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9 December 2024
Jacqueline Carpenter and Alan Morris sat at Buena Vista restaurant next to the Mar Menor.
Jacqueline Carpenter and Alan Morris sat at Buena Vista restaurant next to the Mar Menor.

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.

Monday, 25th September.

I woke up at around 7:15 am today. I got a coffee and sat at my computer to look for the Wales vs. Australia World Cup result. I had completely forgotten about it last night and hadn't watched it. I was pleased to see that Wales had beaten Australia 40-6, I will have to watch the game on catch-up television later.

At around 10 am, I walked to the Buena Vista restaurant just around the corner from my apartment. The walk didn't take me more than a couple of minutes, but my knee had begun to ache by the time I got there. I sat down but had to wait 15 minutes before being served. This was not very good as I was the only person there. I think because I have lost a bit of weight in the last few weeks, they couldn't see my thin, bronzed body as it may have been hidden by one of the window frames. I sat, ate my tostada, and drank some coffee while reading my Kindle. At 11 am, my knee was feeling better and I decided to try and walk to the office.

I walked partway along the beach before cutting through the houses towards the office. When I got to Las Claras del Mar Menor, I was a bit puffed out, and it was getting hotter. I stopped and sat on a bench under a tree to cool off and get my breath back. After about 10 minutes, I was ready to go again and set off for the office. I arrived at about 11:50 am and was there just before Martin. I ordered a bottle of water for myself and as I had seen Martin crossing the road, I ordered him a pint of beer at the same time.

We sat chatting briefly, and Dave turned up briefly before leaving to drop something off at a nearby house. Martin and I sat chatting about some T-shirts that I had seen on the internet. The two of us are obviously on a different level of intelligence from the rest of the world because not many people get our jokes. Aria got off her school bus at about 1:15 pm, and shortly after, Dave returned, and we all sat talking until just after 2 pm. Dave kindly offered to drop me at home which was great news because I'm not sure my legs were up to walking both ways yet.

When I got home I sat down for a while and napped before getting myself two chicken thighs with some carrots, peas and sweetcorn for dinner. I sat and ate my dinner and watched yesterday's Wales vs Australia rugby match. It was a great match, and Wales were terrific. I think that was Australia's biggest-ever World Cup defeat.

I went to bed early, at around 10:15 pm. The days walking had worn me out.

Tuesday, 26th September.

I woke up at around 7:15 am, got out of bed, and took a shower immediately. As I was in the shower I heard the alarm on my telephone going off. I must have set it last night and forget about it. When I finished my shower, I turned off the alarm and got myself a coffee before sitting at my computer to do some work. I had seen a couple of T-shirts that I liked online, so I ordered two for myself and one for my friend Martin. It will be his late birthday present.

My friend Jacqui rang me around 10 am, and I met her on the promenade by my apartment and walked along to the Buena Vista restaurant. We sat down outside for a drink, chatting about our different adventures and the places we had travelled to. We had both been to New York on separate occasions, and I told Jacqui about my trip to New York with my Uncle Dave in 2012. We left at about 11:15 am and walked along the beach together before saying goodbye near Rio Nalon, Jacqui going home and me continuing to meet Martin at the office.

I was walking along the road when my friends Kathy and Tony pulled alongside me in their car and offered me a lift. I only had 100 yards to go, so I kept walking, but seeing them again was nice. It is always nice to see fellow Gooners. I had seen many fellow Gooners this morning, first Jacqui and then Kathy and Tony, but that soon ended when I got to the office and sat down with Martin, a Spurs fan.

Martin had to leave early today, and when Aria´s bus arrived, he left the office. Dave, who had also joined us, dropped me off at home. By 1:45 pm I was back at home working on my computer. I spent the afternoon working on my website and watched a film in the evening before going to bed at around 11 pm.

Wednesday, 27th September.

I woke up at 7:30 am and got a coffee before sitting at my computer. I had to make some large changes to my website templates today. The job should be quick but could completely crash the website. I made a quick change to the main template colour to help me see if the changes had been made before adjusting the templates for the different sections of the website. It all seemed to have worked and I decided to get myself a cooked breakfast. I had bacon and sausage with some skinned plum tomato and scrambled egg.

After finishing breakfast, I took some rubbish to the rubbish bin and two bags of plastic recycling to the recycling bins. After dropping all the rubbish off, I collected a parcel from Rio Nalon. A friend had asked me to order her an external hard drive so that I could transfer all her images and videos off of her Google account. This would free up lots of memory on her account, make it work properly again,  and provide her a way to easily store and transport all the thousands of images and videos she has. I picked the parcel up from the shop and was on my way home when I went past the local Chino shop.

I decided to replace some of my succulents with cactus, so I stopped to see what they had. They had two cacti that I liked, and I bought them both for my balcony garden. As I exited the shop and went to get on my disability scooter, my cousin Jill was going past the shop. She stopped for a quick chat, and we went to Buena Vista Restaurant for a drink. We sat at the beach bar, having a soda and chatting briefly before going home.

When I got home I repotted the hanging cactus plant I had bought in one of the hanging baskets I have on my balcony and repotted the other cactus into a free-standing pot. The small cactus in the free-standing pot should look really nice as it grows and fills out. To make it look even nicer I spread some sea shells from the beach on the soil around the base of it.

After repotting my plants I went back to work on my website. I had an email from Google telling me that a lot more of the pages of my website had now been indexed so I was pleased that the work I had been doing recently is working.

