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Tag Archives: work

back to work!

02 Friday Sep 2022

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

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

≈ 2 Comments

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.

refused!

02 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by azahar in coronavirus, covid, home, work

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

covid-19, sevilla, work

refused (3)

So… FUCK. Today I received by certified mail the official refusal of my application for the Ingreso Mínimo Vital, kind of the lowest you can go with begging for money from the government. This was because they cut me off from the monthly assistance for self-employed (autónomos) in June, because I had taken a break last year in August from social security payments since I had no work that month. I mean, a LOT of us seasonal workers do this, because otherwise you are paying 300€ a month even though you’re not not making a penny. So we sign off. And apparently they don’t give a fuck about the previous ten years or more that we have been duly paying in… miss a month you are fucked over.

I had government assistance (700€ a month) March-June, which of course doesn’t cover my basic living expenses but hey, it was better than nothing. Then they issued an extension of this aid, but suddenly I wasn’t eligible if I hadn’t paid into Social Security every month during the previous year. Bear in mind this was my first “baja” in almost ten years. Didn’t matter. I was cut off. So of course at the beginning of July I signed off again, because I was actually unemployed, no longer running a business and clearly not able to keep paying 300€ a month. And now they are saying that as long as I am signed off I can’t apply for any other self-employed assistance. Catch-22.

So a few months ago I applied for the Ingreso Mínimo Vital (400€) and also for rent assistance. These are the two things you can apply for if you’re actually rock bottom, but it turns out I’m not eligible for those either. I honestly don’t know what’s expected of us, and by “us” I mean all the self-employed in Spain who are being hung out to dry in this Catch-22 situation.

I’ve spoken (again) to my landlord and he still doesn’t want to lower my rent, it seems he would rather take his chances of me moving out and somehow not being left with an empty apartment for several months. But just the idea of moving just breaks my heart… for now I will hold on to this place until I can’t any more.

The whole of November I was caught up with my only paid gig since March – another article for Decanter. And despite the stress, insecurity and anxiety that I suffered over it this past month, if they asked me to do another one tomorrow I’d say HELL YEAH. 🙂 And not just for the money. It just felt great to be focused on work again and to be doing something.  And so now it’s back to wondering what I’m going to do next.

How are you guys doing?

patreon

03 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by azahar in work

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

patreon, photos, work, writing

patreon page
So I am giving Patreon a try. As I have mentioned here before I’ve had friends who have very generously sent me donations since lockdown. But sometimes it’s awkward for them to ask, and also to receive. I’ve also had a couple of people I don’t know at all, but who have been following my various blogs about Sevilla and Spain, and wanted to send me something in appreciation for all the work I’ve put into them. Which of course is lovely and very much appreciated.

And then I heard about Patreon. Now there are several ways to offer up your creativity here. Some offer services, some online classes, others access to otherwise private online content. And others, I have seen, just promise to keep their content free and accessible to all. I’m in that last category. I mean, I always would anyhow, but it has occurred to me that maybe people like it enough that they may want to sponsor me. This is my page…

Patreon / Azahar Sevilla

I’m still working my way around how this works. I know there’s a fee (8% of whatever I receive) as well as handling fees for receiving money (same as Paypal charges, 3.4% + 0.35€ per transaction), then of course taxes. Anyhow, this is for monthly patrons, which is what their infrastructure is set up for. For one-off or occasional donations it still seems like Paypal is the best option.

So I thought I could just put this out there and see what happens. It’s still early days, so we’ll see how it goes. They asked me to write something about what I was doing/offering so I will copy and paste it below here. Let me know what you think.

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azahar on twitter

  • spring 2023 azahar.me/2023/03/20/spr… 11 hours ago
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  • @SkoOrp A ver si te va a ayudar un poquito el artículo en Decanter, creo que se va a publicar la semana que viene. Ánimo. 6 minutes ago
  • Morcilla's op is tomorrow morning and I spent the day being a total wreck. Wanted to go out (it's a glorious day ou… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 24 minutes ago

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