Category Archives: tapas

have crutches, will travel…

09 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in health & happiness, tapas, work

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Seriously, still on crutches. Well, not at home. There I can shuffle from here to there in a slow and somewhat easy-ish if slightly painful manner. But out on the street I still really need the crutches I borrowed last week from Agustín’s wife, Elena. Weirdly, I find walking hurts my right hip more than my sprained left ankle, which is why I am still using two crutches – I can’t figure out which side would benefit more from just using one!

And so… I have been way too much on my feet this past week, wandering about town, as well as up and down stairs (and tall ladders!) at home. Some people have told me to stay off my feet as much as possible, others have said that gentle use of the ankle will help rebuild its strength. All I know is that I’VE HAD TO GET THINGS DONE. And so I’ve done what’s needed doing, hoping that I haven’t done any irreparable damage to my lovely left ankle, which I love so much…

This evening I have another tapas tour, and an English class at Agustín’s before it, so at least I can ask him to have a look at my ankle and give me his opinion (a week later). Which I hope won’t be that I’d be mad to do the tapas tour, cos well, I kinda have to do it. I think I have to be the most impatient patient ever, which I also discovered after my various cancer ops – I could never “take things easy” as ordered. I was always out and about as soon as I could manage it. Could be that I’ve f*cked up my ankle for life by not sitting around on my butt for the past week, but I reckon that if there is any real damage done then it’s already been done – and tonight I have to work! Will put leg up tomorrow if I have to…

 

ow…

02 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in health & happiness, home, tapas

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Had a tapas tour last night and went to meet my clients (two lovely couples from England) at their hotel. On the way to our first stop wandering down a cobbly narrow street my left ankle suddenly twisted and … OW! It hurt like a sonofabitch. But there was no way I wanted to cancel the tour so I hobbled my way through it. Actually had a great time in spite of the now very swollen ankle, though by the end I was having serious trouble walking. So I called Nog to come and meet me as I felt a bit vulnerable walking home alone. And here is the damage. The swelling actually doesn’t show up as much in the photo. There’s no real bruising but I can’t put any weight on it without a lot of pain. Dammit.

So, am sitting here looking at all these boxes and thinking what rotten timing. There’s so much to do and I can barely move around. But, I will go to my class at Agustín’s this evening. He’s a doctor, so if he says I should go get the thing x-rayed then I’ll taxi over from there and also get my port cleaning done, as that’s due this week. It’s always something…

sevilla tapas app?

14 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by in gadgets, tapas, travel, websites, work

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The idea to create a smartphone app for Sevilla Tapas has been suggested many times, but so far I have hesitated to seriously consider it because 1) I have no idea how to go about getting an app made and 2) it always seemed to me that there wouldn’t be much demand for an app just for tapas in Seville.

You may recall that a couple of years ago I was considering doing a small e-book tapas tour guide, but somehow never got around to learning how to do that. And now it seems like this idea is probably a bit passé.

Anyhoo, during my last tapas tour on New Year’s Day, one of my clients was telling me that I really had to come up with an app for Sevilla Tapas because it would be the perfect option for people who maybe didn’t want to take a tour but still wanted to have my tapas blog info at their fingertips – and I’d also make money. But you know, who’d buy an app just for info about one city? Well, my client Mike was convinced that it would be a very good seller. And then today I went to a small tapas bar called La Cantina, which I hadn’t been to for awhile, and the girls there told me that since my last visit people had been showing up saying they’d found out about their bar on my blog. They also said that some of them actually pulled out their smartphones, showed them photos of the food and said “I want this and this”. Cool!

So what do you think? Is it time for a Sevilla Tapas smartphone app?
And if so, how would I go about doing this?

I love tapas interview

11 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, work

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It’s been quite a week for Sevilla Tapas! First I got a glowing Trip Advisor review from Tara and Christian, who’d been on my Christmas Day tour, and then a new website called Andalucia Direct surprised me by giving me a free listing.

And today the interview I did this past weekend with Rosana Domínguez (aka Holly Cocina) for I Love Tapas went live!

I’ve been given permission to post an English translation here, which you can read below. You can see the original Spanish version here:

Entrevista a Shawn Hennessey y sus tours de tapas Sevilla Tapas

Shawn Hennessey, compulsive blogger, Twitter addict (with 4 accounts) and long-time Foodie, is originally from Canada but never felt she truly belonged there and so moved to Spain (via Bristol England) in 1992, where she finally found her home. After a year in Salamanca she moved south to Sevilla and in April 2007 started the Sevilla Tapas blog. According to Shawn it all happened by accident while she was out for lunch with a friend on a lovely spring afternoon and it occured to her to take some photos not of just the square and the orange trees, but also of the food, which were then posted on her personal blog, casa az. The response was so positive that she started publishing regular “tapas posts”, which eventually led to a separate website for Sevilla Tapas. Aside from running several blogs, Shawn also writes for travel sites such as Slow Europe, Travel Intelligence and National Geographic, and has recently become the Seville Expert for Simonseeks.

Presently Shawn is working on several projects including her very popular tapas tours, working with local restaurants, managing their social media, and organising special Restaurant & Hotel English courses.

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