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~ my life in sevilla

casa azahar

Category Archives: change

starting over

01 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by azahar in cancer, change, diet & nutrition, health & happiness

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

food, lowcarb, nutrition

The other day I read that mister anchovy had shed himself of 50 pounds since last October, basically by following a low-cal, low-carb diet. And he inspired me to try the same. As most of you know, I’ve been whinging about being overweight for years and have started various eating/lifestyle change plans without any weight loss success. Well, I did lose about ten kilos after the emergency op, but that is hardly an ideal weight loss method. And so, for the past ten days I’ve been seriously low-carbing to see how well I could stick to it, and it turns out that it’s pretty easy to do (though I did allow myself one slice of toast yesterday).

So starting today I shall add low-cal to the low-carb plan and see how that goes. There are just so many reasons that a low-carb diet makes sense, especially for cancer survivors. And for the past month I’ve been going to the gym five days a week (doing pilates and cycling as well as yoga) so I think I’m all set up to finally do this for real. I’ve been wearing this uncomfortable “fat suit” far too long…

Wish me luck!

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shopping!

31 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in change, retail therapy, sevilla, spain

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

online store, shopping

Construction is almost finished at the new azahar sevilla store and so yesterday I went “shopping”. Met with a fabric painter who designs beautiful silk fans & shawls, and also spoke with a local artist who does very pretty watercolours of Sevilla, and both have expressed an interest in putting some of their stock in my store on a consignment basis. I mean, why not? It won’t cost them anything and it’s extra exposure for them. At least, I hope that’s how the various artists and artisans I plan on visiting will see it. So I’ll be quite busy next week shopping for merchandise.

I’m also going to meet with the owner of Puracepa to talk prices and arrange a date for them to teach me about wines for my tapas & wine tasting evenings there. Oh, and I got my first request for tapas tour info yesterday! That was pretty exciting. They haven’t booked a tour (yet) but sending them the info email suddenly made all this feel REAL. It also lit a fire under my butt to get back to work on the tapas guide e-book.

Meanwhile, I am helping Nog to help himself by reorganising the Restaurant & Hotel English class idea I had last summer. This is going to be his baby but I’ll be in charge of promotion, which is fine by me. So he’s been busy creating 3-month courses for three levels, sourcing materials, etc. And I am redesigning the brochure and will hit a few places next week that I think might be interested. Many will already have a teacher via one of the English schools, but I’ll be able to offer better prices and will stress that we *are* the company, so they won’t just be getting any old ESL teacher.

So it’s all busy, busy, busy … and who knows?
I may end up with something resembling an income yet!

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under construction

26 Tuesday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in change, computers, friends, geekiness, internet, sevilla, websites

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

online store, websites

I’ve been having the best time working on my new store project with my old h2g2 pal, Taliesin. He came to my rescue the other day and has not only moved my old website for me, but is helping me design the new version. What a guy!

I’m hoping to have the store fully functional by March 1st … I think that should give Tal & me enough time to finish the design and techy stuff, as well as get the stock and shipping side of things organised. There’s a lot to do, and I will probably just start off with a few choice items, but along with English classes and possible tapas tours & wine tasting evenings, I might actually end up with something resembling an income.

Meanwhile, this is all so exciting and also very interesting. Tal is doing all the “heavy lifting” for this move and new set up, but I’ve been helping out here and there and also learning A LOT, which is always fun.

The generosity of my friends continues to overwhelm me.

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two months

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in animals & pets, cats, change, home, love

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

cats, love

Sunny in a sunbeam…

It’s been two months since my beautiful Sunny died. I am often haunted by those last awful hours that he lay dying in my arms, but more often I remember how much I love him and how wonderful it was having him in my life. Sometimes I have dreams in which I can see and touch him again, and I wake up with a terrible ache of longing. Just to hold my Sunny bunny one more time. Even now when I have to get up in the middle of the night I find myself being careful not to disturb him in his usual place at the foot of the bed, and then I realise he’s not there anymore.

Sometimes, like now, I cry because I miss him so much. Other times there is a happy/sad feeling, knowing how lucky I was to know him and love him. Because I know that I’m a better person for loving him (present tense – that love is still alive). A couple of days ago I mentioned that I have a very high pain threshhold, but it seems this only pertains to physical pain. I’ve always been crap at dealing with emotional pain, especially having to do with separation and loss, and the pain of losing a loved one really is beyond anything I could have imagined. It still takes my breath away sometimes. But that’s part of the deal.

  • the sunshine of my life
  • learning to love

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25 meals

17 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in change, food & drink, friends, home, hope

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

food, home

It came as a shock when Nog & I realised it was time to do our monthly “big shop” at the supermarket the other day … and then also realised that there wasn’t enough money! Nog has lost some students over the past couple of months, and I have not yet been able to rebuild my student client base since starting back to work – I only have 2 classes a week. In the end I had to use a credit card I keep for emergencies only (my other one is maxed) and we were able to stock up for the next while or so. And it got me thinking it would be better to stockpile some meals, also using what had been in the freezer … so two days and many hours spent slaving over a hot stove later, the result was about 25 single serving meals. How cool is that?

Yeah, I know. I should have used the gift donations over Christmas for more practical purposes, but as they were given for the explicite purpose of going out for tapas (and I also wanted to get more photos for Sevilla Tapas) that is what I did.

Anyhow, check it out. Clockwise from upper-left: spicy chicken burrito sauce, bolognese sauce, pork & veg stew, pork & spinach garam masala, and chorizo & prawn risotto. Of course, by the time all this was made neither of us felt like eating it, so last night I made some beer-battered prawns and chips with the left-overs …

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