Category Archives: change

woke up this morning…

16 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, home, life stuff, music

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… the traditional blues song opening, made famous by BB King (that’s his Gibson guitar called Lucille on the left). But there was nothing about having the blues this morning. Quite the opposite as it was the first morning waking up in the new casa az that things felt normal and that there was some sort of natural routine going on. Not just that awful “camping out” feeling, not being able to find your socks or the cat meds and stuff like that. Plus, because I’d repaired the broken shower, dealing with the way-too-small bathroom became that little bit less annoying. Also, most of the tiresome paperwork involving the switching over of utilities is almost over, and although there are still a few “handyman” jobs for the landlords to take care of, at least I know they’ll get done.

And so I woke up this morning and, after coffee in bed while writing a blog post for a client, I got up and showered, went out to the supermarket, came home to a relatively organised kitchen and did some prep work for tonight’s dinner with soon-to-be flatmate Jessica. Before that I have a class with Agustín – I usually go to his place but he’s coming here because he’s dying to see my new home. Meanwhile, I’m here at my desk working on some stuff for other clients. And well … it’s great. I love it. Living and working in my fab new light-filled space.

I’m home! 🙂

reconnected!

11 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, home, internet, work

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After almost two weeks without internet at home I finally got reconnected today. What a relief. I really needed that high-speed internet connection. Instead I’ve been using my iPhone as a modem, which has been better than nothing, but there was really no reason I couldn’t have had my connection sooner.

They say it takes two weeks to transfer my “package” which includes the television. Why? And well, if I’d known two weeks before moving that I was going to be moving then of course I’d have set the transfer up sooner. But as you know, we only had about five days between signing the new rental contract and moving. I called Movistar immediately to tell them about the situation, and that as I worked from home it was imperative that I get my connection transferred as quickly as possible. This was on a Tuesday and we were moving on Sunday. They said they would put a rush on the order and it should be there at the beginning of the following week. Nobody came. And then my telephone nightmare began. I called them over and over asking when this “rush job” was going to take place and at one point even had a guy tell me they were coming that day, just to get me off the line. When I called later that afternoon I was told that nobody had said that to me. Aaarrgh. Another time I called I was told that there was no such thing as a “rush order” and that all petitions were done mechanically.

Anyhow, this afternoon the technician showed up – and he was the same guy who set up my system at the old place! And he remembered me, asking about the cats and how they took the move. Such a lovely guy. He got my line and modem set up in no time and then I asked him about setting up the television…  and it turns out that they set the line up first and then I have to re-contract the television service. WTF?? So why did I have to wait two weeks because of the f-ing television service??? Well, of course it wasn’t this guy’s fault and he was all sympathy. And so I just got off the phone – yet again! – with bloody Movistar and they said I should have the tv set up on Monday. I then told them I wanted a discount on my next bill and it better not be more than half the usual charge since I missed half a month’s service. We shall see…

 

one room at a time: kitchen

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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So this is the first day that my new kitchen has actually felt “operational”. There is still some organising to do, and a couple of minor repairs pending, but at least now things are put away so that I know where everything is. This is a quick photo taken just now while starting to cook the first “proper dinner” here. Which will be marinated potatoes, steamed broccoli and grilled presa. Yum.

Of course the kitchen was the most important room to be made properly functional. And with all my blue and yellow stuff, it kind of makes the RED actually look kind of cute – primary colour kitchen. Also, the red cupboard knobs remind me of flamenco polka-dots. I still think I’d prefer to have the dishwasher removed to give me more storage space, but mostly what I would LOVE would be to change that ceramic-top cooker to a gas one. I already hate the cooker – it’s even worse than the one over at the old place (which was top of the line). I don’t like cooking with electric under the best of conditions, and this is far from the best.

But poco á poco, especially with my ANKLE. So frustrated I can’t be doing more, accompanied by worries that I’m doing too much. I mean, I can’t even help out by carrying  a basket of laundry to hang upstairs. It’s driving me bonkers. I think the next room will be a tandem effort between the livingroom and upstairs study… with this ankle I barely get a chance to visit the upstairs and terraza. But MUST water plants tomorrow.

Sara & Steve … if you click on the pic and look real close you can see all the Simon’s Cat magnets on the top part of the fridge (on the left).

What would be your priority rooms?

pizza

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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I am about to eat my fifth pizza in the the past two weeks…

I think I usually eat pizza about once ever six months or so, but this moving biz just leaves things like time and kitchen availability so unpredictable that sending Nog out for a pizza for us to share seems like the quickest and most economical way for us to have something resembling a hot meal. This also includes the “pre-moving” period after the kitchen had been packed up and we were tired of sandwiches (though I guess a pizza really is just a fancier version of cheese on toast).

I thought our pizza days were behind us as we now have a fairly well-stocked fridge and most of the kitchen cupboards have been cleaned and organised. In fact, I made a lovely carbonara for lunch yesterday. But then the handyman came back today to do a few jobs, which meant me hobbling off to the hardware store to get this & that (Nog was out teaching), which took up most of the morning, and then there were some minor kitchen repairs that left that room unusable for another couple of hours… so more pizza.

But I have to say that the place is really coming together. It’s great that the landlords have sent the handyman over to make sure everything is in good working order. Apparently he has to come back tomorrow to take care of a few other things, and then we’ll be pretty much set up and it will just be a matter of UNPACKING.

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!