Exhibition in Sevilla

My friend from work Isabel recently exhibited a painting in Rubec bar/gallery in Sevilla and I went along for the opening partae for moral support and free wine. Isabel is the one at the front posing with Paco, her lovely boyfriend, who is also a friend from work. The other girls are lovely friends of Isabel´s. Her painting is in the background. She is V talented!

Summer is here

Summer is definately here after 2 weeks of 30+ weather, its just a taste of what´s to come considering it gets up to 50 deg here. In 2 weeks we start "summer working hours" which is a the great spanish invention of the 8-3 work day during summer. Too hot to work in the afternoons! Yay let the siestas begin!

So to celebrate the coming of summer we went to our old favourite of Santa Luzia in Portugal and basked and ate like there was no tomorrow. oh the joy a little hot sun brings to white skin!

Here is a pic of our pretty table and our view for our breakfast feast in the sun. The food in Portugal is the best and most of our trips there revolve around it. We go to the fresh food market and buy up big and at our favourite fruit stall the cute old lady always recognizes Marcos and is quick to give him a big kiss (doesn´t recognize me dodgy bitch) We go to the beach but most of the time is spent relaxing on this balcony, eating and drinking. I make some mean ass strawberry caipirinhas!
Here is Lola serving her big enough for a family of 10 paella she made for us (she has 12 bro´s & sis´s, she don´t know how to cook for 4)





Fun Times!!!

Funny Street Names

There are some really funny street names here.... if I ever get my ass into gear I´ll take some photos as proof but some examples are:

Calle Niño Perdido - Lost Child Street
Calle Jesus de Gran Poder - Powerful Jesus Street
Calle Amor de Dios - The Love of God Street
Calle Descalzos - Barefoot Street
Calle Virgen of the Reyes - The King´s Virgen Street
Calle Escarpin - Pointed Shoe Street
Calle Amargura - Bitterness Street
Calle Mata - Kill Street
Calle Hombre de Piedra - RockMan Street
Calle Cristo del Buen Viaje - Happy Travelling Christ Street

Love it! I wish my street name wasn´t so boring.....

ANOTHER soon to be AUSSIE BRIDE

Oh the Joy! Breaking news..... Jodes is getting married!! My older sister by a mere 10 minutes is getting married, the wedding is planned for April 2008 in LAS VEGAS!!! wahoo! here is a pic of the lovely couple....I´ve already started on ideas for the invites, she only announced it last week. i am sister of the BRIDEZILLA!!!!!!!!!!!

Aussie Bride

Its tough being away and missing the important events of the people you love. I love living here but at the same time I am homesick and I do miss my family, friends and Sydney life alot. Especially when there is a wedding! All that free food! Here is a lovely pic of my friends Adelle & Uri that got married in Sydney in Feb. She is a bride in blue...Stunning! Love you guys! xxxx

Spanish Bride (don´t be alarmed, its not me)

My friends Isabel & Domingo got married a couple of weeks ago so I thought I´d post a pic of the lovely pair! Stunning! The wedding was beautiful, held in a golf club just outside of Sevilla. It started at 7.30pm, I left at 5am and I was one of the first! The Spanish don´t sleep! They also don´t pay attention to the "don´t mix your drinks rule" Hordourves served on the terrace with glasses of sherry, entrees served with white wine, mains served with red wine, dessert served with champagne, dancing with open bar of your choice of spirits, understandably 4 rums later and its no suprise I lost my phone (found it next day) and I lost my keycard (found it at 6.30am in a very usual place that I swear had nothing to do with me). Rum is a real memory killer let me tell you that. should stick to Vodka, you get a nasty headache but at least you don´t forget where you are!

Olé Olé Olé

So the Feria has past, a grand event for Sevilla. It goes on for 1 week, starting on Monday night for the alumbrado which is at midnight when the 1000s of lights of the puerta, the big entrance are lit (turned on we have electricity now!) and then all the lights in the streets. It continues till the following Sunday, all day and all night, only dead from about 6am till 11am. During the day the streets are filled with horses that look like the ones at “El Caballo Blanco” (any sydneysiders who lived through the 80s can´t forget that) and glamorous men riding them, dressed up in Córdobes costume sometimes carrying woman in flamenco dresses riding side saddled on the back. Inside the casetas, there is live Sevillanas bands, (the only music to be played at feria!) lots of drinking, eating and dancing the typical sevillanas that goes with the music. Literally the whole city gets into it. The streets are dead. ALL of the shops and offices close from lunchtime and most workplaces give you 1 or 2 days of to go there all day. That’s if they are open at all, lots of places just shut down for the whole week. And most women dress up in flamenco dresses. The beautiful colours of the dresses through the Feria are amazing. I chose red for mine, it was too overwhelming to chose a colour so I decided on a classic style & colour. But walking through the feria I just couldn´t stop looking at all the dresses. “Oooh I like PURPLE!”….”Oooooh Look at that orange & green one!!”” “look at that girls comb/frills/sleeves /” etc etc. It was endless! Now I fully understand why most girls from here have more than one flamenco dress!

So…..I present to you…..Kristy in her brand new, very own, made by Marcos´s Mum, Flamenco Dress!!!!!!!!

Marcos took about 1 million photos of me including one on the toilet (“Oooh look how cute you are on the toilet in your dress”) which is not going to see the light of day. It feels great to wear cause it fits me like a glove and the frills swish when I walk. And swish overtime when I dance & spin! Love a good swish.



In these photos I am posing in the courtyard of my new place, it has lots of plants which is nice.

I got into a bit of dancing this year again, there are particular steps to follow but if you are dancing with someone who knows what they are doing, and they warn you when to spin you can pretty much wing it. Each Sevillanas song has 4 parts, each of which has a different little routine to do. People that join in half way never know which part your up to and I must´ve fooled one little girl (no more than 8) who asked ME where we were at in the dance. HELLO didn´t you see me spinning the wrong way before. I´m LOST! I can barely tell the differece between the 4 parts only that in the 4th part there is a hell of a lot of spinning and isn´t recommended after a 2 jugs of rebujito (sherry). However, the end of each part (4 parts to each song) is very dramatic, you spin, throw your hand into the air and yell ole (ok maybe I am the only one that yells ole) and it finishes on a particular beat, one which I ALWAYS manage to miss, probably due to my tone deafness, I end up yelling Ole 10 seconds after everyone else. The spanish love to see a foreigner giving sevillanas a go and I was being passed around from one fancy footed spanish guy to the next.

Well it was great fun and the rebujito (sherry) hangovers were well worth it. I´ll be pondering around the house in my dress methinks, definately can´t wait till next year to wear it!!

xxxx