2023 Journals.
During 2023, I had some sad times when I lost a few friends and members of my family when they passed away, but I also had great times to balance those out. I was lucky to attend many musical events, fiestas, shows, and travel. I visited three different continents when I went to Africa, South America and Europe on various cruises. I went to five countries and many cities. I saw many fantastic things, crossed off a few things from my bucket list and made many new friends.
The year overall was a good one where the good outweighed the bad, and it gave me the courage to continue travelling and enjoying the world and all it can show me.
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During week 52 of 2023, I spent most of the time inside my apartment trying to shove enough tablets inside me to get rid of a cold.
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During week 51 of 2023, I saw a lot of friends, listened to some Christmas Carols sung by Spangles Ladies Choir and went for the Annual Christmas swim in the Mar Menor.
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- Hits: 1092
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I spent most of the week trying to get rid of a cold and resting my leg.
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- Hits: 1007
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This week I spent most of the time trying to recover from my holiday in Brazil. I rested my leg and worked on my website, but I did get out for dinner on Sunday.
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- Hits: 551
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In week 48 of 2023, I travelled to and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on the cruise ship Costa Favolsa and spent 5 days there before flying home.
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- Hits: 485
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This week was spent cruising across the Atlantic before we arrived in Brazil and then visited Recife, Salvador, and Ilheus before ending the cruise in Rio de Janeiro.
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- Hits: 515
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This week was spent cruising towards Brazil on the Costa Favolsa, visiting Cadiz and Tenerife on the way.
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- Hits: 1323
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This week was spent working on my website and preparing to leave for my cruise from Barcelona to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
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- Hits: 1138
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This week, I continued to rest my leg. I got a knee support, which seemed to help with the strength and pain in my knee. I did a lot of work on my website and went out for meals with friends on different days.
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- Hits: 1720
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This week started with me in a lot of pain and finding it hard to walk. Towards the end of the week, the pain began to subside, and I started to feel better.
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- Hits: 1410
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This week started slowly and ended in a lot of pain, but one in which I saw an old friend for the first time in about 10 years.
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- Hits: 1244
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This week started slowly but finished in a flurry. I met lots of friends on Caldero day, spent a few hours with friends whilst out shopping, had dinner at a Chinese restaurant with another friend, met another friend for coffee and finished the week at another friend's house having dinner.
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- Hits: 1143
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This week I continued to do lots of work on my photos, adding them to photo albums on my website. I did the important job of renewing my home insurance and got my disability scooter included in it.
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- Hits: 1102
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This week, I had to do a lot of work on my website. A piece of software I used malfunctioned, and I had to buy new software and install it on the server. I also had to spend way too much money buying a new watch and mobile phone, which both broke within a couple of days of each other.
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- Hits: 1167
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This week was another quiet week. I did a lot of computer work, I got some new reading glasses, watched two very good Arsenal games on the television and went out for breakfast with my friend June one morning.
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- Hits: 1196
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This week, I started a diet to lose some weight before I go on my cruise, and I also started to try to walk a bit more so that I can manage to walk around a bit more on some of the planned excursions.
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- Hits: 1360
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This week was quite quiet, but I did catch up with some old friends and collect a trailer to help me move my kayak backwards and forwards to the beach. As long as September stays warm I may now be able to get out on my kayak more often.
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- Hits: 1206
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This week was expected to be a quiet one but ended up being a busy week. I ate out a few times and saw some old friends. I bought a big trolley to transport my kayak around, and I revelled in Arsenal's victory over Manchester United.
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- Hits: 1226
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This week was spent entirely in Los Alcazares, mainly in my apartment, working on my website. I did get out a couple of times to meet friends for a drink and a chat, but it was a relatively quiet week.
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- Hits: 1179
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This week was spent mainly in Los Alcazares, but I did quite a lot. I made some videos, including my first attempt at underwater filming with my mobile phone. I ate out with friends, met other friends for a drink and watched a parade in Los Alcazares.
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- Hits: 966
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This week was a quiet one for me. I read a lot, worked on my family tree, saw a few friends and went out for dinner on Sunday.
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- Hits: 1014
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I seemed to spend the first part of this week waiting for deliveries or people coming to my apartment for some reason, and at the end of the week, I travelled to Murcia to see one of my favourite groups, Simply Red, in concert.
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- Hits: 958
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This week started with me panicking, worrying that my apartment block would be demolished. I went to an 80th birthday party/meal. I stayed up all night to watch an Arsenal game live from California and did lots of swimming.
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- Hits: 1203
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This week I did a lot of swimming. I went to Murcia to see Rod Stewart in concert and met my friend Gail there. I went to San Pedro del Pinatar with my friends Kathy and Tony to see the Arsenal U21s play Villareal B in a friendly football match.
