Out In Seville

One of us is in ⬇️ 🇲🇽 and one of us is in ⬇️ 🇬🇧 when really we live in 🇪🇸 together. It's going to be a long few weeks until we're reunited so hold your horses and prepare for some potential ridiculously whiney posts here.

We will you to be ours. All of you, every moment of you. We will cradle every bit, every bitty bit, ticky toc, naughty, hautie, oomphy, wacky, teary, bleary, nearly started and yet almost gone bit of you. We will share you like licked lollies, crispy lacy toast, buttered and frolicked, salty as the place where two oceans meet. We will kiss your orange light and your twilight and the palette of blue you gift us. We will remember the way you surprised us with your gifts of serendipity and let us fall into your grassy, watery arms, your silken openings, all of them ours. Teach us to love harder, drink your ferments of love, surrender deeply, give up, give in, push on, dream-us up, love us high. Look for the Rejoice in each F word, there is no such thing as failure, you already taught us that. There are F words, which we know we can’t live without. You will be ours. Each quivering or**sm, each light on/light off. I can’t wait to listen to the way the wind sings as it rushes into you and through you. You are nearly ours. We will love you, We promise, and cherish every moment. You will be ours, 2023. You are a good year, our year. The best year yet is nearly ours and We want to share it with the world.

A wonderful evening in pictures.

We don't really 'do' mandatory gift giving between us so we went out for an xmas evening yesterday. We ate mediocre sushi followed by mediocre cheese and prawns. We drank beer. And then we found a bar that belongs to us now. It's ours.

It serves mezcal and has a very Mexican vibe to it (read polished concrete, exposed wall and pasta tiles). The music was great and the shot sizes were *very* generous.

As I said, it's our bar now.

In our kaleidoscope eyes our wings span the distance between your dreams and my dreams. We meet there and hover in awe, feeling the ridges of the wind, the waves whisper their messages. We nod at nature’s gifts to us. Then you make a crack about my b***s poking your eyeball, one of our kids kick a ball into your head and Nelly’s “Let’s get naked” is playing in the distance. Loving everything about this.

True convo today

M: that's a nice sweater. It's too expensive though.
C: yeah. Sigh. Remember when you could just swap price tags and pay less.
M: no. I really don't.
C: forget I said that.

However, happy holidays to everyone from the pair of us!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=veqHMwCLnPo&feature=share

We went out. We were out while we were out. We found mushrooms in the forest by the beach when we were out being out.

Did We have fun on the beach being out while we were out? Oh hells to the yes.

I have two. Anyone need one?

Make me an offer I can't refuse...

(She's so cute, makes excellent bread and I promise she'll make you laugh a lot.)
Who can resist a drunken panoramic sunset photo shoot?

Weekends away that include castles, mushrooms and phenomenal views are everything.

We went to Aracena, in the province of Huelva for a mushroomy early birthday weekend for M. I think you'll agree that I WIN on birthday gifts for this decade. (Um, yeah no of course it isn't a competition)

Today we drove to the Pueblo Blanco, Arcos de la Frontera for a little explore.

We found this sign that says, "kiss me under the arch".

Did we? 😉😘

M wants to kiss and tell. I think we should be bribed with oodles of dollars before we spill those beans. There *could* be photographic evidence.

Mmmmm beans.

In case you were wondering where we've been hiding; here we are emerging from our tree.

I think you can agree, tree life suits us.

We remain constrained by familial responsibilities (yawn sigh) so our adventures are on hold until we go to Portugal next week.

If you're craving a bit of us though, needing more of our writing, our humour, our joie de vivre, I couldn't recommend anything more highly than snatching up a copy of M's magical book, "The Persistence of Yellow".
Her words are magic and if I'm honest they're part of the story of why and how I fell in love with her.

Wanna hear it?
Of course you do.

