My current contract plods along, putting money in my purse, swelling the pension pot. The days are hot and slow in the summer in London and the work being at a Government agency, well, no one is actually doing any work. Usually on a contract I am diligent and I work non stop, but my heads of department here are so incompetent, I’ve more or less given up on getting the job done.
So I booked a weekend to Seville, in Spain. A girlfriend of mine, Carrot, is studying alone over there right now and it was due to be her birthday, so I had a choice of rotting away at work, surrounded by middle aged women eating cakes and chocolate and constantly being angry, complaining there are no good men on Plenty of Fish…. Or going to Spain eating tapas and drinking wine with my super cute Croatian carrot.
It was hot when I touched down in Seville and the taxi from the airport was death cab. It dropped me near the place I booked on airbnb and as luck would have it, there was a good tapas bar called La Sontanta right next door to me. I texted Carrot, she was in her lecture, so I drank coffee, beer, ate Solomillo con Whisky and read James Joyce in the shade while I waited for her to finish.
When we met it was like a ray of joy came over me. She is such a wonderful girl, she is gentle, mild mannered and very beautiful. Her burnt orange hair had lightened in the sun and she was going blonde, her hair was almost see through.
Carrot was excited to be in Seville but warned the town was a little dull. We hit the streets and sank few Sangrias. On Wednesday I’d been stuck in work, on Thursday I was with my good friend in the Sevillian sunshine knocking back the Sangria. We hit the bars and night found one place, Abades de Triana, with a live pianist which poured enormous drinks (for £10 a head). It was right up our street, Audrey Carrot and Cary Layabout, sipping drinks against the river.
It’s a good town for a weekend break, the food is great, the town is pretty with Moorish themes and some pretty wild buildings.
We stayed in an area called Triana, it’s a 5 minute walk from the centre and really, it’s central Seville. Just because it’s over the river it’s seen as not central.
It was a great recharge and I’m not that happy to be back. I’m already missing my Carroty companion. Since things finished last month with my girlfriend of three years, Mousie, I was thinking of having some time alone and playing the field, but I did like having someone to look after. I still love Mousie, but it was time to let her go.
I’ll see the Carrot again in September when I spend a week in Croatia and see how it goes. She may be a longer term girlfriend for me, but at the moment she is happy to do the open relationship thing.
Anyway, pay day tomorrow and I have some money to buy some more shares. My mouth is salivating at the array of delicious companies I could be buying into.
If I had a wife and a mortgage and a kid, I’d not be able to just swan around the world at will and spend all my excess cash on shares. I can see why men settle down though; it’s great to be in the company of a nice woman. It’s quite amazing when you think about it, that a woman has the ability to be so charming and so wonderful to be with, that it can convince me to surrender my freedoms and wealth when I meet a great one.
It’s the sangria talking. Back to work for me.