This week started wet, but it turned lovely mid-week. I spent a lot of time cataloguing my genealogy records for my research, and using the Lightroom training I did last week to help me do this.
Monday, 10th October.
I woke up still smiling after Arsenal's win over Liverpool on Sunday. I got myself a coffee and began working on my website. I worked until about 11:50 am when I went to work at the office.
It was a slow morning in the office, and I left at about 3 pm to get some bread for a sandwich when I got home. I stopped at Economy Cash for the bread and also got a Murciano pie. When I left, I went down Rio Nalon, and as I passed Rocco's bar, my friend Andy called me over. I stopped for a chat with Andy, and after a few beers and a chat, the bar's quiz started. I helped some people that I met last week do the quiz and continued chatting with them. As we sat there, a massive storm came over, so we went inside to stay out of the rain. While inside, I chatted with some golfers who had memories of where I used to live in Orlando, and it was nice chatting with them. There was a game of killer being played, which I joined in, but it turned out to be a ´hand the money to the young boy who was playing´ sort of a game. He went home happy with all the money.
After the pool game had finished, I noticed it had stopped raining, so I left and went home. When I got home, I had the Murciano pie for my supper before going to bed.
Tuesday, 11th October.
I didn't wake up until around 10 am today. I must have had more to drink than was good for me yesterday, as I felt about 100 years old. I had a few missed calls from Martin, who was sitting outside at the chiringuito, so I went down to meet him.
I had a coffee and a tostada at the chiringuito with Martin before going back to my apartment so I could scan his passport for him and try to get his new Farcebook account working for him. We quickly got it working, and Martin left to go home. Feeling somewhat under the weather, I watched Sunday's Arsenal v Liverpool football match again before doing some more work on my computer and then going to bed.
Wednesday, 12th October.
I woke up around 6 am and got myself a coffee. I could hear people outside who were turning up at the beach and beginning to set up for the Caldero day celebrations on the beach.
At about 9:30 am, I took some bread down to the sea to feed the fish. I saw a few people I know there already and had a chat with them. I checked on the opening times of the local supermarkets with my friend Paul before I set off to Lidl to get some fresh rolls. I got my rolls at Lidl, then went back along the beach watching people who were setting up their pitches for Caldero day.
I got myself a bacon and egg roll when I got home, had another coffee and then went for a walk along the beach. I saw my friend Jo, who was setting up the pitch for Perlita´s bar Caldero day celebrations and continued walking down the beach until I got to the Mermaid bronzes. Next to the statue, I saw my friends Dave and Viv setting up their pitch. I stopped off for a quick chat with them before I headed back to my apartment.
The travelling DJ driving up and down the promenade was far too loud, even with my windows and doors shut in my apartment and with the sound turned up very loud on my set, I could not hear the television. Thankfully, he was moving and eventually went out of hearing range for a while. I opened up my doors and windows, got myself a steak roll for my lunch and sat down to watch a film on the television. I watched Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road. It was a great film and one I can highly recommend.
At about 5:00 pm, I went back down to the beach to see what was going on. As I approached the group of people from Perlita´s bar, they asked me if I could charge their mobile speaker as it had run out of power. I took the speaker to my apartment to charge it and told them I would go back in about an hour. I then walked back to see my friend Dave further up the beach. I sat down with Dave for a chat and a beer for a while. They were about to start eating their food, so I took the opportunity to leave and walk back down the beach with my friend Paul, who was passing. I went back into my apartment to get the speaker for Perlita´s bar, but as I carried it down to them, I saw Kate, who was leaving. She said it had got too windy and they were packing up. So that she didn't have to carry the speaker back to the bar, I took it back to my apartment, where she can pick it up tomorrow.
The rest of the night was spent watching television before going to bed early. Luckily for me, the heavy wind meant that the celebrations on the beach had all finished the earliest I can remember them ever finishing, and I got to sleep easily.
Thursday, 13th October.
I woke early this morning feeling quite good, the sun was shining, and the weather forecast for the day was good. After getting a coffee, I had a telephone call with my friend Elaine before working on my website and then getting a bacon sandwich for breakfast.
