Ph. Jose Rains

Le father said it best, Spaniards found the secret to life: countless town parties, holidays, endless meals, breakfast on the beach, water flights between neighborhoods, siestas, food and drinks, food and drinks….and… food and drinks.

We heard about the Ruta Martiana from a friend in Berlin, and when we moved to Palma we made sure we visited it, the very next day.

Every Tuesday a series of bars in Palma’s old town organizes the Ruta Martiana (We are still discussing if the name come from Martian or Tuesday, so it would be something along the line of ‘The Tue-rtian Road’ but don’t quote me on that.) These bars offer its customers one caña (200ml beer) and one tapa for around 1 or 2 Euros.

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From Wednesday until Sunday more than 30 restaurants and bars throughout Palma will come together for TaPalma 2017 an event that combines good tapas with yummy cocktails for us to enjoy.

There are several routes designed on each neighborhood with an array of eateries and bars that will offer the public with a new and special tapa and drink for the event.

Unlike past years, on Monday there was also a contest where 10 of this 30+ places competed for the best tapa and the best drink of this year’s edition. The winner, respectively were Rodrigo Vallejo from Shamrock restaurant with his tapa ‘Picnic’ and Victor Abal from MG Little Italy with his cocktail ‘Deseo de Otoño’ (Autumns wishes)

Photo: J. Fernandez Ortega

Photo: J. Fernandez Ortega

For more info, times, and a complete guide of the restaurants and its tapas visit their website here. Happy eating!

Disclaimer. I’m using another computer because I left mine at home….and given that I’m clearly a genius (irony alert!) I left all my photos for this post in that computer. Nonetheless I really wanted to post this, so I thought I post it with some photos I’ve used as inspiration and hopefully when I get my laptop back, I’d update the pictures. Sorry for the mess.

June is Pride month. A month to be proud and embrace who you are, no matter who you love and how you may look. I’ve always felt very close to the LGBTQ+ community and even though every year I promise myself that I will go, I’ve never been to a pride march. And since I’ve watched it I’ve always loved this speech from Nomi (A trans woman from the Netflix show Sense8).

Anyway, I though since June is Pride month and even though I believe you can celebrate it all year round, I’d thought I’d share some tasty and easy recipes for a colorful “Pride Picnic.” So get your rainbow flag ready, set up some plates, call your friends and try some of these amazing recipes!
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Friday marked the beginning of the Berlin Festival of Light, an annual event that takes place in the city and where various buildings and monuments become canvases for light art and 3d mapping projections. Every day from 7pm to 12am different buildings become part of this installation.

Last Saturday (if you follow me on Instagram you might have seen it) Le Berlin Boys and I took the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz and begun our light tour through Under den Linden, stopping at the Museum Island, Humboldt University, Gendarmenmarkt and Brandembug Tor. I’ve never see so many people on the streets since the Lange Nacht der Museen (Long night of the museums) and given that we are starting to fell the chilly fall weather I was actually surprised to the amount to people.

For the next couple of days many of these buildings will remain as stops in the Festival, but if you are interested in a particular place, there are many events and monuments that will be part of the circuit on specific days, so make sure you check the website so you don’t miss out.

PH: Tina Carrasco

A couple of days ago, while I was going through old blog photos, I found all the photos from last years Fashion in the City and remembered that probably we where close in time to this years’ one. I was correct, since this Friday 26th will initiate the 2016 edition of Auckland fashion in the City.

This year I wont be in the city to go and review events (reasons will come later) but I though I’d give you a little run down of what to do in the next few days nevertheless. So without further ado, here what to do during Fashion in the city.

NZ’s Longest Catwalk
05/03/16 –  12hs – FREE
This was one of my favourite events last year. Over 150m of catwalk set up in Queen St, showcasing this years fashion from retailers across the city. If you go early enough you’ll be able to secure a spot close to the runway. If not the whole thing is so long that you’ll be able to see the models fine. This years event will be styled (once again) by Kylie Cooke and its free entry.

PH: TIna Carrasco

The Fashion Sessions
35$ (access to pre-show, luxury goodie bag, drinks and canapes)

Short but sweet, these quick fashion shows feature next seasons outfits from big retailers and unlike the ‘longest catwalk’ you’ll be able to see each brands winter collection on its own. Although this is a paid event and you’ll need a ticket to get a seat, standing entry is allowed on some of these shows which means that if you are early enough you’ll be able to enjoy the show as well.

THURS 25th – Tylers St. 5pm / Kate Sylvester, Zambesi, and WORLD
FRI 26th – Britomart Atrium / 12pm Trelise Cooper -5pm Juliette Hogan
SAT 27th -Britomart Atrium 11am/ Tayor, Ted Baker – 6.30pm Kathryn Wilson

Man Friday

This is a new series of events that are launching this year. Friday the 4th will be a day dedicated to all dapper fellas with a range of offers and events on High Street. From bike rides and coffee, shoe shine and r shops to two fashion focused tour guides through high st.

