03 Tuesday May 2016
Posted in blogging, tapas tours, travel, work
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I hope I never get so jaded that I don’t get SUPER THRILLED to see my name in print, talking about my Sevilla Tapas Tours. Whether it’s in a fab blog like Becky’s Have Paprika Will Travel (who posted this photo on Instagram – this article is in print version only) or a prestigious publication like the Sunday Times Travel Magazine. It’s always so exciting. More here…
20 Wednesday Apr 2016
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Don’t get me wrong… I love helping people. And I love sharing my knowledge about Spain. Which is what led to the labour of love that is Sevilla Tapas and its various offshoots. Which then led to me offering food & wine tours, and later on personalised travel planning. Meanwhile, I keep updating my websites as best I can, as time (and money) allows, so that others can also enjoy and benefit from my experiences.
But what I don’t get are the people who email me saying what a nice website I have and then ask me to recommend specific tapas bars for their short stay in Sevilla, or hotels that would suit their particular requirements, local sights they shouldn’t miss, or possible day trips they should take while they are here, etc…
Guys! All that info is there. It has always been there. It’s there for you to use and – I hope – will be useful. Happy to share and all that. But please don’t ask me to take time out of my busy day to organise your holiday with “my favourite picks” based on your special needs… you can actually find that out yourselves by spending some time on my sites. I did all that research so you wouldn’t have to start from scratch. If you’d like a personalised holiday itinerary, or a fabulous food & wine tour, then I also offer those services. But you do have to pay for that. I’m not complaining, but I always feel a bit mean when I don’t have time to get back to these people.
Have to say though, that it always makes me happy when I get an email from someone recently back from a holiday in Sevilla who tells me what a fabulous resource my sites were for them, how they helped them have a much better time than they would have managed on their own. That makes my day! 🙂
27 Friday Nov 2015
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After recently jazzing up my tapas sites (as well as this blog and We Love Tapas), I had a look around for a new look for my travel sites. I wanted some continuity between them, and also a functional and easy to navigate theme. So far I’m happy with these, which I tinkered with a bit more this week. What do you think? Click on the pics to visit the sites.
11 Monday May 2015
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Well, nine years and 10 days to be exact. I actually forgot my blogoversary this year but was reminded this morning when I saw my friend Craig’s Facebook post about how he met me (and many others) on H2G2 14 years ago. So yeah… 9 years and 10 days ago I started my first ever blog, which has since turned into my daily scrapbook. Since May 1, 1996 I’ve had almost 734,000 visits, with 1885 followers (who are all you guys?) and I’ve published 3238 posts. And, like Craig, I’ve met some pretty amazing people.
Cheers everybody! Thanks for sticking around.
14 Tuesday Oct 2014
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It was lovely to see my friends Anna @annalibera and Jorge @jorgeguitian again during their visit to Sevilla this week. And extra lovely to celebrate Jorge’s 10th Blog Anniversary (which will take place at their home in Galicia) a few days ahead of time by taking them out on an impromptu tapas tour. I say “impromptu” because when we met up at the fabulous Eslava I wasn’t sure if we were going to just stay there or move on. But move on we did. Next up was a quick bite at Bar Europa (we’d tried La Pepona but it was closed because of having stayed open for the public holiday on Sunday). As a result of this holiday Bar Europa was pretty much out of more than half its menu – no complaints here as this means their stuff is brought in fresh – and so we had a lovely tapa of baba ghanoush before moving on. Then, since fairly new Mamarracha was open, we stopped in there but were treated so badly (“no you can’t sit at that nice table for 4, you have to squeeze into this horrible table for 2 in the dark room at the back…”) so we said FUCK THAT and moved on. Really appreciated Ann mentioning this on her Facebook account – so often I’m the only one who “complains” (aka: tells it like it is). Thus we ended up at the always fabulous La Azotea. It was fairly busy (as busy as Mamarracha had been) but without hesitation (or us having to ask) the waiter put two tables together so the three of us would be comfortable. And of course the food was fab too.
Great seeing Anna & Jorge again, which left me wishing they still lived in Sevilla. On the other hand, I always have a place to go – with two expert guides! – when I finally make it to Galicia. Check out their new project (in English) @thekilomEATers.
casa azahar 