This week the majority of my time was spent in or around my apartment. The heat this week was stifling & the humidity was very high. I did some swimming & enjoyed the start of the new Premier League Football season.

Week 31 of 2022.

Monday, 1st August.

I woke up just after 8 am today. My friend Martin is coming to take a look at my bike this morning so I don't go for a swim in case I miss him. Kate, Martin's wife arrives first & we go down to the chiringuito for a coffee while waiting for Martin. After our coffee Martin looks at the pump I have & can not get it to work, he photographs the valve on the tyres of my bike & takes the pump with him. 

At around 11:30 I set off to meet Martin at the bike shop in Los Narejos where I bought my bike & the pump. Martin asks the man to check the pump & although he says it is the correct pump I do notice him switch a valve inside the pump round, maybe it will fit multiple valves & just needed switching. He tries it on a valve the same as the one on my bike & it works fine.

We leave the bike shop & head for the office, we have a lot of work to catch up on, especially as it will be a short week this week. After a while, we are joined by Kate & Aria for a short time before they head off home, leaving Martin & myself to finish up the last bit of paperwork before we both also head home.

When I get home from the office, I switch the air conditioning on in my apartment & promptly fall asleep. When I woke up I have chicken wings for my supper & then I watch television for a while, channel hopping until I see that ´Death In Paradise´ is on. I watch a couple of episodes just because it has the actress Sara Martins in it, in my opinion, the most beautiful woman ever.

After this, I watch a late-night film until the noise of people in the square gets bearable & I can fall asleep.

Tuesday, 2nd August.

I woke around 7:30 am, I potter around checking email on my computer then at around 8:30 I go for a swim in the Mar Menor. The sea is very calm & clear this morning & I swim to the rocks & back three times before going back to my apartment for a shower, a coffee & some cereal.

After breakfast, I check the parcel I have to take to the post office. I seal the package and place the return label on it before heading to the post office to take it back. When I arrive at the Post Office, there is only one person working, the Wicked Witch, & there is a big queue. I decided to come back later so I didn't have to wait around.

I head back through the Tuesday market looking for a fruit seller that I used to go to regularly but I can't see them anywhere. As it is so hot I decide not to search for them & I head home for a couple of hours in the air conditioning. At around 2 pm I head back to the Post Office, there is still a queue & the Wicked Witch is still working but I need to send the parcel back so I wait. When I get to the front of the queue the Wicked Witch really surprises me. She is helpful, & doesn't complain about having to take a free return parcel for a change, she is polite & smiling. I think she must be a drone & had an attitude transplant. After I have sent the parcel off I return again to the air conditioning in my apartment, it really is humid today.

This afternoon my leg begins to ache a bit so I have a session using the electric circulation machine then put my feet up & relax. There isn't much noise outside tonight so I have an early night & go to bed just before 11 pm.

Wednesday, 3rd August.

I woke around 6 am this morning but fell asleep just as quickly & didn't reawake until around 8:30 am. I get up & go for my swim in the Mar Menor, I manage to swim to the rocks & back three times. Just as I am getting out I see some friends & just sit in the water chatting for about half an hour. It is so relaxing just sitting in the clear water watching the fish swim around you, I can see why so many Spanish get up early to sit in the water chatting before the beach gets too busy & the sun gets too strong.

When I get back to my apartment I have some cereal & a coffee & look on Amazon for a new man bag. I want a stronger one that the strap cant be easily cut or broken if grabbed by anyone. I choose a brown leather one that looks like the strap is also made from leather. The quality looks far superior to the one I had stolen last year, I guess you get what you pay for. It will be delivered tomorrow, then I can see if it's as good as it looks.

Whilst I am working on my website I notice that my friend Frouk is online so I arrange to go out with her & Reinder next week. We haven't seen each other for a chat for a while & it will be good to catch up.

This afternoon is very hot & humid again so I stay inside during the hottest hours of the day. I work on my family tree research for a while as I only have a couple of weeks left on my subscription, which I will not be renewing as it's too expensive to renew all the time. 

Thursday, 4th August.

I woke around 7 am today, after I had come around from my night's sleep I walked to the Mar Menor for my morning swim at around 7:30 am. I did my swim this morning & then returned to my apartment for a shower. After my shower, I got myself a coffee & a bacon sandwich & settled down at my computer. I have an Amazon delivery arriving today & another delivery that could arrive today, tomorrow or anytime in the next week as it's being delivered by Seur.

As I only have about a week left on my Ancestry subscription I will try to find more information for my relatives, before the subscription ends. Today will involve delving into the murky recesses of my genealogy. My delivery arrives around lunchtime & I am very pleased to say the new leather man bag I bought is real leather & is very good quality.

