Sorry it's been a while since I've written! Between cafe-work, dissertation-work, and (of course) a bit of travel, I've been a busy girl lately. Lots has happened since I posted last. First, work at Toby's has changed quite a lot, because Toby isn't there anymore. He's not even 40 yet, but he's been running the cafe for 22 years and decided to move on to other things. Sadly, when he left, so did his father, who called me dahling, sang songs about my name whenever I walked by him, and constantly made slightly racist jokes about my Irish last name. So, we're under new ownership now, and although the place still looks the same, both the customers and the staff who were around before the changeover feel the difference pretty acutely. Toby was a larger-than-life presence with a special knack for connecting with the customers and making the whole day fun. It's not that work isn't fun anymore; I still enjoy going in everyday and the new owner is nice as can be. But we don't have that constant banter going back and forth across the counter that we used to, and with the additional difference of most of the students having left town after exams, those of us left have a lot to adjust to. As a sort of tribute to the good ol' days (my whole three weeks of them), here are a few pics from Toby's last week. You can see more here.



Toby's from across the street, on a rare sunny day in Bristol


Toby, in his element


Me, with the proud result of a cappuccino-making practice session -- check out the height of that foam!

I've been working pretty much every day, but I had most of last week off to go to Spain and Portugal with Michelle and Chryselle, two of my chaplaincy friends. It was a glorious trip! We flew from London to Seville, and when we got there it was still light at almost 10 p.m. and we were almost immediately hit with the luscious smell of the oranges hanging on all the trees lining the streets. We spent a full day sightseeing in Seville under a cloudless sky, then took a bus to Faro, Portugal to spend a couple of days at the beach. We came back to Seville and almost a full day to continue exploring on Saturday before catching a flight back late in the evening. The whole trip exceeded our expectations by a lot (and we'd been daydreaming about it for weeks), and all of the practical matters went off without a hitch (well, with the exception of my coach journey back from London --but what can you expect of British public transportation?). Here are a few pics of the highlights, and you can see loads more here.


Michelle & I with our sangria in Seville


Chryselle & I at the beach in Faro


At the Alcazar, Seville -- this place completely blew us away!

Thanks for reading, and I promise I'll write again soon!