I went to the Feria with Nog yesterday afternoon.
It was almost as fun as waking up with my house on fire…
Afterwards we went to the hospital to get my chemo port flushed out,
which we both enjoyed much more.
feria 2011
06 Friday May 2011
Category Archives: fiestas
semana santa 2011
21 Thursday Apr 2011
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only in Sevilla…
In case you missed this on the Sevilla Blog, we are now in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Sevilla. For those who haven’t experienced, or don’t know about it, it’s all about the processions – more than sixty of them during the course of the week, including those of the Madrugá on the Thursday night through to Friday morning (though this year it looks likely to be rained out). Each procession carries statues of the Christ and the Virgin from its home church to the Cathedral and back again, accompanied by nazarenos and penitentes carrying candles and crosses, and the distinctive music of the Semana Santa marching bands.
Because this is the largest and most elaborate celebration of its kind in the world, people come from all over Spain and even further afield to see it. With such large crowds, especially in the centre and around the cathedral, it is almost impossible for the residents to live normal lives, and for the last 18 years I’ve spent most of Semana Santa pretty much trapped in my flat just up the street from the cathedral. But this year I will be spending it in my new home near the Alfalfa for the first time, and I really don’t know what to expect in the way of crowds and inconvenience.
In retrospect it seems almost prescient that I took this video last year of the Santa Cruz procession, which plays my favourite marcha, the haunting La Madrugá by Abel Moreno. Little did I know that it was going to be the last time I would watch it go past below my bedroom balconies…
easyjet az
06 Wednesday Apr 2011
Yesterday evening I was thrilled when I got an email from Annie Manson saying that while flying from Geneva to Málaga she’d seen me mentioned and quoted in the EasyJet’s April Inflight magazine, and congratulating me on such a great PR coup. At first I was totally flummoxed as I had no idea why I would be in there, then when I saw the article (about the Feria in Sevilla) written by Derek Workman, I remembered meeting Derek for tapas a while back and spending a pleasant leisurely lunchtime chatting about Sevilla stuff. He was in town doing research for this article as EasyJet was about to launch a new London-Sevilla route in April. So that was quite exciting! If you want to read the article (which starts on page 50) you’ll have to register, which is a bit of a pain but only takes a minute.
Anyhow, after a few emails back and forth to Annie I got into bed with my iPhone to read a few last tweets and emails before sleeping and saw that one of my favourite tapas bars was mentioned in an article by Shaney Hudson, an Australian travel writer now living in Holland who was here on a research visit last autumn. Then I saw that my tapas tours got a personal recommendation from Shaney in her Essential Guide to Sevilla (!!!). How cool is that?
All of which has me thinking this morning about all the amazing connections I’ve made, and continue to make, via my blogs, Twitter and – okay I admit it – even Facebook. I’ve made friends and biz contacts, and have also found work, as a result of not only sitting in front of my laptop (or with iPhone in hand) several hours a day, but also by going out to meet many of these people when they are in town. Which of course I love as one of my favourite things to do is show people “my Sevilla” and especially take them out for tapas. So anyone who still thinks social media is silly is, well, silly. 😉
epiphany
06 Thursday Jan 2011
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…aka Los Reyes Magos or Three Kings Day
This celebration typically marks the end of the festive season in Spain, though I always extend it one day more to include my birthday (natch). Last night there was the cabalgata, a parade featuring Los Reyes Magos who ride around on floats tossing sweets out to the hoards of children that line the route, and at midnight the Christmas lights were switched off. Today there will be family dinners with gifts (giving presents on Christmas Eve/Day is a relatively new practice here), then tomorrow kids go back to school and normal life begins again. Though I’m actually working today and have a biz meeting at 5 o’clock – beats just sitting around waiting for my English students to come back from their holidays.
Planned to have an epiphany today but, you know…
christmas tree
13 Monday Dec 2010
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So I put up the little tree and a few decorations yesterday and, just as I suspected, Loki was all over everything in a flash. In previous years I’ve had the tree up on a stand near the bookcase, but since that’s now become Loki’s territory I tried the big table in the livingroom this time. I hope once Loki gets used to it being there he’ll leave it alone and, as I have to separate the cats when nobody is home anyhow, he can be locked out of the livingroom instead of locked in it.
I actually quite like the change of having it on the big table as this also means I could put out a set of the pretty white lights Susan left with me for the headboard. And I can also display the two beautiful pop-up Christmas books that Teuchter has given me. The one on the right arrived the other day and I decided to open it straight away after reading what it was on the Amazon receipt because I knew I’d want to look at it lots during the holiday season. It’s just as fab as the Twelve Days of Christmas one I got last year. Thanks again, Teuchter.
And so things are feeling quite Christmasy around casa az now…
casa azahar 