This evening I watched the Brentford vs Arsenal match on television. Arsenal rested many players who had injuries and made eight changes to the team that played Tottenham at the weekend. It wasn't a great game but Arsenal won 1-0 to go through to the next round of the Carabao Cup, where they will play West Ham. Some of the youngsters in the team played very well. As the game finished I noticed a message from my friend John Parr. I haven't seen him for close to ten years so it was a surprise to hear that he is in Portugal on holiday and wants to stop off to see me in Spain. I will call him in the morning.

Thursday, 28th September.

I wake around 8 am, get myself a coffee and go to work on my website. I have been having a few problems updating the software on the site, and after some research, I find that the software I use to show my photo albums is out of date and to continue to put photo albums on my website I need to buy some new software.

I take a break from my computer work and call my friend John Parr. He is still in Portugal and wants to know if he and his lady friend can visit me on Sunday. I tell him I would love to see him but haven't got room to put them both up. He tells me that is fine as they can stay in their mobile home and that he will contact me over the weekend.

After finishing talking to John I cook myself a breakfast of sausages, bacon, scrambled egg and plum tomatoes. I ate breakfast, tidied up my kitchen and then went to the Economy Cash superstore to get some shopping. I only needed a few things and came straight home with my shopping and put it all away before going back to work on my computer.

I researched Joomla extensions to help me build photo albums on my website, and after a lot of reading, I found an extension that can be updated and does everything I need it to. I downloaded the extension and installed it on the server and checked that it works correctly. It works very well but I will now have to redo all of the photo albums on my website, and there are currently over 120 albums with thousands of photos. I started setting up the folders and navigation for the albums and added the first two albums back to my website.

Friday, 29th September.

I wake at around 6 am and get a coffee before starting work on the photos to go into new albums on my website. I stop at 11 am and cook myself breakfast before going back to work. I work until around 5 pm when my doorbell sounds. It is a delivery man bringing me the new Fitbit watch I had ordered. I take the watch and set it down to finish the work I was doing on one photo album, the one for my photos of Tangier when I visited earlier in the year. I finished working on that album, logged off from the server and stopped work for the day at around 6 pm to look at my new watch.

My phone has never been brilliant and I discovered that the Bluetooth function on it, is now not working properly. I went online researched new phones, and eventually settled for a new one and ordered it from Amazon. I then pottered around for an hour, but I couldn't stop myself. I returned to work on my website and didn't finish until nearly 1 am Saturday morning. I went to the kitchen, put the dishwasher on to work overnight and then went to bed.

Saturday, 30th September.

I did not wake up until around 8:15 am this morning. I got up, took a shower, got dressed and then went to the kitchen to put a coffee in my espresso machine. I then went to the utility room and put some washing in my washing machine before returning to the kitchen for my coffee. It was at this point that I realised I still wasn't quite awake. 

I went to collect my coffee and realised that although I had put the machine on and put a coffee pod in the machine, I hadn't put the glass under the machine to collect the drink. Luckily for me, the drip tray was large enough to collect all of the fresh hot coffee. I washed the drip tray out, replaced it put a new pod in the machine, made sure the glass was under the machine to collect my drink and then turned the machine on and stood to watch it produce a coffee. I picked up my drink and then went to sit at my computer to start work.

When I looked at my emails I had a message telling me that the t-shirts I ordered earlier in the week should arrive soon. I also had an email telling me that my payment for my new phone had been declined. When I checked the payment, it was about €3 over my credit limit, and I would need to change it.

I then sat back down at my computer to work on my website until the Premier League football matches started in the afternoon. I watched the Bournemouth vs. Arsenal game which Arsenal won easily, 4-0. The score could have been a lot higher and probably should have been. I still think Arsenal need a good centre-forward to replace Eddie Nketiah. After the game, my friend John called to tell me he would still be coming to see me tomorrow but that he wouldn't be able to stop long as they were continuing on to get a ferry to Mallorca.

I carried on working on the photos for my website until around 9 pm and then turned the computer off before watching some television and going to bed early.

Sunday, 1st September.

I woke up at around 7:45 am and got up to check my messages on my computer. I did a bit of work on my website before washing my balcony and watering my plants. I tidied my kitchen up and got myself a coffee.

I decided to see if the change I made to my credit card account had cleared yet, and when I saw that it had I went back to the Amazon website and reordered the new phone I wanted. It seems quite strange to me that I can't just transfer money to my credit card account. I have to alter when it is paid off. I managed to set it so that it is paid when a euro amount is hit, rather than being paid on a certain date. This should allow me to keep using it if I have to make a large purchase for things like flights, cruises or in the case of this week a new phone and watch in the same month.

I settled down on my sofa to watch the Ryder Cup golf tournament on television. As I was watching it my friend John rang to say he had made a mistake with the time in Spain, he had forgotten that Spain was an hour ahead of Portugal so he would not be able to stop on his way to catch the ferry. He did ask for details of a local campsite so that he could stay there when he gets back from seeing his daughter. I sent him the details for the Narejos Campsite so that he can book it before he comes back to stay.

For dinner today I did some chicken thighs coated in almond flour with lots of herbs as a coating. It was my first attempt at doing this, it could have been a bit better but I will try again. I had it with carrots, peas and sweetcorn and ate it whilst watching the Ryder Cup golf, it was getting quite exciting, and the Europeans looked like they would win.

I watched the golf all afternoon and the Europeans eventually won after the Americans had made a spirited comeback. Once the golf had finished, I carried on working on photos for my website, quitting at around 10:45 pm and watching television for about half an hour before going to bed.

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