09 Thursday Feb 2012
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One of the bonuses of getting yesterday’s PET scan done out in the Cartuja is that afterwards María Paz and I decided to walk back to the centre and had a great time discovering some quite nice “relics” from the 1992 EXPO. It’s mostly quite ghost-townish out there, with most of the old pavillions taken over as office space. But as you can see, it was a beautiful blue sunshiny day and this is some of what we saw.
07 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter, wine, work
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One of the perks of having run the Sevilla Tapas blog for almost five years now is that I occasionally get invitations to interesting (usually food-related) events. What’s also interesting is that – as a blogger – I am getting acknowledged as “press” and even – gasp! – as a writer.
Yesterday I was invited to Restaurante Alcuza by gastronomy photographer Manolo Manosalbas, to preview their “Iberian Pork Days” menu, which will be available to the public starting today until March 3rd. Everything from starters to dessert featured cerdo Ibérico de bellota, the best of the best, made from acorn-fed blackfoot free-range pigs.
I have to admit that I wasn’t crazy about the ice-cream, but everything else was sensational and was perfectly accompanied by wines from Bodegas Torres. After six tapas I was quite happily stuffed! I was also glad to have a chance to revisit Alcuza as I had first gone there almost two years ago but hadn’t been back. Question of too many tapas bars, too little time and money. But I will definitely be back to Alcuza again soon.
Looks good, doesn’t it?
04 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in food & drink, friends, restaurants, retail therapy, sevilla, spain, wine, work
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Yesterday started off as usual, though I was a bit miffed at having to miss the gym due to a late morning meeting. But the meeting went well and after a late lunch at home I thought I’d stay in and get some work done. I recently got commissioned to write a short piece for a very prestigious travel mag and wanted to get a good start on that. But I had a couple of other things on my to-do list and thought I’d get those out of the way first, and so I popped over to take a wine photo for one of my social media clients and then planned to pick up a new dish draining rack on the way home and get back to work. But first…
01 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in food & drink, friends, internet, restaurants, sevilla, social media, wine, work
15 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in welcome
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Just over four years ago, I wrote a post about how the old casa az was often 13º celcius in winter. Early mornings it was often 10-12ºC, which with the draughts made it extremely painful to get out of bed in the morning.
Fast forward to winter 2011-2012…
The coldest I’ve found in what I still call the “new casa az” (though it’s been almost a year now) has been 15ºC, first thing in the morning when overnight temps have got close to freezing. Normally early morning indoor temps are between 16-18º here. And no draughts thanks to double-glazed balcony doors (which also help keep out the noise from an illegal after-hours bar across the street, but that’s another story).
Plus I have central heating. For the first time ever in Spain!
So when I first wake up I put on the heating while my flatmate Peter puts on the coffee, then I snuggle back under the duvet with cats and iPhone while the place warms up and coffee brews… and then I get up to start my day. Comfortably.
Don’t get me wrong. I still wear three layers and a scarf while at work in front of my computer, but the difference is that I’m not still freezing cold after all that. The central heating is set to a maximum of 20º which is perfectly comfortable. And well… it just somehow feels so darned GROWN UP that I can live comfortably in my home, for the first time in almost 20 years.
Sure, I’m still a bit worried about what the next electicity bill will be, but I like that this “new” casa az never actualy gets as cold as the old one did, and that my flatmate is now making enough money to help me pay the bills, and that I put on the heat in the morning… because I can!
casa azahar 