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.
Monday, 18th September.
I woke up at around 7:45 am today. I sat at my computer for a while until around 10 am and then went out on my disability scooter. I went to a nearby optician, Parra Optical, to see if they could give me an eye test and how much reading glasses would be. After being promised a quick turnaround at different opticians last week and being let down, I thought I would give Parra Optical my custom. The service was great, I was given a price even before I had an eye test so I knew what to expect. They gave me a very thorough eye test and measured for a new set of reading glasses that will be beneficial for reading and for use whilst sitting at my computer. They told me the glasses wouldn't be ready until sometime next week, but I was happy to wait because they told me before I bought them. I picked the frames I liked and ordered the new reading glasses. The best part was the price, the glasses I ordered at the opticians last week weren't designed to help me with my computer work, the ones I ordered here are for reading and computer work and were €119. This is 32% cheaper than the inferior glasses I ordered last week, somewhere else.
When I left the opticians I went along to the pharmacy and bought this month's supply of sintrom and omeprazole. I like this pharmacy because even when there is a queue I never have to wait long to be served. When I left the pharmacy I went to the Espressarse cafe next to the Rambla in Los Alcazares. I got myself a coffee and a tostada and sat reading my Kindle until around 11:40 when I left and headed towards the office to meet Martin.
I arrived at the office, and my favourite waitress wasn't working. I had to wait to be served by the grumpy waitress. I believe she may be a vampire as she comes outside to serve people so infrequently that I think she may be worried about coming out into the sunlight. I ordered a large bottle of water and sat talking to Martin. Dave turned up a short time later and we were also joined by a group of people, Andrew, Tony and Mike, before Arias's school bus arrived at around 1:15 pm. At 2 pm I left Martin interviewing the others for a job. I do think my position is safe though as all of the interviewees could only do part-time hours, every now and again, due to their travel arrangements.
On my way home I had a quick chat with my friend Damien who stopped for a chat outside the Mercadona store and then I continued inside to get some more shopping. Once I had got my shopping I went straight home and parked my disability scooter in the garage. I went up to my apartment and unpacked my shopping, putting everything away. I had a mixed seafood salad for my lunch with muscles, crab sticks, clams, peppers and muscles. It tasted very nice and I will make a note to buy it again. It should be good for my diet as well.
After lunch, I did some work on my website before settling down to watch a film at about 4 pm. I watched the Nottingham Forest v Burnley football match in the evening and went to bed early at around 10:30 pm.
Tuesday, 19th September.
I didn't sleep well again last night. I think it may be because it's too hot to sleep without the windows open but there are still noisy idiots turning up in the square outside at night that keep me awake if I have the windows open. I finally got out of bed at about 8 am but I had a bad back. I got myself a coffee sat in my massage chair for an ache-relieving massage and listened to the noise of the rain outside. After my massage, I sorted my tablets out for the next two weeks into my pill dispenser. I have completed the course of tablets that are supposed to help the flow of oxygen to my legs and they do seem to have worked. The swelling in my legs has subsided quite a lot, I will have to keep an eye on them, but hopefully, they will get stronger and not swell up as much now.
At around 10:30 am my friend June picked me and we drove to El Bar in San Cayetano for breakfast. The breakfast was very nice, and we sat chatting for a while before we left and June dropped me off at the office to meet Martin. Because I have decided to follow the Keto diet for a while to lose weight I can't drink beer because of the carbs in it, so I had a Bacardi and Diet Coke which has no carbs in it. It tasted a bit strange but I had another one. It again tasted strange, I think it was the Coke Zero, if I have one later in the week I will try it with Diet tonic or Zero Casera, neither of which has any carbs and hopefully will taste better.
We sat chatting until just after 2 pm and I then began to walk home. My idea was to walk through the estate, past the police station and down Rio Nalon. That way if I had problems walking I could stop somewhere to catch my breath and rest my legs. When I walked down Rio Nalon I didn't see anyone I knew, and as the weather forecast had said to expect more rain, I kept walking. I cut through the houses and walked the last bit of the trip, along the promenade next to the beach. By the time I got home, I was hot, sweaty and puffed out but it felt good to have done it.
