• about azahar (that’s me!)
  • my cancer story
  • azahar’s kitchen
  • azahar’s sevilla
  • sevilla tapas
  • personal trip planning

casa azahar

~ my life in sevilla

casa azahar

Category Archives: coronavirus

mandated!

11 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, sevilla, spain

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

covid, masks, sevilla

mandated

This makes me happy. Our health minister has announced that the mask mandates presently in place will continue until at least next spring. This means that masks must be worn everywhere inside (except when you are seated at a table eating or drinking) and – listen up people! – you can go without a mask outdoors ONLY IF YOU MAINTAIN 1.5 METRES BETWEEN YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE. It’s this last one that hasn’t been adhered to since the tourists starting piling back into Spain. And yes, some locals also flout this rule, but it is mostly tourists. Anyhow… this is a huge relief. I’m glad we’re not going the way of the US and UK on this one. 😷

By the way, these are the masks I’ve been buying. Locally made by Daysan and excellent quality, about 10€ for 50 masks. Time to place another order…

september

01 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by azahar in cancer, change, coronavirus, covid, lockdown, sevilla

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

covid, home, mental health, sevilla

september

September has always felt like the “new year” to me, much more than the first of January, with its post summer holiday back-to-school feeling of everything starting over again. But this year, not so much. Of course this is in part due to Covid, but even last September felt more… hopeful?… with several tapas bars reopening after an extra long lockdown. It felt like things were getting better and people were still more or less pulling together. But I have to say that in these past twelve months I have been feeling more and more discouraged. Not so much by Covid, which is still proving to be a serious daily issue, but because people have been showing themselves to be… well, themselves. I do cling to the hope that there are still good people out there, simply because I know a few myself and so there must be more, but there are days when I truly despair.

Continue reading →

breakthrough covid

13 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

breakthrough, coronavirus, covid

breakthrough

When first reading about the breakthrough Covid infections it didn’t sound too scary as it seemed like it was something bound to happen, especially because of unvaxxed anti-mask assholes, and I thought maybe this was part of the process of attaining so-called herd immunity. That people would get sick, but not in a life threatening way, or so we’ve been told. And living in Spain, I’ve felt grateful that so many people here WANT to be vaccinated, and also want their kids vaccinated. They can’t wait.

But recently I’ve heard from fully-vaccinated UK friends of mine who were travelling abroad to visit family (being super careful, staying in their “bubbles”). They wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t been travelling and required a test to return home and then – bam! – they tested positive with no symptoms whatsoever and had to go into quarantine.

And so now I’m scared. Again. I mean… no symptoms whatsoever. BUT they could still be contagious and spreading the virus (usually these days the extra contagious Delta) far and wide. And who knows if they got infected just before travelling, or on the plane, at the airport, or during their trip. And not everyone is just getting off as lightly as my friends… once again ICUs are at capacity, hospital staff are overwhelmed and frankly worn out. And yet people are acting like it’s all “back to normal” now. I truly despair.

I have a few tapas tours lined up for September and I have made it clear that I am only doing private tours with fully vaccinated people within their own group. But with Delta. and now Delta-Plus, is being vaccinated enough? A friend suggested I should also ask clients to take a lateral flow test before the tour. I honestly don’t know what to do any more. But I can’t help but think that if everyone would just stay the fuck at home for a few more months then maybe we’d have a chance at beating this thing.

well boo hoo and fuck you

27 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, friends, health & happiness, musings

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

covid, pandemic, travelling

virus 3d illustration

Who me angry?? Whatever gave you that idea?  🙂

I had something happen today that puts my mind somewhat at rest. For now. It doesn’t actually keep reality at bay, but it’s a much needed stopgap. Some breathing space. And it might be my last chance so I hope I don’t fuck it up.

Meanwhile I had to cancel a work trip to Valencia this week. I’d been commissioned by Decanter to do another of my travel articles for them, but with Covid cases spiking like crazy the past couple of weeks, including lots of breakthrough cases, I decided to stay put. Sure, things probably aren’t much worse in Valencia than in Sevilla, but at least here I am mostly in my own home. Five days away would mean being out and about all day long, meeting with lots of different people, eating out for every meal, staying at hotels, not to mention five hours each way on a train. And well, just… no.

Continue reading →

you lose some, you win some

05 Monday Jul 2021

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, gastronomy, instagram, patreon, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

patreon, sevilla, sevilla tapas, tapas bars

lose some win some beautiful food and wonderful service at La Atrayana

I think most of you know about my labour of love Sevilla Tapas, that I started back in 2007, which then evolved into me doing food and wine tours after recovering from cancer. Which was going great until, well you know, 2020. But the main point of the website is to feature and help promote tapas bars and restaurants in Sevilla, and also to serve as a guide for food-loving people visiting the city.

During lockdown I did my best to support tapas bars here by keeping them in the public eye on my Twitter and Instagram accounts. As I have something like 30,000 food pics in my phone archives this wasn’t a problem. So I’d be sure to post something daily. Then once places started reopening I got back to doing what I do, which is visiting bars and updating their pages on my site. Very sadly some had closed for good during 2020, but others were born. And so keeping within my “safety parameters” of only going out twice a week and either sitting outside or near an open door/window, I got back to work.

Continue reading →

← Older posts
Newer posts →

patreon (1)

OR

comments

sledpress's avatarsledpress on suprise shoulder ultrasound
azahar's avatarazahar on caturday february 7th 202…
azahar's avatarazahar on suprise shoulder ultrasound
azahar's avatarazahar on caturday february 14th 20…
sledpress's avatarsledpress on caturday february 14th 20…
sledpress's avatarsledpress on suprise shoulder ultrasound
sledpress's avatarsledpress on tractors galore
sledpress's avatarsledpress on caturday february 7th 202…
Unknown's avatarsuprise shoulder ult… on don’t mean a thing if yo…
Unknown's avatarsuprise shoulder ult… on tractors galore

meta

  • Create account
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

visitations

  • 965,108 peeks

categories

archives

Enter your email address to subscribe to casa az and get email notices of new posts.

Join 2,235 other subscribers

azahar on Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • casa azahar
    • Join 1,968 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • casa azahar
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...