2025, Week 23 journal.

In week 23 of 2025, I heard the sad news of another friend's passing. RIP Steve, I enjoyed your company and our chats about our travels, both past and future.

Monday, 2nd June.

I woke up at 6:00 am today. I got a coffee and completed the Wordle puzzle before working on my website. The changes made to my web hosting configuration and image format over the last week have been successful, and I am now able to resume the lengthy task of adding descriptions to the photos in the photo albums. I had some cereal for breakfast before leaving home just after 11 am to go to meet Martin at Pizzeria La Sombre.

I took a slow walk along the main road from Los Alcazares to Los Narejos. I stopped to have a rest about halfway and sat on a wall at some allotments, and after 10 minutes, my breathing got easier again, and I walked the rest of the way. I arrived at the bar just before midday and ordered a large bottle of water. I sat at the bar recovering after the long walk. My doctor had told me to exercise more, and I will, but I will start with every other day to give myself a break. My Fitbit actually warns me that I'm doing too much at once and suggests taking a rest day to allow my body to recover. I'll be sure to take more notice of it in the future.

Martin and Dave arrived, and we sat talking until Arias' bus arrived. School is closing an hour earlier now that the warmer weather has arrived, and after her usual greeting to my belly and inspection of my ankles, she sat down with us. We talked for a couple of hours before heading off in different directions. I took a slow walk through the housing estate. Going that way allows me to rest in more places because there are more seats available to sit down. When I got to Rio Nalon, I stopped off at Harry's bar for a drink and to rest for a while before the lottery shop opened up.

I sat outside talking to the owners and a man with his young son. The man gave his son his credit card and told him to go inside with it to pay for their drinks. The boy came back outside and told his dad that they had to spend more than €10 to be able to pay with a card. I laughed and told his dad that if it would help him out, I would let him buy my drink so it would take him over the €10 charge. The man laughed and told his boy to tell the barman he would pay for my drink as well, and the boy did. When the boy came out, I thanked him and his dad, and we continued chatting for a while before they left. What a lovely man.

When the lottery shop opened, I went in and checked last week's ticket and bought more for this week's draws. When I got my tickets, I walked to my friend Rachid's bar, Gin and Fizz. He had closed his other bar, Roccos, the previous week and moved the sign from there to his other bar, renaming it Roccos. I sat inside with the waitress who used to work in the old Roccos, Wilma. We sat chatting for a couple of hours before leaving and walking back to Harry's bar.

I sat outside Harry's bar talking with Wilma for a while. Her husband is also called Alan, and it seemed we had quite a bit in common. After a couple of drinks, I decided to walk home. Wilma walked down the road with me pushing her electric scooter. When I turned to walk along the beach, Wilma got on her scooter and wobbled off up the road on it. I hoped she got home safely. I walked the rest of the way home along the beach, and when I got home, I decided to rest for 10 minutes before cooking myself something to eat.

That was a mistake, as soon as I got comfortable in my chair, I fell asleep and didn't wake up till about 10:30 pm. I decided not to bother eating that late at night and went to bed instead.

Tuesday, 3rd June.

I got up around 5:30 this morning. I got a coffee, sat at my computer and did the Wordle puzzle. I had some cereal for breakfast and then spent a few hours working on my website before leaving home on my disability scooter to take some rubbish to the bin on the way to the health clinic.

I waited a short time for the nurse to arrive and call me in, and had my ankle checked and redressed. She told me to get some ointment to rub on my legs that would help with the dry skin. This should prevent it from flaking, and that would help prevent new scratches and possible infections. I took a photo of the bottle to show the staff in the pharmacy, and after she had made me a new appointment for Friday, I left, got on my disability scooter and went to meet Martin and Dave at Pizzeria la Sombre.

I arrived at the office at around 1 pm, and Dave and Martin were already sitting there with Viv and Sean. We sat talking for a while. Vanessa arrived and bought us all a drink before Dave, Viv and Sean all left. We sat talking until about 3:15 pm and then went back to our homes. When I got home, I cooked myself a pork knuckle for lunch and then sat watching episodes of Insane Pools on TV.

Tonight, I had a late supper of a second pork knuckle, which tasted great, and because it was pre-cooked, only took 15 minutes to heat up. I will definitely repurchase them. I went to bed at around 11 pm.

Wednesday, 4th June.

I was woken up at 1:30 am by a motorbike that sounded like a group of cats being strangled. The rider must live or work locally because he quite often wakes me up at the same time. I wouldn't be too upset if someone stole the bike and crushed it. It did make me wonder about Spanish laws regarding motorbikes; in the UK, he would have had the bike seized due to the noise. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and worked for a couple of hours, indexing pages from my website for the Google search index, and completed the Wordle puzzle.

