Yeah it’s crazy HOT but it also looks like this đ
summer colours
12 Tuesday Aug 2025
Category Archives: sevilla
I don’t care…
11 Monday Aug 2025
Posted in casa azahar, home, sevilla, spain
That’s what I’ve been saying all summer. As in… I don’t care what it costs, I’m not skimping on the AC. So I haven’t been. It goes on around 8am, then there’s a midday 2-3 hour break, either when I go out or if I’m cooking, when it gets shut down. And then back on again late afternoon until bedtime. I have it set at 24-25Âș but it never gets cooler than about 26.5Âș (single-pane windows, no insulation) but with the fans on it’s perfectly comfortable. And then just the fans overnight.
Used to be I wouldn’t dream of turning on the AC until after lunch but this year I realised several things. The heat waves started way earlier than usual (every year they start earlier), I can’t do my morning chair workouts when it’s 30Âș in the apartment, and I’m just too old (and cranky) to keep putting myself through this self-inflicted uncomfortable austerity thang… so fuck it.
Then today I received the electricity bill for July and đ± đ± đ±. Holy fuck, about 50% more than last year. This comes hot on the heels of splurging on a new mattress which I also couldn’t afford but I justified it because I wasn’t forced to move this summer so what I would have spent on movers (which I also couldn’t have afforded) I would spend on a mattress instead. Well it made sense to me!
And now I am justifying having my home at a comfortable temperature because, hey, I’m not going on holiday, not travelling, so all that money I never would have spent anyhow because there’s no fucking way I can afford to go on holiday, I am spending on air conditioning. Reader… I don’t have any extra money for any of this! I just have this imaginary money that I don’t spend that I move around here and there in my mind to justify not living like a fucking pauper. What can I say? It’s complicated. But so far it almost works. Sometimes.
refugios climĂĄticos – bitesize sevilla
08 Friday Aug 2025
Tags
New on Bitesize Sevilla 
⊠Where to escape the HEAT in Sevilla. Have a look and if you like it you can give it a âlikeâ. And if you really like it please consider becoming a subscriber (free or paid). Thanks!
three weeks later…
07 Thursday Aug 2025
It’s been three weeks since I had my bonus cardiology visit and the doctor agreed to cut Apocard (flecainide) from my prescriptions, even though she said she didn’t believe it was the cause of the symptoms I described to her (inside of head feeling bruised, pressure behind eyes, occasional dizziness and blurred vision). But hey, almost immediately those symptoms disappeared and I’ve only noticed one or two slight tachycardia episodes since then. My pulse has gone back up a bit but is still below 70 and BP is stable. I meant to ask if, without the flecainide, I should be taking a full beta-blocker pill instead of half (which original cardiologist switched it to when I started taking it with the flecainide) but I guess she would have noticed and said so. Maybe?Â
Anyhow, feeling better about this. And not just because I’m actually feeling better. It’s easier now to take all three meds together in the morning and I don’t have that feeling of dread that accompanied taking the flecainide. Apparently it is a very widely used treatment for atrial fibrillation in Spain, but seems to be less popular elsewhere. And since here they still prescribe Nolotil (metamizol) with reckless abandon despite it being banned in more than 20 countries, well, I think I can be forgiven for not automatically thinking that Doctor Knows Best.Â
Meanwhile, I already have my cardiology revision appointment set for next February (!). This doctor may have seemed a bit brusque but at least she also seems to get things done. So fingers crossed this latest drug cocktail (bp med, blood thinner, beta blocker) works and it’s all I need.Â
blues shark
04 Monday Aug 2025
last time I saw Steve (left) in London 2019 with my friend Michael
My friend Steve Pay has died. He has had various health issues over the years and then was diagnosed with spinal melanocytoma. The other day he moved into a nursing home but, as his wife Sara told us on his Facebook page, it was still unexpected. Everyone thought he had a bit more time.
I first “met” Steve on an online forum called H2g2, originally started by Douglass Adams and, after his death, taken over by the BBC. That’s when I came in… maybe around 2002? Anyhow, the site was meant to be an online “Hitchhikers Guide” with people contributing articles about subjects they were knowledgeable on., kind of like a pre-Wikipedia. The forum was there for members to discuss… well, whatever. I had a look around before venturing in but then popped into one of the forums “GOD – FACT OR FICTION?” without realising my life was about to change.
It was there that I not only met Steve (aka Blues Shark), but also Peter and a host of other colourful characters, some colourful in a good way, others not so much. Anyhow, lots of discussion ensued on these forums, or as much as dial-up would allow, which ended up with Steve coming down to Sevilla for a week or two in the summer of (I think) 2003 and renting out one of the spare rooms in the apartment next door. I think that short holiday sealed the deal for Steve… he totally fell in love with Sevilla.
The next summer Peter also came down for a holiday and, well, never left. Several other h2g2 pals also made their way down to “Casa Az” to visit over the years. Then one day Steve met Sara, and they started coming down together. Some pics below of them on various visits. But the last time I saw them was on a trip to London a few years ago and then in 2019 I met up with Steve and my friend Michael for lunch at Darjeeling Express, and that was the last time I saw him in person. We kept up a bit on Facebook (really the worst social media platform for me, I lose touch with so many people who only use FB) so I wasn’t really aware of how serious his condition had become. And now he’s gone.
We shared a love of cats, music (esp blues), good food and wine… and chat. That guy loved to talk. Much love to Sara, perhaps one day she will make it back to Sevilla and we can go have a glass of his favourite sangrĂa together. Hasta siempre, amigo mio. đ đŠ
click to enlarge photo
casa azahar 