Category Archives: health & happiness

feeling okay now…

16 Wednesday Apr 2025

Posted by in friends, health & happiness, hope, sevilla, tapas bars

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​I started off the day more or less okay, though with less sleep than I’d hoped for, and also waking up with a black cloud of “let’s beat up Shawn” hanging over me for not being all I’d hoped to be over the past few days. Without going into details, just a lot of the usual letting myself down stuff and deciding I’m a shit person for always letting myself down… ufff… it was hard to get up.

But I got up! Because Morcilla was looking a bit perkier and I had to prepare her special breakfast of Hill’s ID Prescription Diet, and also dole out a bit for Luna (or I’d never hear the end of it). So a spoonful of this apparently delicious paté for Luna on top of her bics and a fresh bowl of it for Morcilla. Both cats happy.

Then I got on the ol’ laptop, coffee in hand, and started on the usual online stuff. At some point I thought to tell my downstairs neighbour that Morcilla was feeling better and… well fuck me. I got back a pleasant response re: Morcilla but then it was like getting stuck in a time warp of weird.

My neighbour is 80-something as far as I know. She has no family to speak of, so she’s mostly on her own. After I first moved in – summer 2017 – we met up for lunch at a local bar and everything seemed fine. But then things went weird and suddenly I was being accused of being a BAD PERSON and all kinds of other WTF nastiness… all of this happening when I happened to pass her in the entrance. She would literally scream this in my face. And so I backed away…

Over the years there have been goodish and bad times with the neighbour. By goodish I mean she would sometimes stop screaming at me whenever we happened to cross paths. It seems my major crime is that I am not being a Good Neighbour, in that I don’t invite her up for coffee and a chat, that we aren’t always in contact, that (her words) SHE FEELS MORE ALONE WITH ME AS A NEIGHBOUR THAN IF I WASN’T THERE AT ALL.

I mean, fuck. We are in touch on WhatsApp, I am there for her if she actually needs anything, she knows she can call. For example, when she was recently very sick with “a cold” she asked if I had a Covid test at home and could I show her how to use it. So of course I popped down with the test, got it done, it was negative. No problem. But today I was apparently someone who would be better if they didn’t exist. Her words.

Now I know these are the words of a cranky old woman who lives a alone and is in a lot of daily chronic pain and so of course I shouldn’t take this personally. Except I do because they mirror the words I use against myself ALL THE TIME. Without realising it (I think?) she is reinforcing every awful thing I ever think about myself and I end up with that hard knot of anxiety in my belly because of course I’m awful otherwise why else would people keep saying so?

Then I went out with flatmate Peter to have a cold beer and a couple of tapas… just to get out of the house today before the Semana Santa crowds took over. Stopped in at Taberna Zurbarán and – oops! – like many bars during Semana Santa they had removed all chairs and bar stools because of the crowds. 

But when they saw me with my crutches at the end of the bar one of the guys magicked a bar stool for me, saying “don’t tell anybody!” and then other bar staff – totally run off their feet – stopped in their tracks when they saw me and it was all “Hey Shawn, so great to see you!” and then the owner of the bar came over with a tapa on the house (that gorgeous tortilla up there), just because. And then suddenly I felt like, hey I can’t be such a horrible person, otherwise all of these lovely people wouldn’t be so lovely to me. And just like that… my day changed.

People get this notion of me being something I’m not, or rather, they take one part of what they perceive to be me and then blow it all out of proportion to suit their opinion. As if I am only just one thing. But one thing I have learned over the years is that if anyone tells me I “intimidate” them (and this happens a lot!) I basically head for the hills because I already know they’re not seeing me as me and nothing good can come from that bullshit.

BUT… today some lovely people at one of my favourite tapas bars made me feel welcome and special, simply because we know that we just like and appreciate each other. Nothing other than that. Because nothing else matters.

la línea 3

14 Monday Apr 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, health, health & happiness, hospitals, my barrio, sevilla, spain

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One of the many – out of MANY MANY MANY – reasons I love living where I do is how well connected I am by public transport in my barrio. And especially since getting my old geezer free bus pass, in combination with THE KNEE mobility issues, I can just hop on hop off taking buses for one or two stops… and trust me sometimes that makes all the difference.

Anyhow, today I had an appointment with the cardiologist at the ridiculously beautiful but otherwise not especially efficient Hospital Duque del Infantado. Get this. I saw my GP on March 17th and within a couple of weeks had received dates for two specialists appointments – Cardio and an MRI for my neck and shoulder. In fact, I had to move the MRI forward because I still had that pesky cough from when I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile I am STILL WAITING TO HEAR ABOUT THE KNEE SPECIALIST APPT THAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE OCTOBER. Fuck.

In the past, just like when I go to Hospital Virgen del Rocío, I’ve always just grabbed a taxi at the end of my street in front of the posh Gran Meliá Hotel Colón (always lots of taxis there). Six to eight euros well spent, I reckoned. But this week is Semana Santa, which means the Bastard Taxi Pirates are out for anything they can get. Yes, there is an official Semana Santa surcharge, but I just didn’t want to have to go through the hassle of all that. And so I checked the bus routes and saw… OMG… I could catch the updated Línea 3 not far from home and get dropped off about five minutes from the hospital. FOR FREE.

