26 Monday Jun 2017
Posted in andalucia, flamenco, music, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, work
So excited that my long-time Flamenco & Tapas Tour partners – the fabulous Museo del Baile Flamenco – have updated and upgraded their Momentos Flamencos show to include an extra dancer and singer. It adds not only more dancing, but more colour and passion. I mean, it was always wonderful, but now…? You really need to see this. 
23 Friday Jun 2017
Posted in gastronomy, sevilla
Ania & Delia
We did it! A very special night out with 45 guests who were here all week for conference meetings, and who asked me to arrange something nice for their final evening in Sevilla. And it was fabulous. But I couldn’t have done it without these two… nor without this guy…
Juan Tarquini
And special thanks to the always fabulous Vineria San Telmo team. They are the best! And the best compliment ever? That we turned a corporate event into something that felt very personal. 🙂
03 Saturday Jun 2017
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, spain, tapas
Juan, me & William
It’s been quite a week for meeting up with people, either for the first time or after a long time. William @madguide1 fits into the second category. We first knew each other via social media as he is a Spain expert for the very famous Rick Steves global tours. Then one fine day we had time to meet up while he was in Sevilla… that was a few years ago. Then I saw on Instagram that William was back in town this week with a tour group, he promised me that FOR SURE when he was back in September that he’d make time to meet up.
Later that same day I was having lunch with my dear friend Juan Tarquini @jmtalexeew, at his fabulous Vineria San Telmo, when a guy sits down at the table next to us. Suddenly I hear… SHAWN??? Heh, it was William. He was there to meet two other mutual friends, María and José who, along with their partner Victor, run the excellent Taller Andaluz de Cocina cooking school. I mean, what are the odds? I love when stuff like this happens. 🙂
William, José & María
30 Tuesday May 2017
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, spain
About a million years ago I met Nancy Li on a travel forum called SlowTrav (now defunct) but we ended up having several mutual virtual friends, and I finally met her when she and her husband David came to Sevilla in 2014. Meanwhile we stay in touch on Facebook. Nancy is a crazy cat woman wannabe (she loves them but is allergic) and in fact it was Nancy who first told about wet-combing cats. Guess what? It rocks.
Anyhow, Nancy and David are back in town this week, along with Nancy’s old school chum Phillip, and they were happy to come out with me to do some Tapas Research (ie have lunch) at a new bar I hadn’t been to yet. Happily the meal was very nice, as was the company. It was nice to reconnect. HOWEVER, something Nancy told me was quite disturbing, which is that the woman she is renting her holiday apartment from informed her that The Dude is actually a lady (???). I have yet to investigate this matter further, but will definitely be checking out The Dude a bit more carefully next time we meet up.
29 Monday May 2017
Posted in friends, gastronomy, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours, twitter, twitter friends
Tags
I first met Martha @marthakimes when she joined one of my tapas tours as a solo traveller back in November 2014. She then came back on her own last November, which included a memorable evening out with Ania @ania_marchlik at La Azotea (I think that was the night I sold Ania my old iPhone…) and since then Martha decided that Sevilla is where she would like to live when she retires. To wit, this latest trip Martha dragged invited her husband Joe with her, hoping to get him to fall in love with her adopted city.
It’s quite impressive that Sevilla has won such an honour in Martha’s heart, since she has travelled pretty much everywhere, and has seen many amazing and beautiful places. And yet, this is where she wants to be. You can see how committed she is by the tattoo she had done between her last two visits.
NO8D0 … Sevilla’s official motto
Anyhow, Martha, Joe, Peter and I got together a few times during this visit, and we did our best to convince Joe that this is also where he wants to live when he retires. I hope we succeeded, because it would be great having M & J as neighbours.
casa azahar 