28 Wednesday Feb 2007
Posted in culture, food & drink, holidays, life stuff, photos, sevilla, spain, tapas
A nice midweek public holiday today.
Well, except that Nog and I are busy working on that big translation job (the one that might end up paying for a lovely holiday somewhere, sometime soon). But then a couple of hours ago we decided it was too gorgeous a day to stay inside – bright & sunny and about 22º – so we went out to Casa Roman for lunch.
Here is where we were, the view from our table, what we had to eat (first 6 pics) …
14 Wednesday Feb 2007
Posted in clothing, life stuff, sevilla
When does it start?
For the past 4-5 days it’s gone up to about 21ºC in the afternoon. Last Saturday when Peter and I went out for tapas in the late afternoon was the first time I wore sandals this year. But since then I’ve been wearing shoes again … and today I wondered why.
If this was the beginning of November and 21ºC I’d definitely still be wearing sandals. But going in reverse (from cold to warm) it seems to require more than a couple of warm days to make the change.
Also, there seems to be an unwritten rule that people here don’t wear sandals before Semana Santa (Easter week), which is absurd. I don’t fall under this rule as I’m a foreigner and basically people expect me to be a bit weird. So I will be comfortably wearing a skirt with sandals in March when it’s 27º while other women are sweating in tights and shoes.
Any strange clothing rules where you live?
[note: on 3 March I found these!]
26 Sunday Nov 2006
Posted in life stuff, photos, sevilla
Another fabulous Sunday walk. 🙂
This time we went to Heliopolis, which is a neighbourhood that was created for official visitors to the 1929 Iberoamericana Expo. It was meant to be temporary … quite amazing when you see how lovely the houses are. Apparently most of them have had to be pretty much rebuilt but it’s one of the few places in Sevilla that has individual homes with gardens, and a lot of the houses are quite spectacular.
At the start of our walk we ran into our musician friend Juan and I was shocked to see that he had cut off his gorgeous waist-length hair! Then we took the bus out to Heliopolis as it’s about an hour’s walk away. After wandering around there for awhile (Nog had never been to Heliopolis before) we walked home, stopping in Maria Luisa park for a much needed cold beer … and we met a lovely guy from Senegal playing a very strange instrument carved out of a pumpkin.
You can have a look at what we saw over here …
18 Saturday Nov 2006
When I uploaded the tapita photos last night I realised that my Sevilla photo album (at over 300 photos) was getting a bit unwieldy. I mean, when I come across a photo album that size I usually don’t bother. So I’ve started a new Sevilla folder on Fotki with seven different albums (so far) so it will easier for people to choose what they want to look at.
Of course this means that all the URLs have changed so none of the old links will work. I think I’ve caught most of them on my blogs, but just in case I’ve missed any you can always find the folder here. Let me know what you think of the new setup. 🙂
17 Friday Nov 2006
Posted in food & drink, sevilla, spain, tapas
mmmmmm… fritura!
Well, one good thing about not having plans for Friday night is that basically anything can happen. Like Nog coming home after his class and inviting me out to Modesto. 🙂
Had the usual fritura (that photo is for you Teuchter) and then just had to try some of the wild mushrooms they had displayed. There were three kinds and we chose the ones that were grilled and served with bits of jamon serrano and grilled peppers. There was also some wild asparagus on offer but we were too stuffed to have anything more.
Nice thing about Modesto is that they also get seasonal stuff in – a few months ago it was fresh artichokes (heaven!). So it isn’t always just the usual menu, which is quite good in itself. It’s a rather pricey restaurant, especially if you sit out on the terrace, but Nog and I tend to eat standing at the bar next to the open kitchen – and the prices there are considerably cheaper there (for the same food).
Also, we like hanging out with the bar guys and chatting with the chef, Sebastian. So sweet … when the wild mushrooms were weighed and then handed to the kitchen I waved to Sebastian and said ‘those are ours!’ and I heard him say to his helper ‘esto es para familia’. 
Anyhow, it was a lovely evening and afterwards we had a leisurely stroll home through the barrio. And now I am off to bed … shall leave you with a few Modesto photos (5-19).
Buenas noches! 
casa azahar 