23 Monday Nov 2020
Posted in coronavirus, covid, sevilla, spain
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This pigeon reminded me of me during the first lockdown when I spent all my “fresh air” moments either on my balcony or up on my rooftop. Now we have partial confinement until after the next long weekend December 6-8th, not allowed to travel out of our municipalities, restaurants and non-essential shops closing at 6 pm, curfew between 10 pm and 7 am. I’m good with that. Hope it helps. How are the Covid rules where you are?
17 Tuesday Nov 2020
Posted in casa azahar, cats, home, sevilla
Don’t get me wrong. I REALLY do not want to leave my present Casa Azahar, where I have lived now for more than three years, because I feel more at home here than anywhere else I have lived in Sevilla. And it would actually break my heart to leave here.
But we are living through difficult times and the truth is, I just can’t afford to live here anymore.
At first I thought back in March that getting through maybe six months would be doable, but then they cut off my government financial support at the end of June, so things got even more difficult. And it’s not only gone way beyond six months, it looking like this situation is going to last another year, or even more.
So with a seriously heavy heart I’ve started looking at possible new homes. Of course nothing I see looks like home, and taking into account the cost of moving, it would be almost a year before I even recuperated that cost so that I would actually be paying the lower rent. Is it worth it? Last year I thought about the prospect of taking in occasional lodgers, but unfortunately this just isn’t possible during covid.
I like to think that my real home is wherever those three guys are, happy and cosy on my lap. But dammit, leaving here would just hurt so much. Anyhow if any of you in Sevilla know of someplace nice please let me know. Things are getting a bit desperate.
13 Friday Nov 2020
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Those of you who know me also know that there are probably not many other people you know who LOVE the Christmas season as much as I do. This isn’t because of all the happy memories of Christmases past… in fact it’s the opposite. It’s because I never had any nice Christmas memories growing up, so when I left home at the ripe old age of 15 I decided to start making my own traditions. And Christmas became MY THING. And OMG I love it, not as a religious holiday but kind of based on the concept of the birth of Jesus being a metaphor for the birth of compassion in the world. Not a GOD, but just a person like us. So I always made sure to make a big fuss over everything about celebrating the birth of compassion, and yeah, also love the lights, the songs, the movies, the everything. Don’t care too much about gifts, but again, that is another expression of appreciating the people we love, and letting them know, so that’s cool too.
Thing is, this year is different. Really different. We have constantly seen catastrophes happening around us because people will JUST NOT LET GO of the idea that they can’t do things like they have always done. First it was that they NEEDED their summer holidays (who the fuck travels abroad ON HOLIDAY during a global pandemic??) and as a result of people not staying put we are experiencing a killer second wave of this fucking virus. And don’t even get me started on non-maskers and “herd immunity” assholes and people who have still had big weddings, birthdays, etc. Anyhow, now it’s coming up to Christmas and my Twitter feed is full of people talking about getting home for the holidays and I am like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??
Have people learned NOTHING?? Here we are in Spain not allowed to travel outside our own municipalities, with a curfew from 10pm to 7am, and yet they are still allowing tourists in and out?? This also goes for people who live here and have family elsewhere (or vice versa), somehow thinking that their family gathering is worth more than the safety and lives of others, that THEIR situation is the exception. This is the exact opposite of what Christmas should be about because this isn’t about giving or sharing or caring, it’s about selfish personal desire, and then just doing what you want at the possibly horrific expense of others. Honestly, I despair.
11 Wednesday Nov 2020
Posted in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours
So yay! The latest National Geographic Traveller is out and I’M IN IT. It came as a bit of a surprise because I was happy to take the journo out in February while she was here, and also give her tips on where else to go in Sevilla. The idea was that she’d give my tapas tours a mention, not that I’d end up being talked about for almost a whole page. So that was nice. Still trying to get a copy. It never feels real for me until I hold the printed version in my hot little hands.
30 Friday Oct 2020
Posted in casa azahar, change, coronavirus, covid, home, lockdown, lockdown sevilla, sevilla, spain
“Sorry for the inconvenience,
we are doing the impossible to open as soon as possible”
Since Sunday we have been put back into a State of Emergency, which apparently will last through to next May, though it’s not a total lockdown like in March and the situation will be reviewed every two weeks. This time there is a curfew between 11 pm and 6 am, which means bars and restaurants had to start shutting at 10 pm from last Sunday evening. We were told that regional governments (we have 17 of them) would have the option to move the curfew start time one hour either way.
And so while we were waiting for the first two weeks to pass and everyone was busy complaining about not being able to go out LIKE WE USED TO (I soooo want to just slap these people) we found out on Wednesday that beginning today (Friday) various municipalities throughout Spain would be shut in, meaning there would be no travel allowed in or out save for the following exceptions: to work, study, receive medical care, or care for a family member.
