During week 48 of 2021, I went on a shopping trip to MediaMkt in Cartagena during the Black Friday sales.
Friday, November 26th.
Today, my friend and neighbour Liz is taking me to MediMkt in Cartagena for the Black Friday sales. I bought a coffee machine as I miss my coffee at the chiringuito in the mornings, and as it's getting colder, I don't want to walk too far to get one.
When we got to the shop, I looked around, and I got a great deal. The one I choose usually is 109€, but if you bought 19€ of coffee to go with it, they give you 40€ off. After we finished shopping, we went to my favourite restaurant, Toscana in Roldan. Liz has helped me a lot since I came out of the hospital, and I buy dinner to say thank you.
I had the roasted lamb, which was fantastic. I had forgotten how good this restaurant is. For 13€, the Menu del Dia included a considerable salad, which has tuna and ham on it, as well as all the usual salad ingredients you can think of. It also included cheesy garlic bread, which the restaurant makes using a pizza base. It is beautiful. After my main roast lamb, I then had a really lovely tiramisu for my pudding. I drank my nice glass of red wine, which was included in my meal, before finishing with coffee. As always, the service was brilliant; there was nothing I could fault, and I will try to get back on a more regular basis from now on.
On our way home, we missed our turn, so Liz also took me on a magical mystery tour before returning home. The day was great, but I was worn out when I got in. I rested in front of the television with the heat on for the rest of the day.
Saturday, November 27th.
I set up the radio that I also got from MediaMkt yesterday before settling down to watch the Arsenal vs Newcastle game on the television. I was a bit worried that after last week's hammering from Liverpool, Arsenal would not perform. I didn't have to worry. Arsenal won 2 - 0 to return to winning ways. Newcastle forced the Arsenal keeper to make two world-class saves. Still, Arsenal returned the favour at the other end, with the Newcastle keeper making some fantastic saves, and the Arsenal forward, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, missed the goal when it looked easier to score.
After yesterday's walking and exercise, I fell asleep in front of a film this evening, woke up as it finished, and went to bed.
Sunday, November 28th.
I attempted to set up my coffee machine this morning but failed miserably when the coffee wasn't mixing with the water, and all I got was a glass of hot water. I tried to see what I had done wrong, dropped the coffee capsule, and decided to try again after a bacon and egg sandwich.
I put some pork ribs in my slow cooker for this evening but did little else. This afternoon, my neighbour Liz popped in to see me and showed me how to use my new coffee machine. I think I was using it correctly. I didn't close the handle far enough to puncture the coffee capsule. I put some washing in the washing machine and waited for it to finish before putting it in the tumble dryer.
I watched some football matches this afternoon and ate the ribs that I put in the slow cooker. The ribs were delicious, and the meat just fell off of the bone. The excitement from the week had caught up with me, and I slept most of the evening, drifting in and out whilst I watched films on the television and made a list of shopping I needed to get tomorrow.
Monday, November 29th.
I didn't sleep very well last night and woke up several times during the night. I eventually get up around 10 am and take a shower. After showering, I cleaned the wound on my stomach, but this time, I left off the plaster to give it a chance to dry out completely.
I remembered that I still hadn't been to the local Ferreteria shop to get a washer for the connection to the hose I bought to water my plants. I picked up the hose connection, put it in my pocket and fired up the Sharky mobile to go to the Ferretaria in Los Narejos. When I got to the shop, I walked in, and straight away, the man who works there asked me if he could help me. Within seconds, I had two washers and made my purchase.
When I got outside, I thought how nice it was, and I decided to have coffee rather than head straight home. My friend Jim had bought me a cappuccino at a nearby cafe when I was ill, and I decided to go there for a coffee. I was soon sat outside drinking a lovely cappuccino. It was then I remembered it was Monday and that I really should be at a business meeting with my friend Martin. I finished my coffee, jumped on the Sharky mobile and drove to La Sombra Pizzeria for the meeting. When I got there, I was late, and Martin had quite rightly started the meeting without me. I was soon up to date, but because I was late, the meeting lasted a little bit longer than normal. While at the meeting, Agent Fisher rushed past on a mission but stopped for a brief chat before heading off to catch up with Mrs Agent Fisher.
After the meeting, I stopped off at the Mercadona supermarket to get some shopping on my way home. I had arranged for another friend, David, to give me a quote for some work I wanted to have done at home. I had just gotten home when David arrived, so I forced him to help me carry my shopping to my apartment. I needed to change the cord for the shutters on two of my windows. I wanted to have two curtain rails installed in my bedrooms, some photos hung on the walls, and a hole drilled in a wall to pass a hose through to water plants on my balcony. David had a look at the jobs and gave me a quote and a date to do the work before he left.
