Category Archives: friends

girlie afternoon

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in food & drink, friends, fun stuff, hair, sevilla

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BIG surprise when I got a text message from Jessica asking if I’d be free for lunch today! Turns out she’s been in town doing research and, with that out of the way, she was free to play for an afternoon. We met early because I had to go to the hospital to get my chemo port flushed out and Jessica offered to come with me – nice! So we taxied there and back and then got caught in a massive downpour, ducking inside a cosy doorway just in time. I have to say it’s not everyone you can actually enjoy being trapped by the rain with. Finally we made it to our lunch destination – a new place called La Brunilda. Very nice kinda gourmet tapas but without the gourmet prices. In fact, I’ll be taking my tapas tour group there this evening for our last stop to see how well it works as another “less traditional” option (Jessica’s suggestion).

After a lovely lunch and lots of catching up we stopped by La Azotea so Jessica could see their new location and we ended up having a nice chat with Juan. Then I stopped by the Bodeguita Romero to take a photo for their blog and reserve a table for the second stop on tonight’s tour. And as Jessica had asked me where I got my hair cut we went by so I could show her where it is and I was surprised to find it open (it was just after 4pm). So we decided on the spot to both get our hair cut . Such a girlie thing to do! I treated myself to a dye job, which I usually do at home, and had a wee trim. But Jessica had about 10 inches cut off! She ended up with a feathery just below chin length bob that looks amazing on her … and I forgot to take her photo! Damn. Because after we were done at the hairdresser we walked a bit until I had to head home and she went to do a few errands before going back to Paris tomorrow, and I got a bit choked up about saying goodbye and so totally forgot about taking a pic. And so you get these cute barrels from La Brunilda instead.

Now I have to quickly change, fluff up my perfectly salon-dyed and blow-dried hair, and go meet my clients for a fun evening out.

Life is good…

supper club

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in books, cooking, food & drink, friends

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I blame my iPhone. Used to be that I would polish off at least a book a week, but ever since I got Pippin that number has dwindled to an embarrassing handful a year (!). Which is why it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get around to enjoying Kerstin Rodger’s Supper Club.

You may recall that Kerstin (aka @MsMarmitelover) visited Sevilla awhile back and was my houseguest for a fun & food filled weekend. Well, she also very generously risked going over her RyanAir baggage weight allowance and brought me a copy her fabulous book Supper Club – my own signed copy!

And it is truly a delightful read.

Sandwiched between an extremely useful step-by-step section on how to start up your own underground restaurant and a fun collection of themed dinner ideas are lots and lots of scrumptious recipes with beautiful photos. Being pretty much vegetarian (the occasional bit of fish is becoming even more occasional) Kerstin invited other “secret supper” chefs to share their favourite meat dishes. It’s a book full of heart and humour and I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes. I am also now extremely envious of all those people on Twitter talking about what an amazing time they had at this or that Supper Club evening…

For more foodie fabulousness check out Kerstin’s blogs:
The English Can Cook
The English Can Eat

Supper Club by Kerstin Rodgers

whirlwind week

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in friends, restaurants, sevilla, social media, spain, tapas, tapas tours, work

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In the middle of a whirlwind week! Not only am I up to my eyeballs in tapas tours, but I’ve also got a lot of social media stuff on the go, as well as my own websites to keep up with and update. Then there are the day-to-day things to take care of, plus trying to get to the gym.

In the midst all of this I have not one but two special guests visiting this week, one of whom will be staying with me. Which of course has meant trying to fit in a very serious spring clean-up (overdue, but nothing like a house guest to get those gears moving). I can’t complain that my social life is suffering because my work and my guests ARE my social life. I just need a few extra hours in the day.

How’s your week going?

connecting…

05 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in friends, social media, twitter, work

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A couple of days ago on Twitter someone I’ve known there for a couple of years recommended that someone else get in touch with me as they were coming to Sevilla this week. And so they did.

This afternoon Peter and I met with Sarah Jane Evans and her husband Richard for a bit of a tapeo and we had a great time going to a couple of my favourite spots. And just before we finished up Sarah Jane gave me this book she’d written about Seville, which was published in 1992. Very cool.

Made me think about all the great connections – and friends – I’ve made on Twitter over the years. In fact, it turned out that Sarah Jane and I have a lot of the same Twitter pals in common, probably not so surprising as they are all mostly food and wine people. Good ol’ social media!

How do you meet new people?

upstairs

10 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in change, food & drink, friends, home, work

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For over a year now my fabulous upstairs room has barely been used. This is about to change.

It’s funny how chance encounters can make such a difference. The other day I stopped by my friend Maria’s shop and found her chatting with a rather exotic looking woman called Fourat. A few minutes later all three of us were sitting at La Azotea up the street ordering wine and tapas, and an hour or so later I was over at Fourat’s house (turned out she lives on the same street) setting up a Twitter account for her and talking about our various projects.

One of the many things that came up was my now sadly abandoned clothing biz and I mentioned how I hadn’t sewn anything in ages although I still had TONS of fabric. And so this morning Peter and I cleared off one of the tables upstairs and set up my sewing machines so that they are there and ready to go whenever I feel inspired, as one thing that always puts me off sewing is having to set everything up and tear it all down again afterwards. The other thing is that I don’t actually like sewing, but that’s partly to do with the first thing.

Anyhow… it’s such a perfect room for sewing because of the lovely natural light and it’ll be great to actually be using that room. Until now it’s mostly just been Peter’s classroom for the couple of students that come to the house, even though there’s a comfy chair for reading and a music system set up. I’m sure that once I’m spending more time up there it will also inspire me to start doing more with the terraza. And all because of one chance meeting. Fourat (who gives classes in Lebanese and Mediterranean cooking) and I are also planning a project or two together, so stay tuned for that…