Category Archives: work

firenze

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Florence, friends, travel, trips, work

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Looks like I’m going to Florence!!!

My friend Nicky, who I met during the trip to London for the SimonSeeks meeting (she was the Florence expert), has been telling me for ages that I am welcome to come and stay at their holiday rental apartment in low season when they don’t have so many bookings. And it turns out that RyanAir has a direct flight Sevilla-Pisa, and from there you just catch a train from the airport to Florence. It also turns out that my friend Pablo would love to come with me, which is great because I didn’t really fancy going on my own, even though Nicky and her husband Luca will be there. So if all goes well I should be in Florence the last week of February.

I’m still waiting to hear when my next PET scan will be, which of course could change everthing. But fingers crossed that I get another clean scan and also a few more tapas tours to help pay my way.

I’ve never been to Italy before – people often say that Florence is the Italian Sevilla. Very very excited!

policy change

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in blogging, change, sevilla, social media, spain, tapas, websites, work

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For almost five years now, since first starting my Sevilla Tapas blog, my policy has always been to only put up tapas bars and restaurants that I would recommend to a friend. If I didn’t like a place it simply didn’t get included. I guess I just thought I wanted my tapas blog to have a positive and helpful feel to it. A couple of years ago I did put up a very scathing review of a place that had treated my friend and me horrendously, but I don’t know, it seemed to throw a shadow on what I like to think of as an upbeat and friendly site and I removed it.

But lately I’ve been wondering if this is actually the best policy, especially as fewer of the places I visit these days end up on the blog because I know I wouldn’t ever recommend them to a friend. Was I getting jaded, I asked myself. Or just more experienced and discerning? Then today happened.

I met my friend Pablo for lunch at a place that had not only been recommended to me many times over the years, but people couldn’t actually believe that I had never been there, as it was apparently such a popular location. So as I had a meeting right around the corner from this place that finished at lunchtime, that’s where we went. And well. I should have known upon entering that it was going to be dire, but again, you never know. Sometimes the shabbiest looking places serve up the tastiest tapas (though to be honest, this almost never happens in the city) and this place was certainly shabby. It had the look of someplace that had had its day about fifteen years ago and hadn’t bothered to paint or replace the tacky furniture. It wasn’t DIRTY exactly, but it had an unclean feel to it. So why didn’t we just get up and leave? Well, because I had to find out if all those who had praised this joint were right. They weren’t.

The food was not only pedestrian in the extreme, but most of it seemed past its time, hard and dry and tired looking. And the service was haphazard and impersonal. Even if the tapas had been cheap (they weren’t at 3-4 euros each) it wouldn’t have made up for such a dismal meal. Pablo and I were left feeling upleasantly full and unsatisfied and, well, a bit annoyed. And I felt ripped off thinking I’d wasted my time and money at a crappy tapas bar that I wouldn’t even be able to put in my tapas blog.

After lunch we ran into a friend of ours, Markus, and told him about our experience. His office is nearby and he said he never eats at that place. But both Pablo and Markus told me that it would actually give my tapas blog more credibility if there were some negative, or at least not glowing, reviews. So they convinced me to change my policy a bit, if only as a public service.  Because I truly pity anyone who might end up eating where we were today, especially when there are so many other terrific places nearby.

So that’s it – no more Ms Nice Guy. 😉

What do you think?

[also posted on the Sevilla blog]

my loaner ipad

19 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in gadgets, geekiness, internet, ipad, social media, work

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A week or so ago I was telling my friend Juan (who owns the Vineria San Telmo, one of my top-five fave tapas bars in Sevilla) that I was seriously considering getting an iPad. He’s had one for a couple of years and, in his opinion, thought I’d do better getting a small MacBook Air. And well, I could see his point because an iPad is kind of just a big iPhone, except you can’t make phone calls on it.

BUT… it really would be useful for when I want to visit clients and show them my social media presentations, or their page on my Sevilla Tapas blog. It would easily fit into my handbag and doesn’t weigh much, so I could pretty much always have it with me. I wouldn’t always carry around a small computer, no matter how lightweight. And besides, the MacBook Air costs twice as much as an iPad. But Juan insisted that it was worth it because it was actually a computer, whereas the iPad is, well, just a big iPhone.

BUT… I already have two laptops. And if I have to upgrade at some point, which may actually happen soonish, I’d want a proper laptop with a decent sized screen, not a mini-sized MacBook.

And so I was telling all this to Juan and he suggested that I borrow his iPad for a few days to see if it was actually suited to my needs. What a generous offer! So I picked it up on Saturday (photo was taken outside Juan’s restaurant) and within five minutes I was hooked. I LOVE it. But now that this decision has been made I am suddenly faced with another dilemma, because apparently the iPad3 is coming out in March. So do I wait until March to put myself into debt 600€ or do it now? Will the iPad3 be that much better that it’ll be worth the wait? What if it’s even more expensive? Or maybe I should wait until March and pick up an iPad2 for a song (if possible)?

What should I do? What would you do?