2025, Week 11 journal.

Week 11 of 2025 was mainly wet. I made three separate visits to the doctor's surgery, one for a regular visit and twice more after I sliced my finger on a mandolin while cutting potatoes.

Monday 10th March.

I woke up around 8 am today. I got myself a coffee and had a couple of pieces of tortilla for breakfast. I then walked to the doctor's surgery to have my regular blood test for my INR levels. The nurse was able to give me the test that pricks your finger rather than having to take a needle to my arm. The reading was spot on, so I didn't have to alter the number of tablets I took. When I left, I went straight home.

I got myself another coffee before working on my computer for a couple of hours. At around 11:30, I took a bag of recycling to the bin and then continued to a hardware store to see if they had any Japanese-style toilets.

I looked around the store, and they didn't have any, but as I was looking around, one of the very helpful staff members asked if he could help me. They didn't stock them but were able to give me the phone number of a man who would be able to see if I could have one installed in my bathroom and then be able to fit it if I could.

When I left, I went to meet Martin. I found him sitting at the Corner bar and joined him for a beer before we moved to La Sombre Pizzeria. We sat chatting for a few hours until Aria arrived on her school bus, and a short time later, we all left to go home. I didn't quite make it home and ended up visiting Rocco´s bar and Harry´s bar before going back to see Martin at the Corner bar again.

By the time I left, I was pretty merry, and when I got home, I went straight to bed.

Tuesday 11th March.

I woke up around 4 am today. I saw how early it was and went straight back to sleep, eventually getting up around 8 am. I had a coffee, did the Wordle puzzle and checked for any messages.

I got on my disability scooter and went to the post office to collect a parcel at around 9:30. Once I had the parcel, I went to the Tuesday market to get some fruits and vegetables. I bought potatoes, oranges, bananas, sweet potatoes, onions, tomatoes, an aubergine and a butternut squash. I want to start cooking again this week, and hopefully, I will be able to make some soups and a version of cottage pie that I like.

When I got home, I checked the contents of my parcel. It was from AirportTag, a company I had ordered some luggage tags from in October 2024 and had finally arrived. I had ordered them for my trip to Japan, but they didn't arrive before I went on that trip or the one I went on this year to India. Now that they have arrived, I will have to think of somewhere to go so I can use them.

At 11:45, I set off to meet Martin. Today was his birthday, and this evening, we were going for a meal with his wife, Kate, and daughter, Aria. At lunchtime today, we would have a pint and toast his birthday. We met at The Corner Bar before moving to La Sombre Pizzeria. Just after 2:30 pm, I set off for home.

When I got home, I had planned to take a nap, but I couldn't sleep. I got ready to go out and installed a trial of an app called Movit on my phone. It shows bus timetables for places all over the world. Fifteen minutes before I needed to, I walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to go to Galin's restaurant and meet Martin, Kate, and Aria for a meal. Ten minutes after the bus should have arrived, with the app on my phone telling me it had been on time and gone, I decided to start walking to the Oasis centre to meet Martin. I sent him a message to tell him I was on my way but would be a bit late and then started to walk to meet him. I had only gone a short way when my phone rang, and it was Martin telling me that Kate was on her way to pick me up in her car. I stopped at the Sola garage and waited for Kate. A short time later, Kate arrived and picked me up.

When we got to Oasis, Kate dropped me off before taking her car home and then joining the rest of us. We walked to Galins and inside. It was tiny inside, and I found sitting inside the restaurant a bit claustrophobic. The poor lighting didn't help, and because of my poor eyesight, I had trouble reading the menu. We all ordered different foods, and I ordered seafood spaghetti. I have had better from the supermarket, and looking at everybody else's food, I don't think any one of us would hurry back. It wasn't horrible, but the seafood in my meal was all frozen, not fresh seafood, and there was very little of it. Mercadona does one that tastes much better, has more seafood in it, and is a third of the price. Lots of people really rate this restaurant, so maybe the chef just had a bad day today, but with only one person serving, the service was very slow as well.

