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So I bought some of these . . .
Any ideas as to what I should do with them, other than just grill them with olive oil, lots of thinly sliced garlic and a bit of parsley?
03 Friday Aug 2007
Posted in food & drink, holidays, home, sevilla
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So I bought some of these . . .
Any ideas as to what I should do with them, other than just grill them with olive oil, lots of thinly sliced garlic and a bit of parsley?
01 Wednesday Aug 2007
Posted in animals & pets, blogging, books & writing, computers, culture, films, food & drink, friends, fun stuff, health & happiness, holidays, home, humour, life stuff, love, miscellany, music, musings, philosophy, photos, sevilla, television

It’s August 1st and I am officially ‘on holiday’.
No classes until September. Yay! Well okay, no income either, but I’ve been looking forward to this stretch of time ahead of me not having to be anywhere or do anything unless I feel like it. It will especially be nice not to be woken up by alarm clocks (well, other than the pointy-eared variety).
When I asked earlier about what summer stuff everyone was planning to do I still hadn’t made any major plans, and then I realised that what I wanted most was a month totally without plans. So there. 🙂
Well, there are a few things I want to do like go to the gym in the mornings and do some stuff around the apartment. But mostly I reckon I’ll be reading and hanging out online (hence that particular thumbnail), taking evening walks with Nog, going out for our *emergency cold beer and air-conditioning sessions* and the occasional tapa, and also watching films and playing with floppy cats who – I am very happy to report – appear to be friends again. They’ve even started playing fighting again, with no pee in sight, which to me is even more of a sign of them being pals again than falling asleep together.
For awhile it looked like a recent bad back incident (comment 19) had put the kibosh on my gym idea, but after a couple days of anti-inflammatories, gentle stretching and lots of walking I think I’ll be able to start back mañana.
Meanwhile, Sevilla has pretty much turned into a ghost town already, which is always a pleasant change of pace.
So all in all, August should be a nice month for carping the diem.
How’s your summer been so far?
05 Thursday Jul 2007
Posted in friends, holidays, home, life stuff, miscellany, sevilla, trips
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And it’s only the beginning of July!
The official temperature states that it’s 37ºC (99ºF) at the moment, but you can always add another 5º for being in the centre of town late afternoon (6pm).
Last night Nog and I went out for an ’emergency beer and air-conditioning session’ at Bar Flaherty and on the way home we were remembering that it was exactly a year ago since our friend Craig ( aka zoomer ) was here and we took him on the Magical Mystery Tour. And it sure as hell wasn’t this hot! Ah well, not complaining (much).
Especially as I just got an email from zoomer this morning saying he is likely to be here for another visit in October!
Yay! 
28 Thursday Jun 2007
          So what are you doing this summer?
Now that summer is officially here (yes, I know I’m a few days late). Any trips planned? Special events or projects?
My ‘summer holiday’ was Lisbon … don’t think Nog and I will be travelling anywhere else for awhile, though we might take a day trip or two between now and September.
I’m planning to take advantage of there being next to nobody at the gym so I can use the fitness room as much as I want to in the mornings. I also want to do some sewing and think about a silk collection for the clothing biz. Otherwise and that, I want to read a lot and go out more at night when it’s coolish. Oh, and also paint the hallways … the whole flat could do with repainting but the hallways are especially needy.
Since I’ll have next to no work (and next to no income) it’ll be all about how to best spend my time without spending money, and feeling rested and satisfied when the ‘new year’ rolls round again. And so I’m looking for a little inspiration.
11 Monday Jun 2007
Posted in holidays, life stuff, photos, portugal, trips
I am in love with Lisbon!
Some general impressions include: the wonderful pavements, the amazing ‘churrasco’ restaurants, custard tarts, films & television programmes shown in the original language with Portuguese subtitles, hardly any souvenir shops but lots of sunglass and hashish street hawkers, cream coloured Mercedes sedan taxis, the trams, the HILLS …
I found the best way to communicate was to start off by speaking Spanish. If the person knew English they would automatically switch to that, if not it turned out quite easy to converse using Spanish and Portuguese. I picked up a few phrases while I was there and noticed that people quite liked it when I made an attempt at speaking their language.
The Lisbon photo albums are mostly up and somewhat organised, but still haven’t been properly edited and labelled.
And this is what we did . . .
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