visits continue

We had a short visit with our "cousin", who was in from Madrid to play a couple of concerts at a swing music festival in Sevilla. Shared some tapas and a bottle of wine. I shared the food in another post but I didn't want these two cute boys to get lost in the food forest

Yesterday David & Lori asked me a question. Who do you socialize with here as an expat? I just laughed. My answer was: we socialize with our friends from the US. Being an expat herself Lori immediately understood.  I have a calendar just for visitors. Since I took the photos that make up this collage of our visitors I have added at least one more for the big empty space of the largest square. I remember when our friends Al Horrigan and Carol Howes bought a second home around the corner to house the steady stream of visitors they always had. We won't be doing that because Carol was cooking for all her guests (I don't) and she was acting as a tour guide (here you get a book about Sevilla and some recommendations for the "don't miss" sights.) Oh and we make dinner reservations. So we only offer a bed and bath  basically. Keeps me (the introvert in the family) sane while I get the fun of seeing friends and my extrovert husband gets all the company he craves. We see folks from the expat community here too. The culture in Spain is focused on family and our original immersion teachers warned us not to expect to be invited into someone's home or to invite them to yours. If you become friendly with someone who is truly local (as opposed to a transplanted Spaniard) you will see them at coffee or for a drink and tapa. (BTW that is something we see all the time; groups of friends out for drinks with a few bites of food along the way.) But as you can see from the calendar - we don't lack company 

Some of the days are cut off - and we still haven't gotten confirms from Angela & Lee or John & Stephanie (only tentative dates) but as you can see we are busy- We leave the 4th of May and Oscar is with us until May 3rd... so it will be a quick "get out of Dodge" style getaway. 

But back to the present, We had a fun (if fast) visit from Christian Pérez Yates. He was in town for a couple of gigs at a nearby music festival. We were able to snag him between rehearsals and performance to grab something to eat. We tried a place I always wanted to check out. Catalina, El Bar.  We had a selection of tapas, as the timing was in between lunch and dinner hours. We will see each other again soon when we head to Madrid in December with Lee Cherney for a visit with Christian, Megan Cytron and possibly their son Oscar. 

consulting on the wine- 

Dinner that night was at our favorite sushi place. We were pretty stuffed from "merienda" with Christian so I was happy to let Phil take the lead in consuming the "extra" pieces.

On the walk home from "snacks" with Christian we went by the windows on the big toy store on San Pablo.  They have been covered over as they reset the display for the Christmas reveal. And here is the first. (More windows in progress)  What I really found interesting is that the standard infant dolls look really tired (circled in blue -100€!) But for less money you can get a grumpy baby (circled in green - 95€) or for a premium you can get a happy baby (circled in red - 130€). Trust me. Spend the extra € and get the happy baby. It's Christmas 🎄🎁🎄LOL

Then on Sunday night we wrapped up the weekend with dinner at Brunilda.... After rescheduling from a week ago, we made it to Brunilda tonight. A few changes on the menu but we had some of the old favorites too. We finally had an evening where we could order postres and we both liked our choices. Mine was tarta de queso and Phil's was chocolate migas. I think my favorites dishes continue to be the risotto con setas and the salmon in a Thai chili glaze.

Next up Jenny arrives Wednesday - after we have a Tuesday adventure  with a trip to Costco! 

daily life

Phil has a cold (likely from airport land) it came on three days ago and he arrived seven days ago. He wanted comforting warm food. So we picked rice dishes.  We had been to Mayo once before and liked it. The service is exemplary and the food excellent. I chose the arroz seco of the day (iberico) and he chose an arroz meloso with seafood. (It was almost the "soup" he was looking for) We started with mussels (tiny and tender) and an outstanding tuna tartare of red tuna (blue fin) - around here that comes from Cádiz. We had two unusual desserts. His was called textures of chocolate and mine was called fried milk.  Both were very good. I had left my phone at home so no new "walk home" photos but Phil let me borrow his for the meal photos.

Then we got a notice from our lawyer that our empadronamiento was still showing as incomplete with the digital certificate. So we had to go to the city offices in Triana to find out what the delay was. Apparently they did not like the insurance and cable and cell phone bills. They demanded water, gas, or light copies with the exact apartment number on them. Luckily I had copies of the bills from our landlord in my emails and could get them printed at a copy shop only ten minutes walk away. So fingers crossed that we have accomplished this task. 

Friday morning I heard from Lori Callahan that she and David would be making it to Sevilla! Friends always pick up where they left off no matter how many decades have passed. So I saw Lori Callahan & David Taylor (friends from Sydney Australia) today in Sevilla as they were "cruising by". Their ship docked in Càdiz and they were able to get to Sevilla to have coffee with me near the cathedral.  A few hours to catch up and remind ourselves how easy and natural friendship can be. 

So after seeing my friends from Sydney, Australia, I returned home. As I walked back through Plaza Nueva I noticed that the flower beds were filled with some me kind of impatiens, I think, (which of course need cooler weather than the summers here and clearly do very well  in the fall.) Then Phil and I went to lunch at a place in the Plaza that has a good menu del dia for 14€  (three courses and a beverage) Missed photos of the mains but the food was more than edible for basically the price of a burger place in the US....

That night, we returned to "Brigadoon" our appearing and disappearing restaurant. It's literally out the front door and around the corner. The food was still really good with the standouts being salmon tartar and the risotto with seafood. Buñelos con mariscos were also good. The costillar a baja termeratura could have used a few more minutes finishing but were very tender. Canelones had nicely flavored meat stuffing and would have been even better if served warmer on this "coolish" night outdoors. The only real issue with the evening was the abysmal service. It was, no contest, the worst service we've had in Spain. 

So that brought our busy week to a close. But there's more - stay tuned for the weekend...