Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain
Summary: A week of new furniture, long walks, genealogy breakthroughs, juicing experiments, football frustrations, and the welcome return of real human company.
Friday, February 5th
A new headboard, a creative stew, and progress with the denuncia.
I woke up and got ready for the day ahead. I kept tagging files in Photoshop and prepared a beef stew, which I set in the slow cooker for later. My friend Reindeer arrived at about 11:30 with the headboard he had made for me from pallets to my design. He had smoothed all the wood and finished it with a light varnish. He brought it in and put it in my bedroom. It looked absolutely brilliant, and I was very pleased with it.
At 13:00, I went to the Town Hall with Jo and gave them the denuncia from the Guardia Civil that we had received last week. I was happy she was there. At first, no one wanted to help; if she hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have got anything done. She explained what we needed, and they eventually took it forward to Traffico in Cartagena after she added an extra note at the bottom of the documents.
In the evening, I tried to make a stew. It looked like beef stew, but the ingredients told a different story. I didn’t have the right ingredients, so I made it up as I went: diced beef, beans, a jar of bolognese sauce instead of tinned tomatoes, beef stock, gravy powder, oregano, chilli powder, onion, garlic, raisins and chorizo. I left it on high for five hours, then turned it down to low, added frozen peas, sweetcorn and cauliflower florets and left it for another hour. It tasted fantastic. I had two portions straight away and put three more in the freezer.
Later that evening, I received a message saying my new glasses were ready for pickup.
Saturday, February 6th
New glasses, house bits, and another ruined Arsenal weekend.
In the morning, I went to a Chinese shop to pick up a few bits for the house before heading to Aldi to stock up for the next week or so. After getting my food, I went to the optician and collected my new glasses. I was very pleased with them; I could read better, they looked better, and they fit better than my old ones.
I got home in time to put all my shopping away before making a pot of tea and doing some more photo tagging before the afternoon’s football. Once again, Arsenal ruined my weekend. They went behind after about 80 seconds, couldn’t score themselves and lost 1–0.
Sunday, February 7th
A day of genealogy, sport, and new Welsh leads.
I started the day with a massage and a pot of tea, then began my genealogy research. In the afternoon, I flicked through the channels, watching various football and rugby matches. I was pleased Wales won; it wasn’t convincing, but it was a good start to the Six Nations.
While watching the matches, I also did genealogy research and talked to my distant cousin Jane in Wales via Farcebook. With her help, I found a few leads in the St Dogmaels area of Pembrokeshire. I ended up working on the family tree until around 23:00, then finally pulled myself away and went to bed.
Monday, February 8th
An early start, a long walk, and another stew for the freezer.
I woke early and couldn’t fall back asleep. All the information I had found about my family tree was going round in my head, so I got up, had a massage and did a few hours of research before going out to collect the drugs I took to stop my blood from clotting. I should have collected them last week and used the last of them.
I walked to the pharmacy, collected the drugs and continued walking to the military base in Los Alcázares before turning for home along the beach promenade.
Since the beef stew was such a success last week, I made another stew today, this time with pork. It was terrific, though I preferred the beef version. At least I would have food in the freezer for days when I couldn’t be bothered to cook. While in the kitchen, I brought out my juicer, dusted it off, and cleaned it, ready to use it again.
The morning walk was great, but I wasn’t used to it and found myself napping all afternoon. Hopefully, as I stepped up the walking, my energy reserves would build up.
Tuesday, February 9th
A market trip, fresh juice, and a fridge full of stew.
After cleaning the juicer yesterday, I went to the Tuesday market to get fruit for juicing. I looked for oranges and apples since I already had carrots, and a bit of cinnamon would make a nice drink to start the day. I also bought two more face masks because I had mislaid the ones I'd bought before.
On the way home, I stopped at Bastidos Bakery and bought a meat pie, a tuna‑tomato‑and‑egg pie, and an apple pastry. Once home, I warmed up with some of the pork stew I had made the day before, then juiced the fruit I had bought that morning. I made an orange, apple, carrot and cinnamon juice and put two litres in the fridge to cool. Once chilled, I mixed it half-and-half with water for a very refreshing drink that should last a couple of weeks.
Wednesday, February 10th
A long walk, a sociable afternoon, and a Chinese takeaway.
I went for a morning walk down to the military base and stopped at Restaurante La Encarnación for coffee, a tostada, and orange juice for breakfast. After my walk and breakfast, I did more genealogy research before going to Rocco’s bar for a couple of beers.
After not seeing anyone for ages, it was lovely to see some real, live human beings again, even at a social distance. A couple of beers turned into a few, then a few more, and I ended up getting a Chinese takeaway on my way home. It was a lovely day, but I could tell I wasn’t used to drinking anymore. I must have talked my neighbour’s ears off on the way back, sorry, Russ.
Thursday, February 11th
Photoshop distractions, coffee with Mark, and a lucky escape with backups.
In the morning, I went to do some genealogy research for my cousin Geoff, but I got distracted by an email with new Photoshop training. Before I knew it, it was gone midday, and I was supposed to be meeting a friend for coffee.
My friend Mark also lived on his own, so we were able to meet without breaking COVID restrictions. We had a quick coffee at Bar Corzola, steps from my apartment, before heading to a nearby café for an Asiatico.
After a couple of hours’ break, it was back to the computer and to Geoff's research. Somehow, I managed to delete some records in the tree, but luckily, I had been running regular backups and had only lost that morning’s work. I was glad I got distracted by Photoshop; otherwise, I might have lost a lot more than a couple of census links.
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