
18 Monday Jul 2022
15 Friday Jul 2022

So yeah, it’s been HOT. This past week most days it’s got up to about 45º at peak hours and only “cooling down” to about 27º overnight, and it looks to be staying that way for a while yet. It’s been amusing to watch my Twitter timeline and folks in London crying HEATWAVE at 32º (overnight 16º). When I point out what an actual heat wave is the inevitable response is that we are used to these temps and that our streets, etc are better equipped (narrow and shady) and that we all have AC down here. Which of course is the opinion of people who have only stayed in the touristic centre here at hotels or AirBnBs. But if you step outside the old town, even five minutes away, suddenly the streets are wider, no shade anywhere. The reality of living here is quite different.
14 Thursday Jul 2022
Posted in casa azahar, home, sevilla
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Some days it’s all about the little things. When the flatmate moved back in probably the most cumbersome thing he brought over was his electric fan, which he took apart to transport. At the beginning of summer it turned out that a couple of vital pieces were missing, a big screw that secured the pole to the base, and the doohickey that secured the fan blade to the motor. Well imagine how clever I felt when, after putting the new cat stand together in June, I thought to try one of the big screws from the old stand on the base of Peter’s fan and… hey it worked! The pole fit right in and was secure. It was actually at that moment we realised that the doohickey was also missing. Fuck. Since then the fan has been in Peter’s room, standing there half assembled, doing nothing. Until today!
12 Tuesday Jul 2022
11 Monday Jul 2022
Posted in coronavirus, covid, health & happiness, home, work
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Yep, again. You may recall that I finally got back to work again last September after more than a year and a half of my business being totally shut down, and without any government support. In spite of being quite desperate for some income I was waiting until I got my second jab before facing the travelling public at close quarters. And things were starting to pick up when omicron hit early December and I made the difficult decision to shut down again December-January because, well, same deal. It just wasn’t worth the risk.
Since then travel has become “easier”, meaning that Covid prevention measures are mostly removed everywhere now. And so of course Covid B5 and other variants are running rampant, not to mention monkeypox. During the first two years of the pandemic I didn’t know anyone personally who had contracted Covid. Not here, not globally. But since about 1-2 months ago suddenly EVERYONE is catching it, and not a week goes by without a few friends getting sick. Including my flat mate Peter in mid-May. Talk about close to home!
And now with EVERYONE going on summer holiday, mostly not taking any precautions, and certainly not getting tested, I’ve decided to shut down again for the rest of the summer, just like I did last winter. No, I cannot afford to do this, but I also refuse to risk my health, my life, all because people can’t be bothered to care about other people.
This week I have two tapas tours with people who booked ages ago, so I will honour those. But after that… looks like I’ll be off work and staycationing at home until September.