Category Archives: retail therapy

things I miss…

17 Sunday Feb 2008

Posted by in books & writing, films, food & drink, friends, language, life stuff, retail therapy, television

≈ 21 Comments

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I came across this old post from last year on Letters Home the other day. Oh how I wish everyone had a ‘recent comments’ widget for people just passing through or for when I’m just having a quick look around a few blogs without using my feedreader. In fact, I probably would have just read the comment to this post on my feedreader without clicking on the post itself. But seeing it on ian’s sidebar I clicked on the comment and saw the original post. Anyhoodle … it was all about things ian misses from the places he used to live after having moved on to somewhere else.

Like ian, I’ve lived in a few different places since leaving my birthplace Winnipeg, Canada (aka Winterpeg) at age 25. Since then I’ve lived in Toronto, Bristol in England, and Salamanca & Seville in Spain. Here is my list of things I miss …

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crackberry

08 Friday Feb 2008

Posted by in friends, geekiness, life stuff, retail therapy

≈ 10 Comments

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Remember when I went to the AWC lunch?

Well, since then I’ve been staying in touch with Susan and Traci – two of the women who were sitting at my table. I’m going to be meeting Traci and her husband for tapas tonight at the new second location of Las Golondrinas (which I didn’t know existed until Traci told me), so stay tuned for some new photos soon.

And last Friday Susan and I met up early evening-ish for a few vinitos at Catalina. We had a great time and talked and laughed a lot … then what I thought was a mobile phone rang, but it ended up being Susan’s Blackberry. I’d never seen one in person before so of course Susan started showing me all the cool tricks she could do with it and, man, I’ve been hooked ever since and will start doing some research to see if I can justify getting one. Apparently these are also known as crackberries because of their addictive qualities.

But at least Susan is about to help out with another addiction. She is leaving for a ten-day trip to the States today and has agreed to be my popcorn mule and bring me back lots of Orville’s. f_wow.gif There was talk of duct-taping packets to her 4-year-old daughter to elude customs and we’ve also got code names now. It’s been awhile since I’ve had RL girlfriends – I’d forgotten how fun it could be. Especially little things like sending each other silly emails and having a laugh over a glass or two of wine. I’m so glad I went to that lunch!

my latest heart’s desire

30 Wednesday Jan 2008

Posted by in computers, retail therapy

≈ 8 Comments

 

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Gee, good thing I didn’t buy this one … 😉

It’s Toshiba’s newest small notebook, “the world’s thinnest notebook series with an integrated optical drive”, which so far hasn’t made it to any of the shops here in Sevilla. Isn’t it gorgeous???

The 0.77-inches thin 2.4-pound Toshiba Portege R500 has 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 ultra-low voltage processor with 1.20GHz clock speed, 2MB L2 cache, and 533MHz front-side bus. This ultra-portable is based on Mobile Intel 945GMS Express chipset with the integrated Graphic Media Accelerator 950, which manages a 12.1-inch 1280×800 LED backlight “highbrightness” display. The R500 supports up to 2GB of DDR2 system memory and comes with 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk drive. A mentioned ultra-thin 7mm optical drive is a DVD burner.

Toshiba Portege R500 has Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, but it doesn’t include a 56k modem. Toshiba’s new ultra-portable has PCMCIA card slot, Secure Digital slot, three USB ports, VGA output, Firewire, and a fingerprint reader.

Hmmm … not sure I’d ever need a fingerprint reader, but you never know. So as soon as I get that fab new job happening (c’mon guys, I’m counting on you) , the one that requires me to have an ultra-portable super-sleek notebook with me at all times, I’m calling up Toshiba.

back to the market …

03 Thursday Jan 2008

Posted by in christmas, culture, holidays, retail therapy, sevilla, spain

≈ 1 Comment

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. . . for some last minute prezzies

This weekend (January 5th) is Los Reyes Magos, which is traditionally the day that gifts are exchanged in Spain. As I still had a couple of people to get a little something for I popped back to the Christmas Market this afternoon and bought two very pretty wooden boxes with mosaic lids (blue with yellow stars – similar to the pic above but without the black outlining and ‘face’).

And so I’ve updated the Christmas market post, adding a photo of Fernando wrapping up one of my boxes and posting his website link. There are also a couple of new pics there showing the other side of the BelĂ©n and the big tree in front of city hall at night.  Check them out . . .

Christmas Market update

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christmas market

22 Saturday Dec 2007

Posted by in christmas, culture, holidays, retail therapy, sevilla, spain

≈ 11 Comments

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Went to the Christmas market this afternoon.

We were quite lucky because it was supposed to be raining today (and also for the next 3-4 days) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant day, just a bit cloudy and even sometimes sunny.

I was very pleased to see our friend Norberto there. We met him one magical night when our friend zoomer was visiting and later I got some nice pics of Norberto in his workshop with the façade nicely redone.

To be honest, most of the stalls at the market had a lot of the same-old rather useless hippy-dippy ‘artesan’ stuff, but there were a few I rather liked. I am presently coveting one of Norberto’s serigraphs, especially one with the new matte silver frames he has started using. And I would also love to have one of the carved wooden book lamps. But I know where to find both of these guys should I ever have some extra cashola and feel like treating myself.

Anyhow, here are some photos taken during today’s visit to the Christmas market. It really was a pleasant way to spend the early afternoon. On the way home we stopped off at Fnac and bought a dvd of The Jungle Book … so now off to make a snack, open some wine and curl up on the sofa with Nog to watch it. I’m now ‘on holiday’ until next Thursday and plan on enjoying every minute of it. 🙂

[update: returned to the market here]

Click below to check out the photos . . .

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