05 Tuesday May 2026
Posted in blue, health & happiness, sevilla, spain
Every time I go out in the evening (next to never these days) I always tell myself I should do it more often. Except by this time of day I am usually so worn out the idea of putting myself through more pain by going out for a hobble, well it’s too much. But then it end up being worth it because I get to see stuff like this. I just wish it didn’t hurt so much. 💙
04 Monday May 2026
Posted in health, health & happiness, home, hope, sevilla
Can I tell you? April was a MONTH. I mean, it was a good month in many ways, especially the trip to Aracena, but that also took a lot out of me and left me frustrated that I wasn’t able to do more there because I COULDN’T WALK. So that’s a painfully ongoing situation and I’m a bit stuck in “lose weight limbo” after my last traumatology visit when they finally confirmed I needed a full knee replacement BUT that they wouldn’t put me on a surgery waiting list until I lose 10 kilos. Meanwhile, I can’t find my report from that last appointment (they are usually online) so on Wednesday I will be seeing my GP to make sure she knows what’s up, as she will be the one to confirm the weight loss (when it happens) and then inform traumatology. I just want to make sure this is all written down somewhere. Every day the pain gets worse and to say it’s taking me from my life is a serious understatement.
01 Friday May 2026
Posted in anniversary, blogging, casa azahar, sevilla, writing
And just like that the most boring blog on the internets turns 20! For any newcomers, the reason for so much weird randomness here is that back in my cancer days I started putting up a post a day, no matter what (or what about), to give myself something to achieve, an activity, since I couldn’t do much else. So you might get a long heartfelt post about my treatment or a quiz or something about the cats. And then I kept on (and on) simply because if I stopped for a while then I’d feel like the next post would have to be about something important or even of interest. Also, whenever I want to know when I last bought sheets or went to Barcelona… well it’s all here!
Thanks for sticking around.
30 Thursday Apr 2026
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, sevilla
It’s snail season and time for another Caracolia 🐌🐌🐌. The fourth edition starts today with 13 establishments from Sevilla (city and province) bringing their best down to the riverside venue next to the Torre del Oro. I am going to try and get down one day, though I have to admit I’m unlikely to try more than one version (the secret is in the sauce). I like them well enough, but a little goes a long way. If you’re in Sevilla pop down and try them out. You can read more about the annual gastronomy festivals organised by the Academia Sevilla de Gastronomía (of which I am a proud member) here… Festivales Gastronómicos de Sevilla.
29 Wednesday Apr 2026
Posted in casa azahar, cats, home, sevilla
Tags
not a cockroach
It all started on Christmas Eve. Peter had retired early and was all snug in his bed without a care, and I wandered into the kitchen to get a drink and OMG there were three (aack yes, THREE) cockroaches scuttling around on the floor. I quickly grabbed the Shoe of Death and somehow smacked them all to smithereens and it was only after I had taken care of disposing of their ghastly corpses (and the adrenaline started to wear off) that I started to wonder what the hell roaches were doing in my house IN WINTER. In over 33 years, and in all my different Casa Azahars, I had only ever come across 2 or 3 of the fuckers during the summer, which was bad enough. But then I remembered that I actually had 5 sightings last summer, which was unusual. And I have never seen more than one at a time. When I told Peter the next morning he joked about having been visited by the ghosts of Christmas roaches past (not funny).
Anyhow, since then I started seeing random roaches and I wondered if it had something to do with one of the shops downstairs that had had its drains flushed out mid-December. Maybe the roaches had been disturbed and started scattering throughout the building? I don’t know. I finally mentioned it to my downstairs neighbour who insisted she hadn’t seen any so I let it go until I finally couldn’t any more (had actually taken to sleeping with the lights on as sightings had become so frequent). I told my landlord about the problem just over a week ago and on Monday he sent over Pepe Matacucas (Roach Slaying Joe – not his real name) to check things out and he discovered that they were indeed (aaargh) nesting in the kitchen. So today he came over again to, well, slay roaches.
casa azahar 