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 & my friend Cindy arrived from England to stay with me for a holiday.

Week 24 of 2023.

Monday, 12th June.

I woke up around 7:30 am & checked for any messages on my computer & got a coffee. The baskets I ordered from IKEA that should be arriving tomorrow are now arriving today so I won't be able to go to the office today. At 9:30 am I set off for the Doctor to see what the results of last week's tests meant. 

When I got to the Doctor I checked in & was seen in a couple of minutes. My tests showed that I have high cholesterol & that the acid levels in my stomach were not right. I was given two more tablets to take to fix these problems. Whilst there I also asked about my swollen legs again. Previously I had been prescribed some tablets that helped the oxygen in my blood & helped with the swelling in my legs. The Doctor added these tablets to my prescription again but this time for three months. When I left the Doctor I went straight to a pharmacy & collected the prescription.

When I got home I then spent the next hour sorting through all my tablets & put them in my pill dispensers for the next couple of weeks. I have to put them in pill dispensers so that I don't get confused about which ones to take & at what times. I currently have to take 7 tablets a day at three different times, some before I eat, some after I eat & others just before I go to bed. 

This afternoon the delivery of wicker style baskets that I had ordered from IKEA finally arrived at about 7 pm. They were just what I needed though & look good in my kitchen. I sorted out some of the things that I wanted to store in them & put them on the shelving unit in my kitchen, alongside the bread maker I purchased last week. I finished clearing the kitchen up ready to have my new dishwasher installed tomorrow & inspired by the way my kitchen is beginning to look I ordered some new glass kitchen containers that can be used in a freezer, an oven or a microwave. They will replace all the different plastic containers that get discoloured, scratched & look terrible very quickly. 

I will soon start to batch-cook some more soups & other foods that I like, & now won't have to put the nice recipes I make into horrible old containers. Hopefully, I will be inspired to make more healthy recipes that will help me control my cholesterol.

Tuesday, 13th June.

I had set my alarm for 7:30 am today in case I didn't wake up early. The new dishwasher could have arrived at 8 am & I wanted to be awake if it did. I got myself a coffee & some orange juice & then sat down at the computer to look at the world's news whilst waiting for the deliveries.

The delivery drivers from Amazon arrived at about 9 am & brought in the new dishwasher & unwrapped it. They went to fit it in but the trim on it made it about 3 mm too tall. I told them I would get the countertop adjusted & they left the dishwasher half connected in the kitchen & cancelled the charge made for fitting it. 

I immediately messaged my friend Dave Pope to ask if he could take a look at it to fix it & he said he would be able to take a look later today. Dave turned up & took a look a the cabinet & had very quickly managed to fit the new dishwasher in place. Unfortunately, the pipework, which I thought would be a simple plug-in job was anything but. Dave had to make several trips to get the correct part to connect the dishwasher to the plumping on the sink that I have in my kitchen. He first tried the local hardware store & then had to go further afield & visit an out-of-town store for the part that would allow him to fit the dishwasher into my sink. I was worried that it might mean having to replace the entire sink at one point but he managed to fix it with new plumbing, a lot of hard work & a little bit of cursing. I knew the sink, unlike everything else in the apartment, was cheap & nasty but it seems the plumbing used to fit it was as well.

I do now have a new dishwasher in my kitchen which goes well with the washing machine/tumble dryer I installed last month. Hopefully, now I won't have to replace any more appliances for a while. This evening I sat watching the television & the storm over Los Alcazares. I do love a good storm, I find the noise of the rain strangely comforting, I like the deep sound of the thunder & like to see the lightning in the distance. The storms here in Spain are nowhere near as spectacular as those that I used to watch in Florida, America when I lived there but they are still enjoyable.

Wednesday, 14th June.

I woke up around 7:30 am today. I checked my messages online & looked to see if there was an update on the delivery time for the second part of my food container delivery, which should arrive today. There was nothing telling me the delivery was imminent so at about 9:45 am I took some stale bread to the Mar Menor to feed the fish before I went for a swim.

The water was beautiful this morning, it was quite warm & very clear. I sat in the water feeding the hundreds of fish that swam around me & I watched the seagulls that were floating on the water around me trying to grab the fish feeding on the bread I was giving them. After I had used up the bread I had taken down to the water, I swam out to the rocks about 200 m from the beach.

I sat on the rocks for a while listening to some very noisy women who were dancing to very loud music on a boom box they had with them. The four of them were all wearing leg springs & bouncing up & down as they kept fit. When they had finished they all jumped in cars & drove home. Why, I ask, do they need to drive to a public place to play loud annoying music instead of doing their routine at home? They didn't support any of the local businesses, they upset the people living in the surrounding homes with their loud music, & I don't believe that jumping around on leg springs on the promenade paving stones is not damaging the promenade. The local council are always having to pay for repairs to the promenade & the local businesses aren't allowed to play loud music so why do they get away with damaging the promenade & the loud music?

Once the women had left Plaza de Espejo, I swam back to the beach & whilst sitting in the water I spoke to my friends Diane & John who come to swim in the water most days during the warmer weather. After a short chat, I returned to my apartment to wait for my Amazon delivery.

