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Category Archives: rants

moving day

21 Thursday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in computers, geekiness, internet, rants

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

bluehost, joomla, websites

Aaaaaack!

I realised yesterday morning that the end of the month was coming up fast and that I HAD to find a way of moving my natural clothing site over to my self-hosted azahar sevilla site. I have been trying to do this for the past couple of years … well, I have asked the guy who designed the online store on several occasions to help me move it. He finally told me I owed him money (say what?) and that he wouldn’t give me “permission” to move the site until I paid up. Jerk. I mean seriously, I’m embarrassed to admit how much Nog & I had paid for this thing five years ago and then the guy kept my domain name. I don’t actually want the name back, but now I can’t access the other host site because it’s in his name, not mine. Grrr…

If I were doing this again now (and in fact I will be doing soon, with the Seville Store) I’d just make my own. But back then I didn’t know anything about all this website building stuff. And so… spent all day yesterday trying to make back-ups and installing a content management system (Joomla) and then trying to figure out how to upload the back-up until my shoulders felt like they were in a vice grip and I was speaking in half sentences (Nog says that when I get intensely involved in something I start sentences and then drift off, never finishing them …).

I really hope that after some industrial strength coffee this morning that I’ll be able to see things more clearly.  After having spent so much on this I would hate to lose it, especially as I hope to be able to use the site again some time in the future.

And although it was very frustrating, I’m actually quite pleased about how much I learned yesterday. But I’m still not there yet. Wish me luck! And if anyone out there knows how I can upload my backed up files to the new CMS on FTP, I’m all ears.

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milk

20 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by azahar in rants, restaurants, sevilla, spain

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

coffee, milk, uht milk

I’ll never understand UHT milk, or why it’s so popular in Spain. There is only one supermarket here in Seville that stocks fresh milk and even then it doesn’t always have it. And up until recently there was only one bar I knew of that made coffee with fresh milk – the Horno San Buenaventura. So when Flor invited me out for breakfast one morning after yoga class I was very pleased to discover that the new Italian restaurant across the street from the gym also makes their coffee with fresh milk. That’s TWO.

Seriously, there is something about the taste of UHT milk that makes me gag. But most Spanish people have never had any other sort of milk. I guess there isn’t such a huge dairy industry here or else they use it all to make cheese.

Anyhow, this is what good coffee in Sevilla looks like…

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falling apart

10 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by azahar in cancer, chemo, diet & nutrition, health & happiness, hospitals, rants, wtf?

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

cancer, chemo, doctors, hospitals, rants

old car Been feeling like I should be put out to pasture…

Seriously, I feel like an old wreck whose parts aren’t working properly anymore and there aren’t any replacements. Every day it’s something else. Well okay, not every day, but it sometimes seems that way. I mean, after getting over the worst effects of the chemo I developed quite painful neuropathy in my feet (less so in my hands) that will only get worse as it gets colder out. And now my right foot has a new problem in the arch and it feels like I am walking on a golfball. Ouch. Oh, and then I found out I had a hernia – remember that? – which erupted a couple of weeks ago and has still not quite healed after being sliced open to drain. What else? Well, there are the regular bouts of tachycardia that nobody can explain, as well as still getting quite winded after even the slightest bit of physical exertion. And then my mammogram results were dodgy and they want me to have another one in six months. Then the other night I was watching TV and suddenly my vision went all distorted and it was like looking through a flashing prism, which scared the hell out of me but luckily only lasted about 15 minutes. And the latest thing was when I was eating a mushroom on Sunday evening and a huge chunk of my back tooth fell out. Just crumbled and fell out, like in one of those anxiety dreams, except I wasn’t dreaming. Upon further inspection I saw that both my upper back teeth are almost totally black. I mean, wtf?

All of which is compounded by averaging only about four hour’s sleep a night. I feel like I’m sleepwalking most of the time and always feel tired and achy inside. And I worry that maybe this means the cancer has come back.

So there. Rant over. It’s just that sometimes I wonder if I’m ever going to feel good again, you know? And at the same time I’m happy to feel even this good after the hell that was chemo. Pretty mixed up, eh?

And today I’m off for blood tests. Heigh ho…

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good hair day

04 Wednesday Nov 2009

Posted by azahar in hair, health & happiness, rants

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

curly, hair, rants, straight

straightYour hair – crowning glory or worst nightmare?

Mine has always been the bane of my existence. What is known in Spain as “pelo frito”. Fine and frizzy with a mind of its own and the plaything of even the slightest touch of humidity. All my life I have dreamed of having straight hair and cannot even begin to count the hours spent – nay wasted – with gels & sprays, tape, giant rollers, blowers & straighteners, hairbands & hats. All for nothing. When I was about 12 my father finally gave in to my constant pleas and paid to have my hair professionally straightened at a salon. Within a week my hair was back to its usual disagreeable self.

I longed to be one of those happy souls who could just wash their hair and go outside without further ado, or who could get caught in the rain, secure in the knowledge that they wouldn’t end up looking like they had a demented poodle sitting on their heads. In the 80s I watched in horror as women who had been blessed with the hair of my dreams got hideous perms that made them look, well, like me. Around that time I tried letting my hair dry while gelled back in a ponytail, but after its release from captivity would immediately spring back to its despised life. So in the end I just kept it gelled back and have been mostly wearing it that way for the past 25 years, except on rare days with 0% humidity or those few blessed hours immediately after having my hair cut and blow-dried to smithereens.

Yesterday was such a day. And it was soooo lovely while it lasted, that all too brief and bittersweet glimpse of what might have been…

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the pilates social club

09 Friday Oct 2009

Posted by azahar in fitness, health & happiness, pilates, rants

≈ 16 Comments

yummy mummies

So remember when I started back at the gym in September with yoga (mon-wed-fri) and pilates (tues-thurs), and added a half-hour on The Bike after each class? Well, I am happy with my personal motivation at getting to the gym five days a week, and I am actually enjoying it. Or … I WAS enjoying it until the kids went back to school and suddenly my pilates class was stuffed full of so-called yummy mummies who think that the 9.30 class is an excuse to chat and act like they’re at a cocktail party.  And when I say chat, I mean TALK LIKE THIS at ear-splitting volume … during the class!!! It’s unbelievable. Oh, and with mobile phones constantly ringing. The other day one woman’s phone went of 3 times! I mean, WTF.

I could go to the 11.00 o’clock class, which isn’t as crowded and has a better class of attendees, but the timing isn’t so great. It really cuts the morning in half and I wouldn’t get home until almost 1 o’clock (instead of 11.30).

This never happens at yoga, perhaps because those classes are at 8.30 in the morning and the mummies can’t get to the gym that early as they are busy getting their 2.5 children ready for school. I am really starting to despise these women.

It’s always something …

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