I had a great day today, running around doing a few things and seeing a few people. It made me realise how lucky I am to live here and to have so many friends nearby.
Tuesday, November 30th.
I woke up early today, and now that I had some condensed milk, I thought I would try out my new coffee machine. After my neighbour Liz taught me how to use it, I was confident I would be able to get it to work. Sure enough, I was soon drinking a large cafe bonbon and was settled down in front of my computer updating my website.
After having porridge with banana and blueberries in it for breakfast, I put the washer I bought Monday into the hose in my utility room and was then able to water the plants on my balcony. I haven't watered them for a while, but as the majority of them are cactus or other succulents, they didn't look too bad. The lavender is in need of a trim but should liven up after being watered. I will have to replant one or two of my plants in the coming days and will buy one or two new ones to grace my balcony, but I do like how it is beginning to look. When it is warm, it will be a great place to sit amongst the plants, read, relax and watch the world go by.
This afternoon, my neighbour Liz dropped in for a chat and a cup of tea, but apart from that, I did very little. In the evening I watched the Newcastle vs Norwich football match on the television. It was a 1 - 1 draw, and I wish I had been able to watch the English ladies' game. They beat Latvia ladies 20 - 0, setting a new and biggest win record.
Wednesday, December 1st.
I woke up early at about 5:30 am, and when I couldn't get back to sleep, I got a coffee, logged on to my computer and sent my lovely sister a ´Pinch and a Punch for the first of the month´ message, she does so love to get them. By 7 am, I was feeling hungry, so I got myself a bacon and egg roll. There is nothing like starting the day off with a bacon roll.
Today was a lovely sunny day, and I decided to go for a walk along the promenade. I set off, walked along the promenade, and turned up to walk to the bars and restaurants at Rio Nalon. By the time I got to Rocco's bar, I was a bit puffed and sat down for a rest. I ordered a coffee and sat outside drinking it and reading my Kindle. After about an hour, my friend Colin arrived. He ordered a bottle of beer, and I ordered one as well. We sat talking for a while and had another bottle of beer. We were talking but were interrupted by a very loud man who kept butting in on our conversation. To get away from the very loud man, we moved up to Boochies bar, sat outside and had a beer in the sun.
After finishing the beer, Colin headed home, and as the loud man had gone, I went back to Rocco's bar to have a pint in memory of my good friend Paul Hooper, who, when visiting me, used to enjoy sitting there to watch the world go by. After my beer, I headed home, walking along the promenade. It was noticeable how much the temperature had dropped since this morning, and I started to feel the cold. As soon as I got into my apartment, I switched my heat on to warm myself up. I had some chicken wings for my tea and spent the rest of the evening watching football on the television.
Thursday, December 2nd.
This morning, I got up, made myself a coffee and sat down at my computer for a while. The time flew by whilst I worked on my website, and the next thing I knew, it was 11 am, and my friend George was picking me up to get some shopping in San Javier at El Kilo y Medio, a supermarket with a good butcher.
I stood waiting to be served at the meat counter for a while before George pointed out that they use a ticket system that I hadn't seen because of my eyesight. I got a ticket and was served relatively quickly; luckily, there hadn't been many people who would have got in front of me because of my mistake. I ordered a kilo of boned chicken and also some lasagna to try out. I picked up some other items from the store, and then George dropped me off at home.
This evening, I was very disappointed to see Arsenal lose 3 - 2 to Manchester United. It was a good game to watch, with some very dodgy referring decisions which affected both sides. Love him or hate him, Christiano Ronaldo is still a great player. Today, I hated him as he scored twice to help Manchester United win. Arsenal played well, but they desperately need to start scoring more goals. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a shadow of the player he was since getting his new colossal contract. He needs to be replaced, as does Alexandre Lacazette, and his lack of pace and ability to complete 90 minutes are real worries.
Other players like Bernd Leno, Pablo Mari, Sead Kolasinac, Calum Chambers, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Nicolas Pepe, Alex Runarsson, Hector Bellerin, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Eddie Nketiah all need to be sold as well. That is a total of 15 players, some of whom are on very high wages and don't even play for Arsenal anymore. Arsenal needs to clear out the deadwood, not loan them out, and get them off the books. Some other outstanding younger players need to be sent out on loan to get playing time so that they can get used to playing every week. Arsenal should also spend big in the January transfer window to buy an outstanding striker, one that is ready to play every week, score goals and integrate into this team straight away. That is my Arsenal moan out of the way. Arsenal board members, please take note.