When we left the restaurant, the pasta was sitting heavy in my stomach, and I decided to try to walk home rather than get a taxi in the hope that the exercise would make me feel a bit better. I walked with Martin, Kate and Aria towards their house and then branched away from them as I cut through the housing estate to walk home. The walk took me around an hour, and I was tired and puffing a lot by the time I got home. In hindsight, getting a taxi would have been a better idea, but I had nothing to do for the rest of the week, so I would be able to rest my aching legs.

When I got home, I watched the second half of the Liverpool vs PSG football match. PSG won in a penalty shootout, knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League. Arsenal play tomorrow, and I am hopeful that with their first leg 7-1 lead over PSV Eindhoven, they should make it through to the Quarter Finals.

Wednesday, 12th March.

I woke up at around 7 am today. My calf muscles still ached a bit after the long walk the previous night, but other than that, I felt fine. I got a coffee and sat at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. After doing the puzzle, I got myself some porridge and another coffee.

After breakfast, I began juicing the oranges I had bought at the market yesterday. I juiced the six large oranges, getting about a litre of fresh orange juice from them. Once I had done this, I peeled the potatoes I had bought at the market. I chopped the first four into chips and soaked them in a big bowl of water to stop them from discolouring while I worked. I kept enough out to have with my dinner later and put three separate portions in freezer bags and put them in my freezer.

Sliced fingertip.The last two potatoes I decided to slice so that I could make something different with the potatoes. I set up the mandolin-type slicer I had and began to slice the potatoes. I was slicing the potatoes when I accidentally sliced the index finger on my right hand. It felt like a nasty paper cut, but immediately started bleeding profusely. Because of the blood thinners I take, the blood would not stop. I wrapped it in kitchen roll paper and applied pressure, and it appeared to stop. I applied a plaster and then wrapped it in kitchen roll again. It didn't take long for the blood to soak through the plaster and kitchen roll, and for the next few hours, I was constantly trying to apply enough pressure to it to stop it bleeding. I decided I would have to walk to the doctor's surgery to see if they could help, but I realised it was shut until after 5 pm. I tried to keep my finger raised and kept changing the wrapping, and at some time in the afternoon, I fell asleep in my armchair. When I woke, it was after 6 pm. I looked at the finger, and it was still bleeding, so I walked to the doctor's surgery.

When I walked in, there was a queue of people, and I joined the queue. The receptionist must have seen me while I was standing there because as I approached the desk, she called the nurse out and told me to go straight into the nurse's room. The nurse was the same nurse that earlier in the week had taken my blood for my sintrom INR levels, and we joked that on Monday, she hadn't been able to get any blood from me, and today she couldn't stop it. She cleaned the wound and tried to wrap it but was unable to stop the blood on her own and called the doctor to help. Between them, they applied enough pressure to stop the bleeding while the finger was wrapped up. The nurse made me an appointment for tomorrow and told me to come back so they could recheck it.

I left the surgery and walked home. By the time I got home, I only had a short time to wait for the Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven football match to start. I watched the game and was pleased to see a few new players and a few older players who hadn't had much game time this season had been given a chance to shine in this game. Arsenal were already winning 7-1 from the first leg, and this game finished 2-2, giving Arsenal an aggregate win of 9-3 to qualify for the next round in a game against either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid, depending on their game later.

Thursday, 13th March.

I woke up around 7 am, and although my finger was very sore, it hadn't dripped blood anywhere, and the dressing seemed to be clean. I got up and got a coffee before sitting at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. Once I had done the puzzle, I thought about cleaning up the mess that was still in the kitchen from yesterday's accident. I attempted to clean it, but because the dressing was making my finger three times larger than it should be, and touching anything hurt, I decided I could live with a dirty kitchen for a few days.

