20 Monday Oct 2008
Posted in food & drink, friends, holidays, life stuff, photos, trips
The only plan for the entire trip was that at some point we had to get to Gibraltar so I could stock up on underwear and socks at Marks & Spencer. Other than that, Susan and I were free agents. Though we also had to consider the weather. The forecast said it was going to be sunny on Friday and rainy on Saturday, so we weren’t sure if it might be better to do shopping and fish & chip eating as rainy day activities. . .
19 Sunday Oct 2008
Memories of Málaga . . .
It didn’t occur to me until much later (ie. too late) to ask WHY this was even there.
~ more road trip stuff mañana ~
06 Monday Oct 2008
Posted in food & drink, health & happiness, photos, sevilla, tapas
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that one of the things I’ve been able to enjoy again are daily walks, and yesterday was no exception. Nog and I headed out late in the morning and I told him he was the ‘tour guide’, so for the next couple of hours he led me through the old Jewish quarter, down near the Alfalfa, and then up to the Ronda, all via little side streets, some of which we’d never been on before.
We ended up near Becerríta and I told Nog I had to get an outside photo of the place because I forgot to do so when Pipocas took me there a few weeks ago. So I tried getting a good shot but there was a guy hanging out in front who seemed to be waiting for someone and not likely to leave very soon, and so we decided to go inside for a cold drink. Well … after having been walking around for the past couple of hours we were actually getting hungry so Nog offered to treat us to a snack. We tried a couple of the special tapas del día on the menu and they were simply divine.
Above is a revuelto – basically scrambled eggs with potatoes and melt-in-your-mouth stewed bull’s tail. And below is grilled sea bass topped with slivered potatoes and served with marinated red peppers, onions and tomatoes. Along with a cold beer and chilled glass of white wine it was a truly exquisite snack. Kind of fed more than our appetites, if you know what I mean.
Boy, I love living in Sevilla! 🙂
19 Friday Sep 2008
Posted in food & drink, friends, photos, restaurants, sevilla, tapas
Yesterday my friend Judy (aka La J) took me out to Tre Fratelli for lunch. It was her first time there and she loved it. And coincidentally, the AWC will be having their first luncheon of the season there in October, but I reckon I’ll be missing that one. Anyhow, that’s my pizza up there – half prawn & spinach, half chorizo & peppers – which was fabulous (and I even took some home for Nog). Below is J’s fettucini with chicken in creamy dijon mustard sauce. And below that is something new they are trying out called crostini. Guess I’ll have to wait until November to try those, but they sure looked good.
Thanks again for such a nice afternoon, Judy! 
21 Thursday Aug 2008
Yesterday I went back to the viveros to 1) find out the name of my mystery plants and 2) get some baby cacti for the bathroom. Nog and I took the rental bikes and when I stopped to take a photo of the entrance I noticed for the first time that it was called Casa Batlló, just like my favourite house in Barcelona.
As soon as I walked in the woman who sold me the Portulaca (which is indeed its proper name, and does not start with a ‘b’) looked up from cleaning a window and said to me by way of a greeting – “It was an orange one!”. Ha! And I told her the second ‘yellow’ one she’d chosen for me also turned out to be orange and we had a good laugh. Guess you had to be there. Anyhow, I then asked about some baby cacti and chose three – again, one euro each. Weirdly, the man who showed me the cactus section (I think the husband of the woman I’d been talking to) also showed me a type that he said people buy to put next to their computers because they absorb static or something? A quick google has come up with this. Maybe I’ll get one next time. Meanwhile, here are the three I bought (well, two cacti and a succulent) …
Afterwards I wandered around the viveros looking for gatitos and found way fewer than on my previous two visits (figures, since I wanted to take pics of them). And it turned out that the proprietors were also camera shy – a real shame because they were both so charming and would have made for a great photo together with their plants and cats. Perhaps I’ll be able to convince them next time (I have a feeling I’ll be going back again).
Below are a few pics showing the general ambience of the place, including a few cats…
casa azahar 
