2025, Week 19 journal.

In week 19 of 2025, I visited the health clinic three times again. I had to have my leg dressed twice, and one visit for a blood test.

Monday, 5th May.

I was up early today and showered straight away, and then got a drink and some breakfast afterwards. I did the Wordle puzzle before doing some work on my website for a couple of hours.

I went to the health clinic on my disability scooter, and after I had my leg dressed, I asked the nurse about the blood test I am having for my INR test on Wednesday. Strangely, I have been asked to bring a urine sample along to the clinic as well, and it will be the first time I've been asked to do that for an INR test. She told me that it was correct and made me an appointment to have my leg dressed again on Friday.

When I left the clinic, I went straight to Pizzeria La Sombre to meet Martin. When I arrived, Martin was already there and I ordered myself a bottle of water. The waiter is just about getting used to me drinking water now. Dave arrived a short time later, and we sat talking until Aria arrived on her school bus. Not long after Aria had arrived, we all left to go home, and I collected a pizza that I had ordered to take home with me.

When I got home, I ate the ham, mushroom and pineapple pizza, it was delicious. I spent the afternoon and evening watching TV.

Tuesday, 6th May.

I got up as soon as I woke up at 7 am today. I had a glass of orange juice and all my tablets and did the Wordle puzzle.

At 10 am, I got on my disability scooter and went to get some new reading glasses. I had noticed that I can't see as well as I used to, even with my glasses on. I went to the Parra Optical Centre on the main road in Los Alcazares. I had to wait about 10 minutes while someone else was being seen, and then the optician spoke with me. He remembered I was blind in my right eye and took me in to do an eye test. My eyes had deteriorated slightly, both my short-distance vision and long-distance vision. He measured the strength of my eyesight and made up an order for new glasses. They would have been €99, but because I could use my old frames and only had to have one lens made, the cost would be €49.10. He told me they should be here on Friday and that he would call me when they arrived.

When I left the optician, I got a call from my friend Jim, who said he would not be able to meet me for lunch today. I went to my apartment, messaged him back, and we made a reservation for lunch on Friday at Casa de Papel. I realised that I couldn't see anything on my phone without my reading glasses and decided to get a cheap pair from a Chino shop on the way to meet Martin today.

I left home on my disability scooter at about 11:30 and went to a Chino store to get some glasses. I sorted through the cheap glasses until I found a pair with which I could read the labels on the other glasses. They were not brilliant, but would do until I got my new glasses back from the optician. When I left, I went towards the office and stopped at the Tourist Information office on the way to see if they had a bus timetable. It is the worst tourist office I have ever been in. It had hardly any information on anything. The woman didn't even acknowledge I was there, despite being the only person there, and the only information I found on the local bus service was the telephone number for the Travelpym company. When I left, I said goodbye to the woman working there, and she again just ignored me.

I went the short distance to Pizzeria La Sombre, got a bottle of water and sat chatting with Martin and Dave for an hour before heading home. When I got home, I put a film on to watch but fell asleep very quickly. I slept for a couple of hours before waking up, and when I did, I worked on my website until I went to bed at around 10 pm.

Wednesday, 7th May.

I got up at about 6 am today to pee into a plastic cup and then to transfer the sample to a test tube. I had never used the apparatus before, but it was easy.  After I had washed, dressed, and got ready, I did the Wordle puzzle online, checked for messages, and then got on my disability scooter and went to the health centre. There was a big queue of people when I got there, and I took my place in the queue in front of the health centre.

After a short wait, I went in and was met at a small desk by a lady who took my urine sample and my paperwork and then handed me three vials for blood tests. I thought I had only been going for a simple INR blood test. I was apparently booked in for a set of tests. I waited for my turn to see the nurse for the blood tests. There were four people taking blood, and I was relieved when the young man taking my blood spoke English. He had spent eight years in Swansea in Wales, a short distance from much of my family. I told him that my veins were very poor, and instead of mucking about with a normal size needle, he straight away went for a baby needle and was able to get a vein on the first attempt. He took enough to fill all three vials and told me the results would be back in a week.

After I left the clinic, I went back to my apartment and put my disability scooter away. I decided to treat myself to a coffee at the Buena Vista restaurant, and I messaged my neighbour Liz to see if she wanted to join me. Liz messaged me back and we arranged to meet there. I picked up the €1.60 that the coffee would cost from small change on my desk and took a roll that was going stale with me to feed the fish in the Mar Menor. I walked to the sea and threw bits of the bread roll into the water, but didn't wait to see if the fish ate it because the wind was blowing waves on the water and I couldn't see any because of the waves.

I continued to the Buena Vista restaurant and sat outside under the awning out of the wind. I ordered a coffee, and it arrived just before Liz did. Liz ordered a bottle of water, and we sat talking for about half an hour. When I was ready to go, I handed the money for my coffee to the waitress, and Liz went to pay for her bottle, but she didn't have any money and used her phone to pay the €2.50. I don't think they will be happy to let her pay small change on her phone for long. We walked back to the apartment, and I went home to continue working on my website.

I worked all day on my website, stopping before the PSG and Arsenal game came on TV. I thought Arsenal played very well and were the better team, but PSG scored twice on the break before Arsenal got one back. The game finished PSG 2, Arsenal 1. Arsenal were knocked out, and I went to bed straight after the game.

Thursday, 8th May.

I had a coffee when I got up and did the Wordle puzzle. I knew I would have a day of waiting around for people today. I began working on my website, stopping only for deliveries.

