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The glass on the right is for you.
I’ve decided to spend the day in PJs, drinking cava, reading, watching Netflix and eating delicious food. What are you guys up to?
01 Friday Jan 2016
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The glass on the right is for you.
I’ve decided to spend the day in PJs, drinking cava, reading, watching Netflix and eating delicious food. What are you guys up to?
31 Thursday Dec 2015
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I can’t remember the last time I went out on New Year’s Eve! But the other day a friend called and said she and her husband were having family and a few friends over for dinner and drinks, and that they’d love me to come. So off I went and I had a wonderful time. And I got to eat my 12 lucky grapes at midnight – another thing I haven’t done in years. The last one was a bit tough to get out of the glass, but I managed to munch it down before the last bell tolled. Lucky me!
Wishing you all a wonderful 2016!
04 Thursday Jun 2015
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… and I didn’t get lost once!
Probably because I walked everywhere and it was daylight. Once again I didn’t have much of a plan, though Jeffrey @FoodieHub had set me 3 final foodie challenges: to track down and eat London’s best sausage roll, best grilled cheese sandwich, and best pizza. Well, clearly that wasn’t ALL going to happen, but the Ginger Pig sausage roll and the Kappacasein grilled cheese could both be found at Borough Market, and thus a plan began to take shape. On a whim I got in touch with Twitter pal @CoteDuPy (who wasn’t able to get to our Twitter meet up) to see if he was free to meet for a quick sherry at José Pizarro’s tapas bar in nearby Bermondsey street. And he was! So we had a lovely visit and shared some gorgeous garlic-chilli prawns before I head out on my mission.
I’d always been curious about Borough Market, though my friend José has long lamented that it was no longer recognisable. And although I’d never seen its previous state I understood exactly what he meant as soon as I walked in. Yet another charming market gone upmarket. Though unlike places like Madrid’s San Miguel “Market”, at least there were still a few places you could actually pick up a few veggies, fish and whatnot, though probably at much higher prices than before it became so trendy. To be honest, if I lived in London I probably wouldn’t go back to Borough Market. Meh.

I also found these “legendary” food items to be quite unspectacular. The grilled cheese sandwich was, well, a grilled cheese sandwich. Three types of cheese, five types of onion (really just a small spoonful was added) on sourdough bread. It just tasted like lots of melted cheese, no finesse going on there. And since I knew there was no way I could eat a grilled cheese AND a sausage roll, I decided to have the roll wrapped up to eat later as a snack at the airport.

So after checking in and all that I found a seat at a bar, ordered a glass of wine and asked if I could eat my sausage roll there. No problem. Except I couldn’t eat it. After two small bites I couldn’t carry on. Talk about DENSE. And really not all that flavourful. I will give GP the benefit of the doubt that it is probably best eaten hot out of the oven and not several hours later at the airport, but still. It was super stodgy. Ended up bringing it home and even the flatmate (who is not a fussy eater) wasn’t thrilled with it. Anybody else tried this and liked it?
And that was the end of my London Getaway. You can see all kinds of photos on my Instagram, and I do hope to actually write something a bit more than these few “postcard” blog posts. It truly was an amazing week and it left me longing to go back again soon. Oh, and I got to see Tower Bridge for the first time! 🙂
02 Thursday Apr 2015
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People often comment on how Nazarenos look sinister, even without the obvious KKK reference. Well, this week while out on a Triana Tapas Tour (perfect for midday tours during Semana Santa – it was lovely and quiet over there!) I happened across a bakery that was closed for the holidays. And these little meringue nazarenos caught my eye, all droopy and melty from being left in a sunny shop window. And then I noticed the sad bendy birthday candles they were holding, an attention to detail that totally melted my heart.

06 Tuesday Jan 2015
Posted in christmas, friends, holidays, Malaga, malaga getaway
the usual suspects: Fred, Victor, Andrew & Arpy
It’s Birthday Eve! Plans have been made for fun stuff to do with Sevilla friends mañana. But today I thought I’d feature some of my Málaga friends, who also happen to be some of my favourite people in the whole world: Fred @fredshively, Victor @welovemalaga, Andrew @andrewaforbes and Arpy @andalucinda. This is a photo taken at our “official” Christmas Lunch.
Most of you probably know that a couple of weeks ago I arranged a last-minute Málaga Getaway, specifically so I could see the amazing “cathedral” Christmas lights in calle Larios with my own eyes. And of course to see my Málaga friends. I met up with Fred & Arpy, and Victor, on different occasions, and also met David @irlandesnmalaga for lunch one day with his lovely wife Kasha and baby Kira (officially the prettiest baby in the world!), which led to us meeting some new friends thanks to the fabulous Annie @anniebennett. After lunch we stopped by brand new Cafe Estraperlo @cafeestraperlo for “coffee” (really more drinks) and even ended up in one of José’s infamous Instagram selfies…
José, Mark, me, Kasha, baby Kira, David
But back to the Christmas Lunch. This took place my last afternoon in Málaga and came together all very last minute (for a change!) with Andrew, bless him, being able to make it after all (wouldn’t have been the same without him). The venue was Bar Nerva (that post needs updating!), a favourite family-run bar with delicious homestyle Andalucian cooking at its best. Here’s what we had for lunch. Nice touch was getting a frozen grape in each glass of wine to keep it chilled.

Anyhow, during that lunch I sat back and watched these guys, all of them so smart and witty and charming and fun and lovely, and suddenly I had tears in my eyes thinking how lucky I was, especially as they had all come together that afternoon on my account. It was definitely a “George Baily moment” and I totally felt like the richest girl in town.

Thanks guys. This was my best Christmas in a very long time.
Also… the next time anyone disses Twitter. I’ve included everyone’s Twitter handle here because that is where I met all these lovely lovely people. xx