Tag Archives: sevilla

covid 2023

02 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, health & happiness, sevilla

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covid 2013

Hey guess what… it’s STILL FUCKING HERE.  Yesterday Peter tested positive for Covid (so far I’m still negative). His symptoms started on Sunday (feeling tired, chesty cough) so we did a test on Sunday evening – negative. But Monday morning there it was. Fuck. Obviously since the positive test result Peter has been keeping to his room, wearing a mask, with the balcony doors open for ventilation… and of course he cancelled his tours this week.

I also got in touch with my clients booked for this week. Told them the situation, that I had so far not tested positive (and of course would test on the morning of the tour) but they have opted to cancel. Fair enough. I wanted that to be their choice, it wasn’t mine to make for them, thinking I was fine, it was theirs to make based on the possibility that I might not be. Totally respect that.

And yeah, it sucks to lose work and income. But I don’t get it. How do people who KNOW they are Covid positive still keep going out and about, keep going to work, keep meeting friends for dinner, going on trips, etc etc fucking etc??? Then there are the people who are in denial, who refuse to test, refuse to acknowledge they may have Covid because… who the fuck even knows why? It makes no sense to me.

There is no such thing as “just a cold” in my house any more. Because there is no such thing as “just a cold” pretty much anywhere in the world any more. In fact, I haven’t had JUST A COLD since December 2019. Gee must’ve had something to do with everyone wearing masks, washing hands, paying attention… though I did finally succumb to Covid in October 2022, just two weeks before I was scheduled for the second booster (fuck fuck fuck). “Mild” symptoms, ten days testing positive, twelve days spent at home until I got two consecutive negative tests, so as not to infect other people. I don’t understand why this is a hard concept to take in, or why people think it’s somehow okay to infect others with a potentially fatal illness, or one that could result in life-long incapacity.

I do understand that we all can’t afford to take time off (god knows I can’t) and I fully acknowledge I take some personal risks that I probably shouldn’t but I have to work and, just like everyone, I want to have a bit of my old life back. Those are my personal choices that I make for myself. But for me to decide… hey, flatmate is down with Covid but so far I’m okay so I’m not going to tell anyone unless I have to… who the fuck even thinks like this? The mind reels. And the heart hurts.

an inspiration (not an influencer)

28 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by in culture, Malaga, sevilla

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you really like me

My goodness, what a joy it was to see this on my Twitter time line. And I mean really… wow. It’s an article called Alegría (Joy) by Braulio Ortiz from the Diario de Sevilla, and it just took my breath away. Braulio mentions me and “German in Spain” Christian Machowski as the ones who inspired him to write this article. It’s in Spanish and I think is behind a paywall so I have done a quick translation of the bit that mentions me and Christian. It’s basically about how oftentimes it takes an “outsider” to help us remember who we are.

We must preserve that trait of ours, our joy. It is the people who cling to life, who smile, who captivate us

Often a gaze directed outwards helps us to remember who we are; it returns to us, like a mirror that we bump into unexpectedly on a walk, a reflection in which we no longer stopped. With the excitement of a reunion, of a revelation perhaps, I am following two Twitter accounts with interest: those of Shawn Hennessey, a Canadian living in Seville who organizes amazing gastronomic tours, and Christian Machowski, a German who after residing in the United Kingdom for almost a quarter of a century settled in Malaga. One better appreciates the culinary heritage in its surroundings by observing the amazing tapas shared by the first: the quality of the raw material, and the creativity with which the chefs approach it, make up a comforting landscape. Machowski, for his part, photographs a beautiful Malaga that still preserves its essence, its original charm, despite the voracity with which tourism transforms it. In the images of both, a hospitable, friendly land appears, a place that invites you to stay, a picture almost at the antipodes of that bitter vision of dirty and noisy cities through which we in the south sometimes contemplate ourselves.

How fabulous is that? It will never be less than an overwhelming experience when I find myself being recognised by Spanish people as being one of their own, or at least accepted as someone of recognition based on my love of Spain. So I shall bask in the glow of this for a while. When I thanked Braulio on Twitter I told him that I’d much prefer to be an inspiration than an influencer, and Christian said that he agreed. Thanks again Braulio!

aircon on! way too soon

27 Thursday Apr 2023

Posted by in health & happiness, sevilla, weather

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ac 23

This is crazy. Yesterday evening I put on the AC for a couple of hours before bedtime because it had got up to 29º in the living room and I wanted to cool things down a bit before going to bed. This usually doesn’t happen until June ffs. It’s going to be a long and expensive summer.

And we also have water restrictions to look forward to. What irks is that we are already being told to cut back and save water (which of course is understandable and we are) but they’re still pushing for full on hotel and holiday apt occupancy this summer and the tourists can use as much of our precious water as they want. How is this right? Likewise with the AC. Because if the grid fails this summer it won’t be because locals are running their air conditioning units 24-7. Nobody here does that.

I am so fed up with all of this. The politicians keep bullshitting us with promises of Sustainable Tourism (elections are coming up next month) meanwhile ALL their actions point to the complete opposite. Imagine, politicians lying?? The media has even come up with the term Turismofobia which also puts the onus on us. It isn’t a fucking phobia. It’s a genuine concern based on a very stark reality. We aren’t imagining anything here, it is actually happening. So how is that a phobia? Ridiculous.

Between Covid deniers and Climate Change deniers I honestly don’t know how to feel any more. It feels pointless to keep raging against the machine when it seems most people just don’t give a fuck as long as they aren’t immediately affected, can still go out for dinner and take holidays and pretend like everything is normal.

I ain’t gonna lie, these past couple of years have taken a huge toll on my physical and mental well-being. I barely sleep any more, I feel exhausted and anxiety-ridden most days, and I don’t know what the answer is, or if there even is one. But I’ll still keep using my AC sparingly, keep wearing my mask in poorly ventilated public situations, and keep hoping for the best. xx

old faithful

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by in casa azahar, home, sevilla

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old faithful

Say hello to my number one fan! I think I bought this back in either 2004 or 2005 (as it was pre-blog I can’t check) but I do know that it was back in 2010 when the band holding the front and back grids together went SPROING one day and I had to resort to tying them together by making clever use of freezer bag twist-ties. And since then that’s what I’ve done. Every spring I cut off the old twist-ties, give the grills and fan blade a wash, and put it all back together again.

These days Old Faithful has yellowed with age, with various bits now different shades of ochre and cream – none of it is the Storm Trooper White it was when I bought it. But danged if it doesn’t work just as well as the first day, and even better than other fans I have bought since then. I use this one in my bedroom during the summer because it’s silent as a whisper and those big blue blades whooosh a lovely soft breeze over me all night long, which is really the only way to get through the hot summer nights here. I think we are sometimes too quick to discard appliances that go sproing rather than look for a solution, which is not made easier by so many devices and appliances that seem to have a built-in self-destruct date. What’s your favourite old appliance?

mammogram 2023

25 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in health, health & happiness, hospitals, sevilla

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mammogram 2023

Ouchie time again. I got on the programa mamograma back in March, expecting to get a call sometime later this year (since my previous mammogram had been in August 2021). But then suddenly there I was yesterday at way-too-early o’clock ready to get my boobs smashed and hope for the best. And basically that’s what they told me. That if I don’t hear back from them in the next 2 weeks that means I’m okay. So it’s like a no news is good news situation, but waiting for nothing bad to happen really isn’t one of my virtues (what? me worry??). Anyhow, fingers crossed as usual.