A bit of Christmassy Sevilla…
christmas lights
08 Thursday Dec 2011
Tag Archives: sevilla
recyle bin graffiti competition
27 Sunday Nov 2011
Yesterday afternoon I came across a group of graffiti artists participating in a competition, painting glass recycle bins (concurso contenedor vidrio). This has been going on for the last few years. Or at least, I’ve noticed the painted bins around town before but have never seen the annual contest in progress until now.
I was pleased to see a lot more stylishness to the painting this year, rather than the usual graffiti mishmash of wonky letters and weird images. Most artists had a picture of what they were painting on top of their bin, some showing how they worked out the dimensions, and it was quite impressive to see how they turned a flat painting into a three-dimensional one.
A couple of my favourites were the flamenco dancer and the “Eye of Cthulhu” one below, which of course reminded me of my friend raincoaster, so I made a special collage of it just for her.
[click on images to enlarge]
~ also posted on the azahar Sevilla blog ~
water works
15 Tuesday Nov 2011
Back in February when I thought I was literally flushing money down the toilet I made a few changes in order to save water, but the water bill kept coming in very high and also saying that nobody lived here and that those 0 inhabitants were using more than 300 litres of water a day (!!!).
So I spoke to my next door neighbour about his water bill and it turned out they were paying half the amount I was – and they have a baby! So I finally went down to the Emasesa office to ask what the heck was going on and they told me that I had to “empadronar” (not sure what this is in English, basically you register how many people are living in your house at a government office) and bring that certificate to the office in order to change the rate. Because apparently the rate you pay is less when more people live in your house.
And so I did all this and the next water bill, which arrived yesterday, was a little more than half the amount of the previous one.
Great, you say? Well, yes. But, why didn’t Emasesa tell me about the empadronamiento certificate when I first went to their office in February to change the name on the water bill – a “service” for which they charged a whopping 78.50€? I mean, wtf. They obviously saw that my place was listed as having no inhabitants and knew about the crazy rate I’d be paying. And if I hadn’t spoken to my neighbour I’d never have known that my water bill was off because every other place I’ve lived in Spain had the water included in the rent.
In other news, my old friends at Movistar are now suing me because I didn’t pay their final – INCORRECT – bills in which they charged me for service when I didn’t have any and, after several phone calls from me (I’ll never get that time back), wouldn’t send me corrected ones. Bastards.
And now I am off to enjoy a birthday lunch with Pilar and forget all this crap for awhile.
tunas galore!
13 Sunday Nov 2011
I’ve mentioned the Tunas here before, but can’t find where now. They are usually university students and each different faculty (medicine, law, engineering etc) has its own group of wandering minstrals who dress up and play traditional songs, usually to make a bit of beer money and pick up girls. Though I remember once in Salamanca seeing a group of Tunas below a balcony serenading an 80-year-old woman, which remains in my mind as one of the most endearing things I have ever seen.
For the past week or so I’ve been seeing all sorts of Tunas wandering around, and many a bit long in the tooth to be university students. So I finally stopped and asked what was going on and it turns out there is an international Tuna competition going on here. Tonight I saw a group from Mexico! But this group in the video are from nearby Granada.
I do love the Tunas…
on clients and friends…
10 Thursday Nov 2011
Tags
So this was my today, spent with these three lovely people…
I had an appointment with María Paz to help her revive the blog I’d made for her a couple of years ago, and integrate that with new social media accounts I’d created. Our appointment was for 11 o’clock, and I thought we’d finish in time for me to get to the gym, shower and have a quick bite to eat before my Spanish/English class with Pablo at 3.00. Well, due to this and that María Paz didn’t show up until 1.40 which kind of put the kibosh on, well, everything. Though I did manage a quick shower before she finally arrived. And then made a sandwich after Pablo got here. A part of our class involved helping Pablo get connected with London people on Twitter for an upcoming trip there, and it ended just fifteen minutes before my “proper” English class with my friend Agustín’s son (also Agustín)… and whew! Not the day I’d expected or planned but lots of cool stuff happened, and I was inspired in a many ways. But the really cool thing is how my personal life is also becoming my professional life, which is turning into what I’d want to do anyhow when I get out of bed in the morning. So it’s sometimes hard to tell when I’m working and when I’m not.
After all this it was suddenly 8pm and I remembered that another Twitter pal from Madrid was in town for a bloggers convention, and so I called Graeme and he met Nog and I for a lovely dinner out at one of my favourite places, La Azotea. And I actually got to eat! Which doesn’t often happen on my tapas tours, so that was a nice change.
And now I’m home and thinking about all the social media stuff I need to get done in the morning before I go to the gym and then prepare for an impromptu gourmet tapas tour that was booked by a group of Dutch people who happened to run into the group of Dutch guys that had been on my tour the day before… yeah, I know!
I really love how some friends have become clients, and how clients and online acquaintences end up becoming my friends. It’s all mixed up and it’s great. Just how I like it. And now to bed! There’s a little black cat waiting for me…
casa azahar 