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Category Archives: sevilla

friday foto finder – high

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by azahar in friday foto finder, photos, sevilla

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

friday foto finder, high

fff - high 1

This week’s Friday Foto Finder challenge is “high”…

fff - high 2Almost two years ago I went on a very special Cathedral Rooftop Tour, which in retrospect was not the smartest thing for an agoraphobic chica like me to do, but it was too intriguing an opportunity to pass up. I was mostly okay though at one point I resorted to filming a short video of the clanging bells instead of running away in terror. But it turned out that the worst part was when we got back inside and I suddenly found myself behind a balustrade that runs just below the HIGH vaulted ceilings.

Even looking at these photos makes me break out in a sweat and I remember thinking then that I was going to totally break down and that somehow they would have to cart my quivering jibbering self back down the long stone spiral staircase. To give you an idea of how HIGH up I was, you can just about make out the two angels with trumpets in this photo on the left. I still can’t believe I was actually standing behind one of them. Must stop looking at these photos now…

Check out what other Friday Foto Finders are posting over here!

finely chopped

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by azahar in friends, sevilla, tapas

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food, friends, tapas, twitter

happiest man in sevillaThis is food writer Kalyan, who at lunchtime today was the happiest man in Sevilla, and I am pretty sure that he is about to become even happier. You see, tonight I’ll be meeting Kalyan and his wife Kainaz, who are travelling around Spain and are in town for a few days, and I’ll be taking them out for a tapeo.

This one is “on the house” as Kalyan (@FinelyChopped) is a friend of two Twitter pals of mine, Robin and Simon Majumdar (@HermanoPrimero @SimonMajumdar ) and I think it’s going to be a fun evening. It’s always a bit of an extra challenge when I’m out with another “foodie” and I know that Robin will be checking in to see what we’re up to. You can too on @SevillaTapas, starting around 8.00 pm my time.

So once again good ol’ Twitter is adding some great stuff and new experiences to my life. Love it.

change ahead

21 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by azahar in diet & nutrition, health & happiness, home, hope, sevilla, work

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

health, life, mondays, stuff

Change-Ahead
Nothing like spending most of a week stuck in bed and feeling like crap to focus on… other things. And as 2013 is still young, it’s also a good time to think about change and goals for the year to come. My main goal, of course, is to stay cancer-free, though there’s little or (I think) nothing I can do about that. Next PET scan will be in March. Will she get another 6-month reprieve? Stay tuned folks.

In other news, I may have to move! Not because I want to but because I don’t think I can afford to stay where I am. When I first took this place with Peter two years ago the understanding was that he’d be paying half the rent and bills, but unfortunately this isn’t happening. And no, I’m not going to try sharing with a total stranger (been there, too old for that now) so finding a smaller place I can afford on my own might be necessary. It would mean “downsizing” considerably, getting rid of furniture and probably my books – at least two rooms full of “stuff” – but at this point I’m ready to do whatever I have to. My food tours are really taking off but, you know, I don’t want to work my butt off and then still end up going into debt just so Peter can have a roof over his head. And the truth is that I don’t use the upstairs room or terrace much, since I spend most of the day working in the “livingroom office”. Anyhow, I’m just getting myself psyched up for this in case I have to move. There will be no rash decisions. So again, stay tuned.

On the bright side, I discovered this morning that I lost 2.5 kilos this past week! Which more than takes care of the “Christmas excess”, and kinda inspires me to keep on with the light eating thing. I’m still not quite ready to get back to the gym but, considering I lost this weight while mostly being curled up in the foetal position, I’m beginning to think there’s something to the theory that exercise, while good for maintaining general health and fitness, really isn’t such a big factor when it comes to weight loss.

So it looks like another day mostly at home, although it’s very blue and shiny out there and I’d love to get out. But I now have The Cough (which apparently happens around Day 6) and my chest feels like a fat dwarf – or Loki – is sitting on it. And without warning I start hacking away, which I do my best to stop, and have been pleased to discover that by careful breathing I’m actually able to stop it a lot of the time. But sometimes not and it feels like I’m going to turn myself inside out. A friend told me he coughed so bad during the Coughing Stage that he pulled a muscle in his armpit! Anyhow, I have two meetings tomorrow morning and am giving a friend a blog class in the evening, so I reckon another day at home is prudent.

