Category Archives: home

flushing money…

14 Monday Feb 2011

Posted by in home

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While most people’s thoughts (and blog posts) are about romance and roses today, my thoughts are firmly planted in the practical and somewhat mundane. Which is how to save money on my water bill. This is another “extra” to pay, as at the old place the water was a flat rate included in the rent. And since moving in here it’s like I’m being “20 euroed” to death, as several times a week I have to go and pick up something for the new casa az that ends up costing 20 euros. Things like energy-saving lightbulbs, a new showerhead, dish draining tray thingy, kitchen light fixture… the list goes on and on. Some things I’ll be reimbursed for by the landlords but others are just the expense of moving somewhere new and finding that new things are needed.

Then today I finally made it over to the water company office to change the name on the water bill (they wouldn’t let me do this over the phone for reasons too boring to recount) and I found out they are going to charge me 78.50€ (!!!) to do this. I mean seriously WTF?? Nog worked this out to about 800 euros an hour in terms of actual work involved. Gaaaah!!

And so saving money is on my mind. Nog also informed me that the most water-consuming activity is probably flushing the toilet, which got me thinking about, well, not flushing after every visit to the loo. Do any of you do this? It actually makes sense, like not running the water while brushing your teeth (which I stopped doing when I moved to Sevilla during a drought in 1993), but it also feels a bit unhygienic. I mean obviously this would only be after “number ones”, and perhaps we’d flush after about four visits. Does anyone know if this would actually be helpful in terms of cutting down on money spent and water consumption?

kitteh protection

13 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in animals & pets, cats, home

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Ever since I’ve had balconies I’ve always put plastic mesh across them to keep the cats from jumping or accidently falling to their deaths. Of course this didn’t used to stop Sunny from jumping up and perching on the balcony railing (which always gave me a mild heart attack) so when I got Loki I put up even more protection to make sure he wouldn’t go over the top chasing a bird or a fly.

I left all that stuff when I moved because I have different sized balconies in the new casa az. Instead of six narrow ones I have two wider double balconies (it’s like having four, but they’re joined – as you can see here). You can also see that it would be quite a fall. But my question is… do you think I need so much protection here? I’ve put some mesh up on the sides of the balconies because there are small ledges leading off them that might be tempting to a certain orange stripey cat. But the bars are a bit closer together than at the old place and they have all that squiggly doodad stuff going on, which would make it very difficult for them to accidently fall off. I know I don’t need to put that angled stuff up again, but do you think I should extend the plastic mesh to cover the entire balcony?

My friend Flor thinks I’m not giving my cats enough credit for being intelligent enough not to leap into the unknown, but since both Lua and Sunny fell off my terrace when I first came to Sevilla – and also my vet told me that cats fall off rooftops and balconies all the time – I tend to err on the side of caution. I’m not that concerned about Azar because I think his leaping days are long over, but Loki is far too curious and also far from clever. I can imagine him going “what the…?” before plummeting to his death. Anyhow, just thinking about balcony safety at the moment. The terraza will pose a whole other set of safety issues, but that is something to think about at a later date.

reconnected!

11 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, home, internet, work

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After almost two weeks without internet at home I finally got reconnected today. What a relief. I really needed that high-speed internet connection. Instead I’ve been using my iPhone as a modem, which has been better than nothing, but there was really no reason I couldn’t have had my connection sooner.

They say it takes two weeks to transfer my “package” which includes the television. Why? And well, if I’d known two weeks before moving that I was going to be moving then of course I’d have set the transfer up sooner. But as you know, we only had about five days between signing the new rental contract and moving. I called Movistar immediately to tell them about the situation, and that as I worked from home it was imperative that I get my connection transferred as quickly as possible. This was on a Tuesday and we were moving on Sunday. They said they would put a rush on the order and it should be there at the beginning of the following week. Nobody came. And then my telephone nightmare began. I called them over and over asking when this “rush job” was going to take place and at one point even had a guy tell me they were coming that day, just to get me off the line. When I called later that afternoon I was told that nobody had said that to me. Aaarrgh. Another time I called I was told that there was no such thing as a “rush order” and that all petitions were done mechanically.

Anyhow, this afternoon the technician showed up – and he was the same guy who set up my system at the old place! And he remembered me, asking about the cats and how they took the move. Such a lovely guy. He got my line and modem set up in no time and then I asked him about setting up the television…  and it turns out that they set the line up first and then I have to re-contract the television service. WTF?? So why did I have to wait two weeks because of the f-ing television service??? Well, of course it wasn’t this guy’s fault and he was all sympathy. And so I just got off the phone – yet again! – with bloody Movistar and they said I should have the tv set up on Monday. I then told them I wanted a discount on my next bill and it better not be more than half the usual charge since I missed half a month’s service. We shall see…

 

one room at a time: kitchen

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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So this is the first day that my new kitchen has actually felt “operational”. There is still some organising to do, and a couple of minor repairs pending, but at least now things are put away so that I know where everything is. This is a quick photo taken just now while starting to cook the first “proper dinner” here. Which will be marinated potatoes, steamed broccoli and grilled presa. Yum.

Of course the kitchen was the most important room to be made properly functional. And with all my blue and yellow stuff, it kind of makes the RED actually look kind of cute – primary colour kitchen. Also, the red cupboard knobs remind me of flamenco polka-dots. I still think I’d prefer to have the dishwasher removed to give me more storage space, but mostly what I would LOVE would be to change that ceramic-top cooker to a gas one. I already hate the cooker – it’s even worse than the one over at the old place (which was top of the line). I don’t like cooking with electric under the best of conditions, and this is far from the best.

But poco á poco, especially with my ANKLE. So frustrated I can’t be doing more, accompanied by worries that I’m doing too much. I mean, I can’t even help out by carrying  a basket of laundry to hang upstairs. It’s driving me bonkers. I think the next room will be a tandem effort between the livingroom and upstairs study… with this ankle I barely get a chance to visit the upstairs and terraza. But MUST water plants tomorrow.

Sara & Steve … if you click on the pic and look real close you can see all the Simon’s Cat magnets on the top part of the fridge (on the left).

What would be your priority rooms?

pizza

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by in change, food & drink, home

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I am about to eat my fifth pizza in the the past two weeks…

I think I usually eat pizza about once ever six months or so, but this moving biz just leaves things like time and kitchen availability so unpredictable that sending Nog out for a pizza for us to share seems like the quickest and most economical way for us to have something resembling a hot meal. This also includes the “pre-moving” period after the kitchen had been packed up and we were tired of sandwiches (though I guess a pizza really is just a fancier version of cheese on toast).

I thought our pizza days were behind us as we now have a fairly well-stocked fridge and most of the kitchen cupboards have been cleaned and organised. In fact, I made a lovely carbonara for lunch yesterday. But then the handyman came back today to do a few jobs, which meant me hobbling off to the hardware store to get this & that (Nog was out teaching), which took up most of the morning, and then there were some minor kitchen repairs that left that room unusable for another couple of hours… so more pizza.

But I have to say that the place is really coming together. It’s great that the landlords have sent the handyman over to make sure everything is in good working order. Apparently he has to come back tomorrow to take care of a few other things, and then we’ll be pretty much set up and it will just be a matter of UNPACKING.