Category Archives: sevilla

Nick & Jim

05 Wednesday Nov 2025

Posted by in friends, sevilla, spain, substack, tapas

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Jim & Nick at Manolo Cateca

Mexico-based food writer Nick (Nicolas Gilman) and I first met ten years ago in London during a mad whirlwind gastronomic weekend hosted by Jeffrey Merrihue (formerly Foodie Hub now Xtreme Foodies) though we barely remember as there were so many people and so many places. Anyhow, we reconnected this year on Substack and this week he and his partner Jim are in town so we got together for a little sherry and a snack at Manolo Cateca. It was lovely meeting them both and I hope we can get together again before they leave.

fred & susan are back!

04 Tuesday Nov 2025

Posted by in food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I’ve known Fred & Susan for years now (first via Twitter), then we met up in person about a year and a half ago and had a great time together. And this week was no exception. Suddenly they were back in town and so of course we had to meet up. We started off with a glass of cava at Catalina El Bar before heading for a fabulous lunch at Amara. Then it was time for a penúltima. On the way to my first choice (El Cairo) I decided to pop into Augurio because Fred & Susan were planning on eating there during their stay and I thought it would be nice to make the booking in person and introduce them to the girls. 

Imagine my surprise when the last two tables having lunch there were also friends of mine! In fact, the last time I was at Augurio (for an amazing sherry & dinner event) Elba and Bill were also there and they had joked when they saw each other that the only one missing was me. So we ended up having our penúltima there and it was a lovely finish to a very enjoyable afternoon.

Elba (seated) with Fred, Susan, friend of Bill and Bill

Fred & Bill

melissa & ben

30 Thursday Oct 2025

Posted by in friends, london, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I first met Melissa Cole (aka London’s Queen of Beer) back in 2016 in London, and we last saw each other (also in London) at an event at the Spanish Embassy. This week she and her husband Ben are in town for a “birthday trip” and today we went out on a slow-paced crutches friendly tapas tour. Basically three bars close together in my barrio. I’d love to do this more often but these bars don’t take bookings and are usually jam packed (well, they took bookings for me today, but I wouldn’t want to have to call in favours like that too often). Anyhow, what a fabulous time we had. Lots of good food, wine and chat. Hope they’ll be back soon.

boosted!

29 Wednesday Oct 2025

Posted by in covid, health, sevilla

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

Got my Covid-Flu boosters yesterday! I was pleased to see quite a turn-out, a lot more people than last year, but still nobody else was wearing a mask. Peter got his last week, this week my age-group is up, along with children 6-59 weeks old, pregnant and postpartum women. I think that after this week anyone can get an appointment. Anyhow, so far just the Covid jab arm hurts a bit. 💉💪

  • Trivalent Influenza / Vaccinated / FLUCELVAX  
  • COVID-19 / Vaccinated / COMIRNATY