I’m a geek wannabe (in training). 
are you a nerd, geek, dweeb or dork?
08 Tuesday Sep 2009
Category Archives: culture
get social!
04 Friday Sep 2009
Yesterday I finally got around to asking Raincoaster about the snazzy social networking icons she has on her posts. And she gave me the scoop on Get Social.
So I am now adding Get Social icons to my posts and have back-dated them to August 1st. Which took more time than I would like to admit. But doing it on a daily basis takes no time at all. Anyhow, what do you think? Cute? Garish? Have no idea what to do with them?
Must start doing shortlinks from now on…
fat is not fun
13 Thursday Aug 2009
Posted in chemo, culture, health & happiness, rants
The Fat Acceptance Movement
There’s a good old rant and discussion going on at HealingMagicHands place about this ridiculous “movement” (feel free to join us there) and it reminded me of this Time article I read last week.
To my mind, promoting obesity as “fun” is the same as promoting anorexia and other eating disorders as healthy lifestyle options.
I have been both obese and borderline anorexia thin in my lifetime and neither of them have felt healthy. I am very overweight at the moment and, now that I am off chemo, I am working on a new lifestyle eating & exercise plan. Not just a diet. Because you cannot successfully lose weight simply by cutting calories – that just fucks up your metabolism. You need to DO MORE too. It took ten years for me to get this fat (at a rate of about five pounds a year) so it would be unrealistic to think I could lose it quickly. Which is why the focus will be on becoming more active and doing more, as well as making a few simple diet changes.
But for the record … FAT IS NOT FUN. And I wouldn’t like to be “accepted” as an overweight lazy excuse-maker who doesn’t want to take any personal responsibility for how I look and feel. I mean, would you?
a taste of portugal
19 Sunday Jul 2009
I came across this wonderful Portuguese food shop quite by accident the other day when Nog & I were out for a walk and made a special trip back on Friday because I was told they have fresh Portuguese bread brought in that day. Memories of Lisbon and Tavira came flooding back after making a simple lunch of crusty bread, a selection of cheeses, black olive paste and salad.
Actually, that’s the typical starter in most Portuguese restaurants. I swear I could almost live on bread & cheese alone. Well, with a nice wine and some sort of fresh veg. But they just don’t have good bread in Sevilla. I can’t remember what it was like when I lived in Salamanca, but in Barcelona the bread has a lot more character and flavour. Maybe it’s an Andalusian thing? White “cotton wool” tasteless pap with a pale and very uncrusty crust. Bleh.
You can see more photos below (including lunch!) …
[also posted on azahar’s Sevilla]
summer events
12 Sunday Jul 2009
While out for a walk this afternoon I spotted a poster announcing a Leonard Cohen concert in Granada in September! And I thought – hey, I should be working by then so maybe I’ll be able to go. Just checked out a couple of ticket sales websites … 150-200€ ! Sorry Leonard. I shall just add this to the list of summer events I won’t be attending.
My dear friend Lizzie insists that Bruce Springsteen is good for both the soul and the red blood cells (she’s just seen him at Glastonbury) and for some bizarre reason da Boss will be performing in Sevilla at the end of July … but again, outrageous prices.
Meanwhile, the concert I had really wanted to see was the amazing flamenco artist Sara Baras at the Italica International Dance Festival, being held in its original setting – Italica’s roman amphitheatre – for the first time since 1993. I was sure it was going to cost a small fortune and put it out of my mind after seeing this wonderful poster the other day, but when I was checking out Leonard Cohen tickets just now I decided to have a look at the Italica prices … and I almost wept. They were only 15 euros and, of course, are now sold out. Well, unless you’re headless (at least, I assume that’s what discapacitado means…)
casa azahar 