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.
Monday, 28th August.
I woke up at around 8 am today, had a coffee, and then sat down at my computer and started to work on my website. I left home at about 10 am and went to the Tipsy Thistle for an English breakfast. I enjoyed having my breakfast there and I sat and read my Kindle for a while and had a coffee after I had eaten.
At about 11:30, I left the Tipsy Thistle to meet Martin for a beer at the Pizzeria la Sombre. As I arrived, my favourite waitress in Los Alcazares saw me arrive and immediately came through the restaurant and brought me a beer. I sat and read my Kindle until Martin and Aria arrived for a chat. Dave arrived a short time later, and we sat talking until around 3 pm, and then we all went home.
I got myself some dinner around 6 pm. I used the leftover pork from Sunday's roast dinner. I made myself some homemade chips and cooked them in my air fryer. I made a pepper sauce to go with it and poured it all over the pork and the chips. The meal was fantastic, and I am starting to enjoy cooking again. I think it is the hot weather that puts me off cooking. I can't believe how my friend Martin manages to work as a chef in a hot, busy kitchen all day and night, 5 days a week.
The evening was spent lazing on the sofa in front of the television before going to bed.
Tuesday, 29th August.
I woke up at about 7 am today and had a coffee and started to do some research for a business idea I have. I started to watch YouTube videos and lost track of time. I realised just before 10 am that I was supposed to be going for a coffee with my neighbour Liz at 10 am. I quickly raced downstairs, and we walked along to the Buena Vista restaurant. As we got there, Martin was just leaving after having a coffee, and I had a quick chat with him about my business idea before I sat down with Liz.
We sat talking and watched a Eurofighter. The pilot gave everyone at the beach a free demonstration of the plane's amazing flying capabilities. We ate our tostada and tomato, drank our coffee and sat chatting for about 1½ hours. I must be excited about my business idea because even as we sat talking, I kept getting new ideas. After we finished breakfast, we walked out, and I saw my neighbour, Yuan, whom I hadn't seen for quite a while. I said hello as we left but didn't stop for a chat. I walked back to the apartment block with Liz before I got on my disability scooter and went to the bank to get some money out.
When I returned to my apartment from the bank, I continued to work on my website. Some of the work I have been doing recently can only be done a bit at a time because of the limits Google has on entering website pages. Other bits of the work are quite tedious but are necessary and take quite a bit of time to do, but it keeps my mind active and I quite enjoy it.
At around 6:45 pm, my friend Pat rang me in a panic to say he would be a bit late picking me up to go out for a meal tonight. I was pleased he had called as I was about to leave and wouldn't wanted to have stood at the side of the road in the high temperatures we still have in Los Alcazares. At just after 7 pm I collected some of the cardboard boxes that I had stacked in my lounge and walked to the paper recycling bin to get rid of them. Once I had put them in the bin I walked back to the main road to wait for Pat.
Whilst I stood there I saw two young girls going down the road on a scooter. Neither had a helmet on, and they were on the same small scooter zooming down the road. As I watched a policeman on a very plain motorbike pulled them over and read them the riot act. He thoroughly checked the machine and I saw one girl using her phone, I presume to call her parents to collect her. I thought the policeman was going to confiscate the scooter, but he didn't, probably because he wouldn't have been able to take it away on his motorbike. He eventually left only to be just missed by a car pulling out without looking. I was sure he would pull the car over but he didn't and just carried on going, I think he must have been on his way home or maybe to an emergency call that he may have received on the radio.
Pat soon picked me up and we soon arrived at the Casa India restaurant. Pat parked, and we walked around the corner to La Ola bar to meet the rest of the people joining us for our boys' curry night, Martin Purdom, Paul Eburne, Bernard Fisher, Michael Maloney and Gary Trott. We had a beer in the bar before leaving for our meal.
We sat outside in the restaurant's courtyard. The meal was nice, the service was good, and I liked that the staff asked us if there was anything they could have done better after our meal. I think we all enjoyed the meal but agreed that the meal should be served with hot plates, not cold ones and that dishes should be kept warm whilst people helped themselves by using the small trays that most places have which keep the food warm by using candles. The staff were grateful for the feedback and said they would try to arrange this. I would definitely go back, and it was nice to see one of my neighbours, Juan, working there. Strangely I hadn't seen him for a while, and I had now seen him twice in the same day.
