Category Archives: work

cava cata

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, social media, tapas, wine, work

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So this is what I did last night!

What better way to further celebrate Tuesday’s good news than to go out to a free cava tasting the following evening. No question mark – rhetorical question. One of my all-time favourite tapas bars – La Azotea – has recently opened the new location of their fabulous Vinos & Más gourmet food and wine shop and last night was the first cata (wine tasting) featuring five fabulous Parxet cavas:  brut reserva, brut natura, gran reserva extra brut (my favourite), brut rosé and a dessert rosé. What I love about these catas at Vinos & Más is that they are casual and not at all snobby. I get to learn something new about wines and never feel silly about asking questions.

After the cata Nog & I were in need of a bit of something to eat and as La Azotea was jam-packed (as usual at that hour) we wandered over to a typical neighbourhood place called Dos de Mayo, which was also packed but their clientelle doesn’t linger as long. So we shared a few tapitas… always nice to mix business with pleasure, and especially when it ends up being mixing pleasure with pleasure…

on holiday, at home, while working…

29 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in cats, holidays, home, work

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Since Jessica left last Thursday I’ve been here on my own at casa az and… I am just loving it! It’s like being on holiday but at home. While working.

I get up in the morning and open all the balcony doors, feed the cats, water the plants (look how lush my balcony spider plants are!), make some coffee in my little one-person bodum french press, fire up the computer and just enjoy myself and my apartment and my life.

You see, this is the first time I’ve been alone here since moving in and I think I really needed this week to be able to really bond with my new home and feel like it’s really My Home. I’m not alone all the time as Nog pops over a fair bit and I’m busy with clients, tapas tours and out running errands. It’s just a nice change to have a lot of extra time to myself and get into a whole new routine that feels like how I would live if I could afford to live on my own again. I’m sure I’d get lonely at times, but this hasn’t been an issue just for a week, and I’ve been getting into some good habits that I want to continue with. Nog moves back in on Wednesday and will then – I hope – get into his own work routine starting September.

Well, time for a short siesta and then I have to go out this evening and drop in on a couple of clients. Did I mention that I’m happy?

wall street journal az

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, wine, work

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So do you remember the fabulous Gourmet Tapas Tour I did last week? Well, I was sworn to secrecy until now but the article came out this morning so I’m free to blab it to the world. The tour was actually part of an interview I was asked to give to the Wall Street Journal Europe about my tapas tours. London-based food columnist Bruce Palling was down in Málaga province for a few days and he wanted to come up to Sevilla for the day to check out the “new tapas scene” and see how tapas have been evolving recently.

I met Bruce and his wife Lucinda for a lunchtime tapas tour and we went to four tapas bars where I knew they were doing tapas with a twist, still using traditional local ingredients but creating new and exciting dishes. And well, I had a great time. Bruce and Lucinda are true foodies and were great company and, as always, I felt proud to show off some of the places that I really love.

When I asked Bruce how he found out about me he said that when he was asking around London about who to contact in Sevilla about tapas my name kept coming up, so he decided to get in touch. Although he didn’t name names I knew it had to be some of the London twitter connections I’ve made over the past few years. Anyhow, we shall see if this helps bring in some more business, but I’m actually just so thrilled to see “my name in lights” and to read about how much Bruce enjoyed the tapas tour. You can read the article here:

Small Plates of Seville

botani vendimia tour

14 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in Malaga, photos, wine, work

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The main reason for going to Málaga last week was to be able to get some face-to-face work done with Victoria, as we have a few projects on the go and I thought it would be easier for me to meet her on her home turf. And well, okay… I also love going to Málaga! Then I thought that, as one of the projects was to take photos of the vendimia (grape harvest) and make a few videos, it would be a lot more natural if I could catch Victoria “in action” talking to people, rather than just speaking into the camera. And so I organised the Botani vendimia tour.

I invited a few journalists and one amazing photographer. It was great to see Michelle and Chris Chaplow again, and to finally meet Ben Cooper and his wife Philippa. And although it was a shame that Annie Bennett and Eduardo Blanco couldn’t make it, we still ended up making a nice group of five, including me.

Then *almost disaster* struck when Victoria was suddenly called away to a very important meeting out of town, which meant my “face time” with her just wasn’t going to happen. But luckily she only postponed the vendimia tour to the next day, something I know was very generous on her part as this is the busiest time of year for her and losing time going out of town meant she was going to be backed up when she returned. But she still spent all of last Friday with us, taking us to a a couple of the vineyards, then to see some sites in Almáchar and, after a quick trip to the bodega to talk to the winemaker there and see the grapes being pressed for Botani 2011, she invited us all to an amazing lunch at a beachside seafood restaurant in Málaga.

It was a fabulous day – hope you enjoy the pics.