Remember my evening strolls? Well, yesterday evening I went out and see if I could find a place that would clean my camera lens (yes, I know, but the lens cleaning pack thing costs 20 euros) and, after that was accomplished, it seemed like a very good idea to stop off somewhere for a Cold Beer before heading home. I decided it would be nice to go to Casa Morales, which has become one of my favourite starting points on the Sevilla Tapas Tours. So Nog & I bellied up to the bar to order drinks and – as I wasn’t working – thought it would be better to just hang out there instead of getting a table. I’m so glad we did because it ended up being a wonderful evening.

I’ve known Diego (on the left) for years, as he used to work at the Horno San Buenaventura, and back in the day I would stop in there almost every morning for coffee and toast. So we got to chatting and one tapita led to another… they are so simple, so good and so cheap it was hard to resist. Then Diego started topping up our drinks on the house, and also brought us a couple of other snacks (not shown – a bit of chicharrones and some tuna mojama). At one point an elderly couple who had been sitting behind us – you can just about make them out in the photo – came up to pay and they gave the guys a little puzzle that they said could be made into both a square and a cross. Well, doing the square was no problem, but nobody could make the cross, so we said we’d have a go. At which point Diego said he’d bet us double or nothing on our bar tab that we couldn’t do it. Too bad we didn’t take him up on that as Nog eventually worked it out while Diego showed me an origami “flying” dove, which he said he’d made. When I looked sceptical he took a piece of paper and made one in front of me. I’d grabbed my iPhone to make a video of it but when he was finished I saw that I hadn’t turned the video on properly, so asked him to do it again. Only I stupidly held the iPhone the wrong way, which ended up with a rather odd looking video, but I didn’t think I could ask for a third performance. Anyhow, below you can watch Diego making palomas.

So what was just going to be a quick beer stop on the way home turned out to be a couple of very pleasant hours spent at this totally charming bar with great people. I love it when stuff like that happens.