Monthly Archives: January 2011

settling in…

31 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in change, home, hope, sevilla

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Here’s Azar sitting next to me on my comfy chair right now while I sit in the middle of the room with the desk wheeled over so I can use my laptop comfortably. Mostly all moved in now although the place is still a total disaster area, with lots and lots of cleaning and organising to do and a few things to get the landlords to fix…

But it actually felt great waking up this morning in my new home. And I’m so pleased to see the cats all curious about their new surroundings – especially Azar. He’s friskier than I’ve seen him in ages. And Peter also seems a bit recharged, in spite of all the physical work he’s been doing this past week, particularly yesterday.

Just one last bit of “leftovers” to shift over from the old place, and take care of changing over the utilities, and tomorrow I will say goodbye forever to the old casa az.

I thought I was going to miss my old place, but when I left it last night without all my stuff  inside I realised that what made it a home was everything I’d put into it. With all that gone it didn’t look so special, just like a place that used to be my home. I’m glad I have the video to remember it fondly, and I will miss the orange trees and the azahar, but there’s so much here to enjoy that I’m sure it’ll all balance out. And anyhow, the orange trees are just five minutes away (and I can also get a small one for my rooftop terrace!).

I have a feeling that living here in a new neighbourhood in this wonderful new apartment is going to be quite an adventure. Earlier today I hung out some clothes to dry in the sun on my terraza and thought … this is home!

my heroes!

30 Sunday Jan 2011

Posted by in friends, home

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Ana, Lalo & Isidro

All in all I had less than a week to move after signing my new contract last Monday and finally shifting stuff over to the new apartment today. Frantic and haphazard packing took place, with Peter doing the lion’s share of the work, and box hunting became a daily expedition. When friends first heard of me having to move a couple of months ago, and how distressed and overwhelmed I was about how I was going to get it done, they assured me they’d be there and help out. Ha. Not one of them came through. In the end, I posted a plea for helpers on Twitter/Facebook and got a reply from someone called Ana who offered me her van and her moving services for a very reasonable fee (compared to the 550 euro quote I got from the moving company last week). But it turned out that her van was too small for my bed and my sofa, so I started looking at vans to hire … and then Ana offered to drive for me. As I couldn’t afford to hire a van and pay her hourly fee, I offered her my help with setting up a blog and a few other social media thangs. And a deal was struck.

But suddenly it was Saturday and I still had nobody to help schlep the stuff – and there was a helluva lot of stuff piling up. Then I remembered that my friend Flor had told me about a handyman she sometimes uses and she thought he also did moving. Called him up around 7pm on Saturday and he said he and a friend would be there at 10.30 the next morning.  He quoted a fee, I counter-offered, and got a lower price. Fine…

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moving along…

28 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by in friends, home

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What a day! My friend Caroline drove in from Jerez to help me move some of the more fragile stuff over in her car, before the Big Move on Sunday. So we brought over about four carloads before heading off for a fab lunch at a place I’d never been to before called Simún (you can see the twitpic feed here). Later her boyfriend Eduardo joined us (he took the train in from Jerez to pick Caroline up as he knew she’d be having a bit of wine at lunch…) and after taking him out for a snack we came back to my place to toast this very lovely day with a glass of cava. And so here is Caroline and Edu sitting amongst the detritus of all the packing boxes and mess.

Sunday will be the REAL moving day. I have managed to rent a van and have found someone to drive it. Now I just need some muscle. One friend has signed up to help since this morning, and another is a definite maybe. Eep. I can’t lift anything heavy and Peter is wiry but can’t lift everything on his own. So fingers crossed that I find at least two more strong bods to help with the shifting.

The new apartment looks great though. Landlords are sending the cleaning ladies in tomorrow to give it a good once over. Then we’ll hang the curtains and organise what we can for the big move. Really hard to believe I only have two more sleeps here.

just trolling along…

27 Thursday Jan 2011

Posted by in blogging, internet, weird

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So remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you I had a stalker? And then Raincoaster set me straight and informed me that the person who has been following me around and posting comments all over my blog – after telling me they were fed up with me and wanted nothing more to do with me – was in fact a troll and not a stalker?  Well, I thought that my post and the following comments would have been enough to let this person know in no uncertain terms that their comments were not welcome (even though I had previously emailed them to let them know this), and for awhile I thought they had taken the not-so-subtle hint.

But it turns out this person is either very thick or is so obsessed in their dislike for me that they just cannot go away and leave me alone. Because their latest trollish trick is to now start replying directly to my comments on other people’s blogs … yes, that’s right. Sometimes the comments are of a gushing and fawning nature, and other times they are direct jabs that are offensive in the extreme. But mostly they are “look at me” comments letting me know that this person is still obsessed with following me.

Make no mistake. These are not just comments made on the same blogs we both frequent. As I said before,we have many mutual blog friends. No, these are direct replies to my own comments on mutual friends’ blogs. How fucked up is that? And yes, I can mostly ignore it, especially the silly gushy stuff intended – one supposes – to make this person look good. But as for the grossly crass comments… I will ask the blog owners to please remove them.

I was recently told by this person that I was holding a grudge. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I don’t even think about this person until they show up – yet again, and again – in a very inappropriate manner. They wanted nothing more to do with me and I complied. No grudge going on there as far as I can see…

And so from me to you – please just piss off already.
You are being pathetically annoying.