This week starts off with me swimming in the Mar Menor & ends with me celebrating Wales's qualification to the World Cup Finals in Qatar.
Monday, 30th May.
I woke up around 7 am today & after pottering around on my computer for a while I go swimming at about 8:45 am. I swim for about 40 minutes & include some water aerobic stretches. I couldn't do these knee lifts on land but being in the water helps me to do them & I hope it will help me live forever.
After my swim, I have some scrambled egg on toast, then go to the ASSSA office near the Arches in Los Narejos on my mobility scooter. I ask the lady if she can help me make a telephone call to the hospital's online portal. I haven't been able to log on to it & they don't reply to my emails or answer the phone. She tries to call them for me but she can not get through either. She takes all the details & says she will keep trying for me.
I leave the ASSSA office & go around the corner to the work office, I am a bit early & I hope the boss will be pleased with my work attitude. Martin & his dad both arrive shortly after me & we are even joined by my friend Bernard, who may soon be working with us at the office. Bernard doesn't stay long but his interview for a job went well, I don't know if he will qualify for a full-time job, but he will definitely get a few hours of work with us when we get busy. After work, I stop off at Aldi to get a few bits of shopping on the way home. When I get home I warm up the Sunday Dinner I brought home from Campbell's bar yesterday & eat that before falling asleep on the sofa for an hour. I must have worked harder than I thought this morning for it to knock me out so quickly.
In the evening I do some more research on my family tree. I have just been contacted by a cousin in New York whom I knew nothing about & this piques my interest again. She is related to me through my granddad Alberts´ Italian heritage. It is a line that is difficult to research as their surname changed as the family moved around the world. They either just adopted new names as they emigrated or as in the case of my grandfather Albert, changed it by deed poll. I have very quickly discovered quite a few new cousins who were born in New York, New York, USA. Some of them even moved down to Florida & lived in places very close to where I would have spent time whilst I was living in Florida. This is what fascinates me about genealogy, it is the fact that at some time in my life, somewhere on my travels around the world, I could be talking to a distant cousin without even realising it.
Tuesday, 31st May.
This morning when I woke up, my legs were still quite sore so I decided to rest them today & not go swimming. At 9 am I head off to Mercadona supermarket on my mobility scooter. I get the shopping I was unable to get yesterday, then head home where I get myself scrambled egg with salmon on toast for my breakfast. I do some work on my family tree before heading to the office at lunchtime.
I work alongside Martin & his dad for a couple of hours before heading off home. I stop off at La Zona Terraza for a beer & something to eat on my way home but find the kitchen has closed & I am too late for something to eat at around 3 pm. I finish my beer & head home where I make myself a cheese & egg burger. The burger was lovely & I remind myself to check on the make so that I can make sure I buy the same ones next time.
The afternoon & evening is spent working on my family tree.
Wednesday, 1st June.
When I woke this morning my legs feel a bit better than yesterday, I am sure the day's rest with no swimming has helped so I decided to give swimming another day off today. Just after 10 am, I use up the salmon I have & again have it with scrambled egg on toast for breakfast with a large cafe bonbon.
I have lots of bed linen that I no longer use & as my friend Kate is a keen seamstress I offer her the material to see if she can make anything with it. Kate comes around to my house to collect it, as I am waiting for an Amazon delivery & don't want to leave the apartment & miss it. Kate picks up the bed linen to use the material & Amazon makes the delivery. It seems more & more of the items on Amazon are not as described & the camera lens hood I sent for does not fit my camera & will have to be returned to Amazon.
The rest of the day is spent researching my family tree with one branch of the family leaving England & going to live in America or Australia.
Thursday, 2nd June.
I woke around 7 am & immediately get back to my family tree research. I am researching the Tincknell branch of my family tree today. At about 9:15 am I went for a swim in the Mar Menor, the water was beautiful today, it was clear & calm & apart from a few people in canoes it was empty, just how I like it.
After my swim, I shower & get some breakfast before settling back down at my computer to await today's Amazon delivery. Strangely as it is now getting warmer, I have ordered a blanket for my bed. I want to get rid of the duvets that I have been using as I can never get the cover on them correctly. I figure if I just get sheets & then use a blanket when it's colder that will be better for me.
When the delivery arrives from Amazon, I unpack the blanket, it is very nice & is a great size, it is lightweight soft & warm, & it will definitely be replacing the heavy duvets that I have been using. I will probably get a second one before the winter arrives, I will see how this one washes first as it can be done in a washing machine at home.
The rest of the day is spent at the computer doing research on my family tree.
Friday, 3rd June.
Unusually for me, I don't wake until around 7:45 today. Because I am trying the fast & feast method of dieting I am unable to have anything for breakfast until 10 am, not even my favoured cafe bonbon because of the condensed milk in it. Instead, I get a large glass of water & settle at the computer. I would have gone for a swim this morning but my new tabletop oven is being delivered today & I do not want to miss the delivery if it does arrive early.
