Before Christmas I received an email from Heidi, Ryan's sister asking me to play Christmas elf and buy a restaurant gift certificate and bottle of wine for them. Okay! No problem, in fact, a pleasure. We go to La Chala the restaurant she chose and, before going wrote out the Spanish for gift certificate, well that didn't work well. Gift certificates aren't given here, I suspect, so they had no concept of what we wanted. I saw the waiter on his cell with the request in his hand and thought "oh, he's calling his boss", not. We are getting up to leave and Ryan and Angela with Louis show up. Waiter had called them! There goes the surprise! We all decided not to spoil it for Heidi so we didn't tell her. I also bought dog treats for Louis so he was included (from his Cousin Bentley, Heidi and family's dog).
 |
| Picture I sent Heidi to show her. |
Bruce shopped for tools for his railway project, next day he decided two weren’t needed but others were so we went back to El Cortes tool department. Changed over, even got a credit, came home with new ones including a rather cheap drill. First drill he chose in the store had a broken handle on the case so we swapped for another. Get home to find NO drill in the box, must have been taken out for the demo, Dang, now we need to go back again to our friendly fellow in the tool department, Bruce is becoming a "regular" there.
Rant coming on, feel free to skip this. Shopping at Christmas always drives me crazy, no matter what country I’m in. I hate the over loud Christmas carol music, I dress for outside and get hot, it’s always crowded to the max. Here people find friends and group together taking up a sidewalk or store aisle to greet and chat, it’s not polite to ask them to move aside, even with a please attached. I remember a poster that had two buzzards in trees, caption said “Patience my ass, I just want to kill something” so while I don’t want to kill anything, the saying perfectly describes my impatience. As you know, I’m not a “shopper” at the best of times… off my mini rant now.
Had a manicure and pedicure with Lola again, she gave me a Christmas give-away which is hair spray which I unfortunately don’t use. Thinking of our closest women friends here and doubt they will use it either. But reading the warning label “do not smoke while using” reminded Bruce of when the Fire Department came to his University to do a fire demonstration. They used a lighter and hair spray and made a flame a metre long, so we’ll keep it as burglar defence - what? We do get silly, even without wine. About wine...
Found a lovely wine rack for twelve bottles, wood, lighter wood than most of the rest in the house. The one on display was a bit tippy so a clerk spent at least fifteen minutes hunting another up, wow! still tippy but bought anyway.
 |
| Full now, not likely so after New Year's |
While waiting another clerk who helped us with the Christmas decorations stopped by and asked how we were and if we needed help. This is good service and I’ve mentioned this before, the good service given to people, makes the wait for your turn much, much longer. I’ll generalize again, you’ve been warned, but clerks will endeavour to solve the problem until they cannot, they do not rush the process, just deal in the best way they can.
 |
| Entertainment for children out side El Cortes Ingles Department store |
Being “the season” I’m hearing more from friends who read this blog. I heard from a friend in Madeira Park, (she has a great sense of humour), she is now working with an organization that will change the Coast dramatically. It is a marine science project with educational probabilities that could draw people from around the world. Extensive in planning and looks to be beautiful in production. Originally it was planned for Madeira Park but negotiations did not work out so now planned for further north at Irvines Landing. Now this is a project I would have volunteered for!
Pepe came over to fix our lighting in the kitchen and dining areas. He couldn’t get the kitchen to work, bulbs are difficult to find of the right voltage but even the least voltage didn’t work so he bought a new light. Turns out it was a problem with the switch! Oh well, new light is installed and works.
We enjoyed the company of Ryan and Angela Christmas Eve when we used the machine mentioned previous post. Made potatoes and onions in the fondue dish - yummy! Christmas Day they came back and Paula and Paul came - did an oil fondue with lots of goodies. It was very nice to entertain at Christmas again.
Remember we found Alonso, went back to his restaurant on a Wednesday but there was no one there we knew and we caught the slow time between breakfast and lunch, no service. Walked across the street to one called Taverna Alambique which was excellent! We just can’t/won’t eat there when Alonso is working at his!
This week between Christmas and New Years is crazy busy in the streets of Sevilla! For me, not so much. Bruce is busy with his rail road project, building bridges see …
I think he is very creative and you will definitely read more on this project!
I am basically twiddling my thumbs which is getting both annoying and boring! I’m kicking my ass into “something” will let you know when I do…
Went to a new to us restaurant on the Alameda Thursday. It is called El Disparate (The Nonsense) ?? and is connected to the hostel The Corner House. Didn’t see the rooms in the hostel but it looks very nice. Food was good at the restaurant, Bruce had cheese cake, large piece with blackberry coulis on top and I had patatas bravas, like wedge fries, which are done differently everywhere. These were crisp, well cooked and not greasy, sauce was a bit spicy, perfect really. I think many places microwave the food and to find a place with a real kitchen is a treat here. This place had a long open kitchen and the chef was feeding a spoonful of something to a waitress, or perhaps the owner to taste. Like I said, real kitchen! They don’t have many tapas though, mostly full meals for lunch anyway. Bathroom was clean, had soap, and lots of TP, and nice paper towels, another rarity. Most places do not have hand paper. Sunny day, coolish breeze and the Alameda is always a good place to people and dog watch.
That's all from us for now.
Cheers and again, Happy New Year! May the year 2017 be a good one for you! Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat
No comments:
Post a Comment