Tag Archives: home

sick… again!

31 Monday Mar 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, health, hospitals

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

What started last week as a sore throat seemed to be another of “those things” going around. I’d had almost identical symptoms last December just before Christmas. Both then and now repeated Covid-Flu tests have come back negative so I didn’t think too much about it. Turns out I should have been staying home! I was out for a rather glorious lunch at Restaurante Limón on Thursday, invited by the PR at five-star Don Ramón Hotel, and felt okay when I got there. But by the time lunch was over I was feeling decidedly not okay and, after getting home, it was all I could to do shower and put myself to bed. And well, I’ve been there ever since. Other than a trip to emergency today.

It was truly bizarre going from having such mild symptoms to becoming bedridden within a couple of hours. The scariest symptom is that since Saturday my vision started going wonky, but really they are all very worrying and unpleasant (I brought a written list of them with me to the hospital). Anyhow, I have a an assortment of meds now, so hopefully they will have the desired effect.

it’s the little things

23 Thursday Jan 2025

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla, spain

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, ,

When I first moved into the present Casa Azahar one of the annoying things was that the toilet didn’t flush properly, but it was a minor issue (then) and there was so much else to do here that I didn’t want to bother the landlord about it. He was already being quite generous (then) about taking care of any repairs, even sending his handyman Tony Black Hands to install all the light fixtures I’d bought, that I didn’t want to push it. When it finally needed addressing about a year later he sent Tony again to change the cistern apparatus thingy, but somehow it didn’t make much difference. Once again, I didn’t want to rock the boat as it was at least a bit better. For a while.

Well SEVEN YEARS LATER the damn thing is finally working. I have a toilet that actually does what it’s supposed to when you press the button. And what did it cost? 40 euros. Duh. Well okay, that was the cost of the thingy, as it turned out that the labour charge (probably double that) was covered by the landlord’s insurance (which is how we are doing things these days). But man, really wish I had done this years ago. It’s just that every time anything goes wrong lately I get this hard knot of anxiety in my gut because it’s become a bit vague about who is responsible for what around here and I really hate confrontation. I think if I didn’t live in constant fear of losing my home every August (contract renewal time) I would feel better about forking out repair money. Maybe I should try and negotiate a five-year contract next August, so I can relax a bit and feel better about having to invest in my home when things need fixing. Because damn I love this place so much.

shadowfax

27 Friday Dec 2024

Posted by in casa azahar, computers, devices

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

shadowfax (1)

This afternoon Peter was on his regular family zoom chat when his laptop conked out. And when he tried to reboot he got the same scary blue screen HEY YOUR BATTERY IS FUCKED message I was getting on Boquerón last summer, which prompted me to purchase Galga before I lost everything. Frankly Peter’s Silver was getting on, over six years old, and had been acting up for some time. And so what the hell, we went shopping.

Say hello to Shadowfax… a sleek Lenovo model that has everything and more to suit Peter’s requirements. And it was on sale! Bonus. When I saw it I thought of this name immediately but just said to Peter he should name it before we set it up at home later. Then over a post-purchase celebratory glass of cava he said… how about Shadowfax? Guess it was meant to be.

Anyhow, Shadowfax is now all set up and ready for Peter to fire up in the morning. Long may he run.

shadowfax (2)

brrrrrrrr…

08 Tuesday Oct 2024

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

cold showers

A few weeks ago the hot water pressure started acting up. Sometimes it was there, other times nothing, although the cold water was working fine. Landlord had someone come over from his insurance company and – of course! – just before he showed up the hot water kicked back in again. So this guy reported back that there was no problem, even though I had told him it was an intermittent thing, and he actually told me (but not the landlord) that the water heater was probably blocked, so nothing was done. Spent the next couple of weeks fiddling with the cold-hot water taps to get the hot water to kick in, which usually happened.

Until last Saturday when it didn’t. And that was it, we’ve had NO hot water since Saturday morning. Not wanting to bother the landlord over the weekend I sent a text message hoping they could do something first thing Monday morning, which they did. Nice guy who came over late last night told me the water heater definitely needs to be replaced, called the landlord, and apparently no problem. Except now I have no idea when we are going to get a replacement water heater. Might be today (doubtful), more likely tomorrow or even whenever.

Meanwhile, we’ve been taking COLD SHOWERS since Saturday and – can I tell you? – it’s really really unpleasant and even painful. I’m actually considering booking a hotel or asking a neighbour if I can come over and shower. I mean, I could call the Corte Inglés right now and pay for a new water heater to be delivered and installed within 24 hours, but I already did that when the washing machine died earlier this year, and I really don’t think it’s up to me to replace these basic appliances. This is very frustrating.