 | noggin on hairball |
 | shari on the most hated family in the… |
 | Teuchter on hairball |
 | nursemyra on hairball |
 | tobymarx on hairball |
 | dragonqueen on hairball |
 | healingmagichands on hairball |
| nursemyra on hairball |
| noggin on hairball |
| Jane on hairball |
 | Big Bad Johnny P on hairball |
 | azahar on hairball |
| nursemyra on hairball |
 | Swoosh on house MD |
 | daisyfae on hairball |
What a fabulous day!
I haven’t been to the Feria de Jerez since May 2005. It is absolutely my most favourite feria, much better than the very famous Feria de Abril in Sevilla. And so yesterday myself, Nog, Jay, Pipocas & Chucky & Kidlet, “R” (another of the ladies) and her visiting friend all converged on Jerez to spend an afternoon at the fair…
German photographer Walter Schels was terrified of death, but felt compelled to take these extraordinary series of portraits of people before and on the day they died. His partner Beate Lakotta recorded the poignant and revealing interviews with the subjects in their final days.
I found both the article and the photographs very moving.
[warning: some people may find the images disturbing]
Many people have pointed out how minimalist casa az is, which I can understand as there isn’t much`superfluous’ furniture here. But mostly they notice that the walls are bare - this seems to strike people as very strange. Thing is, it isn’t that I want my walls to be bare, but I’ve never been one for putting up any old thing just to fill up wall space or ‘add a bit of colour’ to my rooms. I’ve been in homes where the walls were almost totally covered in pictures and somehow it worked in those places, but it’s just not for me. I always figured that I’d find things I liked poco á poco, that seemed to ‘belong’ somewhere in my home. So getting a new picture is kind of a big deal for me . . .
As I mentioned over here, this was quite the spontaneous trip, which was also suddenly extended from an overnight stay to three nights when I found a charming little inn that had a special 3-night offer going. Pipocas and her husband Chucky (not his real name 
) really made this trip special by taking Nog & me out for lunch every day and also driving us to places near Tavira that we would have never seen otherwise.
As Chucky is Portuguese he ‘did the honours’ at mealtimes, ordering all the food and drink so that we often didn’t know what was coming until it showed up at the table. This was quite a refreshing change for me since I’m usually the one doing this for friends visiting Sevilla. It was nice to be on the receiving end for a change and be totally taken care of.
Muito obrigada, Pipocas & Chucky! 
Here are some of my travel notes on what we saw and did. There are also a few small photos here - if you’d like to see the complete photo album just click here…
I went to my second AWC luncheon yesterday.
Pipocas and I also paid our dues (man) and became official AWC members.
This was quite a different luncheon to the first one I went to at the kebab place in January. First of all, the restaurant is situated in the back gardens of the Alfonso XIII Hotel, which is the poshest place in town (even the outdoor toilets are posh!). And it turned out to be quite a pleasant Japanese restaurant, though I thought it could have done with a little more ‘ambientation’ and some of the food might have been a bit tastier (though it was very pretty). But a fine time was had by all and I might even start partaking of the book sales and clothing charity thangs.
After the luncheon Pipocas and I weren’t feeling too much like getting back to work so we went to sit outside for awhile at Catalina and drink cold water … very salty that Japanese food. We also did a book/dvd swap so yesterday evening I started watching Six Feet Under. Loved the pilot (also really like Rachel Griffiths) so I’m quite looking forward to the rest of the series. Ooooo, it’s fun having girlfriends again!
Anyhow, here are a few photos I took . . .
Went out with Pipocas again, this time to Modesto for a fabulous Friday afternoon lunch. Pipocas had never eaten there before and we eschewed the more touristy (though very pretty) outdoor terrace and upstairs dining room in favour of sitting at the bar, which is my favourite place to eat there. It’s so much cosier and you get to chat with the barmen and the guys in the kitchen. I love that.
We started off with a fritura, then had some grilled pork tenderloin in mushroom sauce and finally tried the razorback clams. Meanwhile, our neighbours were having some interesting looking things and they were very nice about letting me take some pics of their food too.
The new pics are here (photos 17-22)
Today is Nog’s 55th birthday and it was also exactly five years ago that he & I first ‘met’ on h2g2. So it seemed a good excuse reason to go back to Eslava , this time to check out their restaurant. I’d first visited the tapa bar there just a short while ago.
It was a very nice meal. . .
Hours of fun for the whole family with the Funny Face Generator
If you want to see how symmetrical your face is, use a straight on picture of your face with your head held perfectly straight. When placing the midline try to position it directly in the middle of the nose. That’s my passport photo in the centre - the most ’straight on’ pic I have. So much for symmetry=beauty. Unless you happen to fancy Russian peasants or inbred pinheads.
If you want to get a bit more creative try experimenting with different angles, tilted heads, and placing the midline in different places. Play around with it and you can get some hilarious results. Even with just a slightly tilted head Nog comes out looking either like a scary mad scientist or an NFL linebacker.
If you’d like to put your creations in the symmetry album you can email your pics to me along with the orginal photo. I plan on doing a few more myself.
~ via The Generator Blog ~
(it’s fun with cats too!)
It’s been so sunny and warm here the past few days that I’ve been able to open up the balcony doors during the afternoon to let some warm air and sunshine into casa az. This time of year it’s often warmer outside than inside at midday. And after having been cooped up without much fresh air for the past couple of months the cats are totally loving it, immediately going out to sit on the balcony and take in huge gulps of air … oh, the little darlings. In general they’re quite happy being house cats and can spend most of the year hanging out on the balconies to get some fresh air and even do a bit of serious sunbathing. But of course during the winter the balcony doors stay shut in order to keep the place at least somewhat warmish.
Anyhow, I’m loving it too, being able to sit here without wearing three sweaters and a scarf … it’s about 20º today, which for me is almost sandal weather. And so that pic up top is the view today from one of the living room balconies. The bedroom balcony view looks like this.
I feel so lucky to live here.
Welcome to casa az, which is somewhere in that postcard view of Sevilla below.
click on the sun to read a random post
