In week 34 of 2021, I visited a hospital in Cartagena. It went well and now I have to wait for further appointments in around two weeks.
Friday, August 20th.
Today I get up early to go swimming before my hospital appointment, get my time mixed up & don't go swimming although I did in fact have plenty of time to go. I have some porridge with a banana for breakfast before my translator Lesley arrives to pick me up to take me to the hospital in Cartagena. The wait for me to have the MRI scan was only about five minutes & I soon had the scan done.
On the way out of Cartagena Lesley stopped off at a local cafe where we had some empanadas & a spicy sauce to dip or spread over them. I only ate two & took the rest home. When we arrived at my apartment Lesley popped in to read a letter I had & to confirm what it was. Whilst there she also tried to get my Amazon account unblocked for me. After I was mugged many weeks ago, I removed all payment cards from my Amazon account just in case the account was hacked. Straight away Amazon blocked by account for suspected fraudulent actions. Since then I have been unable to access it or talk to anyone about it as the security number that I was given is in Spanish.
Lesley rang the number & they hung up on her twice before she managed to get an English speaker who would speak to me, not her. They told me that the zip code that I had on the account was different to that which we were giving them, I told them to check where all orders I had placed were sent but they refused. They told me the account had been blocked because of suspected fraud, I again explained that it was my account & that was what I was calling about. They refused to speak to me, saying they would contact me when they had found out anything else. Oh well, I guess I won't be buying anything from Amazon any time soon.
This afternoon I sat on my balcony reading my kindle before going out on my mobility scooter in the evening. I hadn't been out for so long in the evening I just wanted to get out & see some living breathing people. I went along to Rio Nalon & as I passed Zarcos bar, my friends Elaine & Colin called out to me to stop. It was happy hour so I stopped & had a cocktail & a chat with them, A bit later my friend Mat joined us & I had another cocktail. After drinking my cocktails we asked for our bill & for the second time at the bar, I had been charged full price for my cocktails not the happy hour price. It's not a lot of money but I will not be going to Zarcos again when there are so many other bars on the strip.
Saturday, August 21st.
I get up early this morning & go for a swim before the crowds arrive at the beach. After my swim, I have a shower before going to the chiringuito for a coffee & to read my kindle.
After reading for a few hours I go back to my apartment & have the last of the empanadas that I bought yesterday. After lunch, I call my friend George to see if he is going to watch the Vuelta a Espanja as it goes through Los Alcázares. We arrange to meet at a local cafe on the main road that the cyclists will be passing. Luckily for us, we get a roadside seat & settle down chatting whilst we wait for the tour to pass by. It is a long wait, the lead cars pass by an hour before the cyclists arrive & when they do pass by the entire field of cyclists passes us by in around 15 seconds. I did notice that people protesting about the state of the Mar Menor were moved along by the local police. I do not understand why they were moved they were causing no blockage to the race & I believe they were moved so that TV cameras would not film them & their protest banners would not be seen around the world.
After the race, I went home & watched football on the television before going to bed.
Sunday, August 22nd.
I get up this morning & go for my swim before going to the Tipsy Thistle for a cooked breakfast. I order a small English breakfast & eat it whilst reading my kindle & watching the world go by. On my way home I stop off at the chiringuito by my apartment for a coffee & sit there for a few hours reading.
This afternoon I sit behind my sofa to watch Arsenal play Chelsea. Due to some more players being affected by COVID & an already weakened team due to injuries I am not hopeful that Arsenal can avoid a hammering by Chelsea. I did say to my friend Colin on Friday that I thought Chelsea would win 0 - 4. Arsenal does lose the game 0 - 2 but despite the defeat, I enjoyed watching some of Arsenals younger players & players with very limited game time get a chance. Realistically we will get a good hammering again next week when we play Manchester City as well but I do find the ludicrous cries by the press & overpaid television pundits, calling for the manager to be sacked, are just a way for them to get news headlines to boost their viewing figures & over-inflated egos.
After the football, I retire to the reclining chair on my balcony to read my kindle.
Monday, August 23rd.
This morning I am up early for my swim so that I can go to the bank before it gets too busy. After my swim, I shower & head off to the bank to find out why some money I had sent to my account 10 days ago hasn't cleared yet. The lady I talk to searches my account & checks to see if the payment has a hold on it, it doesn't & the payment has not been made to my account.
I head home to contact the bank to make the payment. It turns out they have put a hold on it as they want to know where the money came from because of money laundering laws. I am very upset, to say the least as they had proof of where the money came from early this year when I paid the money in. I think it is a case of one department not speaking to another. I am also mad that they have put a hold on the money being sent to my bank in Spain but have not told me they have done it. All banks these days have too much power to do what they want with our money. Gone are the days when your money used to get interest on it, these days banks make it harder & harder to get your own money whilst charging us money to use our money to make their money. Banks these days are nothing more than industrial-sized faceless leeches sucking the lifeblood from its customers.
After my morning dealing with the bank, I go to The Office to meet my mate Martin for a pint. On my way home I stop at Aldi to get some carrots for a soup I want to make this week. I haven't had a pint for quite a while & although I only had two pints I was aware that I had them when I got home. After getting home I had a pizza I had made last week & put in the freezer. Within minutes of eating the pizza, I was fast asleep on the sofa, when I woke I sat on my balcony reading my kindle. The story I have been reading for a while is a box set of nine different stories about a female detective in Acapulxo, Mexico. They are very good & I haven't been able to put the stories down.
Tuesday, August 24th.
I woke up this morning not feeling too good, I feel very lethargic & have no energy, my stomach aches a bit again this morning. I settle down on my laptop to work on my website for a while & hope that I may perk up a bit during the day.
This morning I manage to get the online money transfer bank, to finally make the payment that I scheduled 11 days ago. Now that I know that the money is being transferred I look for a new computer online. The laptop I currently use has a few problems with it, I will still keep it for when I can start travelling again but I pick out a new computer which to my amazement will be delivered tomorrow.
I spend most of the day curled up on the sofa hoping that my stomach will feel better quickly.
Wednesday, August 25th.
I am awake & up & about early as yesterday I was given a delivery time of between 8 am & 9 pm for my new computer today. Shortly after getting up, I check the delivery to find that the delivery time has been altered to between 11:40 & 12:40, I will see how close they are to this time, but I won't go out till it gets here.
My new computer arrived at lunchtime & I had it set up within an hour. The computer chair I bought took another hour but still isn't finished as I haven't yet put the arms on it. When I turned my computer on to change the settings to English I discovered a problem with it. The windows that allow you to do all work will only open in the minimised state so that I cannot use any of the programs or make any changes. I put in a complaint to the manufacturers, PC Components, I am now waiting for their support department to help me fix the problem, not what I was expecting on an expensive new computer.
This evening I watch the West Brom v Arsenal game on television. Both teams field weaker than expected teams but Arsenal plays well & wins the game 0 - 6, their first win of the season. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scores a hat trick & the rest of the team played well, I was impressed by the new goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, he did very well on his debut. The result has at least cheered me up a bit.
Thursday, August 26th.
I had a lousy night's sleep last night & don't wake up till gone 9 am today which is unusual for me. I get up & go for my swim before coming back in & having some porridge with a sliced banana for my breakfast. I feel a bit better after breakfast & sit down to try & find out what is wrong with my new PC. I start it up & leave it whilst it logs on to the Internet, something it wouldn't do yesterday. Yesterday's problem of not being able to open any windows has miraculously disappeared & I spend the rest of the day transferring software from my laptop to my PC, & getting all my online accounts & virus protection updated.