The other day after I picked up my loaner iPad, Peter and I stayed at the Vineria San Telmo to enjoy a drink outside in the sunshine. I mean, sitting out in the sun in mid-December is pretty special. And then I saw my old buddy Justo. I’ve known him as long as I’ve lived in Sevilla. He used to do the shoe-shine thing outside my old home until the “powers that be” decided it was bad for tourism to have gypsy shoe-shine guys pestering the tourists. And to be honest, the majority of them were pretty obnoxious. But not Justo. He was always charming and chatty. I remember once, maybe 15 years ago, splashing out to have my shoes polished on my birthday.

And so when I saw Justo again we had a chat and, as usual, he pointed out the bad state of our shoes. Well, mine are suede so he couldn’t do anything about that, but Peter never takes care of his shoes and Justo said he would add two years of life to them for just 4 euros. How could I resist? So I bought Peter a shoe shine, and also about ten minutes of Justo’s time. We chatted and caught up a bit – Justo told Peter about how he’s known me forever – and I found out that he has been made the official shoe-shine guy for Restaurante Modesto! He even has a little badge saying so. All of which made me think about how much all our lives have changed over the years. And also about how “connected” I feel here, to all kinds of people and to all sorts of memories.

I told Justo I would put his photo on Twitter and make him famous, and he made me promise I would say he was the best shoe-shine guy in the Puerta de la Carne. Which I did. Because he really is. Peter’s two-year-old shoes look brand new.