I went back to bed around 3:30 am and managed to sleep. I got up again at around 7:45 am. I took my medication and worked on my website before having some cereal and coffee for breakfast. Some time in the morning, I went out on my disability scooter to get some shopping at Economy Cash. I got two pasta salads and two regular salads, following the doctor's advice from last week, to try to eat more salads. I also bought a pre-carved rabbit to make a stew with or cook in a sauce of some sort. Rabbit Tikka may be.

For lunch, I had a couple of Tuna and cheese rolls, and this evening, I had one of the pasta salads. Late in the evening and still feeling hungry, I had some cheese on crackers before going to bed at 10:30 pm.

Thursday, 5th June.

Sparrow outside Cafe Prensa.I woke up around 6:45 am, got up, and had a cup of coffee. I then completed the Wordle puzzle and spent a couple of hours working on my website before my friend Lawrence arrived to take me for coffee.

Lawrence picked me up around 9 am, and we drove to Los Narejos and went to Cafe Prensa for coffee. We sat there chatting for a while when my friend Darren arrived and told me that my other friend Steve had passed away yesterday. Steve had been in the hospital for a while and had been taken to a care home to be looked after over the weekend. Unfortunately, his body finally gave up, and he passed away on Wednesday. RIP Steve, my friend. I will miss you, but you are now reunited with Carol and can continue your travels with her.

Steve, Bev, and Theresea soon joined us. We sat chatting for a while, watched the sparrows looking for crumbs on the floor, and when we had finished our coffee, Lawrence dropped me off at home, but not before we arranged to go for lunch somewhere tomorrow.

I spent the afternoon and evening watching TV and trying to catch news of any signings that Arsenal might have made in the transfer window. I also watched the second half of the Spain vs France game. It was 2-0 to Spain when I switched on, but finished 5-4. The second half was terrific.

Friday, 6th June.

I woke up and got a coffee at around 6:45 am. I did the Wordle puzzle and then worked on my website for a while. I began updating the articles in the Bucket List section.

At 9:45, I left my apartment on my disability scooter to visit the health clinic and have the dressing on my ankle changed. I didn't have to wait very long today because two people with appointments before mine never turned up. I soon had the dressing on my ankle changed. The nurse told me that they hope to get the wound closed completely and made me another appointment for a week next Wednesday.

I left the clinic and went back along the beachfront on my disability scooter. It looked beautiful in the Mar Menor, and I found myself wishing I could go for a swim. I was going to go to the Buena Vista restaurant for a tostada, but changed my mind and had a coffee and some cereal at home instead. I worked on my website for a while and got ready to meet Lawrence. At 1 pm, I walked outside, not wanting to keep Lawrence waiting because he is always on time. Today he was late, and I sat outside in the crazy midday sun waiting for him for 20 minutes. I called him, and he was still at home, telling me he had lost track of time talking on the phone to a friend. As I sat waiting for him, my phone dropped out of my pocket. I was gutted as I hadn't had it for very long, and the screen protector I had ordered for it hadn't arrived yet. When I picked the phone up, the screen had a small crack across the bottom of it. It wasn't bad enough to prevent me from seeing the phone, and hopefully, when the new screen protector arrives and is fitted, it won't get any worse.

After Lawrence picked me up, we drove through Los Alcazares to the restaurant, Venta El Puerto 3. I translated the menu of the day and decided that it wasn't that good. We decided to go instead where I went with my friend Jim last Friday, Los Celtas in Mil Palmeras. As we drove through Los Alcazares, we stopped at a red light, but as we sat there, Lawrence moved off to go through it. I pointed out that he had just gone through a red light, and he stopped in the crossover between two sets of lights, looking for the light. I shouted at him to move, and he moved off. I am not sure what he was thinking of, but it wasn't driving. At the next roundabout, he still seemed lost, and I had to tell him which way to go, even though he had driven through Los Alcazares hundreds of times before. We were soon on the motorway and on our way to Mil Palmeras.

Once we had arrived in Mas Palmeras, we parked and walked the short distance to the restaurant. We sat outside and chatted and watched the people passing by on the way to the beach as we ate. I had the crab salad, followed by a lasagne and a piece of cheesecake, and washed it all down with a beer. When we had finished our meal, we walked the extra hundred yards to look out over the Mediterranean and the beach; it really is a beautiful beach there. After a short time, we returned to the car and drove back to Los Alcazares.

After Lawrence had dropped me off at my apartment, I put my feet up and put the TV on. I sat watching episodes of Insane Pools and flicked between them and Sky Sports news to see if Arsenal had bought any new players. Unfortunately, Sky felt the need to turn the two, one-hour transfer shows over to news about  Tottenham sacking their manager, Ange Postecoglou. They had sacked him; it wasn't necessary to talk about it for two hours. Get it together, Sky.

