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Category Archives: friends

another day off!

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by azahar in animals & pets, cats, friends, health & happiness, home, hospitals, life stuff

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

cats, day off, life, play, work

a bit bigger
I’m going to have to stop taking days off … they’re too exhausting. As it turns out, today is my only day off this week as I have tapas tours booked from tomorrow until Sunday (eep!). So of course today I had to GET THINGS DONE. This started off with answering a few emails (yes, work related stuff, but when you’re freelance these things need to be done) and then I decided it was a good time to wash, iron and rehang all the floor-to-ceiling white living room curtains.

That done (they look fab now!) I scooted off to the gym, thinking I’d have just enough time before heading over to the hospital for the monthly chemo port cleaning. Which I did. Just.

After that I walked over to Pablo’s to see the kittehs since he lives in the general vicinity of the hospital and I hadn’t seen the wee darlings for a week. As you can see, they are a little bit bigger now, though what you can’t see is that they are much more wide-eyed and frisky and checking things out. But it was feeding time when I arrived and they were less than thrilled about me “unplugging” them so I could hold them and take a closer look (still can’t decide which one is MINE!). By then it was lunch time so Pablo and I headed out for a nice tapa lunch in his barrio, handily a place I’d been wanting to update on Sevilla Tapas for some time, so okay, that was kind of work related, but it was also lunch.

After lunch I decided to walk home, which took a good hour or so. A lovely long walk past the park that I hadn’t done in ages. Then I stopped off at the Flamenco Museum to book and purchase tickets for one of Peter’s tours, which yeah, was kind of like working. But it was ON THE WAY and anyhow was a lovely afternoon and perfect walking weather.

Finally got back home and dealt with a few more biz emails (yeah, yeah I know!) before heading out to get my hair cut. And (just like my curtains) I look fab now! Then I had to pick up a few summer lingerie essentials and also had a quick look around to see if there were any nice summery clothes in my SIZE that I liked. There weren’t. So it was back home again to feed the cats, change my sheets (it’s Monday!) and have a second shower after all that running around.

And now, if you don’t mind, I think I shall pour myself a lovely chilled glass of rueda and put my feet up. Cheers!

rainy day bbq

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by azahar in food & drink, friends, home

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bbq, friends, rain

rainy day bbq
Yes, it’s those Jets Like Taxis guys again, Ang & Ryan, this time enjoying a rainy day BBQ on my rooftop. This BBQ had been “in the making” for weeks and was originally going to include two other couples, but in the end I had to cancel twice because of The Rain. Then we got to talking about it during our Macarena day trip and, as this was Ang & Ryan’s last weekend in town, decided that we could sort of half-organise a BBQ for just four people (including Peter) so if we had to cancel last minute then no big deal. Basically it would be burgers & dogs, with Ang in charge of making her famous flavour-packed burgers and me getting some nice chorizo criollo to fill in as hotdogs. Of course – you know me – I had to be sure there was “enough food”, so I also made a nice spinach tortilla and some bacon & cheese croquettes as starters. Next to nothing was left over.

Everything was looking great until Peter lit the charcoal. Suddenly large black clouds swooped in and threatened to, well, threaten our BBQ. But we decided WTF and went ahead with it anyway. And it was fabulous! We sat under one of the large awnings in the rain (the BBQ was under the other one) listening to Paco de Lucía, drinking beer and wine, and seriously eating. There was something quite cosy about sitting out in the rain but being all dry and comfy and warm. How was your Sunday?

macarena day trip

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by azahar in food & drink, friends, sevilla, spain, tapas, trips

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

day trips, friends, macarena, sevilla

san luis day trip[click to biggify]

The Macarena barrio is a hodge-podge of grand old churches, seen-better-days houses and squares, and trendy new shops and restaurants. Yesterday I headed out on a “day trip” to this part of town with my intrepid travelling friends Ang & Ryan (Jets Like Taxis), who are always up for anything new. My main objective was to visit a fabulous new craft centre called Rompemoldes but, as usual, we ended up exploring further afield (in search of tapas, natch).

It was a fab afternoon filled with new sights, great food, beautiful blue skies and lots of walking and talking. Am really going to miss Ang & Ryan when they leave Sevilla next week, heading off on new adventures and challenges. It’s been great having such lovely neighbours these past couple of months.

all clear!

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by azahar in cancer, friends, health & happiness, hope, hospitals

≈ 40 Comments

Tags

cancer, friends, hope, hospitals, pet scan

pili and meHUGE sigh of relief… my PET scan was clear today and so I get another six months. I do wonder if this is becoming “routine” for those reading and – like with some people I know  – I get the “oh, don’t worry, you’re going to be fine!” thing beforehand and the “I knew you’d be okay!” afterwards. Which I know is a way of people saying that they are hoping for the best. But sometimes it feels like it is diminishing my own feelings about these tests.

I will be having PET scans every six months until next year and, if all is still well by that time, the scans will then be reduced to once a year. Why? Because I am still considered very high risk for recurrence. And why do I worry so much when I’ve had clean scans for the past four years? Because I’ve already lost a dear friend who was “cancer-free” for four years and another dear friend has been struggling through his latest recurrence for the past year or so. Trust me, these tests are very expensive. They don’t just do them as a matter of course – you have to be considered high risk.

Which is me.

botaniAnyhow, I went off in the rain early this morning and was thrilled to see that the lovely Pilar was a part of my PET team today. She is such a lovely person and a long-time friend. You may recall that back when I was sick on chemo and desperate about how I was going to get through the summer she gave me a month. So it was great finding out that she was on duty today. After my first run through the PET machine I sat with her in the computer room watching my scan images spinning around… first time I’ve ever done that. Pili showed me how this bit was like this, another bit like that. Kind of cool and also a bit freaky. Then we went off for breakfast and after that I had to go through the machine again (this almost always happens because I have a dodgy area that needs rechecking) and then suddenly I was okay!

But you know, after all the build-up of stress and worry it actually takes awhile for the Good News to sink in. So Peter met up with me and we went for a celebratory glass of Botani at the Vineria San Telmo, and then it was a walk home in the rain…

Now I’m here all cosy and thankful and kind of floppy, to be honest. This whole ordeal really takes it outta me. So I think I’ll just take it easy this afternoon and evening. The Next Six Months can start mañana…

málaga moments

09 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by azahar in friends, Malaga, tapas, travel, trips, work

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Malaga, tapas, tours, veoapartment, we love malaga, work

malaga moments[click to enlarge]

It was a whirlwind 30 hours in Málaga and I loved every minute. I drove down with the veo gang (Markus, Joao and Domingo), arriving around 11 in the morning. Spent the rest of the day “taking care of business” until the boys headed back around 7 pm. Then I walked over to my little studio apartment and got settled in, though there wasn’t much to unpack just for overnight. Later I headed out on my own for a solitary tapeo and basically just enjoyed wandering around the old centre at night.

Next morning I met with a twitter friend Victor (@WeLoveMalaga) as he had promised me a walking tour – and we had a great time. Victor is a natural. Charming, informed, passionate about his city. The two hours flew by. We were joined by his friend Tatiana (whose holiday apartment I was staying at) and had a little tapeo lunch (Victor also gives tapas tours) and far too soon it was time for me to pick up my bag and catch the train home as I had my own tapas tour to give. Exhausted? Yep. But it was lots of fun. How’s your weekend going?

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