Category Archives: photos

open windows

23 Wednesday Jan 2008

Posted by in animals & pets, home, photos, sevilla

≈ 7 Comments

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It’s been so sunny and warm here the past few days that I’ve been able to open up the balcony doors during the afternoon to let some warm air and sunshine into casa az. This time of year it’s often warmer outside than inside at midday. And after having been cooped up without much fresh air for the past couple of months the cats are totally loving it, immediately going out to sit on the balcony and take in huge gulps of air … oh, the little darlings. In general they’re quite happy being house cats and can spend most of the year hanging out on the balconies to get some fresh air and even do a bit of serious sunbathing. But of course during the winter the balcony doors stay shut in order to keep the place at least somewhat warmish.

Anyhow, I’m loving it too, being able to sit here without wearing three sweaters and a scarf … it’s about 20º today, which for me is almost sandal weather. And so that pic up top is the view today from one of the living room balconies. The bedroom balcony view looks like this.

I feel so lucky to live here. 🙂

saturday at the saffron bar

29 Saturday Dec 2007

Posted by in food & drink, holidays, photos, sevilla, spain, tapas

≈ 1 Comment

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And a new tapa experience…

For ages my friend and student iskenderum has been telling me that I MUST go to Taberna del Azafrán (azafrán means saffron) and today was the day. Kind of impromptu as it was around 12 o’clock and I was still in my pj’s so we decided some serious motivation was required to get me dressed and out the door. Being a gorgeous sunny day I suggested we hop on a couple of Sevici rental bikes and finally try out this place. And so that’s what we did, arriving just before 2 and getting the last free table in front of the bar.

So okay, it ended up being a lot more expensive than we’d planned on since at the tables you have to order raciones (you can only get tapas at the bar, which was jam-packed) but we decided what the heck. Especially as we didn’t go to Lisbon. And so we ended up having quite a substantial and delicious lunch. Which would have been really lovely had the waiters been even remotely friendly, which they were not (according to iskenderum this is always the case with the waiters there, but he says the owner is very friendly and pleasant). Anyhow, the food was very nice so maybe we’ll go back sometime and give the tapas a try … and hopefully the bar staff will be friendlier than the waiters.

The best part was the monogrammed plates with a stylized AZ on them. 🙂

Check it out on the Sevilla Tapas blog…

the new camera

05 Wednesday Dec 2007

Posted by in christmas, gadgets, home, life stuff, photos, retail therapy

≈ 9 Comments

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f_holly.gifChristmas came early today at casa azf_holly.gif

After looking at several different cameras within a certain price range we stumbled upon this one last night and then went back this morning for a better look. And frankly, it has everything we want and need and the discounted price included a leather case and a 1 giga memory card, so what the heck. We bought it.

On our way home we stopped at Ay Maricrú! for a pre-lunch drink, and also to start playing with our new toy. Nog was in charge of reading the instructions, I was in charge of pressing all the buttons and going – “oh this is so cool!”. And when Carlos showed up with another round of drinks I said – “Look at our new camera! It’s our Christmas present for each other”, and Carlos winked at Nog and said – “So when do you get to enjoy it?”. Well ha. He gets to enjoy all the photos, doesn’t he???

Anyhow, just charging up the battery now and looking forward to taking our new gorgeous baby out for a trial run this evening. And we’re also looking for a name … thought about using one of the muses but they don’t really seem to fit. Any ideas?

Here are the specs.

[update: new camera name is Holly]

more temptation…

01 Saturday Dec 2007

Posted by in christmas, gizmos, home, photos, retail therapy

≈ 8 Comments

fuji-z10-front-view.jpg fuji-z10-back-view.jpg

The other day I talked about seeing this gorgeous Sony camera with a 3″ viewing screen, blah blah blah. And so today Nog & I went to have a closer look at one. I asked the salesclerk if I could actually see one ‘in action’ but she said none of the cameras on display were charged up. It was only when we said ‘okay, we’ll take it’ that she got one out of stock, opened it up, put in the battery and showed us how the 3″ touchpad screen worked. And guess what??? It was what I’d suspected … the menu icons run up both sides of the screen so the image you actually see is 2.5″. What a scam! Especially as all the promotional stuff I’ve come across shows a full 3″ screen with just an image. Pah! f_cross.gif

Then on the way out of the shop I saw these cute Fuji cameras I’d noticed at another place. And I thought … hmmm, it has almost the same specs, it also doesn’t have an inny-outy zoom lens, it’s darn cute and about 2/3 the price of the Sony one. Which right now means something to us, having just spent 150 euros on special catfood and meds. So spending 175 euros instead of 300 almost cancels out the vet bill (if you think about it that way), and we’ll still get a new camera that should work much better than the one we have now.

So the next question is … which colour? Just look at ’em all. There isn’t a silver option and so I’m leaning towards either the metallic red or lime green. What do you think?

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