Tag Archives: home

organising my life

03 Wednesday Nov 2021

Posted by in casa azahar, home, homecooking

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mepal containers

So remember when I upgraded my coffee AND my coffee container? Of course you do 😉.  Anyhoodle, now that it is baking season once again I’ve been going through my cupboards and getting things organised. Turns out I have several types of flour still in their paper packaging from last winter and of course I should be storing them better. Not only to prevent weevils, but also to help keep them fresh. I liked the design of my new coffee container so much that I went back to the shop to see if they had larger ones suitable for flour and yep they did, so now I’m in business.

Pre-lockdown I did very little baking so one bag of all-purpose flour pretty much did what it said on the package. But now I have AP flour, whole wheat, self-raising, garbanzo, corn flour… next up I’ll be looking at new containers for rice and pasta. I think I’m going to stick with these ones. Rectangular makes so much sense (round ones waste so much space), plus they are stackable. I’m in love!

nice ice at last

13 Wednesday Oct 2021

Posted by in casa azahar, home

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ice (1)-001

Sometimes I honestly can’t believe how stupid I am. So about a million years ago a flatmate left behind a few boxes of these ice-cube bags (see below). I mean, there were a lot of them. And so I started to use them and hated them straight away. Really hard to fill, and the ice cubes were so small. Plus of course single use plastic. BUT I had so many of them and thought I shouldn’t just throw them out. Then yesterday I FINALLY used the last one (seriously, it’s been years with these things) and felt justified in buying some actual ice cube trays. Also stupid for not doing it sooner.

ice (2)

so hate when this happens!

05 Tuesday Oct 2021

Posted by in casa azahar, health & happiness, home

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deodorant

I’m sure this happens to you too. As soon as you come to rely on something never changing… BLAM… it changes. After years of trial and error I finally found this light spray deodorant (L) with no nasties and with a soft fresh scent that didn’t fight with my perfume and body lotion (body lotion! that’s another one) and so I have remained loyal. For years! Then I saw they had changed the packaging (R) so there was no longer a plastic cap on top, instead you just swivelled the top until the nozzle appeared. Fine, less plastic, whatever. Except that wasn’t all they changed. THEY CHANGED THE WAY IT SMELLED. And it smelled… awful.

Well, awful to me. There was a sharp acrid note to it, like cheap perfume gone off, and I don’t know how to say how disappointed I was. I mean, again?? It’s happened to me with perfumes, body lotions, laundry soap, hair products… you get all nice and cosy with something and then it’s gone. And for me smells are a really big deal. Actually a huge deal. So today I was in a shop and saw they still had some of the old green-cap stock of my deodorant and bought the last four they had. I know it’s just a stopgap, but at least for now I don’t have to spritz acrid shit on my pits. How’s your day going?

upping my coffee game

04 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by in home

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coffeee

So I have only been thinking about doing this since a little coffee shop opened across the street from me some time before the first lockdown. I can hear the coffee grinder going during the day and enjoy the chatter of the coffee drinkers standing outside. Back in Toronto I had my own coffee grinder at home, as well as a small espresso/cappuccino machine. Since then I don’t know what happened, but between moving here and there I just got out of thinking too much about my morning coffee, other than I needed at least one strong cup of café con leche to start the day. But this week I finally took the plunge and bought a bag of their house blend for my french press.

This of course also meant a coffee container upgrade. I mean just look at that one on the left. I don’t know how long I’ve had it, probably more than 15 years. It was the right size to hold the contents of the 250 gram coffee packages from the supermarket so I just kept using it. But the new one actually has a rubber seal on the lid, so not only is it prettier, it will keep my coffee fresher. Meanwhile, I am still getting the hang of making coffee with the new stuff, haven’t quite got the right quantity down yet. But I have to say that the coffee does taste much nicer.

coffee

september

01 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by in cancer, change, coronavirus, covid, lockdown, sevilla

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september

September has always felt like the “new year” to me, much more than the first of January, with its post summer holiday back-to-school feeling of everything starting over again. But this year, not so much. Of course this is in part due to Covid, but even last September felt more… hopeful?… with several tapas bars reopening after an extra long lockdown. It felt like things were getting better and people were still more or less pulling together. But I have to say that in these past twelve months I have been feeling more and more discouraged. Not so much by Covid, which is still proving to be a serious daily issue, but because people have been showing themselves to be… well, themselves. I do cling to the hope that there are still good people out there, simply because I know a few myself and so there must be more, but there are days when I truly despair.

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