Tag Archives: writing

back to madrid!

28 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in andalucia, friends, gastronomy, getaways, madrid

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So while I was away in Galicia I got an invitation to the Spanish book launch of my friend José Pizarro’s Andalucía, which is being held in Madrid on October 30th. You may recall I went to London in May for a event at the Spanish Embassy that included celebrating José’s 25 years as a chef and was also the launch for the English version of this book. But you know, I want to be there to support José and so I booked my train to Madrid and a hotel for a couple of nights, even though I can’t exactly afford to travel right now.

And THEN something amazing happened. Out of the blue I was asked by Decanter Magazine to write another city break travel piece for them… on Madrid! This is my third commission from Decanter in a year, and I am thrilled about that. But also, it will end up paying for my trip and I can use my time there to do research for the article. How perfect is that?  🙂

at the office

27 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by in articles, travel

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If any of you don’t already know that I’ve been GOING THROUGH IMPOSTER’S SYNDROME HELL writing this commissioned article about Galicia – which was the reason I went to Galicia two weeks ago – then, you know, where have you been?? 😉

Okay, I have actually written a lot. Way over the word limit I was given. The thing is that it all sounds like total crap to me and doesn’t seem very cohesive.  BECAUSE I AM NOT A WRITER, OMG, STOP ASKING ME TO WRITE THINGS. STOP IT NOW.

But then I remembered that my friend Ania said it sometimes helps to get out of the house, find a café or somewhere else to write for awhile… and in desperation I took this advice today. And hey… it worked!

Well okay… “worked”. Still not sure about that but it certainly helped. And I think part of it was – duh – using pen and paper, rather than just writing on the computer. I dunno, there’s something organic about physically writing that seemed to help me put my thoughts together a bit better. And well, the article is still not done, but at least I now feel like I’m a bit more organised. Thanks Ania!

hols at home

12 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in sevilla, spain, travel, trips, work

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sandals 2015

So yeah, the BIG NEWS is that I’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off, and possibly longer. Well okay, not exactly OFF in the sense of not working, or going away somewhere, just not doing my tapas tours for awhile so that I can focus on getting caught up on my other work (massive backlog of blog posts and photo editing) as well as work on some new ideas for We Love Tapas. Re: the latter, there are a couple of things coming up this autumn that I think will be very exciting, but I do need some time to get those going properly. Yeah, I know my Trip Advisor rating will probably suffer as a result, with all the posers racking up fake reviews on a daily basis but, to borrow the pithy words of the Divine Marina O’Loughlin… “I don’t hate it because it enables reviews of and tickets for cruel animal attractions, or for its climate of blackmail-enabling entitlement. I hate it because it’s shit.” Suggest you read this article.

Of course it’s great that while I am “away” I can steer my clients towards We Love Tapas, because the team is going to be working all summer long. Meanwhile, my summer getaway plans are still going ahead, with Galicia Getaway booked for the end of August, though I may swap San Sebastián for London, not sure. Or do them both?? Really no idea at this point. All I know is that for the next week or so I am on “hols at home”, which is mostly about doing a lot of research and writing. But it feels great, and I’m also focusing on healthy light eating at home. Feel very privileged that I can work like this, doing things I love, in the way I want to do them. Anyhow, watch this space…