When we left, Pat, who hadn't been drinking, dropped Martin, Paul and Michael home, before taking me to my apartment. It had been a good night and whilst I sat at home watching some television, Bernard messaged us all with the date for our next curry night in October.
Wednesday, 30th August.
I woke up around 8 am and got myself a coffee. I sat down at my computer to check for messages. My friend Jacqui Kenny had asked me to help her with her computer again today, so I sat working on my website until she arrived at about 12:30 pm.
I set Jackie up with a new email account and gave her some advice on storing her video files because they are taking up too much room on her online email account. She will get an external hard drive that she can save her videos to, and she will then be able to take and save as many videos as she likes.
After Jackie left, I continued doing work on my website until around 5 pm when I stopped to watch a film called " Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny". It was quite good. I liked the way that Harrison Ford was able to appear as a younger man and as the old man he is in the same film. There were some great special effects.
I went to bed at around 11 pm.
Thursday, 31st August.
I woke up at around 6 am, and after laying in bed for around 30 minutes I got up for a coffee. When the sun came up and I had finished my coffee I went for a swim in the Mar Menor. There was no one else in the sea when I went in at about 7:30 am, and it was lovely and quiet. The water is beginning to cool off a bit now, and I wonder how long It will be before I stop swimming in the sea because it's too cold. I swim to the rocks and back twice before going back to my apartment for a shower.
After having a shower I went to the Economy Cash superstore on Rio Nalon in Los Alcazares. I did some shopping and then returned home straight away. Once home I unpacked my shopping before getting something to eat for lunch. I had some pate on toast and then sat down on the sofa to see if there was any news on any big football transfers before the transfer window closes tomorrow.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, it was mid-afternoon, and I had just woken up with a stiff neck. I don't know if it's an age thing but I do seem to fall asleep quite regularly after eating my lunch. Im generally up early but never used to fall asleep in the afternoons. I am going to blame it on the heat ?.
This afternoon I watched " Mob Land" starring John Travolta. It was quite good and had an ending I didn't see coming. I won't say any more about it in case you want to watch it. In the evening, I did some more work on my computer before going to bed at around 11 pm.
Friday, 1st September.
At around 4 am, I was woken up by youths shouting, screaming and fighting. It has been constant for the last few weeks, with youths gathering in the Plaza till around 7 am and then leaving. Today they were right outside my apartment, and at around 4:55 am, I got fed up and used the Alert Cops app on my phone, took a short video clip of them and sent it to the police. A few minutes later I was sent a message saying a patrol had been dispatched. Just as the message came through, one of the cars left, and the youths on foot moved to the other side of the Plaza. I hoped the police would get there before they all dispersed. Within 10 minutes, I notice the flashing lights of a police car outside. The youths all went very quiet as the police tried to deal with whatever it was they were up to. I went back to bed at about 6 am.
I wake up again around 8 am, get a coffee and start working on my website. I worked on my website until about midday and then stopped for a break. I sat on the sofa with my feet up and promptly fell asleep waking up a couple of hours later. The rest of the day was spent between short naps on the sofa and watching television. Last night's noise had certainly stopped me from sleeping at night but it seemed I made up for it in spells throughout the day and evening today.
Saturday, 2nd September.
I woke up around 7:30 am today and got myself a coffee. I stripped my bed and put some washing in the washing machine before I checked my messages and did my daily web page indexing job on Google.
I had arranged to meet my friend Kelvin today, but one of the messages told me an order I had been expecting would be arriving today. I hoped it would arrive early, but it didn't. I messaged Kelvin to tell him I would join him as soon as the delivery had arrived, and throughout the day Kelvin would message me to tell me where he was and how much fun he was having. I would message him back telling him I was still waiting for the delivery.
This afternoon I was waiting for my delivery and watching football on the television when my friend Vince called me from a bar. I told him I was at home watching football and waiting for a parcel so he came round to my apartment to watch the football. We had a couple of beers in the apartment as we watched the football and chatted. My parcel eventually got delivered at about 6 pm, and we decided that we would go and get a curry after the Manchester City vs Fulham game finished. I messaged Kelvin but he had gone home by the time we went out.