As I closed my windows before going to bed, I noticed that the square outside already had some lorries in it, and it appeared that the people there were setting up for an event there tomorrow. Seeing the workers somehow reminded me to charge my disability scooter, so I went down to the garage and plugged it in before going to bed.

Saturday, 7th June.

I woke up at 6:30 and got up to use the bathroom before going back to bed. Usually, I get up, but I still felt a bit tired and dropped off to sleep immediately. I woke back up just after 8:15 am, got a coffee, completed the Wordle puzzle, and sat at my computer to work on my website.

After I had woken up properly and finished what I was doing on my website, I stripped the linen from my bed and put it in the washing machine. I noticed that the lorries were still in the square and that the people were still setting up for whatever event was going on today. After putting the washing machine on, I got dressed and went to Los Narejos and Cafe Pensa to catch up with my friends for a quick chat before heading to the Mercadona store to do some shopping.

After leaving my friends, I got all my shopping in Mercadona and went back to my apartment. I put all my shopping away and then walked along the beach to meet my friend Gerry, who had called to meet him for a drink. I hadn't been there long when Gerry called to tell me he was running late. I got a beer and waited for him to arrive a short time later. We sat talking for about half an hour, and his wife then arrived. After chatting for another 10 minutes or so, we all left. They were going to a friend's house for a BBQ in Los Narejos, and I went back towards my apartment.

I continued past my apartment to Plaza de Espejo to have a look at the stalls that were being set up and to listen to some of the music. They were playing mainly reggae music, and it was quite good. I found a stall selling jewellery, and it looked like they may have had a string that could be attached to the jade Buddha I own. The silk that was initially on it broke years ago, and the repair I had done at a jeweller's in Los Alcazares was terrible and lasted less than a couple of days. I went back to my apartment and typed up a note asking if he could add a link to the jade Buddha and attach it to a rope chain, and if so, what the cost would be. I translated it into Spanish and took the Buddha back down to the stall. The man working there read my note, looked at the Buddha, and asked if I spoke English. I laughed and then began talking to him. He told me he could do it, that it would take around 10 minutes and would cost €3. I was very pleased and handed the Buddha over to him.

I had a walk around the rest of the stalls while he repaired it, but because I was barefoot, my feet were burning on the stone cobbles, and I went back to his stall and stood in the shade until he finished. The link he added looked good, and he had attached it to a nice black string for me. I was delighted with it because I hadn't been able to wear it for years, and I never used to take it off. I gave him €5 and thanked him before heading back to my apartment.

As I headed back to my apartment, I heard my name being called, so I stopped and turned around. I could see my cousin Jill waving at me from the beach, and I went back to have a quick chat with her before I went back to my apartment. By the time I got back to my apartment, the music being played was a sort of punk rock. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't bad either. I got myself a seafood selection dish for lunch and then settled down to watch the Andorra vs England football match on the TV. The game was abysmal, but England scraped a 0-1 win.

After the game, I set up my video camera and updated its firmware. The zoom feature isn't working, so I checked if I could return it and get a new one with the service package I purchased. I can switch it four times and haven't switched it at all yet, so I sent them an email asking how to go about returning it.

I was going to go to bed early but by now the music being played was a Spanish Techno mix, with nothing but loud crap music and constant loud beats and drums so I wouldnt have been able to sleep if I wanted to. The last couple of times something has been on in the square, it had stopped at midnight, and I hoped it would again tonight.

The music did stop at midnight, and after making my bed up with clean sheets, I went to bed and was asleep very quickly.

Sunday, 8th June.

I woke up just before 8 am today. I put a load of washing in the washing machine and set it running before getting a coffee and sitting down at my computer. I completed the Wordle puzzle and listened to Radio 2 while browsing the internet, checking the news.

After I finished my coffee, I decided to go for a walk while it was still reasonably cool, around 25 °c. As I left the apartment, I saw one of my new English neighbours who is currently staying in her apartment with a friend. I said hello to them and then walked along the beachfront to the Rambla in Los Alcazares. I turned onto the Rambla and walked to the main road, and then turned again and walked down the main road until I got to the La Sola garage, where I turned towards the beach. When I arrived at the beach, I stopped at the Buena Vista restaurant and had a coffee, a tostada with tomato, and some orange juice. I sat for a short time while I had breakfast and got my breath back. When I had finished breakfast, I walked back along the beachfront to my apartment.

I spent the day relaxing in front of the TV, working on my website, and watching the Nations League Final between Spain and Portugal. Spain was the better team in the first half, while Portugal was the better team in the second half. The game went to extra time and penalties, with Portugal winning the penalty shoot-out. It was interesting to watch a couple of the players, as Arsenal had been linked to several of them during the transfer window. I hope that Arsenal do end up buying Zubimendi and Williams from the Spanish team, or Leao from the Portuguese team.

I went to bed directly after the game.