Category Archives: trips

granada!

26 Tuesday Oct 2010

Posted by in food & drink, friends, tapas, travel, trips

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Sitting up at the Huerta de Juan Rana yesterday afternoon, enjoying the view and a cold beer (after the long walk up some cold refreshment was very welcome). Today we will be over at the big orange thing in the background, then a quick lunch and home again.

And speaking of lunch, dragonqueen took me out to a most fabulous place that had been recommended by Agustín – and it really was wonderful. Later in the evening we met up with a couple of Twitter friends John & Gail and they took us to a typical cheap & cheerful seafood bar. Photos below, with the usual warning – don’t look if you’re hungry!

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london – bristol

26 Sunday Sep 2010

Posted by in food & drink, friends, london, travel, trips

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Yesterday I said goodbye to Clare & Joe and their pretty Hackney flat where they really made me feel like home. But before heading off to Bristol, Sara & Steve took me out for my first ever Vietnamese meal – it was amazing! Then they even came with me to Paddington and saw me off so I could be there in plenty of time without worrying about missing my train, and so I wouldn’t be there alone. We had one final drink and chat at a bar there and then I headed out to Bristol, where Lizzie picked me up at the station and took me to her very comfortable house. A couple of old friends were there for a quick visit before heading back to London, so we all had dinner together. Then Lizzie and I sat up drinking wine and chatting until well past midnight. Today we are planning a trip out to the HUGE Marks & Spencer here, but other than that I am happy not to have to plan anything or be anywhere at any specific time … just happy to be here. Haven’t seen Lizzie since the summer of 2001 and it feels like no time has passed at all. It’s so nice to have these couple of days to just relax and catch up before heading back to Sevilla.

london day three

25 Saturday Sep 2010

Posted by in food & drink, friends, london, travel, trips, wine

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Coffee in bed, then ran out at 10.30am to meet Ben (friend of José’s) in deepest darkest Hackney, and afterwards whipped back down to St Pauls to meet Teutcher, who then asked me how I felt about fish… thought she was talking about lunch but she was in fact talking about fish eating ME. But lunch first. Off to Covent Garden to sample 32 Great Queen Street West, which was fabby, then off to Kensington to have feet nibbled upon by tiny fish. Loved it. And also the half-hour foot massage afterwards. And then – eep! – was getting late, so planned to meet up with Annie and T’s husband for a drink in Charing Cross before Annie & I headed out for dinner with twitter friends. Needless to say we arrived late after racing there on foot for a good half hour (buses were not making any sense by then). Met Rachel, José & Alessio in gastropub… had okay meal (the company was much better than the food) and around midnight Annie walked me to my bus stop and sent me safely on my way home. It was a day and then some. Click to enlarge the pics…

Today I leave for Bristol at 5pm…

london day two

24 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by in london, travel, trips, wine, work

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What a day! Got up feeling a bit fuzzy after having stayed up way too late with Joe sampling his lovely Spanish wine collection… so at 9.30 this morning I found myself flying out the door with wet hair and in a state of semi-panic thinking I’d be late for the reason I came here in the first place. As it turned out I caught the bus straight away and just about made it on time (10-ish), and had quite an interesting day meeting other SimonSpeaks experts and learning more about the whole thing. When things finished just after 4pm I invited Florence Expert Nicky to come out with Madrid Expert Annie and me for a drink and a chat, which was quite fun. After that I went in search of an M&S to pick up some food as I had been promising Joe an “az carbonara” since the Hackney Gang was in Seville…

And so had a lovely comfy night at home with Clare & Joe.

A few pics above of stuff I saw and did.