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This is a stunning video by Lena Gieseke.
Guernica is one of the few paintings I’ve seen up close & personal
that actually took my breath away. And so does this short film.
14 Sunday Feb 2010
Tags
This is a stunning video by Lena Gieseke.
Guernica is one of the few paintings I’ve seen up close & personal
that actually took my breath away. And so does this short film.
31 Sunday Jan 2010
Posted in change, retail therapy, sevilla, spain
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Construction is almost finished at the new azahar sevilla store and so yesterday I went “shopping”. Met with a fabric painter who designs beautiful silk fans & shawls, and also spoke with a local artist who does very pretty watercolours of Sevilla, and both have expressed an interest in putting some of their stock in my store on a consignment basis. I mean, why not? It won’t cost them anything and it’s extra exposure for them. At least, I hope that’s how the various artists and artisans I plan on visiting will see it. So I’ll be quite busy next week shopping for merchandise.
I’m also going to meet with the owner of Puracepa to talk prices and arrange a date for them to teach me about wines for my tapas & wine tasting evenings there. Oh, and I got my first request for tapas tour info yesterday! That was pretty exciting. They haven’t booked a tour (yet) but sending them the info email suddenly made all this feel REAL. It also lit a fire under my butt to get back to work on the tapas guide e-book.
Meanwhile, I am helping Nog to help himself by reorganising the Restaurant & Hotel English class idea I had last summer. This is going to be his baby but I’ll be in charge of promotion, which is fine by me. So he’s been busy creating 3-month courses for three levels, sourcing materials, etc. And I am redesigning the brochure and will hit a few places next week that I think might be interested. Many will already have a teacher via one of the English schools, but I’ll be able to offer better prices and will stress that we *are* the company, so they won’t just be getting any old ESL teacher.
So it’s all busy, busy, busy … and who knows?
I may end up with something resembling an income yet!
30 Saturday Jan 2010
Today’s Photohunter theme is “spotted”.
Spotted horses and spotted (polka dot) dresses.
All spotted at the Feria de Jerez.
20 Wednesday Jan 2010
Posted in rants, restaurants, sevilla, spain

I’ll never understand UHT milk, or why it’s so popular in Spain. There is only one supermarket here in Seville that stocks fresh milk and even then it doesn’t always have it. And up until recently there was only one bar I knew of that made coffee with fresh milk – the Horno San Buenaventura. So when Flor invited me out for breakfast one morning after yoga class I was very pleased to discover that the new Italian restaurant across the street from the gym also makes their coffee with fresh milk. That’s TWO.
Seriously, there is something about the taste of UHT milk that makes me gag. But most Spanish people have never had any other sort of milk. I guess there isn’t such a huge dairy industry here or else they use it all to make cheese.
Anyhow, this is what good coffee in Sevilla looks like…
19 Tuesday Jan 2010
Posted in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas
My latest biz idea (and one that I’ve been kicking around for quite a while now) is to give tapas tours. Relaxed and informal, taking small groups of 2-6 people out “tapearing”, much like I did with Alejna and her mother in September. A typical tour would be about 3 hours long and would include going to three different tapas bars and sampling a couple of tapas at each place. I’ve already announced this on the usual places (azahar sevilla, twitter & facebook) but I was wondering if I could get some feedback from you guys on this question.
Would you prefer an “all inclusive” price and have tapas & drinks chosen for you at each place, or would you prefer to pay a set fee for the tour guide (me!) and then pay for any food & drink you choose yourself on top of that? I’m actually thinking of offering both options, but would like to get an idea of what might be more popular.
You can read Alejna’s excellent post about her tour with me here:
Sevilla Tapas Tour