Summer holidays

As of next Monday, we're welcoming a guest blogger, who will be posting once a week - every Monday - for most of August. Kim is, like me, a Seville-dwelling English woman - a translator, blogger and all-round good sport who hasn't been here that long, but has already thrown herself into Sevillano life and culture - the Feria, Sevillanas, making gazpacho. She is as intrigued by El Rocio and Semana Santa as I am, but is younger (much younger) and has considerably more energy (and time) than me for high-octane weekend activities like sea kayaking. And going out in the evening without having to negotiate childcare, or risk falling asleep on the sofa from exhaustion once the little tinkers are finally tucked up in bed. It's great, as I can live vicariously through her, just like my married-with-young-children friends did nearly ten years ago, when I ditched my life in London and went travelling round South America. We also had a guest blogger last summer, although she was an even more recent arrival - these new opinions and experiences provide a welcome change of viewpoints from a jaded old cynic like me. This August's blogger is young, single, works full time and loves going out, whereas I'm a middle-aged married woman with two kids who works freelance and goes out every once in a while. So her take on things - living in Seville, the people, the customs, working in an office here - will be refreshingly different from mine. We already have one important divergence - she hates the Mushrooms, whereas I love them. So how do I know her? Did we meet by chance in a tapas bar? Or over a glass of rebujito at the Feria? No, this is the age of social media, sweetie: I saw her on Twitter, read her blog, and emailed her. We did try to meet up face to face, but our schedules were too different (she works in her office during the day, without much flexibility to meet up; whereas I work in the mornings, with the freedom to be either at home writing, or out and about). In her first post, next Monday, she has some great suggestions for cultural activities during the hot August evenings. I'll be back at the end of August - have a great month!
Blog published on 28 July 2011