Instead, I get a large glass of water, check for email then begin to clear the kitchen out so that I can put the oven on the worktop when it arrives. Whilst I wait for the oven I disconnect the dishwasher in the kitchen & move it into the hall ready for it to be thrown away. The pipework connecting it was not great & I spend some time redoing it & cleaning out the plastic tubing it is connected with.
The oven arrives around lunchtime & I place it on my dining table but do not unpack it. I decide to leave it until I have everything else out of the kitchen that I want to remove. This afternoon I walk to the Chiringuito outside my apartment, I have a bottle of water & sit & read my kindle for a few hours.
This evening I carry on my family tree research.
Saturday, 4th June.
This morning I woke up early & go for my morning swim in the Mar Menor. After my swim, I take a shower & then decide to have breakfast out. I get on the Sharky mobile & head to Boochies for breakfast. I have not had breakfast there before, what I had was nice enough but unlike all the other breakfasts I have had out in the area, it did not come with tomatoes, mushrooms or potatoes. It consisted of sausages, bacon, egg & beans. The sausages were very nice but I felt a bit let down, when I ordered a large breakfast I assumed, wrongly, that these items would be included & not be an optional added extra at €1 each.
After breakfast I went into the Economy Cash supermarket, I buy two Murciano pies, some Greek yoghurt & a tin of pears. Dinner tonight will be something to look forward to. After getting my shopping I head home along the beach, it does look lovely today. When I get home I go back to the kitchen to work out how to remove the oven. I quickly work out how to remove the oven from the cabinets but looking at the electrical connection on it, I find it is not plugged in but wired in directly, a really botched job. Luckily for me, my odd job man, David, had said if I found it was wired like this he could help. I contacted David & he came around to disconnect it.
Unfortunately for me when it had been disconnected the electric point that David had brought with him, couldn't be fitted because of the mess that had originally been made of the wiring. David made it safe, reconnected my hob & left it so that I can use it. He will find the correct electrical fittings for it & finish it at a later date. I carried my old oven out to my hallway where it now proudly sits next to the old dishwasher.
This evening I watch the England vs Hungary football match. England plays abysmally, it is so boring I find myself drifting off to sleep & eventually lose interest completely. Instead of watching the game, I go back to doing some family tree research on my laptop before going to bed.
Sunday, 5th June.
I woke up early & feel quite good this morning. I go for my swim in the Mar Menor & as I am feeling quite good I manage to double my normal swim distance & double the water aerobics that I do whilst in the Mar Menor. I swim about 1 km this morning, the water feels lovely, I do prefer it first thing before there are any waves & the water is like a mill pond.
As I leave to go back to my apartment I see my neighbours on their balcony & ask them for some help. I tell them I will take a shower & then pop in to see them. I take my shower & then go to my neighbours Richard & Val for a cup of tea. After a cup of tea, Richard helps me remove the cupboard I want to take down in my kitchen. It wasn't really difficult, but it would have been for one person as they are quite heavy. Richard does all the technical work with the screwdriver whilst I just stand there looking pretty & hold up the cupboard to stop it from falling & damaging anything else.
It is quickly removed & placed alongside the oven & dishwasher in my hallway. My hallway is now beginning to resemble Steptoe & Son's yard. Richard returns home & as a special treat, I give him an unopened bag of dishwasher tablets to take home & use in his dishwasher. After Richard has gone I clean up where the cupboard was removed from in the kitchen, unpack my new countertop oven & place it in my kitchen.
After all the extra swimming & work in the kitchen, I am puffed out & so I treat myself to dinner at Campbell's bar in Roda. I go for a roast lamb dinner with all the trimmings & have a pint to wash it all down with. I then go home via Aldi where I buy some ice cream to eat whilst I watch the Wales vs Ukraine football match this evening.
The Wales vs Ukraine game is a World Cup qualifier, whoever wins gets to play in the World Cup Finals in Qatar later this year. Right from the kickoff, the game is played at a great pace & both teams are going all out to win the game with every player competing for the ball. Earlier this week I watched Ukraine beat Scotland & Scotland played poorly, I watched the England vs Hungry game where England played very poorly. In the Wales vs Ukraine game both teams did themselves & their Countries proud, it was a great game to watch, even if it was a little nail-biting towards the end. Wales held on to a 1-0 lead & qualified for the World Cup where they will be in a group with England, USA & Iran, this should be a very competitive group & it will be interesting to see who goes through.
I will admit at the end of the game when the final whistle went & Wales qualified for their first World Cup in my lifetime, since 1958 in fact, I did get a little tearful. The World Cup will be difficult for me to watch & to decide who to support. I have always said in football I support England first, then Wales. In Rugby, I support Wales first then England, but I have noticed that I get more emotional when I watch the Welsh football games than the English games. There is a good chance that I will be singing the Welsh National Anthem when the two teams meet in the World Cup in Qatar.
Who doesn't get emotional listening to the Welsh Anthem?