I lay down for a rest and fell asleep on the sofa, waking up about 30 minutes later. For my dinner, I had some chicken wings cooked in the air fryer and then I sat down to watch some football on the television before going to bed at about 10:30 pm.
Wednesday, 20th September.
I had trouble getting to sleep again last night. My brain seemed to be running at 100 mph and didn't seem to want to shut down, it kept me thinking over, everyday events and things I should have done or should do. I eventually fell asleep around 2 am this morning. I woke up around 7:45 am and got myself a coffee before logging onto my computer to send some messages and see if I had received any messages.
After a slow start to the morning, I filled up my dishwasher and set it to come on overnight when electricity is half price. As I was doing this I wondered if I could do the same with my clothes-washing machine. Currently, I do all my clothes washing at the weekends, but this isn't always convenient so I decided to look through the manual to see if it could be set to run with a time delay so that I could do it during the night after I had gone to bed. I was very pleased to find out I could so I put all my bed linen in the machine, set it to an eco wash, set it to dry bed sheets and then put it on a 16-hour delay. This means it should run whilst Im asleep and the electricity is half price, and means it should have finished by the time I wake up tomorrow morning.
I spent most of the evening working on my genealogy research but stopped to watch Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League tonight. Arsenal played well and won 4 - 0. It was a great game to watch, and I was very happy with the result and the performance.
During the evening, my phone beeped and when I checked it, it was the opticians telling me I could pick up my new reading glasses. This was great news as I wasn't expecting them for another week. I again had trouble falling asleep tonight but must have finally fallen asleep around 1:30 am.
Thursday, 21st September.
I woke up at around 7:30 am, had a shower and then got myself a coffee. I sat at my computer and checked for messages before leaving home at around 8:45 am to meet my friend Gina at the Alaska bar for a coffee and a chat. I wanted to ask her for some advice on buying a property in Los Alcazares and we chatted about it before we walked around to the property I had been looking at. I hoped that Gina could check the property was the one I thought it was in the internet listings I had seen. Gina said she would look for information about it for me and she went home as I walked to Espressarse for another coffee.
I went into Espressarse and ordered a coffee and tostada at the bar and sat down at a table opposite to read my Kindle for a while. As I sat there a Spanish gentleman walked across to me with my coffee. The lady behind the bar had put it on the bar and I hadn't noticed. As I sat drinking the coffee and reading, a different Spanish man walked across with my tostada. Once again the lady had left it on the bar, and I hadn't seen her do it. I thanked both men but wondered why the lady couldn't have called to let me know I was sitting only two steps away from the bar.
After finishing my breakfast I left and walked the short distance to the opticians. I sat and waited whilst the man served another customer and then collected my glasses. They fit very well and I could read everything easily on the notice he gave me to read. Last week I couldn't see anything on the notice without them, so I am happy to have them and to have them so quickly. When I left I walked home along the promenade got myself a cold drink and rested my legs, whilst I took a massage in my massage chair.
At about 11:45 am I got on my disability scooter and went to my friend Vinces' apartment. He isn't there but he had asked me to drop a key off to the people who are there at the moment. When I got there, Dave, the occupant, was waiting for me and I handed over the keys to him before going back along the promenade to my apartment.
When I got in I remembered the bed linen in my washing machine and took it out and put it in my bedroom before getting myself a cheese ham and sausage omelette for lunch. After lunch, I sat on the sofa and promptly fell asleep. I think the poor sleep I have had the last few nights must have caught up with me, as I slept until around 5 pm.
When I woke up I watched a film on the TV before getting a protein shake for my evening meal at around 8 pm. I had recently heard that banana tea can help you sleep, so I looked up what to do with the skins and then made a pot of banana skin tea. If it works, I will start collecting the banana skins and making tea with them.
I started to work on the photo albums on my website. I began removing some of the headers I had used for the albums and adding descriptions to some of the photos. I finally went to bed at around 11:45 pm hoping that the potassium in the banana skin tea I drank earlier would help me have a good night's sleep.
