Tag Archives: sevilla

clearing out the past

13 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla

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I’ve had these two (very dusty by now, as you can see) plastic boxes in various “storage” situations over the past 15-20 years or so. Mostly old photos and letters and, other than some family pics from Canada, mostly stemming from my new life in England, and then Spain. A few years ago I tried scanning some of the photos, but it was such a labourious task that I soon gave up and put the boxes back into storage.

When I moved to the new Casa Azahar in August these boxes were put directly in the storage room upstairs, and may have stayed there indefinitely except that this past weekend I decided to put the electric fans up there until next summer. The movers had just placed stuff in the room willy-nilly and it was jam-packed, so it was time to tackle this issue.

And so, with the help of my trusty best friend (and former flatmate) Peter @svqconcierge, we took everything out of the storage room, and I ruthlessly tossed about three more boxes of this and that, making space and, frankly, clearing my mind. It was such a relief to get rid of more unneeded STUFF. But the two boxes of photos… I couldn’t just toss them without going through them first. In this photo you can see what remains of the first box, which was reduced to what is now in that plastic bag in front of the second box. One down, one to go…

Meanwhile, I would like to find an easier way of digitalising the photos I want to keep, because I’d rather just get rid of all the actual photographs and have them on my computer. So, does anyone know of a good photo scanner app? Preferably something I could use with my iPhone?

For his much-appreciated efforts, Peter was treated to Sunday lunch, which also gave me a chance to try out the oven here. It was a bit hit and miss, but I eventually got it to work, though I’d much rather be using the new oven I bought last Christmas (more on that later). Anyhow… great lunch. And a good day with lots accomplished.

Garlicky-herby roasted chicken, boiled skin-on potatoes, grilled courgette.

freebies for “exposure”

09 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in sevilla, spain

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So this came up for me again this week when I saw that a random food blogger (who had been in touch with me awhile back, suggesting they would like to write about my tapas tours – nudge, nudge, wink, wink) had actually landed a freebie tour with a corporate food tour company here, and were tweeting about them, as promised. And all of me went … ewwwwwwwwwwww.

You see, I’ve been getting requests like this for years. And while I know how most restaurants feel about such requests (they hate them with a passion) I wondered how other food tour companies felt. As in… hey, give us a free food tour for “exposure”. The “us” usually includes a friend or partner, since these people tend to be here on holiday, not for work, and think a promise of a blog post means they get to dine out for free. And to be honest, none of the bloggers who have asked for (or insinuated they wanted) a freebie has ever been anyone of consequence.

On the other hand, proper journalists always offer to pay for their tours – and rightly so – since they are here in Sevilla at the behest of their employers, and have a budget that allows for this. To wit I have been featured in some pretty top notch publications, including the Sunday Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, National Post, Telegraph Travel… to name a few.

Other times I end up “meeting” food and wine writers on social media – usually via Twitter or Instagram – and when I find out they will be visiting we will either meet up for a drink and tapa and a chat, or – if they want a full tapas tour – they offer to pay the bills if I would take them around. And you know what? This I don’t mind at all. Because I am already “connected” with these people, even if we haven’t met in person yet, and I want to spend some time with them. And they also respect that this isn’t my hobby. So if I am willing to spend an afternoon or evening taking them out, then at least they are happy to pay for the food and drink so I don’t end up out of pocket. Fair enough.

But some other food tour companies here obviously think offering food bloggers freebies is “good for business”. And who knows? Maybe it is. For them. But when I look at these random bloggers, and then I look at the people, serious food and wine writers, who actually respect my work enough to pay for it, I know which camp I’d rather be in.

here we go again…

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in casa azahar, cats, home

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So here I thought that I’d come up with the perfect solution for last night’s BLACK OUT SITUATION. In fact, it came to me while I was happily Netflixing with the cats in the evening after having had a great lunchtime tapas tour out with the parents of an Australian woman who’d taken my tour six years ago.

Anyhow, there I was all cosy when it hit me that there is always a soft golden glow filtering through the slatted blinds from the street lights in front of the living room balcony. Which I then realized happened to be one of the streets not affected by the 3-hour power cut. So… YAY! It was obvious. I’d just camp out on the sofa bed in the living room for the night and there would be plenty of light in my temporary bedroom.

Which was what I did. Of course as soon as I started prepping the “bed” the cats all wanted to know what was going on, and they actually had a lot of fun with me camping out in a different room. I even woke up at one point during the night and wondered why stuff like the internet modem and printer were still lit up. And the next morning I found out why.

I HAD THE WRONG DATE. Well, what? The notice said the power cut would take place November 2 from 00.00 – 3.00. I took that to mean from midnight last night, because by 00.00 it would already be the 2nd, right? Whatever. Wrong. So now I have to do the camping out thing again tonight. I may even splash out and open up the sofa bed to its full double width! Hey, don’t blame me… you’re following this blog.  😉

 

lights out!

01 Wednesday Nov 2017

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You may recall that I am not able to sleep in pitch darkness. Or even just regular darkness. I always need at least a soft glow from somewhere so I can see SOMETHING when I open my eyes during the night (which happens pretty much every night). Hence my purchase of little plug-in night lights for beside my bed after I moved to the new Casa Azahar. So imagine my panic when I saw a notice posted in the lift yesterday saying that the electricity will be cut on my street, and two neighbouring streets, tonight between midnight and 3 am for some upgrading of the system. Whatever. All I could think was… IT’S GOING TO BE PITCH BLACK. GAAAAAAAAHHHH.

But I think I have a plan to get myself through this. Okay, the obvious one would be just to go to bed before midnight and not wake up again until at least after three, but I just can’t trust that I won’t wake up at, say, a quarter to three and go GAAAAAAAAHHHH.

So I have been busy charging ALL my devices, along with an external battery, and will also bring my laptop into my bedroom (battery in that one is good for at least a few hours) and fall asleep with it turned on. And of course my trusty iPhone will be by my side, along with a cat or two. Wish me luck!