06 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours
Tags
THIS. When you take out two couples who don’t know each other (one from Toronto, the other from London) on a Sevilla Tapas Tour and then two days later they WhatsApp you with a photo of them all tapeando together in Triana with your List. It’s not just a job to me, you know? ❤
28 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in restaurants, sevilla, tapas bars
Tags
bars, bread charge, restaurants, service charge, sevilla, spain
It’s been almost five years since I was dubbed Shawn of the Bread by my friends Anna & Jorge @guitianmayer, due to my continuing battle against the unfair – and illegal – bread/service charges that first appeared on menus in Sevilla sometime around 2010-2012. I was reminded of this yesterday when Lucy @sparkybakewell & I were out for a drink at our new favourite “penúltima bar” and decided to have a snack. And there it was.
Even though we had sent back the unasked for bread basket we were charged 1€ per person for “service”. Well, they tried to charge us. When I explained to the waiter (lovely young woman really, wasn’t her fault) she took the charge off the bill and instead we left the 2€ as a tip. Because that “service” charge never goes to the staff. It’s simply a way of making extra money – illegally – for doing absolutely nothing. Like an admission fee. Not right. And they count on people not knowing it’s illegal, and also that they won’t make a fuss about it. But they never count on me. 😉
The regulations for this are clearly stated here…
Obligaciones de bares, restaurantes y cafeterías
Los servicios no solicitados no se pueden cobrar. Tampoco se pueden cobrar conceptos como, por ejemplo, reservas, cubierto o mesa.
25 Tuesday Feb 2020
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
Anne & Paul were back in town this week. Anne was here to get a gamma ray scan and so, with all the radiation tests I’ve been getting lately, she suggested we light up the town together. So we went out for tapitas and sherry and had a lovely time. Our next get together will probably be in Jerez in May, either for the Feria or Vinoble. Or both!
07 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, travel
So this was fun! The other day Twitter mentions popped up with an introduction by the lovely Shaney Hudson @shaneyhudson to her journalist pal Josephine @_josephineprice (they both write for Nat Geo Traveller). Josephine is in town this weekend doing research for an article on Sevilla and so I took her around Triana, one of the barrios she is going to feature. As you can see, we had a very tasty time.
Shaney was first here in 2010, and has been back since. She was one of the first people to write about my tapas tours. Love that we are still in touch and I hope that she will make it back to Sevilla again before too long.
06 Thursday Feb 2020
Posted in cancer, friends, gastronomy, hospitals, sevilla, tapas bars
I mean, what the heck, right? Have to say that I always look forward to après oncology when I have a midday appointment. And of course it’s always extra nice to have a friend come with me to see the oncologist, especially a bilingual friend who can help me out with any language “issues” (like totally forgetting how to speak or understand Spanish…). This is the second time Claudia has come with me and I appreciate it so much. She and Paul also accompanied me for the endoscopy and Claudia will come with me for next week’s colonoscopy. I’m usually fine going for tests on my own, but the ones where they drug you up require that I have someone with me. Anyhoo… this time we stopped over at the fabulous Yebra for post-hospital tapitas and had a great time.
The upshot of this oncology visit, after reviewing the results of the barium enema from a couple weeks ago, was that… they still don’t know if I have a fistula (leakage from my intestine into my abdoman) or not. So I am now going to have more tests, this time a barium x-ray taken of my upper gastro area (so will have to drink it this time – ick), another colonoscopy, and yet another CT scan, plus more blood work. They don’t think anything cancerous is going on, but so far they still haven’t been able to prove there isn’t. At this point I reckon I’m going to die of radiation poisoning before anything else gets me. Wish me luck!
