Category Archives: home

vampire cat

18 Monday Jul 2016

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casa az

Last night I got home late and was getting ready for bed when I took a step back without looking and landed full force on poor Luna’s tail. Her response was to sink her very impressive teeth into my calf – TWICE – before tearing off to hide under the sofa. Well, there was blood everywhere and I had to get into the bathtub to rinse off my leg, and then staunched the bleeding with a betadine-soaked cloth. After the worst was over I spent the next 20 minutes trying to coax Luna out from under the sofa. She finally came out, visibly shaken, and let me pick her up, rub her belly, kiss her head, all that jazz. When I saw she had calmed down I went back to my wounds. The two massive vampire bites on my calf had started to throb and I was reminded of the last time this happened (it was pre-blog or I’d link back) about 15 years ago.

My friend Jim had left his pretty siamese girl Echo with me for a week in the hope that my handsome burman Sunny would get her pregnant. Well, that bit didn’t work out, poor Sunny didn’t seem to know what to do, even when (castrated) Azar demonstrated by mounting Echo several times. Meanwhile, Sunny’s mother Lua was not pleased with having company and one day Echo strayed too close and got a serious whupping. Because I’m stupid I got between them in an attempt to break things up at which point Echo clamped her teeth onto my ankle and Lua walked off in regal disdain.

Then I saw the blood, and so with Echo still attached, I made my way to the bathroom. Finally Echo released her jaws of death grip and ran off, leaving me to bleed all over the bathtub for a good while. That ankle still bears the Mark of Echo to this day. At the time I didn’t think much about it, other than the next day when it hurt so bad I could barely walk, and a friend said I should really get a tetanus shot. Let’s just say it was quite an adventure trying to get a tetanus shot on a Sunday in Sevilla in the summer.

Fast forward to waking up with super painful vampire bites and wondering if I had to get another tetanus shot just in case. Quick call to my doctor confirmed that it was probably a good idea, so off I went to my local medical centre. But when I got in to see the nurse she told me it probably wasn’t necessary (it’s not like in the old days! she said) but since I couldn’t remember my childhood vaccinations, or even when the last booster shot was (other than about 15 years ago) she gave me the injection. I really liked this nurse – she was the sort of no-nonsense and clearly knowledgeable person I like to have in charge of my health. Very likely I won’t need another tetanus shot before I die, which is a good thing because my arm hurts almost as much as my vampire-bitten calf.

When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?

messiest cook ever

15 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in home, homecooking

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messiest cook everDon’t judge me. I’m actually a great cook, love cooking. But I’m not tidy about it. Once I get going I tend to leave a trail of destruction in my wake… but the results are always tasty. I’ve tried tidying as I go, but find it gets in the way of the creative process.  😉

Anyhow, in this case I was making a tortilla and some other snacks that would end up being mostly consumed by flatmate Peter. In return he does the washing up. Win win! Because I’d never make all this stuff just for me. What’s your cooking style?

wet combing rocks!

14 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in cats, friends, home, social media, travel

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wet combing

So that’s about half of Morcilla up there, after her first wet combing last night. And OMG she loved it. Then I tried it on the other two this morning (and Morcilla again) with mixed results. Loki and Morcilla swooned with pleasure, Luna was clearly just putting up with it. But afterwards all three of them were not only shed of excess fur, the rest of their fur was sleek and clean (ie, not dusty) and everyone was happy.

This all came about when fellow cat lover Nancy Li asked me on Facebook the other day if I’d ever wet-combed the cats, saying that hers loved it, especially on hot days. So I finally gave it a go and I think we are all hooked on this now. I met Nancy I don’t know how many years ago on the Slow Travel forum, and also met her in person when she and her husband visited Sevilla. We’ve been FB pals ever since. Once again, the power of the internet and social media, bringing people together and – bonus! – helping with your cat grooming needs.

barefootin’

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in health & happiness, home, seasons, shoes

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barefootingHAPPY FEET

One of the many joys of living in Sevilla is that I get to wear sandals 8 months of the year. Which means I still have to wear shoes for 4 months, each day of which makes me feel somehow TRAPPED, especially when I also have to wear tights (socks are bad enough). My toes were meant to wriggle around free, so of course the first thing I do when I get home is kick off my footwear and go barefootin’.

