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caturday may 16 2020

16 Saturday May 2020

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This is my dude. I wake up to this big guy stretched out next to me with his head on my pillow, like he owns the bed. The other two come and visit me while I’m in bed, but Loki is the only one who spends the entire night. It’s his time to get in ALL the cuddles.

When I had the first trio of cats they all slept with me, in my single bed, which I have to admit was a bit challenging. I’d often wake up in some sort of pretzel position with cats filling in the gaps. Then I moved and got a bigger bed, and so that was a bit more comfortable.

But there was a definite heirarchy. Lua got to sleep on my head, her son Sunny slept at my feet, and Azar would curl up along my side. When Lua died Azar wasted no time taking over the coveted pillow position, and Sunny moved up to the middle of the bed. But after Sunny left us and I found Loki as a companion for Azar… well, Azar was having none of that. I was his human, that was HIS pillow, and his bed.

So Loki never had a chance to sleep in my bed. Until Azar passed away. By that time Luna had also joined the family, but of course Azar totally ruled the bed by then, so the other two had to find somewhere else to sleep. But as soon as Loki realised Azar was gone, this was his chance. He started visiting during the night, the visits started lasting longer… finally he was IN.

Luna has always been a bit of a weirdo loner, but she does like bed visits. On her terms, when she wants them. But she has never spent the whole night with me. And Morcilla? It kills me but that this little girl, my heart of hearts, refuses to sleep in my bed. I blame Loki. I reckon if it was just me and Morcilla she’d be cuddling up with me every night. Especially as she spends every night curled up on either my comfy chair or my office chair, you know, the ones that are mine and smell like me. And she’s very possessive about me during the day. I think she is biding her time. She doesn’t like to share.

So yes, there is a whole other Sharing The Human routine for daytime, but we can talk about that another time.

dodging raindrops and taking my time

13 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by in home, sevilla, weather

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One hour before this shot, and about an hour and a half after, it was totally bucketing down with rain, but I managed to find a quick sunny hour to do my rooftop walk. It’s been like this a couple of days this week, so I can’t complain because I thought I wasn’t going to be able to take any walks at all. The other thing is that cooler temps are back with the rain, so I still haven’t had to use the aircon, thus saving some €€€.

I don’t want to say that living in confinement has become easy, but if you don’t fight it then you end up just going along with each day and carping the diem. Because I can’t really plan much, my days are more about the quality of them, how much I enjoy them, rather than on being productive, setting goals etc. Am I crazy to think that if I keep on with this relaxed come-what-may attitude then I might get back in touch with… me? And thus get a clearer idea of what I should do next?

Things I haven’t been doing… making up biz plans for “whenever” or “whatever”, taking online courses, giving online courses, reading books, making travel-food videos to sell online, making podcasts to promote my biz, listening to podcasts, writing “lockdown” articles to try and sell (or for that matter writing anything to try and sell), losing weight.

Things I have been doing… getting up WHENEVER. Cooking. Drinking wine. Being online a lot with social media and chats, reading articles. Exercising (walks and workouts). A bit of tv, some housework, the occasional (mostly accidental) nap, enjoying my cats. And letting my imagination run free.

It feels a bit like being in a state of incubation (possibly an unfortunate term to use right now) with ideas just floating around and waiting to see which ones will develop and hatch. This is a much more passive me, I usually want to get out there and get stuff done, have a plan, make things happen. But for the moment I’m just going with this, because something is telling me this is the way for me to go. Stay tuned!

lemony

11 Monday May 2020

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Got a supermarket delivery on Saturday and discovered that instead of sending me the 3 lemons I’d ordered they sent 3 KILOS of lemons (!!!). Well I mean, what on earth does someone quarantined on their own do with 3 fucking kilos of lemons? So of course I did the wise thing and asked Twitter, specifically requesting that no one mention lemonade.

Gotta say there were some very interesting ideas, mostly for lemony baked goods, preserves and jams, and lots of mentions of gin. Sadly or otherwise I hardly ever eat sweet things and, ever since The Unfortunate Incident with gin when I was a teenager, I can barely be in the same room with a gin and tonic. Then someone suggested freezing the lemon juice in ice cube trays for future use, but I don’t actually own any ice cube trays (something that must be remedied, along with getting a potato masher, a rolling garlic press and a muffin tin for making yorkshire puddings).

Anyhow… that same someone also said I could freeze sliced lemon and just add them to drinks as required. Bingo! Because since the warm weather hit I’ve gone back to my usual 1 litre of lemon water per day, which is why I’d ordered those damn 3 lemons in the first place (good thing I didn’t order 6!). Frozen lemon slices are perfect for my needs, but of course there isn’t space in my freezer for 3 (fucking) kilos of sliced lemons.

As luck would have it, my friend Lucy is having her hair done at a place around the corner from me today, so when I take out the rubbish I will drop off a bag of lemons for her. Apparently her Bakewell Tart is famous and lemon curd is the magic ingredient. Win-win.

Glad that’s sorted! And I’m sure this has all been just as exhausting for you as it was for me. 🙂

lockdown day 55

07 Thursday May 2020

Posted by in casa azahar, coronavirus, home

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The other day I read this article by Madrid No Frills about her experience meeting two people inside their migrant safe house in Lavapiés, and it brought home to me how much of my social media CORONAVIRUS stuff comes from people who are actually doing just fine. Well, other than not being able to go out much. They are healthy and either still have jobs or have their own resources to live on. So on Twitter and Instagram there’s a lot about sourdough and banana bread, seemingly endless garden bbq’s with home deliveries from top end food and wine suppliers. And that’s totally fine, and I really do enjoy seeing all that. BUT…

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who knew?

06 Wednesday May 2020

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Was about to do a big kitchen clean up the other day and looked at the extraction fan filters with dread because, frankly, they were getting pretty gross. My kitchen sink isn’t big enough to submerge them, and I don’t have a bathtub, so cleaning these fuckers is always a major drag. Then I thought…I wonder if… and did a quick google. And sure enough. You can wash these bad boys in the dishwasher! And I’m telling you right now… LIFE. CHANGED. It seems obvious in retrospect, but I’d never thought of this option before now. Have to admid this made me far happier than it should have, but they’re so clean and shiny now and I didn’t have to do anything.

Yep, slow news week… 😉