Most of the day was spent reading my Kindle and updating the books in my library. I did some work on my website, but only a little bit, as one of the Joomla extensions I use has a problem and is being updated by the provider in the next few days.
This evening I watched the Bodo-Glimt vs Arsenal football match on television. Arsenal won 0-1, but it wasn't a very good game to watch. Arsenal got the job done and is at the top of their group against a team that has won their previous 14 games at home in a European competition. Arsenal are proving to have more grit this year and the young team are showing some maturity which can only be a good thing going forward.
Friday, 14th October.
I woke around 7:45 am and got up to get a coffee. I was going to stay in bed as I was very comfortable, but my new oven is arriving today and I have to get up in case it is delivered early. I am hoping it is delivered early as I am supposed to be going to a party tonight for some friends, Paul and Lesley, who have a joint birthday party for their 70th and 80th birthdays.
This morning I decided to start sorting through my collection of census records that I have for my genealogy research. I currently have over 312 census records where my descendants have been found. The records were all in one folder on my computer and very difficult to search through so I have been sorting them into census countries and census years and adding a date to each census record for the date it was taken on. This should make it a lot easier for me to search the records I have. At some stage in the future, I will also tag my relatives on each census. so that I can search for specific people in my records.
After working on the census records I started filing my other records, such as birth records, baptism or christening records, marriage records, death records, burial records and all the other documents I have so that I can use them with more ease. It was quite good looking at all of the work I managed to do quite quickly after the Lightroom training I did last week.
The new replacement oven I ordered last week was delivered today at about 4:30 pm. I unboxed it and set it up in my kitchen. It had to be connected to the WIFI network in my house so that I can control it with my mobile phone. This took me a couple of tries as it wouldn't connect using 5g but would use 4g. I put it on the suggested cooking mode to clear out any of the grease smells that would be produced the first time it run and whilst this was running I had a shave and took a shower.
After my ablutions, I got ready to go to the party tonight and walked to the main road to wait for my friends Frouk and Reinder to pick me up. Frouk and Reinder have never been late picking me up for anything and 20 minutes after they were supposed to pick me up I thought of calling them to see if they were still coming but instead responded to a message about the oven being delivered. It was then that a light bulb went off in my head, the party and the oven delivery were originally on the same day, tomorrow. Amazon changed the day of the delivery and brought it forward a day, they did not change the date of the party. Sure enough, after checking the date of the party I found it is tomorrow and realise I have been sitting at the side of the road now for nearly half an hour for nothing. I did feel very silly, luckily for me, no one will ever know and I won't look so silly to all my friends.
When I go back to my apartment I decide to test the new oven with a pizza. I want to try using the app on my phone rather than just pressing the dials and buttons on the actual oven. I select ´pizza´ on the app and it turns the oven on, sends a preheat message to the oven and the time and temperature for the pizza to be cooked. The oven turned itself on, the preheat function warmed the oven up and it beeped to tell me to put the pizza in and then beeped to tell me the cooking process had started. After the allotted cooking time my phone beeped to tell me the pizza was cooked and the oven turned off. I opened the oven, removed the pizza and was very pleased with the outcome. I can imagine this will be very useful in the future, if I am not sure when I will be home I can prepare the food beforehand, stick it in the oven, then send the oven a message up to 3 hours before I get back to tell it to start cooking.
After I eat my pizza I watch some television, mainly police and detective shows like Rissoil and Isles or Death in Paradise. I like these as they get the grey matter going trying to figure out who the criminals are and how they did the crime. Okay, you got me, I like both shows because they have gorgeous detectives in them, I am only a man after all. I go to bed around 10:50 pm but realise for the first time in a long time I am a bit cold in bed, I get up and put a blanket over my single sheet and return to bed. I am a lot more comfortable and fall asleep quite quickly.
Saturday, 15th October.
I woke around 8:30 am after sleeping very well last night. I get up, get myself a coffee and put on my washing for this week. I then sit down at my computer and peruse the world's news for a while before continuing to work on my website.
