In week 25 of 2021 I did lots of swimming, met a few friends and did some shopping on Amazon for friends.

Week 25 of 2021.

Friday, June 18th.

I woke quite early this morning, it was quite cool so I decided to go for a walk before it got too hot. I left the apartment & walked along the promenade to the military base. When I got to the military base I walked up to & crossed the main road through Los Alcázares before cutting through to the road that runs parallel to the main road. I walked down this road, crossed over the Rambla & then cut through to a paved street where I walked in the shade of the trees before stopping after 3.7 km for a bottle of water at El Callejón de las Brujas bar. I sat there for a while to get my breath & cool off before heading off again.

I carried on walking towards Los Narejos along the main road. When I got to The Arches area of Los Narejos, I crossed the main road & continued to a small café on the Oasis development. I sat down all puffed out, I was starting to get a headache as the sun was beginning to get stronger & I had stupidly come out without a hat. I ordered a coffee, tostada & a large bottle of water & sat down for a rest. After being there a short while my friend Mike turned up for a coffee & after we had sat for a while chatting he offered to give me a lift home. As the sun was getting stronger & from there I still had 5km to go, to get home, I accepted his offer & let him drop me off.

When I got home I started to read my kindle but was very tired after the 6.7 km I had walked & quickly dosed off for an hour. When I woke up I made a sandwich & settled down to watch the Sweden v Slovakia football match on the television. The game was not brilliant & when my friends Keith & Dave messaged me to tell me they were outside at the chiringuito I quickly walked downstairs to join them for a beer. We sat there for an hour or so & then walked around to the bar I had been to earlier in the day, El Callejón de las Brujas. We sat there chatting, had a few beers & tapas before eventually heading back to the chiringuito for the last beer before going home to watch the England v Scotland game on the television.

England played terribly & Scotland was by far the better team, I think England was lucky to get a 0 - 0 draw. Both teams can still qualify for the next round but will both need to play better to go much further.

Saturday, June 19th.

I didn't sleep well last night because of a group of kids that turned up at about 1:30 am & where sat in the square outside talking & playing music until about 5 am. I am going to have to find the app that you can add to your phone to report nuisance to the police. Why are Spanish people so loud? They do not talk to each other they shout at each other, even without the music they were playing it would have been loud enough to wake the dead.

After putting on some washing I take the Sharky mobile to Consum & get a bit of shopping. I am overly excited as I finally find some packets of cheese sauce mix, I have been looking for it for ages so I treat myself to two packets. When I get home I plug my scooter in to be recharged, with the new system for billing, it's cheaper to charge it at the weekend. The washing machine has an error message on it & has to be restarted, it soon finishes & I can put a 2nd lot of washing on.

For dinner, I put on some pork ribs which I will have before the first of today's football matches start. I watch the Portugal v Germany game which is brilliant & has everything, goals, penalties, disallowed goals, tough tackles, cards & excitement, it is the best game of the tournament so far & Germany eventually won 2 - 4. The Spain v Poland game is not as exciting but is still better than yesterday's England game, it finishes 1-1.

My friend Sheila messages me & asks me to order some items on Amazon for her, I make the order & they should arrive tomorrow.

Sunday, June 20th.

I slept well last night & I think the rain yesterday evening & the cooler air helped me sleep & kept the noisy kids away from the square during the night. This morning I go for a swim for around an hour, swimming out to the rocks, along the reef & back in. I see lots of fish of different types & a few crabs rushing sideways back under rocks as I swim past them. After my swim, I have a coffee & tostada at the chiringuito before going back to my apartment to make sure I am home when the delivery from Amazon arrives.

The delivery arrives from Amazon around lunchtime & I let my friend Sheila know & arrange for her to pick it up later. I watch the Italy v Wales game on television & although Wales loses they still qualify for the next round of the competition by finishing 2nd in their group. It was a great game & the Welsh played very well especially as they played a good part of the 2nd half with only 10 men after having a player harshly sent off.

After the game, I go for a pint at the chiringuito where Sheila & Bernard are meeting me to pick up their parcel. When Bernard arrives I quickly finish my pint as we are going to go to Zarcos beer for a cocktail. Sheila is driving & offered to take me there & give me a lift home. I have a few cocktails & we sit & talk for a few hours outside Zarcos before Sheila drops me off at home & I go to bed.

Monday, June 21st.