We didn't walk far from the apartment and went to the Buena Vista Restaurant. As we walked along a few spots of rain started to fall, and I was glad we hadn't gone too far. After seeing a photo of my friend Kelvins, garlic chilli chicken, during the week, I decided to try it myself tonight. Vince ordered a Balti, and we shared a tempura prawn starter and a portion of pilau rice. The food was fantastic, and I will have the garlic chilli chicken again, I may even try to make it at home. The meal was washed down with a few pints, and as the light rain had turned into a storm whilst we were sitting in the restaurant, we had a few more drinks hoping that the storm would pass on. At about 11:30 pm, the rain became a bit lighter and we set off for home and carefully waded through the rivers of water racing towards the Mar Menor.
When we got back to the apartment I told Vince he could stay in the spare room if he wanted to because the rain had got heavier again. He decided to go home but left his bike at mine in case he got washed away trying to cross one of the rivers of water. I lent him a good waterproof coat, and when the rain left off a little he set off for home. I noticed that almost as soon as he left the rain came down heavier than it had all night. I hoped he would get home safely and relatively dry. I waited for a message from him to say he had got home safely but didn't get one. I went to my bedroom and realised my bed linen was still in the washing machine. Luckily the bed linen had dried, and I was able to make the bed up. I waited for a message from Vince but it didn't arrive, and I eventually fell asleep.
Sunday, 3rd September.
I woke around 8 am and got up for a coffee. I checked my phone, and Vince had sent me a thumbs up to show he had got home but he hadn't sent it until 6 am, six hours after he left me, I hope he just forgot to message me and that it didn't take him 6 hours to walk the fairly short distance home. I sat working on my website, waiting for a call from Vince. We had arranged to meet at San Antonio on the beach for breakfast. I was going to take his bike there and swap it for my waterproof coat.
When Vince messaged me I collected his bike from my garage and rode it down to San Antonio´s. We went inside and had a very nice cooked breakfast. We chatted over breakfast, and Vince told me he had messaged his wife Jan when he got in last night and forgot to message me before he fell asleep. He had messaged me when he woke up later on. Vince asked if he could come to my apartment to watch the Arsenal vs Manchester United game later. When we finished breakfast, he went back to his home, and I walked along to La Playa bar to collect a flag from my friend Clara. I had given Clara the flag eight weeks ago to do a quick sowing job to put some eye holes to hang the flag from. Unfortunately, she still hadn't done it for me so I got the flag back to get it done somewhere else. After I had collected the flag I walked home and watched the sky change colour to an orange/yellow colour. There must have been a lot of sand in the clouds, and it was really strange looking at the coloured clouds.
This afternoon Vince came around, and we sat and watched the Arsenal vs Manchester United football match. It was quite a close game, and there were lots of talking points, from ungiven penalties to disallowed, offside goals. Manchester United scored to lead 0-1, but within 37 seconds of the restart, Arsenal had equalised with a fantastic goal from Martin Ødegaard. Late in the game Declan Rice scored his first goal for Arsenal to put Arsenal 2-1 up. With little time left Manchester United was pressing the Arsenal goal, but with a quick break Gabriel Jesus wrapped things up with a superb third goal for Arsenal, and they finished as 3-1 winners.
To celebrate and so that I could get some money to give Vince for a kayak cart that I was buying from him, we walked to Rio Nalon for a few beers. We had a beer in Harrys' bar before walking to Roccos' bar. Vince ordered himself some dinner, and I went to the ATM to get the money for him. Vince finished his dinner, and we walked across to The Celt bar for a drink. When we left we started to walk home and stopped briefly to talk to our friends Bob and Connie. As we started to get closer to home I started to feel hungry so we stopped at the Buena Vista Restaurant so that I could get a pizza to take home. I had a beer whilst we waited and after a short time my pizza arrived and I took it to eat at home.
Vince collected his bike from my garage and went home, and I ate my Pizza in front of the television. The timing was brilliant. As I sat down, MOTD came on, and I was able to watch the highlights of the Arsenal vs Manchester United game again. When the pizza and the game were finished, I went to bed and finished the week a very happy man.