09 Sunday Feb 2014
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Albéniz premiered Sevilla himself in a piano performance on 24 January 1885 and dedicated it to the wife of Count Morphy. Since it has been transcribed for classical guitar it has become one of the most important works of the classical guitar repertoire.
Many thanks to Sledpress for sending this to me!
09 Thursday Jan 2014
By the time you read this I’ll be on the super-fast AVE train on my way to Barcelona (or I may even be there already). In any case, one thing’s for sure and that’s that I will be missing these guys like crazy. Four whole nights away! What was I thinking? My original plan was to stay three nights but then I realised this would only give me two full days in Barcelona and I wondered if this would be enough, especially after all that travelling. Then it turned out that to stay an extra night at my fab hotel would only cost an extra 45€, so what the heck. I mean, it’s been 7 years since I was last in Barcelona and who knows when I’ll get back again. And so, four nights. Which seemed like a great idea until I thought about the cats. Ah well…
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram watch for the #BCNbirthday hashtag.
02 Thursday Jan 2014
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I’m not sure quite how this happened, but sometime between going out to the gym this morning and arriving back home I’d decided that I should go to Barcelona next week for my birthday (!!!). Close followers of casa az (with long memories) may recall that I first went to Barcelona seven years ago to celebrate my 50th birthday. This was all before Twitter and food blogs and whatnot, so although it was a fun and interesting trip, I know I’ll get much more out of it this time round.
So I got home and immediately checked out flights. Ridiculously prohibitive prices. Then I remembered the AVE high-speed train now goes from Sevilla to Barcelona, via Madrid. And it turns out that if I modify my dates a bit I can get there and back again for 140 euros (airfare was double that!). But if I go on my birthday it would be an extra 60 euros. So… if all goes well I shall celebrate my 57th birthday here with cats and friends, then take a day off to pack and whatnot, and then head out to Barcelona the morning of the 9th. It’s a 5 1/2 hour trip, leaving at 9.00 and getting in at 2.30. Just in time for a late snacky lunch. But first I need a hotel!
I checked with Room Mate since I’d had such a nice time at their Málaga Lola Hotel last month, but they don’t have the same great 3-night offer. Then Twitter friend @criadera recommended Market Hotel, and I remembered that my friend Edu @differentspain had also mentioned that one recently. So we got into a Twitter chat and Market Hotel says they’ll get back to me tomorrow. Fingers crossed that I can get a nice room at a reasonable price. Meanwhile… squeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Looks like I’m going to Barcelona!
23 Monday Dec 2013
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19 Thursday Dec 2013
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I love connections like this.
My friend Saray had helped me organise some orange-themed product info for my friend José Pizarro’s visiting friend Sarah last month. Since then the general director of BurNarj, whose family makes this lovely orange sparkling wine, has been in touch with me, asking if I’d like to have a private tasting. And as special as that sounded, I thought it would actually be more fun with other people to share the experience with. So I invited a couple of friends and yesterday we spent a very pleasant couple of hours trying this unique wine.
Most orange wines are simply grape wines that are somehow flavoured/infused with orange, but this is the very first sparkling wine in the world that is actually made from 100% orange juice from orchards growing along the banks of the Guadalquivir River. It doesn’t get much more Andaluz than that!
Have a look at my blog post on Azahar’s Sevilla for more info…
casa azahar 