This morning I go for my swim a bit later than normal but swim for about 90 minutes. When I finish I have a coffee with my friend Keith who is at the chiringuito when I finish my swim. After coffee, we head off to the Tipsy Thistle to meet another friend, Dave, where we all have breakfast. After breakfast, Keith has to do some shopping so I tag along to get some carrots that I need for tomorrow's dinner. After shopping, we head back to the chiringuito where we meet back up with Dave & sit in the sun talking rubbish. It is hardly a boozy afternoon as Keith & Dave both start with coffee & I manage a large bottle of water.  Before I go back to my apartment to watch the North Macedonia v Holland football match I have a portion of baby squid to eat, to save me cooking when I get in.

When I get in, I make several orders on Amazon as they are having a sale & have given me a 10 euro voucher to use on any purchases I make. I wanted some shelving for my patio plants & have been waiting for a sale so I order three shelves for my plants. I have been feeling very lethargic recently & as I know I don't eat properly a lot of the time I order some multivitamins to make sure I am getting some vitamins in my diet. When I do my walks I have to stop off to buy bottled water as it is a pain carrying a plastic bottle around, because of this I order a wine/water leather skin bag that I can hang around my neck to carry cold water with me when I go for my walk. Lastly, I order some toilet rolls, I order them in bulk to save money & this saves me from having to walk back from the shop struggling to carry a very large multi-pack of toilet rolls. All my orders should arrive on Wednesday.

I watch the football which Holland win before going to bed & read until I fall asleep.

Tuesday, June 22nd.

This morning I go for my regular blood test, luckily they can do it first thing & I won't have to go back. After having my blood test I go to La Encarnacion where I have coffee, a tostada & orange juice for breakfast. I sit & read my kindle for a while before going back to the chiringuito by my apartment. I park my disability scooter near the chiringuito & then go for a swim in the Mar Menor. After my swim, I buy a bottle of water & sit & read my kindle for an hour before heading off to La Sombra restaurant to have a few beers with my friend Martin.

After enjoying a drink with Martin, Kate & their daughter Aria I & go home for something to eat before tonight's football. I sit for a while & decide I can't be bothered to cook tonight so I get a takeaway at the local Chinese restaurant. I actually buy enough for two meals as I don't want to go out tomorrow & miss my delivery from Amazon. That way I can just reheat one of the meals tomorrow & make sure I don't miss my delivery.

I watch the England v Czech Republic which England win 1-0. England played very well in the first half & the performance of Arsenals Bukayo Saka was fantastic. I can not understand why he hasn't started all of the games, he gives England so much more attacking momentum. Hopefully, he will get more game time in the next match.

Wednesday, June 23rd.

When I get up I check the status of my deliveries from Amazon. Incredibly they have split the orders & I will have two deliveries at different times with two different companies. My decision yesterday to buy extra food, for today, from the Chinese restaurant looks like a good one. 

I had to wait all day for my deliveries today, the first one arrived at around 1 pm, the second arrived at around 5 pm & the third arrived at 7:30 pm. I am amazed by the size of the boxes that Amazon pack things in. One of the orders was for three new shelving units & when my second delivery arrived in a box that was 120 cm long by 62 cm wide & was 23 cm deep I assumed the three shelving units would be packed inside it. Allowing for packaging to keep them from being damaged I thought this was reasonable if not a little large. Can you imagine my surprise when I lifted the box & found it to be very light? When I opened it, all it contained was 42 toilet rolls. The box could have had around 1600 toilet rolls packed inside it, what was just as funny was that the toilet rolls inside were padded with paper to stop them from being damaged. At least if there is another lockdown I won't have to go shopping for necessities for a long time.

I had intended to watch the Spain v Slovakia football match tonight but it was so boring I fell asleep before any goals were scored. Just my luck, I woke just before the game finished to find that Spain had missed a penalty & still won 5 - 0. I decided against watching any more football tonight & went back to reading my kindle, I am reading a trilogy called Enora: Online. If you ever played RPG when you were younger it is worth a read, it is well written & I can't put it down.

Thursday, June 24th.

I get up this morning, shower & go to Restaurant La Encarnacion for breakfast. I read for a while whilst having my breakfast & then go to my Dr to get the results of my latest blood test. The results are good & my blood clotting levels appear to be staying at an acceptable level. I then go back to my apartment & wait for my friend Mark who is coming around to assist me to adjust the position of the table on my balcony & putting together the shelving units that arrived yesterday. With all the packaging that has arrived, I will need help just shifting the cardboard to the recycle bin later as well.

The shelving came together easily & my friend Mark helped me put it together & rearrange my balcony & the plants on it. It will be nice to sit on my balcony & maybe I will be able to grow some herbs there now to use in some of the soups that I make.