I was sitting in my Airbnb in Comala, in the state of Colima, Mexico waiting out a tropical thunderstorm when she first shared her poetry with me. My heart did a leap as I read her work. I was entranced and trapped and couldn't wait to get home to her and the copy of her book she had promised me.

We actually have a shared tattoo that is an illustration from the first edition of her book. The second edition is similarly beautiful but it's the first that will always be in my heart and on my arm.

(It's available on Amazon by the way. And if you live in Mérida you can run down to Juanita's amazing bookstore Between the Lines Mérida and grab a copy, or even stop in at Monique's Bakery & Fermentation Kitchen since she wisely stocks her own book).

Don't tell M I told you all this as she's totally unlike me and never boasts about her accomplishments and talents. Weirdo.)

Finally Out In Seville was out and about and together. We decided that our best option was to go as touristy as possible for our first outing (hahaha outing).

We strolled around the streets of centro, marvelled at the stunning buildings, debated ditching our entire plan to drink (we didn't) and finally arrived at Las Setas where we dutifully handed over large amounts of hard earned moolah and headed up to the rooftop walkway.

(See photo captions for more)

After a very late, late night out into the wilds of centro Sevilla (more on that later) Cassie should be hung over and taciturn like any normal human but noooo. She’s actually chirpy and face-plunged into research about different jasmine bushes. Someone please fetch me a cup of strong coffee and shove a croissant in her mouth. Pleeeeeease.

We've been developing a new range of s*xy and versatile s*x toys this summer.

Taking orders now.

Where will we be if we need a beach? Here most likely.

Playas LGTB de Andalucía: Playa del Playazo de Vera Hasta la provincia de Almería viajamos para pasar un día de playa maravilloso. Hablamos de la Playa gay más conocida, el Playazo de Vera

Ok M, get back here now. I'm bored without you to play with. You've had your fun away from me so now I demand you get back here.

Come on people, stand with me and make her come home already. Rescue me from my lonely tree.

C writes:

I took this photo last night after an impromptu late night shopping trip. M bought the world's biggest spoon muttering something about stirring yoghurt but I found a waaaaay better use for it.

I'm using it as a prodding stick when she spends too long in shops. It'll go well with the lead she has to drag me into the shops in the first place. You may see it pop up in future photos and videos.

Good morning from sunny southern Spain (who doesn't love an alliteration with their coffee?)

There have been no official adventures for M and me this week due to the mundane reality of responsibilities and other awful adulty things but that doesn't mean we aren't having fun.

A friend lent us her car while she's away (huge thanks and hugs there) and since I am a not a fan of driving I wanted to take it for a spin around my small town before getting onto the giant Spanish autovias (motorways). M came with me to boost my confidence.

"Sure thing, my darling", she said, "just a short drive through town. Now turn right here"

Two seconds later I'm way to the autovia and she's chuckling wildly at how smart she is to get me over my fears so fast.

Damn her. It was fine and the very next day I took my kids to the Italca Roman ruins on the other side of Sevilla, which would never have been possible if she hadn't thrown me in at the deep end.

Don't tell her I'm secretly grateful that she ignores me when I make decisions like that, ok?

Just in case anyone is wondering about our posts and how we create them (I imagine this kept you up last night, right?): we're still figuring out how best to present ourselves but take it as given that if something you read here is terse and concise, C wrote it and if it's flowery & flows like a happy, smiley, meandering brook, M wrote it.

Some are wild things and go for breakfast on their way home from all night clubbing but we, oh we are wild in the 'have a full night's sleep before going out for breakfast' kind of way (be very clear on this now).

We met up with our friend, L, this morning for breakfast at San Juan Bajo and took the very slow funicular up the hill. Before reaching our chosen breakfast spot we stopped in to check out the archaeological site, which had the two Americans exclaiming about old s**t in Europe and the Brit maintaining a calm facade but secretly jumping for joy inside.

