06.12.21 — Journal

Sing-Song & Sushi Times

After Danni’s visit just a few weeks ago, the month of November has very quickly come and gone, and with it a good few weekends of mischief. Just a day before Danni arrived, my new Dr. Martens boots arrived, and so I made the most of the trip to the airport to start wearing them in – especially apt as they matched my bag! I also spent a few evenings walking around the area and chilling out with friends at home.

One Friday, and after a rather busy day holding another photo shoot in the office, I met up with Sara for an evening meal out. She’d suggested a Japanese restaurant that I’d seen a few times before, and it turned out to be an all-you-can-eat of small dishes delivered by a conveyor belt system. We had a wonderful evening, filling up on sushi and other delights before downing a couple of G&Ts around the city.

I also spent some time conducting a deep clean of my flat that weekend, which involved bringing together all of my plants for their regular pampering (i.e. removal of dead leaves and a good watering). I also tried my hand at a bit of cooking, throwing together my best attempt at a fry-up (a British breakfast) before making some noodles in the evening.

With the next working week coming around, I had another exciting plan in place. That Wednesday, I cycled down through the city centre and to Antón Martín, and to the new offices of a couple of ex-colleagues. There, I was joined by Luis, and the four of us had a wonderful catch up over a bottle of wine. From there, we headed to a friend’s house to carry on the festivities, before winding up in another local bar for some tortilla de patatas (Spanish omelette) and a final glass of wine.

To end that week, me and some colleagues then met up at Citynizer Plaza, where we had some drinks to celebrate the conclusion of another working week. That weekend’s frivolities then continues with a visit from Sara at home, which replaced our original plan of going out for a karaoke night as I was still feeling a bit tired from our night out at Citynizer the night before!

The next week, I spent some more time wearing in my new boots, including cycling through the newly opened Plaza de España (where our office was when I first started working at Erretres) and some more wandering around my local neighbourhood – including the exploration of a dodgy backstreet that I’d never seen before…

Autumn in Madrid is very pretty also frighteningly cold, although it might not look it.

In a break from my wandering, one evening I headed down to Luis’ flat, where we were joined by his friend Carmen for an evening of wine, ramen, and gossip. After a lovely evening with the two of them, my streak of evenings out continued the day after, as Sara and I had rescheduled our karaoke evening. We first headed out to Tapapiés, a tapas trail around the Lavapiés district, before having a few G&Ts and heading to my favourite karaoke joint.

After an evening of energising the crowds with our 2am rendition of the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe”, the two of us spent the Sunday recovering before heading straight back into another working week. My week, however, was to be slightly different, as the Thursday evening I was to leave Madrid to spend a long weekend elsewhere – but that story is for the next blog post!