This week started quickly with me going out for a few meals and finished with me having a cold, sniffing a lot, sneezing a lot, coughing and feeling terrible. I had caught a cold, and it was a proper man-size cold and made me feel terrible.
Monday, 2nd January.
I woke up feeling ok this morning and got myself a coffee and cereal before working on my computer for a while. At lunchtime, my friends Martin and Kate come round with their daughter Aria to pick me up to go to La Zenia Boulevard. I wanted to get some tea leaves, and there is a shop there that sells different types of tea.
After we got to the shop, I chose two types of tea and took them to the till to pay. The person working there got halfway through serving me when two people came in who wanted to buy an expensive china tea set. At this point, he stopped serving me and served them instead. I guess money talks in every walk of life, but I've never been treated so rudely in a shop selling tea.
After getting my tea leaves, we walked to Che Argentinian for lunch. There was a long queue, and we had to wait before we got a table, but once we were seated, the service was very quick. Unfortunately for me, after my first bite of food, my acid reflux started to react, and I had to stop eating until it receded. I managed to take a few mouthfuls of food, but it returned even stronger, and I had to run to the toilet, where I was soon vomiting stomach acid into the toilet. The reaction settled again, but the chest pain that came with it stopped me from eating, and while the others finished their dinner, I took a short walk outside.
After lunch, Martin and Kate dropped Aria off in the supervised children's play area. I did some shopping for groceries in Al Campo, and Martin and Kate looked around some clothes shops. Whilst Martin and Kate were in one shop, I sat down with Aria, and she decided to cuddle me. As I cuddled her back, I noticed the admiring looks I was getting from all of the passing ladies in the shopping centre. Does anyone know where I can hire a small cute child to impress women next time I go shopping?
Kate dropped me off at home after our shopping trip, and I quickly put the heating on in my apartment as it was getting cold quickly. I was starting to get hungry due to my aborted lunch, but I didn't want to risk any more solids. I got one of my homemade soups out of the freezer and had it for my supper. It did the job; it filled me up, and I had no acid reflux reaction.
Tuesday, 3rd January.
This morning, after getting up, I worked on my website for a few hours before taking my recycled plastic and paper to one of the local recycling bins. After dropping the recycling off, I continued to one of the many Chino supermarkets. I went on my disability scooter to one in Los Narejos and bought some cable ties. As soon as I left the shop, I attached my Save The Mar Menor flag back onto the front of my disability scooter before heading to Pizzeria La Sombre to have a couple of beers with Martin. Neither of us felt particularly brilliant, and it was a quiet couple of hours.
When I left Martin, I headed home but went past my old home in Los Narejos. As I passed it, I noticed the people I sold it to were sitting outside. We had become friends, so I stopped by to chat and have a cup of tea with them. It was nice to catch up with them after not seeing them for a while, and it was nice to see my old home still looking great. It was also good to see the name I attached to the house is still on the outside wall. Casa Gooner is still going very well.
Tonight I watched the Arsenal vs Newcastle game on television. It finished with a 0-0 result, but it was not a boring game. Newcastle defended very well, and there were a few very strange penalty decisions that did not go Arsenal's way. The worst part of the game was the refereeing, the game was not particularly rough or niggly game, but the referee still managed to produce 9 yellow cards. He even booked one Newcastle player who wasn't even playing. It is about time the FA started fining referees for poor performances. They fine clubs for bad behaviour but not the refs, whose poor decisions are sometimes responsible for the player's poor behaviour.
Wednesday, 4th January.
I woke up today feeling terrible. I seem to have caught a cold. I spent all day drinking lemsip, taking lemsip capsules, drinking lots of water, and working on my website while I stayed warm in my apartment.
Thursday, 5th January.
Today was much like yesterday. I felt terrible, drank lots of water, took lots of lemsip and stayed warm in my apartment. I did manage to cook a roast pork and beef joint with mini roast potatoes for my dinner, though. The saying says, "Feed a cold and starve the flu" I fed my cold and hope it helps.
Friday, 6th January.
Once again, I still feel awful, and the only time I leave my heated apartment is to check if I have any mail downstairs in my mailbox. I didn't find any mail, and my excitement about having the postman ring me for entry to the apartment block subsided.
I have been making some very big changes to the layout of my website this week, and I continued to do this today. As I hadn't felt like getting up, let alone going outside most of the week, I felt grateful that I had something to keep me occupied. I think I must have spent around 14 hours working on my website. It isn't complicated work, but it is time-consuming.
Saturday, 7th January.
I feel a little better today, but I still carry on taking the lemsip drinks and capsules while staying inside my warm apartment. I watched some of the FA Cup football on the television today but couldn't get excited about it. I continued to work on my website, but it seemed that the new layout also required that I alter the layout of all of the pages a little, as well as completely redesign the navigation systems.
After going to bed tonight, I was woken at about 1:00 am Sunday morning by kids outside. They have parked their car right under my bedroom window and have the car stereo blasting out Spanish rap music at a volume loud enough to wake the dead. I shouted at them to be silent, but it had no effect, so I used an app on my mobile phone to call the police. Unfortunately, I don't know if the police could hear me as the music is so loud I can't hear what they are saying.
As I went to bed to try to sleep, I heard another car pull up outside and heard some Spanish voices. I didn't know if it was the police, but the kids' volume went down considerably, and the music was stopped immediately. As the car pulled away, I expected the volume to go up, but it dwindled off slowly. I guess the kids have moved on.
Sunday, 8th January.
I woke up around 7 am and felt terrible. The cold seemed worse, and my broken sleep had put me in a miserable mood. I get myself a lemsip, then a coffee and some cereal before getting back to work on my website.
I work until around 12:45 pm when my friend June comes around to take me to Campbell's bar for Sunday Lunch. I had the roast lamb with all the trimmings, and it was beautiful. We spent around 2 ½ hours chatting as we ate and had a drink before June dropped me back off at home. When I got home, I straight away got in my pyjamas, put the heat on, got a lemsip and spent the afternoon watching football or dosing off on the sofa.
I had a bit of cheese on toast for my supper and worked on my website until around 11:00 pm when I packed up working and went to bed.