then we shared a dessert! I don’t know what came over us, because we never have dessert, but this one was actually very good and hardly sweet at all. Mandarine orange sliced on top of an “azahar scented” sponge cake. Divine.
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*still believes that the only thing Sevillans do are eating fab meals*
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It all looks so delish…
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That description is making me hungry and its only 11.54am…
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It sounds like a fun day. Glad you could have some time together before she leaves.
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