02 Monday Mar 2020
After years of knowing each other “virtually”, and also working together, it was great to finally meet Maribel & Philip @iberiantraveler in person yesterday. A fun Sunday afternoon tapeo stopping in at three bars, with mucho vino, lots of talking. Hope they will come back soon.
25 Tuesday Feb 2020
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
Anne & Paul were back in town this week. Anne was here to get a gamma ray scan and so, with all the radiation tests I’ve been getting lately, she suggested we light up the town together. So we went out for tapitas and sherry and had a lovely time. Our next get together will probably be in Jerez in May, either for the Feria or Vinoble. Or both!
14 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in food & drink, friends, gastronomy
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So after yesterday’s hospital experience, followed by a lovely long walk with Paz, and then a snack and a glass of wine at Eslava, I got home and put the PJs on, ready to flop for the rest of the evening. But then I got a whatsapp message from my gorgeous friend José Pizarro @jose_pizarro… there were no words, just a photo of THOSE papas aliñá at Bodeguita Romero. And I was like WHAAAAAT?? Yep, José was in town.
He was on a flying visit with friends from the UK who are in the process of turning their Norfolk pub into a Spanish tapas bar, and José was helping them get some inspiration. They had already been to visit the Ibérico pigs, and to a sherry bodega, and for one day only they were in Sevilla. OMG.
I mean seriously OMG.
After the pig of day I’d just had (basically saved last minute by having Paz keep me company at the hospital) I was ready to crawl into bed again. But suddenly José was in town! With friends! And he wanted me to come and meet them! What can I tell you? He totally made my day.
José with Simone, Ivor & Stuart
So I met them mid-tapeo and we had a lovely time drinking, eating, laughing, hugging… all that good stuff. We finished up on the rooftop of the EME Hotel (which seemed like a good idea at the time, another drink?, hell yeah!). And then just like that they were gone, like a dream. Honestly, what were the odds that one of the people I love most would show up on one of my shittiest days and make everything better? Well, it happened, and I have photo evidence. 😉 Gracias José! ❤
08 Saturday Feb 2020
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So when I was with Josephine at Puratasca on Friday we talked about all kinds of things, at one point discussing online privacy and the general snoopiness of practically every company out there, mining all our personal data. Both of us agreed that we would never have an Alexa, and I mentioned that Facetime glitch awhile back where, if one of the people on the call didn’t hang up afterwards, they could continue to listen in on the other person/people after the app appeared to be turned off. Apparently that’s been fixed, but I immediately removed that app from everywhere, even though I don’t use it. Can’t be too cautious. Likewise I have a piece of black tape over my laptop webcam, which means the lens is now probably all gacky from the glue, but I never use it so anyhow it doesn’t matter.
Then it was time to leave and we stopped by the kitchen to thank chef Raúl and he gave us some SWAG on the way out, including a ceramic fridge magnet celebrating their 10th anniversary and that little tchotchke on the right. Ever seen one of those before? Well, I hadn’t. What you do is stick it over your laptop webcam (with the circle over the cam), and then the top part slides open and shut. Genius! Except, hang on… we had just been talking about this. Was there a microphone in the bread basket, a listening device under the table, was the fork really JUST A FORK?? I mean, what are the odds that we would be randomly discussing covering up our webcams (Josephine does it too) and then get presented with a solution. Eh… eh?? 😉
07 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, travel
So this was fun! The other day Twitter mentions popped up with an introduction by the lovely Shaney Hudson @shaneyhudson to her journalist pal Josephine @_josephineprice (they both write for Nat Geo Traveller). Josephine is in town this weekend doing research for an article on Sevilla and so I took her around Triana, one of the barrios she is going to feature. As you can see, we had a very tasty time.
Shaney was first here in 2010, and has been back since. She was one of the first people to write about my tapas tours. Love that we are still in touch and I hope that she will make it back to Sevilla again before too long.
casa azahar 