What’s new with you guys? Have you got any plans happening?

the lost week ends

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by azahar in cats, friends, health & happiness, home, sevilla

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

friends, health, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours

mark and joFinally this hellish week has ended. And rather nicely, as it turns out. Yesterday the awful cold-flu that kept me in bed most of the week was suddenly more cold than flu, which included the apprearance of a brand new scratchy throat and cough. But at least I could stay vertical for more than a couple of hours and, basically, didn’t feel so bloody crap. Even so, when my friends Mark and Jo (that’s them on the left) said they were going to be in Sevilla today and wanted to invite me for lunch to celebrate their 100th trip to Spain, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to make it because I also had a tapas tour booked for tonight. I mean, I thought I might manage one or the other, but not both. And although Peter was happy to step in and help out I really don’t like “changing the guide” on my clients last minute. But then I heard from Sharon (one of tonight’s group of three) saying they’d be in town late this afternoon and were looking forward to meeting either me or Peter at 8.00. Huh?

I had forgotten that they’d made their booking when I was planning a trip to Barcelona and I’d told them at the time that because of this I couldn’t say if they’d be with me or Peter. And that was okey-dokey with them! What a relief. So I wrote back and explained that while my trip to Barcelona had been postponed I was just getting over a very bad flu and they would be going out with Peter after all. And then I decided to go and meet Mark and Jo for lunch! Though that almost didn’t happen because I started to “crash” again around noon and even the thought of getting dressed felt overwhelming. But M & J were already on their way to Sevilla by then and incommunicado so I was resigned to go, especially because I had asked them to change their original choice of tapas bar to one closer to my home.

At 3 o’clock we met at the fabulous Taberna El Paduro, which was heaving, but after a short wait we got a comfy spot at the end of the bar. And we had a great time. I realised that I hadn’t been out of the house in over four days and hadn’t actually walked further than from room to room, so it was nice to stretch my legs. But talking was VERY difficult because it kept setting off massive hacking coughing jags, which made it clear that I could never have done the tapas tour, since I obviously need to be able to talk. A lot. So it all turned out for the best. The tour booking arrangements, missing M & J so I couldn’t cancel lunch, getting out of the house, and then coming home again. Now I’ve got the heat blasting and am all cosy here with the cats while Peter is out doing the tour. Still with the coughing jags – so bad at times it feels like I’m going to hack up a lung – but I’m hoping that will ease off by tomorrow. And after that… a fresh new week!

birthday tapeo

10 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by azahar in birthdays, food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birthday, friends, tapas

birthday tapeo
For those of you who don’t follow azahar’s Sevilla blog, this is the post I wrote there about my fabulous birthday tapeo. As you know, Monday was my birthday and, wanting to do something a bit special, I thought I would go and have a meal at a very special seafood restaurant that I haven’t visited here yet. But then after getting a bit of feedback from friends I wondered if I really ought to spend so much on lunch for me and my best friend/flatmate/biz partner Peter (aka Seville Concierge). And so almost last minute I decided to ditch the too expensive plan and opt for – what else? – a special tapeo. After all, it’s what I do. Except that when I do it for others I’m actually working and don’t partake other than a couple of drinks and a tapa or two throughout the evening.

federico jamon cutterBut this was MY tapeo and so I decided what I really wanted first of all was a gorgeous plate of jamón Ibérico. So we went to Flores Jamones y Vinos and I got chatting to Federico about the different jamones. Well, turns out Federico has been cutting jamón for 30 years and his father still keeps pata negra pigs in the Huelva mountains and cures his own, so I was very pleased to have this guy cutting my birthday jamón for me. As a treat he made a plate from two different legs, both from Huelva. One he cut open fresh for me, the other he took from another leg closer to the bone. And both were exquisite. A perfect start to my birthday tapeo. Especially the bit when they all sang “Cumpleaños Feliz” to me.

al aljibe terraceNext it was off to the Alameda to have a couple of special snacks at Al Aljibe. You know how some places have that one special dish that keeps you going back for more time and time again? Well, Al Aljibe has about half a dozen such dishes for me. We settled on the secreto Ibérico confitado with polenta and their amazing langoustine burger with huancaina sauce and poached quail egg. And it was especially nice to enjoy this snack outside on the terrace on a sunny January 7th afternoon.

Last stop was supposed to be at the absolutely fabulous La Azotea but, as it was a bank holiday, the place was packed to bursting even more than usual. So after a bit of a wait we decided to move on and ended up at the spectactular Restaurante Cuna 2. One of the things I love best about this beautifully restored old mansion is that it’s so unstuffy, so don’t let it intimidate you. You can just as easily pop in for a quick beer or a full meal. And the staff are terrific. You can get tapas at any of the three bar areas on the main floor so for my last tapeo stop we ordered delicious plump and garlicky langoustines al ajillo, and also a tapa of salt cod with garlic confit and plum tomatoes. By this time we were fit to bursting and had spent less than half of what we’d have spent at the original choice. Plus we got to walk around between tapas stops.

No wonder people love tapas tours so much! And although I’m always doing them, this was the first time in a while that it was my very own tapas tour. We had a great time. How about you? Do you prefer going out to restaurants or tapas bars?

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