Once at home, I carried out a lot of administrative work on my website, updating page titles in Google & removing indexed pages that no longer exist. My delivery arrived at 12:45 pm & I was very pleased with the bowls I had bought to store & serve my homemade soups in. Once my delivery had been made I took some recycling to the nearby bins & then continued on to the Mercadona store to get some shopping. I only wanted a couple of bits & as soon as I had them I went straight home.

This evening I relaxed at home & cooked myself honey mustard chicken for my dinner. I had it with a jacket potato with Camembert cheese & a small salad. Tonight I watched television before printing off the documents for my trip tomorrow to Alicante to see Bob Dylan.

Thursday, 15th June.

Today I woke up at around 7:30 am & as soon as I had shaken off the heavy weight of my night's sleep I got some bread & went down to the Mar Menor. I sat in the water feeding the fish for a while before swimming out to the rocks. I sat on the rocks for a short time breathing in the quiet comforting atmosphere of another beautiful morning before swimming back to the beach & then returning to my apartment.

Back in my apartment, I took a shower & then got myself some cereal, orange juice & coffee for my breakfast. When I had finished my breakfast, I pottered about on my computer before putting a few items in an overnight bag for my trip to Alicante this afternoon.

At midday, I put my rucksack over my shoulder, locked my apartment up & headed off on my adventure for this week, going to see Bob Dylan in Alicante.

Friday, 16th June.

I woke up this morning in La Lonja hostel after seeing Bob Dylan in Alicante in Concert last night. After travelling home I had an early night.

Saturday, 17th June.

I slept quite well last night & woke around 7:45 am. I got myself some coffee, & some orange juice & took my pills. After having some cereal for breakfast I put some washing in my washing machine & then started to work on my website.

Mid-morning I checked on my washing & the machine had stopped so I opened the door but found the clothes were still wet. I thought I must have put the washing on but not the dryer so I set the dryer going before going back to my computer to work. A couple of hours later I remembered the clothes being dried & checked again they were still wet & I noticed the sink that the machine drained into had fluff blocking the sink which in turn had prevented the washing machine from emptying correctly. I unblocked the sink, ensured that the drain pipe was in the correct position and put the machine on again.

This evening I checked the machine again & this time it had worked. I emptied the machine & put my dry clothes on the bed in the spare room to put away later.

I then sat in front of the washing machine to watch Forest Gump on the television. I sat watching the film & spent the night messaging my friend Cindy who is flying out tomorrow to stay with me for a couple of weeks. I completely forgot about the washing in the spare room & after the film finished I went to bed.

Sunday, 18th June.

I woke up at around 4 am, & the immediate thought I had running through my head was that I hadn't put the last lot of washing in the machine before I went to bed. I got up went to the washing machine & put the next lot of washing in the machine before I then went back to bed.

I woke up again at about 7:30 am. I got out of bed & checked the washing machine, everything had worked well & I put a second lot of clothes in the spare room with the lot from last night that I forgot to put away. I stripped my bed & put my cotton bed sheets in the washing machine before getting some cereal for breakfast.

At around 10:30 June picked me up & we drove to Corvera airport to pick up my friend Cindy up who is coming to stay with me for a couple of week's holiday. The roads were very clear & we arrived just before the plane carrying Cindy landed. June & I went to the arrivals waiting area & had a coffee until the passengers began to come out of the arrivals lounge. Cindy got off the plane & quickly collected her case & walked through arrivals at the airport. Whilst Cindy & June went to the car & put her case in the car I went to pay for the parking. It was only €1.10, a lot more reasonable than I remember parking charges in UK airports.

We were quickly on the way home but before going to my apartment we stopped at Junes' apartment so that Cindy & I could move a sofa around for June. It didn't take long & June dropped Cindy & I back at my apartment at about 12:30 pm. When we got back to my apartment Cindy was about to put her luggage in her room when I remembered all my washing covering the bed, I quickly removed it all & Cindy was able to settle in & get changed. At 1 pm June picked us both up again & we all went to Campbells for lunch.

I really enjoyed my lunch & was pleased to manage to eat it all because I was worried that my change of tablets this week may have affected me. I normally take omeprazole to control my indigestion but have changed to some new tablets & stopped taking it. Apart from a few small hiccups I was able to eat all of my roast lamb.

We left the pub at about 3:30 pm & June dropped Cindy & I back at my apartment. We sat talking on my balcony until around 6:30 pm & then walked along the promenade to La Playa bar. We ordered a drink but we were the only people in the bar. As it was so quiet we quickly finished our drinks & when the local tourist train passed by we jumped on it & took a ride to Rio Nalon.

It was quite strange, as we walked up between the bars & restaurants I saw quite a few people I hadn't seen for quite a while & others saw me who didn't recognise me because of the beard that I now have. We walked to the top of Rio Nalon & stopped at Cafe Parking where we sat chatting & had an Asiatica coffee. When we left we walked back back down to Rocco´s bar where sat having a drink until around 10:15 pm. We finished our drink & then jumped back on the tourist train to get a ride home.

After we got home we sat talking until around 1:15 am before we both retired to our rooms for the night.