
It’s that time of year again…
16 Thursday Jan 2020
Posted in tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours

It’s that time of year again…
13 Monday Jan 2020
Posted in sevilla
About…. 20 years ago?… I was hanging laundry on my roof on my birthday (January 7th) and suddenly a flock of at least 30 storks sped past overhead as far as the Santa Cruz church and – I swear – then took a sharp turn to the left. LIKE THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE GOING. And that image has never left my mind’s eye. Then yesterday, again hanging up laundry, I saw a smaller bunch of storks high up in the sky. Man! They are just so damn graceful and beautiful. And knowing that they are returning from spending the winter in Africa in order to take up residence in their forever nests with their forever partners… well, it doesn’t get more romantic than that.
Then today on my river walk I saw another whack of storks soaring elegantly above me… and you can see them too. They just filled my heart with joy.
10 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in cancer, health & happiness, hospitals, sevilla

Let’s recap here, shall we? About a year ago my new oncologist told me I was cancer free and no longer required further tests. She said to me – and I quote – “If that pain comes back then go to emergency”. But I was no longer on the watch list for possible cancer recurrence. WTF? As most people know, by the time you are in any kind of serious pain because of cancer, you are pretty much already dead.
Meanwhile, to this date nobody can explain why I’m even fucking alive, and apparently my case flummoxed pretty much everyone who was involved with it. This is why I had regular PET scans, twice a year for five years after my last chemo in 2009, then once a year for the following five. And then in January 2018 suddenly there was some issue about an inflammatory area that had increased from one PET to the next, and suddenly I was seeing a new onc who gave me a whack of other tests: CTs, colonoscopy, endoscopy… and then pronounced me cancer-free. As in, you can go away now.
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08 Wednesday Jan 2020

Since this is officially Birthday Week I was delighted to find out that Lucy @sparkybakewell has her birthday the day after mine. So she met up with me at Vermutería Yo Soy Tu Padre, where I had gone to introduce Charlie & Sam @vinoveroleigh to my darling boy Esteban. Then Lucy and I headed out for her birthday lunch at La Chalá. I was told they had some new stuff on the menu and it was all very good. Of course I told everyone it was OUR BIRTHDAY so they brought us some complementary cava. And of course we also stopped for a penúltima cava on the way home… nice day!
birthday girl Lucy
La Chalá

07 Tuesday Jan 2020
Posted in birthdays, food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla

Yay! It was a wonderful 63rd birthday. Lovely friends Claudia & Paul took me out for lunch at a new Italian restaurant called Alimentari. It was something new for all of us, and I also got to introduce them to a different part of town.
We actually started off at Las Teresas for some cava and jamón, and afterwards met up with Charlie & Sam, who were also in Sevilla for my birthday last year (!) for a penúltima at La Azotea. I have to say it was one of my best birthdays ever. Thanks everybody! ❤
Alimentari

la penúltima!
