01 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours
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The boys were back in town for a brief stopover before heading to the Cádiz coast, so we met up for a tapeo. I’d first met Frank back in February when he was passing through and his friend Michael @renoirguides (who I’d known for ages on Twitter and first met in person last May in London) suggested we meet up. This time their friend Pankaj was with them and we spent a lovely evening bar hopping, eating, drinking, walking, talking… and finishing with penúltimas and desserts. Good times. 🙂
16 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in sevilla
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I’m never sure WHICH anniversary I should celebrate. When I first arrived in Spain (end of May 1992) or the day I arrived in Sevilla (today in 1993). Thing is, I can’t remember the exact day I arrived in Spain (that passport has gone missing), but I remember not just the date but the time (8 pm) I arrived in Sevilla. Possibly the longest day of my life, driving down from Salamanca with a friend, car packed full of boxes and two screaming cats (Lua and baby Sunny). And then having to wait in the car for three hours after arriving because the landlord was late, finally moving everything up three flights of stairs at 11 o’clock. Phew.
I had no real plans for the day (though a nice anniversary lunch and an evening concert are on tomorrow’s agenda) so I started off with a nice glass of manzanilla at Manolo Cateca and then simply wandered around Sevilla with my memories for a couple of hours. Then my friend Corinna met up with me at Casa Morales and we had a couple of penúltimas together before finishing with some early evening tapas. I was supposed to meet another friend for drinks later on, but after six bars (2 on my own, 4 with Corinna) I figured I’d had quite enough fun for one day. Good times.
07 Saturday Sep 2019
02 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in casa azahar, communication, sevilla
Every now and then someone on one of my tapas tours, upon hearing that I have lived in Spain for more than 27 years, says to me “wow, and yet you still have your Canadian accent!”. And I am always puzzled by this. I mean, what am I supposed to sound like? If I were living in England or Australia/New Zealand then, yes, it is possible that I would pick up something of those ENGLISH accents… but in Spain? Is it expected that I speak with a Spanish accent now when talking in my native language?
Meanwhile, Spanish people are always, um, appalled when they find out I’ve lived here for 27 years and still speak like I do in Spanish. Apparently with a very strong Canadian accent. In fact, I’ve been told many times that my accent in Spanish is atrocious (!!!). Which of course makes me never even want to speak to anyone again. And I know, there’s really no excuse after all this time, etc etc. But there are a few reasons…
23 Tuesday Jul 2019
Soooooo… have been working on a blog post about tourism in Sevilla. Well, it applies pretty much everywhere I’m sure. Just putting some thoughts together about the effect of mass tourism on travel destinations, and also about how places are so often marketed in a misleading way. One of those horrid catchphrases that I’m sure you’ve all heard by now is LIVE LIKE A LOCAL.
To wit I’ve been capturing some photos of how I – a local – actually live in Sevilla. This was one of them. Funny, right? Well, apparently not. I got some serious verbal backlash when I posted this on Instagram a few days ago with #livinglikealocal and #livelikealocal hashtags. This was followed by a dozen or so “unfollows”. And I had been SO CLOSE to reaching 5000 followers 😉
I would have quoted the Divine Ms M – FUCK ‘EM IF THEY CAN’T TAKE A JOKE – but I’m sure that would have just got me into more trouble. Anyhoodle… will let you know when I finish. 🙂
casa azahar 