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- Hits: 1427
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This week included lots of time trying to stay cool in the extreme heat that warnings were given about. I did a bit of swimming and spent time looking at the jellyfish.
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- Hits: 1679
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This week, I swam quite a bit, met a few friends, and booked myself onto another cruise, this time going from Barcelona, Spain, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the end of the week, I had a severe bout of Acid Reflux, which caused some pain.
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- Hits: 977
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This week, I decided that after a few weeks of starting to swim more, I would try to step up the distance I was swimming and go swimming every morning. I will note how far I swim each day from now on.
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- Hits: 1011
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This week was very mixed; I did lots of swimming, enjoyed a local celebration at the beach, suffered from a bout of GERD, caught up with lots of friends I hadn't seen for a while and had the bad news that an Uncle had a heart attack back in the UK.
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- Hits: 963
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This week, I got the results of last week's tests from the Doctor. I took a short trip to Alicante to see Bob Dylan in concert and my friend Cindy arrived from England to stay with me for a holiday.
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- Hits: 916
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This week, I started to swim a bit more in the mornings. My sister Karen was staying in Los Alcazares for a week and joined me several times to feed the fish. I bought a few things for my apartment to make my life a bit easier, but I generally just took it easy.
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- Hits: 1130
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The week started quietly recovering from my cruise around the Mediterranean, which finished last week. I had a few deliveries arrive and some that did not arrive. At the weekend my sister arrived from the UK.
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- Hits: 1087
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The week started in Civitavecchia, Italy, before sailing back to Valencia in Spain and returning to Los Alcazares at the weekend and watching the Premier League´s final games of the season from the comfort of my sofa.
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- Hits: 1002
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The week started with the delivery of a new combined washing machine and dryer and became a lot more exciting as I set off on a cruise around the Mediterranean on Thursday.
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- Hits: 846
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The week started with the very sad news that my friend Sandra had lost her battle with cancer. She was one in a billion and anyone who met her could call themselves a lucky person to have known her. RIP Sandra, you will be sorely missed.
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- Hits: 812
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The week started with me ordering a new computer table, which was delivered and put together before the end of the week. King Charles III was crowned King of England, and Arsenal was guaranteed 2nd spot in the Premier League when they beat Newcastle.
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- Hits: 955
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The week started slowly and ended with me booking another Mediterranean cruise and a free lightning show over the Mar Menor.
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- Hits: 787
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This week was spent mostly working on my computer or sitting and reading my Kindle in the sun. It's great to have the sun back out.
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- Hits: 884
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The week started well when I had my TV mounted on the wall. I did a lot of work on my website and edited many photos. I went to Murcia to see the flower festival and went for dinner on Sunday.
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- Hits: 866
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The week started slowly. I did a lot of work on my website while feeling under the weather. The weekend was a blur of late deliveries, great meals, great golf and crazy football.
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- Hits: 896
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I started the week, by meeting friends and getting my push bike running again. Midweek was time to see an old friend who came to stay for a couple of days, and the week ended waiting to hand over keys to a neighbour's flat.
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- Hits: 798
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I started this week off slowly, not doing much, but by the end of the week, I had started doing a little bit more walking, probably too much, as my legs got very swollen again. I ate out in four restaurants this week, two on one day.
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- Hits: 819
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I started feeling much better this week; the swelling in my legs had gone down, and I was no longer taking painkillers.
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- Hits: 885
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This week saw my cruise come to an end, and I spent the rest of the week in pain, resting in front of the television.
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- Hits: 931
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This week was spent on holiday sailing around the Mediterranean, going to ports in Italy, France, and Spain, and Morocco in North Africa.
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- Hits: 824
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This week, I had a few jobs to do, such as helping some friends and a few jobs in my apartment, before heading to Alicante to join my cruise ship over the weekend.
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- Hits: 842
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This week was another cold week. I went out to eat three times at three different restaurants, saw a friend singing in one bar and met my good friend Alan Bond in another bar to celebrate his birthday at the end of the week.
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- Hits: 819
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This week was a fairly quiet week again. It began with a coffee at the Las Claras Centre coffee morning and ended with Sunday lunch at Campbell Bar in Roda. In between, I had an appointment to have MRI scans done in San Javier.
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- Hits: 881
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This week started slowly as I was still getting over a cold. I also saw a doctor about my tinnitus. The week finished with me receiving the documents for my upcoming holiday.
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- Hits: 943
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This week started with me celebrating my 56th birthday. Many doctors told my family that I wouldn't make it to 25 years old, so I would like to say a big "up yours" to them and a big "thank you" to the doctors, nurses, family and friends who made it possible for me to celebrate my 56th birthday.
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- Hits: 1040
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This week was a quiet week. Lots of my time was spent fighting off the cold I have, but I got out on Friday and had a few beers at a local bar.
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- Hits: 948
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This week was spent mostly indoors with a cold.
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- Hits: 862