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Well, it made ME laugh…
Type in your @twittername and click on Gizgoogle Dis Shiznit
23 Saturday Mar 2013
Posted in humour, silly, social media, twitter
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Well, it made ME laugh…
Type in your @twittername and click on Gizgoogle Dis Shiznit
04 Monday Feb 2013
Posted in blogging, food & drink, friends, sevilla, social media, twitter

As you no doubt recall last Thursday and Friday was spent with food writer Kalyan (@FinelyChopped) and his lovely wife Kainaz from Mumbai. They were in town for a few days and we did a Sevilla Tapas Tour one night and Flamenco & Tapas the next.
Then on Saturday I got in touch with new neighbours and professional travellers Ang & Ryan (@JetsLikeTaxis) from Chicago who are in Sevilla for a couple of months, and who had taken a walking tour with Peter last week. I was planning on checking out a new tapas bar and asked if they’d like to join me, which they happily did. And it was great getting their input as well as just enjoying a nice lunch out with new friends.
Today I met up with world travelling podcasters Linda & Craig Martin (@indietravel) from New Zealand, who have been in Spain since last spring and happened to be in Sevilla for the day with their friend Alba from La Coruña. So we went out for an impromptu lunchtime tapeo which, as usual, got a bit carried away. You can see a bit of what we got up to in that collage. Our extended lunch also meant they missed going to the two main sites they had planned on visiting (which closed at 5 o’clock). Oops!
The thing is, none of these encounters would have happened without Twitter. Amazing, innit?
22 Wednesday Aug 2012
Posted in humour, social media, video
04 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in culture, fiestas, food & drink, social media, spain, travel, trips, twitter, work
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granada, Holiday Apartments, sevilla, travel, trips, veoapartment
So tomorrow I’m going to Granada and this is where I’ll be staying!
As with my recent day trip to Córdoba this trip to Granada will be part of my 20th anniversary celebrations but will include doing some research for my own websites and also for my friends at veoapartment.com. Markus very generously offered to split the cost with me by providing the accommodation, and well, just look at it! Small and perfect and in a dead-centre-of-town and easy-to-get-to-everywhere location. I couldn’t be happier.
At first the plan was to just stay overnight but it turns out that not only is it Feria in Granada this week, but also Corpus Christi, which is apparently a huge deal over there. Seriously, even more than here where they spend weeks erecting a couple of elaborate arches for a 3-hour procession…
Anyhow, I now have two nights in Granada! So I’ll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow (it’s a three-hour train ride) and will spend the day meeting old Twitter buddies John (aka @benzo8) and his wife Gale. I’ll also be meeting a new Twitter friend and travel writer Molly (aka @piccavey) and possibly also with fab photographer Fred Shively during my stay. Peter is also coming but will be taking a later train tomorrow because he has an English class in the morning. He’ll also be leaving earlier, on Wednesday evening, because Azar really can’t be left on his own for more than one night. Still, it will be a nice break for Peter, and he can also help me with some of the research stuff. Win-win!
If you want to feel reallly envious check out the veoapartment “apartment tour” video of my fabulous get-away place here…
14 Monday May 2012
Posted in sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas tours, work
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Remember my first bad review? Well, it was actually Peter’s bad review, but of course it also reflected badly on me and my tours. I know some of you thought I had overreacted to this negative feedback, but for me the worst of it was ending up with people inquiring about tours specifically asking not to go out with Peter, which I felt was unfair.
Anyhow, as most of you predicted, there are now some very nice new reviews that have been posted since then, including a positive one about Peter, which has really lifted his spirits. And this week he is back on the job as I had a flurry of last-minute booking requests that I couldn’t do because I was already booked. I mean, I still do most of the tapas tours myself but it’s good to have back up as I obviously can’t be in two places at once.
One positive thing that has come out of this is that I’ve set up a feedback email that I will send to clients after their tours, asking them to rate various aspects from 1 – 5, and then give any additional comments if they want to. It’s not criticism I’m against, as there is always room for improvement, but unfair (and untrue) negative comments like in that bad review don’t help anybody. So this will help me get a better feel for what people like and are looking for. Peter has also been given a bit of a “refresher course” so that he makes sure to cover all the important information. But you know, so much of the conversation during the tours depends on the clients and what they are interested in. As I’ve said before, the best times are when everyone shows an interest and participates, rather than just sitting there waiting to be “informed and entertained”. I know that you can’t please everyone, but I can sure as hell try. Onwards!