Friday, 22nd September.
I woke up at around 6:45 am this morning after sleeping very well last night. I felt refreshed and ready for the day. I don't know if the banana skin tea helped, but I will try it again, and if it helps, I will try to make my banana skin tea leaves.
I got myself a coffee and began working on my website at about 9:45 am. After finishing the work I was doing, I went for a walk along the promenade in Los Alcazares. I walked down to La Encarnacion and turned up to walk past the shops there. I continued past the town hall and the Rambla until I arrived at Espressarse Cafe, where I stopped for breakfast. I sat inside and read my Kindle for a while whilst I ate my tostada and drank my coffee. When I finished my breakfast I walked back along the main road before cutting back down to the beach and back to my apartment.
This afternoon and evening, I continued to work on my website, mainly on adjusting the section that contains my photo albums.
Saturday, 23rd September.
I woke up today at around 8:15 am feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep. I got a coffee and did a little work on my website, adding geographic locations to the photos from the day I went swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove in Orlando.
At around 10:30 am, I went for a walk along the promenade. I got only a short distance when my knee started to ache, so I walked to Los Barilles restaurant on the main road to sit down. I ordered a coffee and a tostada and began reading my Kindle. The coffee and tostada were both good and I will stop there again, especially as it is so close to home.
Once my knee had stopped aching, my coffee had been drunk, and my tostada had been eaten, I continued walking. I walked along the main road to Rio Nalon and turned to walk up Rio Nalon. At the top, I turned and headed for home, winding my way through the houses. Once I got home, I sat at my computer, and because my watch keeps playing up and will not connect to my phone anymore I decided to treat myself to a new one. I have had many cheap watches, and they all seem to break fairly quickly, so I decided to look at a proper Google Fitbit watch this time. After much reading and investigation, I settled on a Fitbit Sense 2 watch. At nearly €300 it better last longer than the ones I have been buying for between €50-€80. It does come with a six-month subscription to the Fitbit premium service, but I doubt I will continue this after the free six-month period finishes.
This afternoon and evening were spent watching various football games on television.
Sunday, 24th September.
I slept well again last night. I think it is because the weather is cooling down again now. I will soon be complaining it's too cold to sleep. I woke up at around 8:30 am and got myself a coffee before checking for new messages on my computer.
I had a message from the Eurobilltracker website when I checked my email messages. It told me that one of the Euro notes that I entered 167 days ago had been re-entered into the system. It had travelled a distance of 752 km in that time and had been re-entered by a man in Oviedo, Spain. This is the first note that I had marked and entered, which had been re-entered for quite a while. The little nerd boy inside me got all excited. If you see a Euro note in your change, with writing or a stamp on it, please check out the Eurobilltracker website and enter the details of the note. You may be making some old farts day.
Eurobilltracker website
After all the excitement of seeing an old Euro note that I had owned, however briefly, being set free to travel around Europe again, I decided to walk along the promenade. Unfortunately, after I had some bacon, scrambled egg and tomato for breakfast, I completely forgot about my good intentions to go for a walk. Instead, I went back to work on my website and entered some pages into Google's search page. After this, I continued doing some general administration on the page titles and photos.
I watched the Arsenal vs Tottenham game from the edge of my seat this afternoon. It was a terrific game which finished 2-2. Arsenal lost a couple of players in the lead-up through injury and another during the game. I hope they are only knocks and that all the affected players will be fit for the midweek game against Brentford, but I think they will be rested in this EFL game so that they are all fit for next weekend's game against Bournemouth. The game was very good and was a great advert for football I wish more games were like this one.
After the game, I returned to working on my website for a few hours. I had intended to watch the Wales vs. Australia World
Cup rugby game, but I completely forgot about it and watched a film called " The Retirement Plan", starring Nicholas Cage. It was a good film that I enjoyed watching. When the film finished, it was about 10:15 pm, and I decided to have an early night. As soon as I got into bed, I remembered the Wales vs Australia rugby match. As the game should have just finished, I decided not to check the score and to watch it on catchup television tomorrow.