And it’s a good thing I discovered this as I now have an appointment there on April 28th to get a 24-hour Holter, and that is also where I will see the knee surgeon WHENEVER THAT HAPPENS. It’s actually one of the two specialist hospitals I end up at most. The other one, Clínica Fleming, is also accessible by bus. For now. It’s this time of year that I start to worry about whether my landlord is going to renew my contract in the summer, and I will now be on tenterhooks until July. But for now… just loving living here.

sandal ready!

24 Monday Mar 2025

Posted by in health, health & happiness, seasons, sevilla

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I believe this is the first time I’ve ever been fully prepared for sandal weather! Usually it’s a quick slapdash pedi as I’m heading out the door when the temperature suddenly goes up to 25º. But after so much RAIN these past couple of months I’ve been keeping my eye on the weekly forecast more than usual (mostly to see when I can hang up the laundry) and noticed that this weekend it will indeed be 25º and sunny. So today I popped in at my neighbourhood pedicure place and they said they could take me right away. After a quick trip home (almost next door) to change into sandals and pick up the fresh bottle of my favourite polish that I bought last week, I was back and an hour later I had happy toes. 🙂

I remember last summer I was feeling a bit guilty getting “regular” pedis (think it ended up being three over the season), especially with not working much and being skint. But I’ve decided that a little self care is worth it, and that I’m worth it too. Cannot wait until the weekend. The azahar is still out too. Heaven.

sherry lovers unite!

12 Thursday Dec 2024

Posted by in health, health & happiness, sevilla, work

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sherry lovers

Such a fun afternoon with these new sherry converts from Austin Texax. They came to me via a friend of a friend who I met here a few weeks ago. My ONLY paid work (so far) for the month of December. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to hold out while I wait (and wait and wait) to get the knee treatment I need so that I can walk – and work – again. It’s been months since I had to give up the walking tours, but I can still manage the sherry tastings as they take place in one spot, so I can hobble there and back again. Unfortunately there isn’t the same demand for tastings as for the tours.

Aside from missing the income… I just really miss THIS. Being me. Being out and about. Meeting and connecting with people, helping them enjoy their time here. And just having fun. For a couple of hours I feel in my element again and can forget about the pain. Anyhow, I’ve been looking for other ways to make a buck for some time now, simply because having all my eggs in one basket is not good for me either practically or emotionally. I wish I could say I had a couple of hot irons in the fire but I’m still stuck, spinning my wheels. Help? Any ideas?

defensor del pueblo andaluz

05 Thursday Dec 2024

Posted by in health, health & happiness, hospitals, sevilla

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defensor del pueblo

Many years ago I was walking past a very elegant building not far from where I live now and the sign outside caught my interest. I wondered what the Defensor del Pueblo Andaluz actually did. Like, who did they defend, and from what? As luck would have it there was a man standing in the doorway and so I asked him. And he said, well, when people are having difficulties and don’t know what they can do we find ways of helping them find the help they need. I remember thinking at the time, wow, what a wonderful service.

They came back to mind earlier this week when I got in touch with my friend (and ex-GP) Agustín to ask him if there was such a thing as an official Patient Advocate that might be able to help me with this whole medical mess I’ve been going through with my knee(s). He suggested that I register a formal complaint with Servicio Andaluz de Salud (SAS) but the thought of going through all that without even knowing where to start… well, it made me think of the DPA. 

I got onto their website and there was an easy way to send in a request so I did that. That very evening I got a call from someone from the DPA who also suggested the formal complaint route, saying I could go to any health centre or hospital and submit the form. The next day I received an email with a PDF of my official file number etc but meanwhile some questions had arisen. I’m very familiar with Spanish red tape so what I didn’t want is to show up at the hospital and have them give me the run around.

So today I took a copy of my DPA file over to that elegant building and said to the guy at the information counter that I still had a few questions. No problem. Within a few minutes I was talking to an advisor who listened to my whole story and then… actually helped me! He said I didn’t have to go to a hospital or health centre, that it was easy to do everything online, especially if I had a certificado digital (which I do) and he proceeded to take me through the steps, showing me the SAS website on his computer screen, what to click on, etc. Then he told me that after sending in the official complaint SAS had one month to respond and if they didn’t respond by then, or if I did not agree with their response, then I had a case for the DPA and they would officially step in.

OMG… I almost started crying. I mean, it’s scary to hope at this point, but suddenly I could actually DO something, there were clear steps to take and it made me feel less helpless and alone. So of course I sent in that official SAS complaint as soon as I got home today and… now we wait. Meanwhile I got an SMS from DPA reminding me of how to send in the official complaint and also what to do after I receive a response with corresponding emails and phone numbers. Fucking socialist governments, eh?