21 Friday Jul 2023
Got a bit sidetracked on my way to see the Procesión Fluvial of the Virgen del Carmen… by these guys! I mean. They were just asking for it standing outside the FIVE STAR Hotel Mélia Colón at the end of my street. Later I posted it on Twitter and pal Sarah did a great take on this, making it timeless…
20 Thursday Jul 2023
The Velá de Santa Ana officially starts tomorrow but tonight the Virgen del Carmen sets out on a short excursion down the river before making her way – back on land – to her home. And in almost 30 years in Sevilla (anniversary coming up in September) I have never witnessed this. Well folks, tonight is the night. Stay tuned…
11 Tuesday Jul 2023
Posted in health, health & happiness, sevilla
Since my GP prescribed cholesterol meds for me last Thursday I’ve been uneasy. I filled the prescription but then I was hesitant to just start taking them without doing a bit more research. And what I was reading was not making me feel any better. Unlike the blood pressure meds I’m on, statins seem to be seen as an “easy fix” drug, so that people can take them without feeling they need to make lifestyle changes. Which we all know is bullshit.
And so, since I am about to meet up with a nutritionist soon, I’ve decided to take the route of modifying my diet, which others have told me has worked very well for them with lowering cholesterol levels. It just makes more sense. Take a drug with some rather dodgy side effects or cut out putting so much cholesterol in your body? I’m opting for the latter. Wish me luck!
07 Friday Jul 2023
Posted in sevilla, social media, tapas tours
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Another Sherry & Tapas Tour and another meet up with an Instagram pal I’ve “known” for ages and finally got to meet in person. Sarah and Ian are here for a few days and so we started things off right with a delicious afternoon bar-hopping and hugging the buildings for shade (it’s getting hot out there!). Social media and my tours have brought so many lovely people into my life.
06 Thursday Jul 2023
Posted in health, health & happiness, knee saga, knees
Since my GP for all the time I’ve lived here, also my friend and my second ever English student Agustín, retired a couple of years ago, I have had a new GP assigned to me. A woman. And she seems nice enough, albeit a bit, um, terse? So I never feel like I can actually talk to her, other than to ask her to get things done (blood tests, this and that). Mostly because her response to most of the “complaints” I’ve had over the past couple of years has been YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. Uh, thanks? I mean, of course I know I need to lose weight, for so many reasons. But this has always just felt like a brush off and not helpful.
Anyhow, went back after latest blood test and also after THE KNEE INCIDENT. I really thought she was just going to remind me once again that I am fat and tell me to take Ibuprofen, but she surprised me. I mean, she did tell me (once again) that I have to lose weight. But this time she looked me in the eye and said, “Shawn you have four things going on here, your age, your weight, your blood pressure and now high cholesterol. You need to start taking this seriously.” Gulp.
She then booked an x-ray for my knee for Monday morning, started me on cholesterol meds (to go with my blood pressure ones), arranged for more blood tests in three months, said she would call me next week with the x-ray results (she thinks it’s artrosis) and is sending me to a nutritionist. So that was all a bit more than I’d bargained for but at least she’s not just brushing me off this time.
Thing is, I DO know all of this and I’ve known it for some time. But nobody has called me on it until now. And I don’t know what I think I was trying to “get away” with because that doesn’t make any sense. It wasn’t even that… it’s something I can’t describe. Anyhow, got a bit of stuff to “unpack” here, as they say.
casa azahar 