Category Archives: home

new flatmate!

01 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in friends, home

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My new flatmate Jessica moved in today, so now I have two. Jessica will be here until September, though kind of part-time as she is away a lot, either working in Doñana or visiting her real home in Paris.

Meanwhile, Nog hasn’t had enough work to live on for some time now and as a result may have to return to the UK, but for now he’s staying on for another month or so to see if he can get things to pick up. If he ends up leaving I’ll wait until the summer is over and then look for someone to rent Jessica’s room.

The apartment is actually big enough for all of us to share comfortably, though Nog doesn’t have a bedroom (sofa bed in the living room for him) and the bathroom is way too small. But the rest of the space, and having two floors and the terrace, allows for either cosy evenings in together, or each of us hanging out on our own.

Sure has been a year of changes. And so for the next four months until the next PET scan I want to focus on my work, my friends, my cats and my home.

I’m happy.  🙂

pippin II

24 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in gadgets, geekiness, home, work

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At long last the day has arrived … picked up my new iPhone4 today from Vodafone and am syncing him on iTunes now. So far so good.

Yeah, I guess I could have – should have? – waited for the iPhone5. But my old iPhone3G has really been acting up lately and I got a good offer on this one, both on price and monthly contract fee, so what the heck. And who knows when the iPhone5 will actually be released – and then when it will make its way to Sevilla?? With the (bad) luck I’ve been having trying to find an iPhone4 in town it just made sense to go with the phone that was actually there in the store.

Thus ends the whole Movistar nightmare, as I also switched my internet and landline connection over to Vodafone, and my tv service is now by Digital+ satellite. So I now have a faster internet connection and the same television channels as before, but for about 25 euros less a month. I also expect to save about 20 euros a month on the iPhone monthly rate. So it turns out that I’m actually quite lucky that Movistar screwed up so badly as I am much better off now with this new set up.

My new Vodafone router also came with a wall mount, which I just thought was the coolest thing ever – why don’t they all? So I was able to mount it on the wall next to the phone and electrical plugins – love how much tidier it is. And of course now I don’t have my tv service sucking the bandwidth out of my router and, if anything goes wrong with the internet connection, I can not only still watch tv, but the Vodafone system comes with a mini-modem that I can use free-of-charge during down-time emergencies, or else as an external modem (for a fee) when I am travelling.

Okay, iTunes syncing is done! Time to go play with my new Pippin.

pérez

22 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, home

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So remember when I first introduced you to my new neighbour and assumed she was a Very Big Girl? Well, it turns out that “she” is actually a very well-castrated male called Pérez. Ha.

Yesterday evening I heard some very serious caterwauling coming from upstairs and turned to see Azar tearing down the stairs in round-eyed terror with his tail puffed out like a toilet brush…

I went up to see what was going on and there was our neighbour sitting on the windowsill eyeballing Loki (who looked like the proverbial rabbit caught in the headlights). So I decided it was time to at least find out what this kitteh was called and I went next door to introduce myself to my human neighbour, which was when I found out that Pérez is in fact a Very Big Boy. And it turned out that my neighbour is Giorgio, who runs Al Solito Posto just down the street from me, across from my gym. Small world or what?

Well, it seems that Pérez is decidedly put out that there are two new cats on his turf, but I couldn’t get over how Azar screamed like a schoolgirl – would have been funny if it hadn’t made me jump out of my skin. Loki was clearly nonplussed by the whole thing, but I think Azar’s extreme reaction was the most apt response considering what would happen if Pérez ever got in here…

For the rest of the evening, long after Pérez had gone, the boys kept watch in case the intruder returned – Loki near the top of the stairs and Azar on his perch between the staircase and the kitchen. Yep, made me feel very safe and well-protected. 😉

a tale of two azoteas

18 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, home, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, television, twitter

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Azotea n. A rooftop terrace

This morning I meant to get up, get some work done, and then hit the gym. But then the guy from Digital+ called to say he could install the satellite dish and set up my new tv service, sooooo…  I decided to just stick around at home and get it done. But because I was working downstairs and wasn’t paying attention to what the guy was doing, it was a bit of a bummer to find out he’d attached the dish to the side of the azotea wall (I thought it would be on the top of that pole) right where I want to put the barbeque (when I get one), but oh well. New service seems to be working fine and it’ll be cheaper than what I had with the dreaded Movistar. Also swapped internet and phone service yesterday to go with Vodafone, so in a week or so there should be no more Movistar in my life.

So having missed the gym there was nothing left to do but go out and eat a whack of tapas!

Yesterday I’d made plans to meed Dutch Twitter pal @Amiek who is in town on holiday, so we went out to La Azotea, one of my favourite places that I actually hadn’t been to for awhile. And well, it was fabulous as always and great to see everyone again. Spent a lovely afternoon chatting with Amiek, who has lived in Sevilla before and speaks fluent Spanish (have never met a Dutch person who didn’t speak at least five languages). She’s staying in her old ‘hood, but as it’s been awhile since she’s been here I’ll be giving her tips on the latest and greatest tapas bars, and will most likely see her again before she leaves on Tuesday. Damn but that Twitter thang is great. Lunch below, which Amiek very generously treated me to…

[click to enlarge]
espetos de pijotas (fish onna stick) with blood orange mayo
grilled morcilla with caramalised onion & quail egg
cod & wild mushroom canneloni with scallop sauce / grilled tuna with olive paté
presa (iberian pork) tataky with crushed pistachios & creamy idiazabal cheese sauce