Various items (food, drink, quizzes)

Some snippets of the past weeks.

Rastro on a hangover = terrible idea. The Rastro is a big market that runs down the length of a long street, it has a few nice leather stalls and a lot of tat, and it's great for a wander if you're not tired, hungover, irritable, hungry or all of the above.

Indian food with no spice. It can be done. Spanish curry= yummy, but different. A godsend with beers after the Rastro experience.

Teashop in a bookshop. We found somewhere that's not a bar that serves coffee and tea! A little independent bookshop near Anton Martin, perfect for chilling on a Sunday. Can't remember the name unfortunately.

Areia = A cool bar with sofas and cushions and beds and candles, and nice juice. I was on a budget so didn't try one of the many cocktails, but the strawberry juice was good. Also there were no comfy seats free. Must go back, and get there earlier, with more cash. Near Alonso Martinez metro.

Pub Quiz at J&Js, the English (American/Canadian whatever, it's got books In English) bookshop and bar. I'm rubbish at quizzes but still came 4th! It helped that another team swapped answers with us. It was an especially hard quiz, there was a round on Switzerland and a round on chess.
Spanish people don't know about pub quizzes. I'm going to introduce them.

It was Fiona's birthday. We went to El Jardin Secreto which is really nice, but really busy so you only get your table for an alloted time slot, which is a shame. I had black squid ink risotto and immediately regretted it. There's only one night of the year it's cool to have black teeth, and Halloween was over already. I also had pear lemonade, that was delish. And a chocolate volcano exploding with dulce de leche magma!! At least that's what we imagined, it wasn't even shaped like a volcano, but I suppose it's unealistic to expect actual explosives in a pudding. It was still very tasty, even though by the time I got to the dulce de leche filling (the best bit) most of it had been stolen out the other side! Grrr. The coffee ice cream on top was amazing.

The stairs are prettily lit with tea lights, but this is a bit Dangerous I think.



Because they chuck you out after you've eaten, it was really early still so we went to a few bars; El Tigre was just too full so we went round the corner to a nice quiet bar that ceased to be quiet when everyone sang happy birthday! That's what happens when you say 'what are you going to give me?' to a camp barman in Chueca. They made her dance, it was fantastic. Then on to a club called Coco's where they lure you with promises of free shots which turn out to be orange juice and when you're in you're tempted to stay if only to use the toilets again. Chandeliers! Mirrors! Extravagance! The music wasn't great though so we moved on.....

To Star Studio! It was brilliant, like last summer all over again. Star Studio is an Irish bar/club where last year I introduced the DJ to Dizzee Rascal. It's on Plaza de Carmen, it's cheap to get in and every time I go I forget there's a whole other, bigger, dancefloor downstairs! A surprise every time. I learnt the moves to a Spanish song that goes, from what I could catch, stick your hands in the air, wiggle a bit, do a half turn, dance around a bit.

Obviously this was a Friday night (all the fun stuff happens on Friday nights) and yes, I work on Saturday mornings. It's a good thing I'm alright at working while sleep deprived. I can't imagine what would happen if I taught art classes after a full 8 hours sleep; I'd be bouncing all over the place, painting the roof most likely.

That's enough for now, I still have many things to tell you but I need to go back to work soon. I would be working now, but got told an hour beforehand that my class are going to a workshop about olives in the plaza next to the school, so they won't have English today. I'm not sure what an olive workshop entails either.

Laterz.