At around 11:30 I put a small pizza in the oven but leave it turned off. I then go out on my disability scooter to get some coffee, milk and rolls. On my way to the Mercadona supermarket, I realise the battery on my scooter will not make it to the store and back so I stop at Economy Cash for the things I want. I walk around the store, get the few things I want and then head home. I head home at snail's speed on the scooter to save power to make it home before the battery gives up. I get halfway home then stop and take out my mobile phone. I open the app for my new oven on my phone and tell it to cook the pizza, and then I carry on home.
When I get home I open my apartment door and immediately smell the cooked pizza that has just finished cooking. I put my shopping away, open the oven and see my beautiful pizza, it looks great, tastes great, and is cooked to perfection. I am very happy with my new toy. I spend the rest of the day relaxing, watching television and flicking between different football matches. At 6:30 pm my friends Frouk and Reinder arrive to take me to the party in Los Urrutias for my friends Paul and Lesley's birthday celebrations. As we arrive at the restaurant Ruf Mari we see many other people arriving simultaneously. Before heading into the restaurant, I say hello to my friends Derek and Alison outside. I pass Frouk and Reinder at the door as they are having a cigarette and immediately see my friends Pat, Sandra and Lorraine. We get a drink and move into the restaurant as it slowly fills up behind us.
I wait for Frouk and Reinder before we sit down at a table. A man sitting at our table immediately engaged us in conversation about his 4 dogs and 36 cats, he works for one of the charities the birthday party is raising money for. I do not dislike animals but I prefer to be able to make plans without having to find someone to look after my pets every time I decide to do something. I hate to think what this man's home looks like with this many animals wandering around and he could never just go for a weekend away without planning a long time in advance. I talk to a few different friends at the party which seems to have emptied Los Alcázares of a large per cent of its British residents. I thought the band was very good but sitting right next to it was a big mistake, I couldn't hear anything anyone was saying to me.
After having some food at one of the two large buffets I went to the bar to get a drink. At the bar, I could hear people again and had a conversation with a few different people that I knew. Reinder met me at the bar and said that they would be leaving in about 20 minutes, so I ordered a beer to drink before leaving. We left around 9:20 pm and I had them drop me off near the Rambla in Los Alcázares rather than taking me home.
I walked the short way to the beach and went to La Playa bar for a pint on my way home. I was pleased to see my friend Gary in the bar. He had got the bar guitar down from the wall and was playing and singing to a handful of customers. I sat at the bar chatting with a few people I know and introduced myself to another lady and her daughter. I talked to them about my travels and listening to the daughter talk about her travel plans. The bar finally shut at about 1:30 am and I walked home along the beachfront, when I got to my apartment I got myself a glass of water and then went straight to bed.
Sunday, 16th October.
I woke around 8 am, got myself a coffee and a bacon roll and sat down to work on my website. I worked till around lunchtime then got myself some lunch before settling down in front of the television to watch the football.
Arsenal was playing Leeds today and I had a feeling it was going to be a tough game. The game kicked off but within a few seconds, the game was suspended because there was a power cut in the place all of the VAR decisions are made. This meant the game couldn't continue and after 10 minutes both sets of players were led off the field to go back to their dressing rooms. The game restarted 30 minutes later. It was a very tough game for Arsenal, the decisions that VAR had to get involved in proving that suspending the game was the correct decision.
Arsenal won the game 0-1 but it could and maybe should have had a different result. In the second half especially, Leeds was very good and a mix of luck and good goalkeeping by the Arsenal goalkeeper kept the game at 0-1. Arsenal didn't play that well but they won and got three points to stay top of the league. I think the goal that Bukayo Saka scored was worthy of winning any game though, it was hit really well from a difficult angle and flew past the Leeds goalkeeper.
The second game today was a big one and when Liverpool beat Manchester City 1-0 it extended Arsenal's lead at the top to 4 points. I still think that realistically Arsenal will be happy with a top-four position in the league at the end of the season, but it is good to dream that we could continue the good form and win the league for the first time in 19 years.