This week I spent most of the time trying to recover from my holiday in Brazil. I rested my leg & worked on my website, but I did get out for dinner on Sunday.

Week 49 of 2023.

Monday, 4th December.

Today I woke around 10 am & felt a little better but the cold I caught since leaving Brazil had left me with a cough, a blocked nose & a congested chest.

I went to the office, arriving at around midday. I spent a couple of hours with Martin & Dave before heading home & putting the heating on.

I had an early night going to bed around 9:30 pm.

Tuesday, 5th December.

I woke a little earlier around 8 am today. Full of cold, I had a coffee & worked on photos for my website until I left to see Martin & Dave at the office at midday.

After catching up with Martin & Dave I went to the EconomyCash store on my way home to get some chicken & a few bits of shopping before heading back to my apartment to carry on working on my website photos.

This evening I watched Arsenal play Luton on the television. It was an amazing game for the neutrals but a real nail-biter for this Arsenal fan. Arsenal won 3-4 which was a bit hard on Luton. Declan Rice got the winner in the 7th minute of extra time & the Arsenal fans, players & manager went mad celebrating. So much so that Mikel Arteta got a yellow card for celebrating too much.

After the game, I went to bed, shattered but happy.

Wednesday, 6th December.

I woke up later than normal today at about 8:30 am. After getting a coffee & checking for messages I walked along to the Buenva Ventura restaurant & had a cooked breakfast & sat talking with my neighbour Liz. We sat talking until around 11 am before going back to our apartments.

I spent the rest of the day sorting through photos that I took on my holiday to see which ones I should put on my website.

Thursday, 7th December.

I slept late again today & didn't wake until around 8:30 am. At around 10:00 am my friend Pat messaged me to see if I wanted to get breakfast at the Buena Vista restaurant. I met him there & we both had a full English breakfast before we left & went to a charity event at Roda bar.

At Roda, I saw my friends Reinder & Frouk selling some of their wonderful stained glass ornaments before getting a coffee & sitting down with my friends Mike Campbell & Martin for a chat. We sat chatting for a while until they had to go & open the bar up & I was then joined by my other friend Mike, I seem to know lots of Mikes. Pat joined us for a coffee & we then left when Pat had to leave to pick up a lemon tree from a friend who live nearby.

After Pat dropped me at home, I spent the day working on my website & added photos to albums for my   holiday in Brazil in November.

Friday, 8th December.

I woke at 7:45 am & got myself a coffee I felt better this morning I think the cold has gone & that I was just suffering from the long journey home last week. I spent the day working on photos for my website & started to type up my notes to add details of my    holiday in Brazil to my website.

I worked all day on my website & when I had enough, I watched some films on the television & went to bed just after 11 pm.

Saturday, 9th December.

I woke around 7:30 am & decided as it was cold that I would spend another day in my warm apartment. I spent all day working on my website & watching football matches.

Liverpool beat Crystal Palace during the day to leapfrog Arsenal to the top of the league. In the evening game, Aston Villa with the help of some very poor refereeing decisions & some even poorer VAR decisions beat Arsenal 1-0 to ensure Liverpool stayed top of the league.

Whilst I agree with most of the VAR decisions in football this year, it is the way the law of football has been written that needs to be changed as soon as possible. It is beyond belief that Arsenal's goal was disallowed for handball when it was deflected onto Havertz's arm by a handball by an Aston Villa player. If the handball by the Villa player wasn't given why was the deflection onto Havertz's arm given as handball?

This season's games are being ruined by the inconsistent use of  VAR & the way that referees & linesmen are using VAR as an excuse not to make decisions.

Sunday, 10th December.

When I got up I had a coffee & immediately started to work on my website. I worked until around 12:30 pm & then went to wait for my friend June to pick me up to go to dinner at Campbell Bar in Roda for dinner.

We had a great dinner & Lauren our waitress talked us into having a piece of lemon curd pie afterwards as well. June had taken me to the airport when I went on my cruise in November & had picked me up from the train station when I got home. To say thank you for helping me out I bought dinner today, once again thank you very much June. After dinner, June dropped me off at my apartment & I went in to watch the afternoon & evening football matches.