madrid getaway 2019

14 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in friends, gastronomy, getaways, madrid

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On my way to ENBHIGA 2019, starting off in Madrid. The official “cocktail party” meet up at the hotel was scheduled for 9 pm, but I came into town at midday to meet pal Andrew @undertheflor and have lunch at La Retasca, the latest venture by chef Juanjo López.

It’s always fun meeting up with Andrew, and this was a place he’d been wanting to go to as well. I left my bag at the station and walked to La Retasca, somehow missed my turn off and arrived late, which was unfortunate because Andrew was on a tight schedule. So it was short and sweet, with the company way better than the food.

Then it was back to the station to collect my bag and taxi over to the Hotel Nuevo Madrid, which was way the hell out somewhere I’d never been before. Checked in and went down to meet the group that was to be my travelling companions over the next few days. I’m so not good at group stuff, especially meet and greets. Lovely to see Jorge & Anna again of course, and also Twitter pal Rachel @R_McCormack from Scotland, but l snuck away while desserts were being served because it was going to be an early morning and long (5 hour!) bus ride to Ourense in the morning.

Rachel, Jorge, Anna, Pepe

autumn skies, summer temps

12 Saturday Oct 2019

Posted by in casa azahar, home, seasons, sevilla

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I’ve been enjoying the lovely weather this week with still quite warm daytime temperatures (30º) but with cool breezes, and overnight temps requiring the light duvet for the first time. Next week will be a whole other story as the forecast in Galicia is for RAIN all week and daytime highs of just 16-17º, which is like January in Sevilla. It also means that I will have to wear (gasp!) TIGHTS & SHOES. Let’s hope there are still at least a couple more weeks of sandal weather when I get back…

more fun with paul!

11 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by in friends, instagram, social media, tapas, tapas bars, twitter, twitter friends

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Yet another Twitter/Instagram Pal, Paul @pauljwhite is from Newcastle but he spends a lot of time travelling, especially to Spain. We first met in person earlier this year when he was in Sevilla and he’s been back a couple of times since. And guess what? He loves doing Tapas Research!

He was also very helpful this time because one of our dishes arrived way overcooked. As I had already *ahem* mentioned a couple of other things to the waiter I asked Paul if he could send back the offending tapa. Well, Paul speaks next to no Spanish, and the waiter spoke no English, so I called the waiter over and just pointed to Paul, who picked up a piece of the dried out solomillo with such a perfect scowly face and kind of shook the dead meat around… that plate was removed SO FAST and was quickly replaced with a perfectly cooked version. Ha.

Looking forward to Paul’s next visit in January, and to meeting his daughter Molly. 🙂