double duty

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I can’t remember the last time I did two tapas tours in one day, but it’s been a few years. In fact, these days I won’t even go out for lunch if I have a tour in the evening… getting too old! But then the other day my friend Tomoko got in touch and asked if I could take out a visiting Japanese chef on Saturday. I already had a private tour booked for the evening but decided to take Yoshi out at lunchtime. I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity of taking out a Japanese chef who runs a tapas bar in Tokyo. And it was great fun. Yoshi’s English is a bit better than his Spanish and so we got by speaking Spanglish and using lots of gestures. Also the wine helped. We managed five tapas bars and god knows how much food (for the record, he was eating most of it!) and we finished off having vermouth at Esteban’s fabulous Vermutería. Then I had to go home and sober up for my evening tour!

I had provided Yoshi with a couple of other tapas bar options for Sunday afternoon (he was leaving town at 5 pm for Madrid) and as it happened I was passing by one of the bars after my midday WALK, so I stopped in and we got to visit a bit more. Finally I dropped him off at the bus stop to get back to his hotel. Honestly, he was lovely and everybody who met him was charmed. He’s in Madrid now with my MADRID LIST so I hope he fares well. When he first arrived in Sevilla he told Tomoko he wasn’t impressed and probably wouldn’t be back, but after his time out with me he says he LOVES Sevilla and is already planning to come back next year. Yay!

oops!

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I was in one of my favourite tapas bars today and heard my waiter pal Jesús say to a couple of customers… “if you wait by the bar I will service you soon”. Oops. And yes, I set him straight, and boy was he embarrassed. Was going to send him a whatsapp with a written reminder but don’t know how to properly translate “to service” into Spanish.  🙂

hope 2021

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On January 3rd 2009 I posted a photo of my battered old daybook turned to January 3rd 2010 with the words “STILL HERE!” written on it, as a weekly Photo Challenge I was doing at the time – the theme that week was Hope. Having just finished a second stint of chemo a few months previously this felt like a very bold – and hopeful – thing to do.

Since then I have continued the “tradition of hope” and have posted a similar photo on this date each year. So, as always, here’s hoping that I will still be here January 3rd 2021, and will see this page in my book… and then post my hopeful wish for 2022.  🙂