Doesn’t matter which god, just loved this heavenly sky.
and now a word from god…
17 Friday Jan 2020
17 Friday Jan 2020
13 Monday Jan 2020
Posted in sevilla
About…. 20 years ago?… I was hanging laundry on my roof on my birthday (January 7th) and suddenly a flock of at least 30 storks sped past overhead as far as the Santa Cruz church and – I swear – then took a sharp turn to the left. LIKE THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE GOING. And that image has never left my mind’s eye. Then yesterday, again hanging up laundry, I saw a smaller bunch of storks high up in the sky. Man! They are just so damn graceful and beautiful. And knowing that they are returning from spending the winter in Africa in order to take up residence in their forever nests with their forever partners… well, it doesn’t get more romantic than that.
Then today on my river walk I saw another whack of storks soaring elegantly above me… and you can see them too. They just filled my heart with joy.
10 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals, sevilla

Let’s recap here, shall we? About a year ago my new oncologist told me I was cancer free and no longer required further tests. She said to me – and I quote – “If that pain comes back then go to emergency”. But I was no longer on the watch list for possible cancer recurrence. WTF? As most people know, by the time you are in any kind of serious pain because of cancer, you are pretty much already dead.
Meanwhile, to this date nobody can explain why I’m even fucking alive, and apparently my case flummoxed pretty much everyone who was involved with it. This is why I had regular PET scans, twice a year for five years after my last chemo in 2009, then once a year for the following five. And then in January 2018 suddenly there was some issue about an inflammatory area that had increased from one PET to the next, and suddenly I was seeing a new onc who gave me a whack of other tests: CTs, colonoscopy, endoscopy… and then pronounced me cancer-free. As in, you can go away now.
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07 Tuesday Jan 2020
Posted in birthdays, food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla

Yay! It was a wonderful 63rd birthday. Lovely friends Claudia & Paul took me out for lunch at a new Italian restaurant called Alimentari. It was something new for all of us, and I also got to introduce them to a different part of town.
We actually started off at Las Teresas for some cava and jamón, and afterwards met up with Charlie & Sam, who were also in Sevilla for my birthday last year (!) for a penúltima at La Azotea. I have to say it was one of my best birthdays ever. Thanks everybody! ❤
Alimentari

la penúltima!

06 Monday Jan 2020
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours
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I can’t remember the last time I did two tapas tours in one day, but it’s been a few years. In fact, these days I won’t even go out for lunch if I have a tour in the evening… getting too old! But then the other day my friend Tomoko got in touch and asked if I could take out a visiting Japanese chef on Saturday. I already had a private tour booked for the evening but decided to take Yoshi out at lunchtime. I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity of taking out a Japanese chef who runs a tapas bar in Tokyo. And it was great fun. Yoshi’s English is a bit better than his Spanish and so we got by speaking Spanglish and using lots of gestures. Also the wine helped. We managed five tapas bars and god knows how much food (for the record, he was eating most of it!) and we finished off having vermouth at Esteban’s fabulous Vermutería. Then I had to go home and sober up for my evening tour!

I had provided Yoshi with a couple of other tapas bar options for Sunday afternoon (he was leaving town at 5 pm for Madrid) and as it happened I was passing by one of the bars after my midday WALK, so I stopped in and we got to visit a bit more. Finally I dropped him off at the bus stop to get back to his hotel. Honestly, he was lovely and everybody who met him was charmed. He’s in Madrid now with my MADRID LIST so I hope he fares well. When he first arrived in Sevilla he told Tomoko he wasn’t impressed and probably wouldn’t be back, but after his time out with me he says he LOVES Sevilla and is already planning to come back next year. Yay!