Designer Garage Sale

This one is for the deal lovers. From the 4th to the 6th of March, Chancery Lane will fill its street with up and coming designer clothes, samples and awesome deals from top labels.

The next couple of days the city will be on full fashion mode. Let me know if you attend any of these events and if you enjoyed them!

Last night I came across the most awesome event, it’s called Arboria and its place in the Aotea Square. School holidays are near are apparently this is a ‘great option’ for children on holidays…I call BS and expect someone to take me haha

From what I read Arboria is a ‘Luminarium’ created by the group Architects on Air. This specific luminarium is dedicated to trees. Upon entrance you can find a couple of metre high domes, each one dominated by a single colour and rendered graphics on the chosen theme. It’s an overall visual and sound experience which took over the world since it was built at the begging of the year.

It has a $12 entrance fee but it looks freaking awesome! Trading hours are as follow:

• 3pm – 6pm (last admission), Thursday 24 September (walk up sales only on this date)
• 12pm – 6pm (last admission), Friday 25 September
• 10am – 5pm (last admission), Weekends
• 10am – 4pm (last admission), Weekdays

Who’s coming?

The thing about street food, is that you have options… you can have Indian for an appetizer, a little taco, then some roasted lamb sandwiches for main, maybe ice cream afterwards or Ukrainian sweets. So when I heard I could find all of these under the same roof on the same day I was in.

Graze and Feast is a independently owned, market styled event, that gather all these amazing food vendors under the Shed 10 in the Queen’s Wharf for an night of yummy eating. They will be running every Friday throughout the month of July and trust me, they will see me again.

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At the beginning of the year I challenged myself with the goodreads 2015 reading challenge, Goodread is a website that rates and reviews books and since one of my ‘non-resolutions/resolution’ was to read more – wifi less I set myself to start low and read at least 15 books this year.

A bit over a month ago I received in the post Girl at War, usually I’m able to squeeze in a bit of reading each day but lately I’ve been so busy that this became solely my ‘weekend book’

As I do with movies, I usually like to read a couple of ‘non-spoiler’ reviews of the books Im about to read, specially to see if they are worth reading and when I researched Girl at War I was surprised to the amount of amazing reviews and ratings it had. Only at goodreads at least 40% gave it 4 out of 5, 30% 5 out of 5 and the rest it’s divided between the rest.

After finish reading it, I could see why. This is a well-written book that follows the story of Ana Juric, a young girl caught in the middle of the Croatian war. Her character is likeable and relatable and makes the reader feel engaged and almost protective of her as she grows. Even though is a fictional story it depict a real picture of what war really is like, but from the innocent view of a 10 and then 20 year old.

Captivatingly raw, charming while completely terrifying, the author knows how to keep us hooked throughout the story. At first I personally found it a bit slow and hard to begin but quickly found myself engaged with the story and couldn’t let it down.

Thank you to the girls at Hachette to sending me this copy. Girl at War by Sara Novic can be found in stores over New Zealand, and as for me, I can cross out another book for my reading challenge. I’m currently one book behind with 40% of the challenge completed. Do you have any books to recommend?

No it’s not what you think, even though I’m pretty sure I could rock a half shaved ‘Skrillex’ hair style, I will no be turning tables any time soon. But I am, officially from tomorrow, a DJ (Dry-July-er)

What the F are you on about? you may ask.
Well this means that for the month of July I will go Booze Free, no wine, no beer, no drink that contains alcohol, nothing! All to raise money for the Cancer Society of New Zealand and other organizations that help cancer patients and their families.

I know, its going to be tough, especially with all the wine related events that are happening in July (couldn’t they check a calendar?!) but Im going to do my best.

If any of you want to help you can check my profile here of clicking in the DJ image on the sidebar, and maybe hook me up with a wee donation. There is absolutely no obligation to donate, you can help me out by donating, sharing my profile through Social media or giving some online support. Everything helps and I know we can add our bit.

So bottoms up and bye bye booze till August.
I will be doing Dry Fridays were I’ll recap each week (Also I’ll be updating my Dry July profile frequently)

As you might have read here, im part of a blogging community called #brunchclub, there we help each other out with blogging issues and topics and each month the girls organize a brunch date for us to meet.

Last month I was not able to go because I ended up going to the saloon to get my purple vibezz but this month I was glued to the computer (more like phone) when the tickets went online.

We meet last Saturday at the Jack Tar in the Wynyard quarter, I seemed at bit lost at first but I quickly found the girls, sat down and began chatting. There were a couple new girls this time, (I know I kinda qualify as new as well, but this ones were truly new new) and we began chatting right away.

What I love about this meetings is that its more about meeting people and talking nonsense than full on blogging talk, numbers and business. Also, I was pretty surprised and happy with myself, I ordered outside the classic egg benedicts and I talked hahaha good English, bad English, no pronunciation, it didn’t matter I let go of the shyness and talked.

I’m so glad I’ve met you girls, I had heaps of fun, and I can’t wait to do it again. Until next time.- Jules.