While I was working, the delivery man bringing my repaired laptop called to ask where I lived, as Euronics would not take delivery of it. I sent him a text message with my address, and he brought it to me. Excellent delivery service.

The next delivery was from Amazon. The video intercom rang, and it was an Amazon delivery driver whom I hadn't seen before. He insisted that I go to the door to collect the parcels as it was too heavy for him to carry. I couldn't work out what it was that had arrived, which was too heavy to lift, and went to the door. When I got there, he had pulled his grotty white van up right outside the door, blocking the path and entranceway for anyone else who wanted to use it. The delivery that he couldn't lift was two packs of 12 cans of Radler beer. I couldn't believe that he said he couldn't lift the parcels from the back of his van. It did look like a bomb had gone off in the back of the truck, with parcels just thrown in and all over the place. Annoyed that he had made me go downstairs, I picked up one 12-pack under my arm and went back to my apartment, telling him to bring the second one as I couldn't carry another one and use a walking stick. He followed me up and put the 12-pack down in my hall before leaving, complaining that the parcels were too heavy. I suggested to the driver that if he couldn't lift that weight, he should get a new job, a deplorable delivery service from an Amazon driver with an attitude problem.

This afternoon, I went to Buen Sabor and picked up two meals, one for lunch and one for dinner later tonight. When I got home, I ate the pork in pepper sauce and put the chicken curry in the fridge before continuing to work on my website. I downloaded a couple of new Joomla extensions for my website, installed them and spent all evening and all night working with them, trying to get my website working how I wanted it to.

Friday, 9th May.

After getting up today, I took my tablets, had a drink, did the Wordle puzzle and worked on my website for a couple of hours.

I remembered before going to the health clinic that I hadn't charged my disability scooter. My neighbour Liz wasn't around and couldn't give me a lift, so I decided to try to walk there. I left at about 10:30 and took a very slow walk there. When I arrived at the health clinic, I was puffing like a steam train and couldn't speak, but I was on time. I sat down in the waiting area and read my Kindle while I waited for my appointment.

The nurse cleaned and dressed all the wounds on my ankle and told me that they were all looking good and healing well. I told her that I had been having problems with my breathing and that I could feel my heartbeat in my chest even when at rest. I told her that my Fitbit watch kept giving me a warning that my heart rate had dropped below 39 bpm, and that at night, it was below 39 bpm while I slept. I asked if it could be the medication I was on that caused me shortness of breath and the irregular heartbeat. She checked my blood pressure and told me that it was good, and then made me an appointment to redress my ankle on Tuesday next week and to see the doctor at the same time to have an ECG. I would also get the results of all the blood tests I had taken earlier in the week.

I left the health clinic and took a slow walk home. I noticed as I walked past the garage lift door at my apartment that it was jammed open. When I got back to my apartment, I sent Fain an email asking them to call to repair the garage car lift. At around 1:30 pm, Jim arrived to help me take all the cardboard boxes I had squashed up last week to the recycling bins. Unfortunately, the garage door lift was still not fixed, which meant we couldn't get the cardboard out of the garage.

Jim drove us into Los Alcazares, and we parked a short distance from Casa de Papel, where we were going for lunch. We walked the short distance to the restaurant and went in. We were the only people there and were able to sit where we wanted. I asked the waiter for the menu of the day, and he got an English-speaking waiter to serve us so that we would understand what was available. We had a very nice, large salad to share, and we both ordered the ham carbonara pasta for our first course. Jim had chicken fillets and chips for his second course, and I had Calamari in sauce with chips. All of the food was excellent, and the mousse I had for dessert was fantastic and could have been served in any posh restaurant anywhere in the world. Jim had a slice of melon. The menu of the day, which included a drink, was only €13.95 each. I loved the food here and will return soon.

When we left, we walked back to the car and Jim drove us to El Chiringuito on the beach front in Los Narejos, where we sat chatting for an hour before going back to my apartment to see if we could get rid of the recycling. When we got to the apartment block, the garage door and lift were still not working, so Jim dropped me off and said he would come back later in the week to help me when the lift was working.

I was pretty exhausted after all the walking I had done today, but couldn't drop off to sleep in my armchair. I watched TV for a few hours, worked on my website and finally went to bed around 10 pm.

Saturday, 10th May.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning. I actually felt excellent and was surprised after all yesterday's exertions. I got coffee, did the Wordle puzzle, and had breakfast. After breakfast, I put this week's washing in the washing machine. I worked all day on my website, stopping at lunchtime for the curry I had bought at Buen Sabor, before continuing to work on the website.

This afternoon and evening, I watched some of the day's football and some documentaries on Aliens possibly being our ancestors and went to bed around 11 pm.

Sunday 11th May.

As soon as I got up today, I got a drink, took my tablets, did the Wordle puzzle, and then worked on my website. I stopped for something to eat, and for Sunday dinner, I had a ham and cheese toastie. I spent the afternoon working on my website, finally stopped for dinner at about 5:30 pm, and got myself some chicken wings in pepper sauce.

This evening I turned the TV on to watch the Liverpool vs Arsenal game. As it started, I was working on my laptop and not paying much attention to the game. From the cheering, I learned that Liverpool scored twice and was winning. I stopped working on my website and turned my attention to the second half of the football, but just as the game restarted, my sister called me. I turned the game off and spoke to my sister for about half an hour, and only returned to the game just as it was finishing. Arsenal had scored twice and had a man sent off in the second half. The game finished 2-2, and I had missed a very entertaining game, apparently.

I watched a bit of TV before going to bed at around midnight.