Well, okay, in summer I also give my feet a nice cool wash after being outside in HOT SANDAL WEATHER. And in winter I need to wear slippers to keep my feet warm, but always opt for the soft “fluffy sock” kind of slipper, rather than the ones that are basically shoes with hard soles. In short, whatever is or feels closest to being barefoot is when I feel the most comfortable and my feet are happiest.

And so today, while taking a nice long afternoon break to watch a film (hols at home!) I was struck by a couple of scenes with people at home WEARING SHOES and it occurred to me that this is always happening in films and television programmes. People wearing shoes at home. Like, while they’re cooking or relaxing… today it was a guy lounging on the sofa reading the newspaper and WEARING SHOES. I mean seriously, do people in real life actually do this?

While I was in the throws of The Torcal Incident a couple of weeks ago, Victor asked me if I wore shoes at home or went barefoot. Perhaps he was just trying to take my mind off possibly having to be airlifted out of the place with two broken ankles, but he said that he’d heard that older people (presumably ME) had way better balance if they didn’t wear shoes at home. And again I thought “who the hell wears shoes at home?”

So I ask you… do you wear shoes at home? And if so… WHY?

 

manic monday

11 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in holidays, home, sevilla

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to doThose of you who know me also know that I love to organise, and to feel organised, but every now and then a whole whack of things suddenly need DOING that I hadn’t planned on doing. It all started yesterday when my new MOVISTAR television service went kaput and only basic service was available (not a hardship, but hey, I’m paying extra for the extra stuff), and then I discovered that my big beast of a laptop Sterling was operating on half-battery even while plugged in. Dammit. So I had to shut him down and start using tiny Anchoa until I could find out what the problem was. On top of that I still had tons of tax shit to sort out before meeting with my accountant Sandra today, so when I got up this morning I decided that the Sandra stuff had priority, and somehow got it all done by midday, then I hopped into a taxi to catch her before lunchtime.

Yes, the rest of this post will be just as boring, so read on at your own peril.

After leaving Sandra’s it was time to stop in at La Doma in Nervión, a place I adore but don’t get to often because, well, it’s in Nervión. Thanks to Sandra I now get to La Doma at least four times a year at the end of each quarter (notice last update was end of April) because it’s about a five minute walk from her office. So after possibly a bit too much lunch, my friend/flatmate/cohort Peter and I walked half an hour back to the centre in 44º heat (and hardly any shade). At which point we stopped in at my home away from home Vineria San Telmo for a cold drink and a rest.

It would have been sensible to just go home from there, but I also knew I needed to get Sterling back in action, so we wandered over to FNAC to see if they could help, and 35€ later I had a new multi-jack transformer-charger-thingy. From there it seemed a good idea to stop in at Telefónica, especially when I saw Super Paco was at his desk. And although it took an hour of my life that I’ll never get back, Paco sorted out my billing problems, showed me how to access my account online, helped me choose a new “package” for when my promo one runs out this month, and told me who to contact if I was still having problems with the TV service. Oh, and for 32€ I can get a booster thingy so that the WIFI is stronger upstairs. I love this guy.

Well, by now it was going on 7.00 pm (we’d left the house at 1.30) and we were desperately in need of more cold drinks. But first I had to get a new black fan, which proved impossible, so I got a nice dark green one instead. Okay, it wasn’t impossible to get a black one, but I was being given the tourist treatment (gaaahh!) and took the green one because it was the price I wanted to pay. And it’s lovely, actually. But why quote elevated prices just because I’m not Spanish?

Pit stop on the way home for a frosty cold beer at Bar Alfalfa, which we went to because not much else was open at that hour in the barrio. It was okay for a beer, but I always feel like it’s not very clean (there’s a nasty musty smell when you walk in) and the food is clearly “for tourists”, an odd mix of bruschetta and paella.

Then finally HOME to cranky cats wanting their dinner, AIRCON slapped on, laundry put up on the line, new power cord successfully installed, a refreshing shower and… a look at tomorrow’s To Do list. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing To Do’s every day, it was just kind of nice how it all worked out today, felt quite satisfying. And that I was able to get all this stuff done at a leisurely pace because … I’M ON HOLIDAY. More on that mañana. 😉