This week began in Albacete before going back to Los Alcázares. I worked on my balcony garden and installed a solar-powered fountain. The big news this week is the loss of Queen Elizabeth II, The Queen is Dead; Long live the King.

Monday, 5th September.

This was the last day of my trip to Albacete to see the band Texas. You can read about the trip and what I did today here.

Tuesday, 6th September.

I woke up at about 8 am today. I was expecting a delivery from Amazon; they tried to deliver it yesterday, but I was not home and they will try again today. I had no food in the house apart from a pack of Spanish sausages, half a small pot of ice cream, and no coffee left. I couldn't go out shopping in case the delivery arrived whilst I was out.

Today was yet another sad day, my friend Stevie ´Bygones´ passed away last week, and today was his funeral and wake. Unfortunately, I couldn't go as I had to be home for the delivery that was arriving. I don't think I could have gone anyway as I am in a lot of pain, but I will not forget you, my friend, RIP Steve.

I spent most of the day writing up my blogs for my trip to Albacete, editing photos for the trip to Albacete and catching up on website administration that I couldn't do whilst I was away. 

The delivery of my water fountain eventually arrived at 18:30, and I immediately unpacked it and set it up on my balcony. It was pretty straightforward, and I had it up and running relatively quickly. I topped up the tank with water, put the solar panel in one of my flower pots and switched it on. It looked and sounded great, but I had to wait for the sun to go down to see if the lights in the water came on at dusk. As the sun went down, I checked back on the fountain, and I was very pleased to see that the sensor had worked and that the lights had now come on, as well as the fountain. 

For my tea tonight, I had half a pack of Spanish sausages that I cooked in my air fryer and finished the meal off with half a tub of ice cream. Luckily for me, my friend Kate is coming round tomorrow to take me shopping. She wants to see my new water fountain, and I don't want to have to walk too much as my leg is still sore.

I went to bed at about 10:30 pm, but because my leg was still sore, I had trouble falling asleep and fidgeted a lot during the night. Hopefully, with a bit more rest, it will feel better tomorrow.

Wednesday, 7th September.

I woke at about 7:15 am and got up to check any messages on my computer and to work on my website for a while before Kate came round to pick me up to go shopping.

Kate picked me up around 10 am and took me to Mercadona to get my shopping. It's always nice to have food and coffee in the apartment. After we had been shopping, Kate helped me take my shopping in and had a cup of tea whilst we chatted for a while. After Kate had gone, I put all my shopping away, splitting up some of the products I had bought into single servings and putting them in the freezer.

I got myself a chicken burger for lunch and then went and sat in the balcony garden for a few hours to read my Kindle. My friend Martin Warman from England called me and we chatted for about half an hour. After we finished chatting, I got up to check on the temperature as I was sweating buckets sitting in the sun; it was no wonder I was sweating; the thermometer on my balcony read 100°f. I finished the story I have been reading on my Kindle and went back inside to watch television.

I flicked between the football matches on the television, but couldn't get excited about either game, so I channel surfed before going to bed at about 10:30 pm.

Thursday, 8th September.

I woke up around 7:30 am today. I take all my tablets, make myself a coffee and log on to my computer to check for any messages. It is whilst I am looking at my computer that I realise that it was 32 years ago today that the Doctors pronounced me dead after a car accident. I have to say that for someone who died 32 years ago, apart from aches and pains, I feel remarkably well. I have actually been pronounced dead on three occasions now and feel I must be, in some way, part cat. I am trying to be more careful with the remaining six lives.

Once I had woken up properly, I grabbed an old, stale loaf from the kitchen to feed the fish in the Mar Menor and head down to the beach for a swim. It is incredible watching the fish in a feeding frenzy circling me as I sit in the sea with a French stick. Even when they have eaten the bread, they continue to circle me in the hope that more bread may appear.

I swam out to the rocks a couple of times and bumped into a jellyfish on one leg of my swim. I decided not to back down from the medusae, and I treaded water waiting for it to make its next move. Like so many bullies, it backed away from me, like all bullies, if you stand up to them, they have no backbone and will leave you alone.

After my swim I sat in the water relaxing, the fish gather around me again and the smaller ones give me a pedicure, sucking the dead skin off my feet and legs. After my fish pedicure, I go back to my apartment for another coffee and then take a shower.

During the day, I noticed that my elbow was a bit sore and itching. When I looked more closely, I could see that the jellyfish had stung me before I realised this morning. I found the cream that the Doctor gave me for jellyfish stings and applied it to the affected area on my arm, I am going to have to start wearing my swim mask for my morning swims, at least I will be able to see the jellyfish before they attack me and I can take avoiding action.

This afternoon, I took a short siesta and woke up in time to watch the Arsenal game on television. Arsenal started the game well, but the game was drawn 1-1 at halftime. During the first half of the game, I flicked through the news on my phone and saw that Queen Elizabeth II had just passed away, not unexpectedly, but unfortunately. The Queen and her mother were both Arsenal fans. The Queen actually invited the Arsenal team to a reception at the palace in 2007. I wondered if the news had filtered through to the ground in Switzerland, where the match was being played.

At the start of the second half, the news of her death was announced over the tannoy system at the ground. A large memorial image was shown on the video screens, and a minute of silence was observed by the players and fans at the ground before the match resumed. Arsenal went on to win the game 1-2, but the game was overshadowed by the news that Arsenal's most famous fan had passed away. The Queen has died, long live the King. RIP Elizabeth, you will always be a Gooner.

