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This one was always my favourite.
17 Thursday May 2012
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This one was always my favourite.
16 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in animals & pets, cats, health & happiness, home, sevilla, weather
Here is the love of my life (aka Azar) having a nice long drink in the middle of a very hot afternoon … it always tugs at my heart when he asks to have a drink and then takes his time, with his tail doing that lazy contented flicking back and forth, bless him. Yeah, he could always drink out of the communal water bowl, which is changed several times a day in these temps to keep it fresh, but he prefers to drink out of his own glass and with someone paying total attention to him. Spoiled? Well, I do my best.
Meanwhile I am drinking at least three litres of water a day and have taken to putting bottles in the fridge so they’re nice and cold. I remember with a shudder when I was on chemo – both times during the summer – and couldn’t drink, or even touch, anything cold. I had to sip on room temperature (hot!) water, which wasn’t thirst-quenching at all. Strange after all this time that I still think of that every single time I pour myself a glass of nice cold water…
How much water are you drinking these days?
15 Tuesday May 2012
I couldn’t take it anymore. So at 5 pm on May 15th I put on the air conditioning!!!
Exactly a month earlier than I did last year. But man! It’s been 32º inside my livingroom since the weekend. Needed some relief, and it’s perked up Azar too. I’ve been quite worried about him overheating and dehydrating. He’s barely eaten the past few days, though he’s still drinking a good amount.
So I’ll probably be bankrupt by September at this rate, but it feels so good to be comfortable in my own home.
And Azar has just got up to have a snack, so there, it’s all worth it.
How’s the weather where you are?
14 Monday May 2012
Posted in sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas tours, work
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Remember my first bad review? Well, it was actually Peter’s bad review, but of course it also reflected badly on me and my tours. I know some of you thought I had overreacted to this negative feedback, but for me the worst of it was ending up with people inquiring about tours specifically asking not to go out with Peter, which I felt was unfair.
Anyhow, as most of you predicted, there are now some very nice new reviews that have been posted since then, including a positive one about Peter, which has really lifted his spirits. And this week he is back on the job as I had a flurry of last-minute booking requests that I couldn’t do because I was already booked. I mean, I still do most of the tapas tours myself but it’s good to have back up as I obviously can’t be in two places at once.
One positive thing that has come out of this is that I’ve set up a feedback email that I will send to clients after their tours, asking them to rate various aspects from 1 – 5, and then give any additional comments if they want to. It’s not criticism I’m against, as there is always room for improvement, but unfair (and untrue) negative comments like in that bad review don’t help anybody. So this will help me get a better feel for what people like and are looking for. Peter has also been given a bit of a “refresher course” so that he makes sure to cover all the important information. But you know, so much of the conversation during the tours depends on the clients and what they are interested in. As I’ve said before, the best times are when everyone shows an interest and participates, rather than just sitting there waiting to be “informed and entertained”. I know that you can’t please everyone, but I can sure as hell try. Onwards!
13 Sunday May 2012
Posted in health & happiness, home, plants
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Even when I was much younger and thinner I suffered from inner thigh heat rash. Often so bad that the insides of my upper “skater’s legs” would end up painfully bleeding. I used to try to avoid this by carrying around small travel-sized talcum powder thingys and whip into public toilets to slather powder all over my inner thighs to keep them from going totally raw. After a while I discovered that I could buy curious “slips” that were made to wear inside trousers, which ended up being “trouser slips” and helped prevent chafing.
This past week we went from May (22º) to July (34º) in about 48 hours. Not so much a heat wave as a heat punch-in-the-face. And this morning I woke up with totally raw and painful skin on my inner thighs. Fuck.
I thought about going out to find a pharmacy that might have some sort of soothing skin ointment that might help bring down the inflammation. Then I remembered that years ago I bought a bottle of pure aloe vera gel, but couldn’t remember if I still had it. And then I remembered that I have a whole whack of aloe vera plants up on my terraza! So I whipped up there with a Big Knife, cut off a spike of aloe vera, and commenced slathering the goo all over my unhappy skin. We shall see if it gets better soon but even after a couple of hours it looks and feels much better. Coolio!