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Tag Archives: work

sherry lovers unite!

12 Thursday Dec 2024

Posted by azahar in health, health & happiness, sevilla, work

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health, life changes, sevilla, work

sherry lovers

Such a fun afternoon with these new sherry converts from Austin Texax. They came to me via a friend of a friend who I met here a few weeks ago. My ONLY paid work (so far) for the month of December. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to hold out while I wait (and wait and wait) to get the knee treatment I need so that I can walk – and work – again. It’s been months since I had to give up the walking tours, but I can still manage the sherry tastings as they take place in one spot, so I can hobble there and back again. Unfortunately there isn’t the same demand for tastings as for the tours.

Aside from missing the income… I just really miss THIS. Being me. Being out and about. Meeting and connecting with people, helping them enjoy their time here. And just having fun. For a couple of hours I feel in my element again and can forget about the pain. Anyhow, I’ve been looking for other ways to make a buck for some time now, simply because having all my eggs in one basket is not good for me either practically or emotionally. I wish I could say I had a couple of hot irons in the fire but I’m still stuck, spinning my wheels. Help? Any ideas?

new moos!

25 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by azahar in work

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business cards, work

new moos

It’s been years since I ordered new biz cards, for the obvious reason of Covid and all that has followed, and even after getting back to work they just didn’t seem relevant any more. Like, who still uses business cards? Well it turns out that plenty of people do and, after finding myself at a couple of work events where I was asked for my card, I decided it was time to put a few in my bag for such occasions. But of course the info on my old cards was out of date so… new Moo cards for 2023.

back to work!

02 Friday Sep 2022

Posted by azahar in covid, health & happiness, sevilla, tapas tours, work

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covid, sevilla, work

back to work

For the past week or so I’ve been looking forward to this day with both delight and dread because, although I love doing my food and wine tours, I’m also very aware that Covid is still a clear and present danger. Not that you’d know it from the way people are behaving and the fact that our government is only testing (some) over 60s with and have all but given up on any preventative measures. So now I will be meeting up with travellers who have been going all over the place maskless and for the most part not testing themselves. This is worrying. But I also have to pay my rent. I have been looking at other ways to make a living but, so far, nothing has panned out. Anyhow, wish me luck.

shutting down!

11 Monday Jul 2022

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, health & happiness, home, work

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covid, sevilla, staycation, work

sorry closed

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.

overwhelmed by laundry

13 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, life stuff

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Tags

coronavirus, covid, sevilla, work

laundry

It’s not always easy, coordinating loads of laundry when you live alone. I usually have 2-3 loads a week. Two of sheets and towels, pyjamas and light coloured clothing, then one of darks. The darks don’t happen every week because those are mostly my outdoor clothes and I only go out maybe twice a week. But today I got overwhelmed by laundry.

It turned out I had to do an extra load thanks to Loki making a mess on my duvet cover (and I only have one of those, so it had to get washed and dried in the sun same day) and suddenly I had to time all this washing and drying, and sheet changing, which now included wrangling with the duvet cover, with… well, nothing at all really. Because I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO. But it still felt like my whole day was consumed by this to the point that I had to ask myself how I ever ran my own business and worked full time. Answer? No fucking idea. Though I am a firm believer in the more you do, the more you do. If you know what I mean.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Casa Román having some tapas and it was only me and Peter inside, plus maybe 2-3 other tables outside. Predictably the usually attentive waiters were not paying any attention at all. And because I know them so well I said something to that effect, complaining about how the service had really gone downhill, blah blah, joking with them. But it’s true, and Inma said the same to me, that when it’s busy they all switch into high gear and everything runs super efficiently. But when there is next to nothing to do, motivation dwindles. I remember that very well from when I worked in restaurants.

But it’s the same in just day to day life. When you have a full schedule you get all that done and then some. It’s because you have so much to do that you are already geared up to do a bit more. The energy is already there. I’m not talking about being so busy there’s no time for anything else, just a healthy amount of work to keep you feeling challenged and interested. And guess what? Somehow the laundry gets done too!

Since last March I’ve had one writing assignment and a short stint as community manager for a small group of restaurants here. Other than that, I just get up in the morning and wonder what the fuck I am going to do that day other than make lunch. Thing is, although I miss the money from those two jobs I had, what I miss more is the sense of purpose I had when I got up, that I had STUFF TO DO. I don’t know why I find it so hard to self-motivate, because I’m sure there are plenty of things I could be working on (other than lunch). Okay, maybe not true that I don’t know why. The thing is that I’m scared. Sometimes scared out of my wits. When someone gives me a job to do I HAVE to snap out of it and get it done. And what a relief that is. Or was.

So I don’t know. I realise many people are suffering much more than me. On the other hand, others are complaining about the contents of their gourmet organic vegetable delivery… my online friends are all over the map.  😉  Which is fair enough because we all have different lives. I know I have to make some very big decisions about mine. And yet I can’t seem to… oh, guess I wasn’t overwhelmed by laundry after all.

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