After the game, I flicked between the other football matches and the news channels until I went to bed at about 10:30 pm.

Friday, 9th September.

I woke this morning with a backache, so I decided to forgo my swim this morning as the rash on my arm from yesterday's jellyfish sting was quite visible, and I do not want to aggravate it. I got a coffee and sat down at my computer to start work on my website.

Elizabeth and Charles.There will be little news on television today apart from that of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the fact that Prince Charles is now King Charles III. I look forward to his reign, and I believe he will be an excellent King. I will say no more about the sad news, but I leave you with this photo of the pair of them in better times. 

After I had my second coffee this morning and I had woken up properly, I cleared up my kitchen before I did anything else.  I then returned to working on my website, adding descriptions to photos on the section of the site about my holiday in China in 2014.

Because my leg has been aching more recently, I decided to get myself a magnetic bracelet to see if it will help my circulation. I used to wear two previously, one on each wrist, until I lost them at immigration in the USA on one of my visits. I had to take them off to go through a scanner, and someone stole them whilst I was being scanned. Because I was in a hurry to catch my plane, I did not have the time to fill out all the paperwork to make a complaint and get a letter to give to my insurance company.

Anyway, I ordered two bracelets a few days ago, one a magnetic medical bracelet, which will help with my circulation and one a medical emergency bracelet. The second one has my name on it. It says (in Spanish) that I speak English, and it also has written (again in Spanish) that I am on blood thinners. The magnetic medical bracelet arrived today, but I could not figure out how the clasp works. I decided to ask one of the ladies that I know to show me how it worked when I went to see my friend Alan Bond sing at karaoke tonight. 

For my dinner tonight, I cooked myself a tuna steak and had it with a salad. It was very lovely and I thank my friend Martin for his tips on how to cook it. If he didn't have to work so hard at the office, I believe he could be an excellent chef.

At about 8:30 pm, I went to see Alan at La Playa bar. I sat down at the bar and ordered a beer, but it was far too hot to sit inside, so I moved outside to sit with some friends, Mags, Debbie and John. I started talking to the ladies and immediately realised that I had forgotten to bring the new medical bracelet with me. I told them about it, and they told me they will look at it if I bring it down later in the week. I had a couple of beers and once my courage had been suitably wetted, I got up and sang ´I've got a brand new combine harvester´ by the Worzels. There were not too many customers, and I didn't get anything thrown at me, but I don't know if there were any complaints about my singing. It was an enjoyable night, and after the short walk home along the beachfront, I went straight to bed.

Saturday, 10th September.

I did not wake until after 10 am this morning; last night's singing must have worn me out more than I thought. After my morning coffee, I stripped the linen off my bed to put it in the washing machine. My leg has bled quite a bit this week, and there are a lot of red streaks of dried blood on the sheets. I hope it all comes out.

After the bed sheets had been washed, I continued to put another two lots of washing in the machine to be cleaned throughout the day. Because of the death of Queen Elizabeth, this weekend's football matches have all been postponed as a sign of respect for her. Instead of watching football whilst the washing is being done, I find the TV series, ´Reacher´ and watch that instead.

The TV series is much better than the films about the same character I watched a little while ago. The actor who plays the main character, Reacher, in the TV series is a giant man, and it is a lot more believable when he does a fight scene than it is in the films. In the films, Reacher is played by Tom Cruise, who is 5 feet 7 inches, whereas in the series, Reacher is played by Alan Ritchson, who is 6 feet 2 inches tall and built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

I went to bed around 10:30 pm, but did not get to sleep straight away, and every time I did, I seemed to get woken by revellers going home, or by the noisy kids who sit on the beach all night and don't go home until the sun comes up.

Sunday, 11th September.

I woke up at about 7:30 am. I did not sleep well at all last night, and my back ached quite a bit this morning. I got a coffee, logged on to my computer, checked my emails, wrote up my blog, and generally surfed the Internet. I was waiting for a message from my friend Donna this morning. We are meeting for coffee, and she is going to message me and tell me where and when.

Donna messaged me and I went to La Zona Terezza to meet her for a coffee. We are meeting up so she can give me some tips and advice on my cruise next month. I arrived at about 11 am and got myself a coffee. Just as I looked for a table, Donna arrived to join me. We talked for quite a while, catching up with each other, and Donna gave me some great tips on my cruise, as well as showing me some great websites to look at for cruise information.

Whilst we chatted, I showed Donna the magnetic bracelet I bought, and she attempted to show me how to unclip it. Unfortunately, I can't see it well enough to put it on, but Donna unclipped it and put it on my wrist for me. We were joined by our friend Jo, who owns and runs the bar. After not seeing either of them for a while, it was great to chat with them. After coaxing as much information from Donna as I could and getting some help from Jo about getting my updated COVID certificate, I went home to my apartment.

This afternoon I watched a couple of films before going to bed early, but I was unable to sleep. I blamed my inability to sleep on Donna. I can't stop thinking about my cruise next month, so I ended up getting up and surfing the Internet for things to see whilst I am away. I got myself a cup of milky Horlicks in the hope it may help me sleep, but it was around 4:30 am before I headed back to bed.