We ate the typical Spanish breakfast of ham or cheese sandwiches with very strong coffee. M, of course, disappeared into the kitchen to ask a gazillion questions about the ham because she's entirely adorable and C fell in love with the dog that belongs to the cafe.

A short walk later and we were back on the metro (going in the wrong direction because neither of us was paying attention but don't ask us about that).

On the way to breakfast…
First, drive to pick up Cassie at the crack of dawn. (Ok 7 am) Then, on a fast metro train (driving in Sevilla still terrifies me, they actually expect you to know and follow hundreds of mysterious signs with precise meanings. Stop signs are in english, incidentally, and they’re not a suggestion such as the signs in mexico that say “alto”) to the penultimate stop (this isn’t true but I like the word penultimate). Then, up the slowest cable car in existence (it was actually a funicular but I don’t want to sound like such a show-off that I know that word and you don’t. I just learned it from a show off who was in the vicinity. guess who.) Apparently, the Romans were swarming all over this place, obviously making fermented things to get drunk on, and of course needing urns to stash their booze. I know this stuff from books. But on the way to breakfast we stumbled upon an archeology site - complete with archeologist who warned us to stay away from her little microscopic brush. Ok ok. Geez.

And on to the most ordinary Spanish breakfast place with only one option…bread and ham drenched in olive oil. Ok ok. There’s more to the story. The ham was like nothing I have ever tried, the flavor - some spice I could not identify - amazing. I felt so bad for enjoying it so much. That pig needs an honorary mention here: Jamon Bellota. It roamed relatively free, ate acorns and hopefully had a good life. The owner of the restaurant assured me that its leg was cured in salt and only salt. No additional spices. That’s nearly absurd. I wondered about its other legs and other parts. I pet the dog and whispered to her that I would not eat her but that was just her luck that we don’t eat pets because she did look rather juicy and I bet she gets fed jamón bellota which means she probably too tastes like acorns. Now this is getting weird and it’s time for Cassie to drag me away. Ta ta for now.

On Friday we took our first joint trip to Sevilla. We took the metro (masks on btw) and began with a s*xy stroll by the river where we are pretty sure we encountered our much younger selves also cavorting and playing. One of them had blue hair and a rotund (ie hot) body and the other was tall and muscular. We spotted them on the train and then bumped into them again loitering by the river. As we spied on them (gawked I mean) we speculated on parallel universes and basically high-fived at our luck at intersecting with one of ours and took the opportunity to bask in the knowledge that we are so happy in that other dimension and we found each other so early.

I'm (C) prone to a march and M prefers to meander, talk to everyone, and check out every store window so there's a good deal of laughter as we adapt our styles. M reminds me to slow down and I keep her moving.

We had a drink or two on route to Las Setas, a very famous local landmark and then headed on to Alameda where we drank more at 1987, a gay bar playing 80s music. Really it is quite wild to feel so free and safe as a couple knowing no one gives a damn if we kiss in public. We danced and M really does think she's a very very good dancer which she vigorously tried to prove after a few drinks when we snuck into the club to "p*e". The metro stays open until 2 am and we were on the last train home.

M left her bottle of wine at my house so I drank it while waiting for her to show up before we went out to play in Sevilla on Friday night.

This page is about our journey, follow us as we explore and learn about Sevilla and Andalucía and about ourselves. Life is messy, raw and fun. We'll share our experiences as a couple and with our families.

We don't pretend to be experts. We are looking forward to sharing our enthusiasm for learning about our new home as we adapt and grow.

Feel free to ask questions. We know our life is complicated and can be confusing. We'll answer what we feel comfortable answering.

We aren't interested in patriarchal or heteronormative expectations. We live freely and joyfully.

Who are we?

C: originally from the UK, recently arrived in Andalucía after six years in Mexico. Writer, editor, tree hugger.

M: originally from the US, slightly less recently arrived in Andalucía after almost twenty years in Mexico. Baker extraordinaire, writer, veg grower.

Out In Seville updated their business hours.