In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk, it wasn't a good idea, the heat & humidity was too much for me. I got as far as La Playa bar & then had to stop, I went inside where it was cooler, had a glass of water to refresh myself then had several beers whilst reading my kindle & chatting to various locals.

I didn't end up leaving until just before the bar closed that night, I walked home along the beachfront & thought about having a nightcap at one of the bars outside my apartment but decided against it. I got home, put the air conditioning on for an hour then went to bed.

Friday, 5th August.

I didn't go for my swim this morning, I settled instead for a coffee & a bacon sandwich. I worked on my website in the morning before having some pate on toast for lunch. I am going for a big curry tonight & want to leave room for the curry that I have already decided to have tonight.

It was about 3 pm that I realised that the pate may have been past its best. My stomach started rumbling & for the next 3 hours, I kept having to run to the toilet at very short notice. At around 6 pm I decided that it was probably best not to risk going out for a curry & had to message my friend Pat to tell him I wouldn't be going out for the curry. It was a good decision as my poor stomach kept on rumbling & I kept on having to run to the toilet all night.

At 9 pm I watched the Arsenal v Crystal Palace football match on the television. At the start of the game, it looked like Arsenal were going to run away with it. They had several very good chances but only scored one goal before Crystal Palace got back into the game. In the second half, Crystal Palace was the better side but could not score an equaliser. Shortly before the end of the game, a cross from Saka was diverted into the Palace net by a Palace defender to make it Arsenal 2, Crystal Palace 0. It was a great result for Arsenal & a lot better start to the season than last year's opening game.

Out in the square by my apartment, a saxophonist had been playing all night but at around 11:45 it went quiet & I was able to get to bed & have a sleep.

Saturday, 6th August.

I woke around 7 am today & my stomach felt a lot better. After a coffee, I went for a swim in the Mar Menor. There is a parade along the beach this morning & between the two chiringuitos, another temporary bar was being erected. After my swim, I had a shower & then went down & sat at the El Lobo chiringuito. I ordered a coffee & a bottle of water & as it arrived so did the horses & carts on the XXIII Route Huerta al Mar.

The Parade begins in Murcia late in the evening & overnight makes its way to Los Alcázares. Part of its route goes along the beach in Los Alcázares & goes right past my apartment. It started with a few people walking & playing instruments, these were followed by many different horse, or donkey-drawn carts. It was finally finished off by a road-sweeping vehicle making sure that anything left behind by the animals wasn´t around for long.

After watching the parade I sat at the Chiringuito for a few hours reading my kindle before going back to my apartment to carry on reading my kindle on my balcony. It was soon apparent why the extra bar had been put up & why the Plaza had been fenced off. There were soon many static bikes installed in front of very large speakers & other bikes on the stage. A static bike riding event was taking place, the music was very loud, had lots of bass & was very repetitive. The event started in the early afternoon & continued until after midnight, the noise from the music & the constant shouting of commands by the lead cyclists was ridiculously loud.

1. Is it really necessary for all the music & commands to be played through huge speakers?
2. Is static cycling really so difficult that participants have to be yelled at by drill sergeants so as not to fall off their bikes? It's not like they have to look for difficult turns in the road or potholes.
3. Do none of the static cyclists have their own headsets to listen to their music? 
4. Are the people on stage wearing ear protectors or are they already deaf?

This afternoon I watched several of today's Premier League football matches, some of the results were not what you would have expected & the start of the season has thrown up some shortcomings in a few of the teams already.

I went onto my balcony tonight & measured the noise from the bike event, at times it was over 90 decibels & it continued until after midnight. Whoever was responsible for the bike event needed to spend a day in one of the apartments along the beach. The event went on for too long & was way too loud. The music events that are held there all finish earlier & are only on for a few hours, none of them are as loud & annoying. I hope that any future bike events are held in an area that isn't surrounded by residential buildings in a quiet area, I suggest the old airport would be a good place for it, or maybe Mars now that we seem to have the technology to land there. 

Recording of the noise from the static cycling event which went on all day & night.

Sunday, 7th August.

I got up later than normal today & didn't sleep very well last night, probably because my head was still banging after the loud, repetitive, bass music from the bike event all day yesterday. I had a coffee & then went to the Economy Cash supermarket to get some shopping.

I quite like the Economy Cash superstore as it is quite well laid out & some of the things I like that I buy here are a lot cheaper than the Mercadona store. Having said that, I can't get everything that I want in either store so I will have to go to the Mercadona store next week sometime.

After getting home I sit & enjoy the peace & quiet on my balcony after yesterday's static cycling event. In the evening I sit & watch today's football matches. After watching the West Ham v Manchester City game I can only admire the acceleration & guile of Erling Haaland, City's new centre forward. He is going to score a lot of goals this season & I don't think many defences will be able to handle him.

After the football, I switch on my air conditioning for a while, watch a bit more television & when the apartment has cooled off enough I go to bed.