At 10 am, I met my neighbour Liz, and we walked along to the Buena Vista restaurant for coffee and a tostado. We sat chatting over breakfast and returned to our apartments around 11:30 am. I rechecked for any messages on my computer and then walked back to the doctor's surgery for my 12:20 pm appointment with the nurse. I saw a different nurse today, and I wondered if the nurse had insisted on the appointment time, knowing that she wouldn't be there today. The new nurse unwrapped my finger, cleaned the wound and checked it before putting an iodine gause around it and rewrapping it. She told me it should be okay now and didn't make me another appointment. I walked home, and because the weather looked like it would rain, I decided to take it easy and work on my website for the rest of the day.

This afternoon, I added more photos from India to my photo albums. I watched TV this evening and went to bed early.

Friday, 14th March.

I woke up around 8 am after sleeping well last night. My finger still throbbed a bit, but there didn't seem to be any more blood leaking through the dressing. I spent all day adding more photos to my website. I added albums for my India trip, including the following albums.

• British Residency in Lucknow.
• Bara Imambara in Lucknow.
• River Ganges cruise.

At around 2:30 pm, I went to Buen Sabor and got myself two takeaway meals so that I wouldn't have to cook while my finger was still wrapped up. I got myself my two favourite meals, pork in pepper sauce with chips and a beef stew. I had one meal when I got back to my apartment and saved the second one for tomorrow.

I spent the evening binge-watching episodes of Grimm before going to bed around midnight.

Saturday 15th March.

I woke this morning, and my finger was still a little sore whenever I touched anything, but the throbbing had stopped, so I decided to risk taking a shower and getting the dressing wet. It felt good to have a shower and to feel clean again, and I managed to shower without the dressing on my finger getting too wet.

After my shower, I had coffee and decided to walk to the Buena Vista restaurant for more coffee and a tostado and to sit and enjoy the sun for a while. I sat in the sun reading my Kindle for a couple of hours, reading a book called The Will by Benjamin Laskin. It is an excellent book, and I can't put it down at the moment. I finished reading the book and thought I would place a link to the author and book on my website, but when I found it, I realised that the website had an error with its domain settings. I managed to find the author's email address and was able to tell him about the problem and how much I enjoyed reading his book.

This afternoon and evening, I binge-watched more episodes of Grimm and managed to clean the kitchen up a bit. Unfortunately, the padding on my finger didn't last all day, and it fell off, but at least the cut was healing. I will have to be careful not to bang it on anything for a while.

Sunday 16th March.

I woke around 7:30 am and got up for a coffee. I pottered about getting ready to meet my friend Tony at Buena Vista, but he messaged to say he wouldn't make it at 9:30 am and could go at 10 am instead. I messaged him back to say I would see him there, and at about 9:45 am, I took my Kindle along to the restaurant and sat in the sun reading my book.

I hadn't been there long when my friends Øyvind and Theresa turned up. I told them I was expecting to be joined by Tony, and they joined me for coffee as well. Tony arrived 40 minutes later as Øyvind and Theresa were leaving. I ordered another coffee, had a tostado, and stayed chatting with Tony until just before midday, when we both left. I walked back to my apartment and was immediately disturbed by loud music in Plaza de Espejo, where the annual dog show was being put on. I suppose I will have to get used to the loud music on a regular basis as the weather gets better and the square gets used more.

It was still cold inside my apartment, so I wrapped up under a blanket and read a book on my Kindle until the Arsenal vs Chelsea game started. Arsenal won the game 1-0. It wasn't the best they had played, but as an Arsenal fan, I was happy to sing "1-0 to the Arsenal", an old Arsenal fan favourite song.

This afternoon, I checked my email and received a lovely message from the author, Benjamin Laskin, about the book I had just finished. He was glad I had taken the time to tell him about the error on his website, and he offered me three of his books as a thank-you for letting him know. I look forward to reading more of his writing.

Tonight I watched a bit of the Liverpool vs Newcastle Carabao Cup Final, which Newcastle won 1-2, before going to bed around 10 pm.