Happy New Year 2022!

 

Happy New Year, yes this is from Freiburg, I am in Sevilla at the moment.

Here's hope that 2022 is better (again).

Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas Friends! 

Each barrio or city district has unique sets of lights and these are different from what I remember from previous years here.

Christmas in Positano, Italy

Stay safe and enjoy! Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat

Hello from Sevilla

Sunday November 7 and I am back in Sevilla! Christoph drove me to Zurich airport where I had a comfortable wait of 3 hours in the business class lounge, even with a well ventilated smoking room. I flew into the sunset, it was beautiful! 

I landed to find Pepe and Marta were there to pick me up, yay! At the airport it was insane due to a health document required to enter the country, no social distancing and crossing crowds, ironic isn’t it… The flat was clean which Pepe said took a lot of effort by Rocio. Tomorrow will be the big food shop for Lexi and I. She was so very good again. Boxed up from 11 am to about 8:30 pm.

Shop done at El Cortes Englis for the basics but I didn’t buy a lot of vegetables since I am going to my local grocery tomorrow. That place is run by father and son and I was glad to see it was still there, and welcomed. Sadly the butcher is gone and replaced by one selling ham products only, another boutique type place. Went to the tobacco store and he was glad to see me. But what is happening here, the older vendors are having to sell out to newer ventures and I can only hope they make a living also. Visited the art/framing place and they were glad to see me. Coffee importer was welcoming, Chino store also. Today was a reconnection with the neighbourhood and felt very good to know people still remember me after a year and half and mask donned and greyer hair.

Of course there is no food to be had in the house and whatever I had left, like dried pasta, has expired so the first order of business is buying in food. Then unpacking, laundry, all the usual things and exploring a place I haven’t been since mid-July 2020. I’d shipped my parka and a couple of warm things to Pepe a month ago so he brought them over last Sunday when we had a chance to chat at length and catch up with our lives. I hope to visit Marta’s and his new home they had completely renovated. 

Liz is in town briefly and made time to come for lunch, I cooked tacos which I remembered was her favourite meal and one she gets very rarely. She brought her art portfolio over for me to choose a hand painted work of hers. By chance I chose the one she felt most appropriate to our friendship, one of the Museo de Bellas Artes entrance side panel of tile work, both very pleased.

I took it to our friends up the street, Curadror Decor, had it framed and this is the result, very pleased, again! Liz lives in a very comfortable RV and has done since a bit before lockdown the first time. Her jobs take her all over Spain so she gets to bring her house on wheels, perfect!

Another great happening, I had written to Peter for his birthday in September with no reply, same as last year. Bruce and I stayed at his Vienna apartment downtown in a great neighbourhood for the summer in about 2015. Bruce became very ill there and was in so much pain every minute of every day that when Peter saw it he pulled out all his medical contacts and basically gave Bruce and I another 3 years together. So this is a person to be respected and thanked. I received a letter from him this week! I was chuffed and glad to hear from him. He’s moved from the city to a ritzy neighbourhood in the hills with a view of the city and has a dog which he takes roaming over the parks and forests in the area. He sounds at peace and happy.

Two couples are coming into town for the Christmas season, Paul and Paula and Ivan and Lola I look forward to seeing them.

I went to the Picasso exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes and forgot not to bring my purse, had to go in a locker, but did remember my Irish passport to let me in for free. 

I had forgotten how beautiful the building is and that was a balm to how disappointed with the exhibition I was.

Maybe I missed something? But the paintings were dotted among the old masters in the building, not in one place. They are meant to showcase the masters influence on Picasso, so like paintings were hung beside each other. There were less than a dozen Picasso's to be hunted for. Honestly I found it disjointed and disappointing, again, maybe I missed the theme, oh well, I will keep going to exhibitions there because I haven’t been to many over my travels and these world wide famous artists are on my doorstep. I've been to a few cities with world famous art galleries, I.e. Louve, Paris; Van Gogh; Amsterdam, Bruce had been to before and had no interest in going back. Regretfully so, I didn’t go singly but I also have hated crowds even before Covid and those places are typically crowded with good reason.

At the back of the Museo is a hair cut place and a manicure/pedicure place, separate businesses but I have been to both shortly before lockdown March 2020. Need both services and the haircut place says come back in 45 minutes so I was surprised so soon but did. He’s scalped me using pinker scissors that thin out the hair, mine is already thin. We’ll see tomorrow the real result, also cut it dry which I’ve never had done before. Wait for tomorrow….. yup scalped, all I can say is, I’m really glad hair grows back.

You might want to know the Covid situation here, at the moment and for this past month people walk around inside and out with masks on, mostly, bars and restaurants are open, case numbers have remained low and vaccination rates are high so people think we've achieved "herd" immunity. All I and everyone can do is hope it stays that way.

All for now, Cheers, Bev and Lexi Cat who has settled in.