This week I continued to do lots of work on my photos, adding them to photo albums on my website. I did the important job of renewing my home insurance & got my disability scooter included in it. 

Week 40 of 2023.

Monday, 2nd October.

I woke up at around 6:00 am today. I had a bank appointment at 9 am to arrange home insurance to replace what I already have, my account manager keeps telling me I am paying too much for my insurance so I guess I will find out this morning. I get a coffee & sit down at my computer to do a couple of hours of work before going to the bank.

I went to the bank & was there by 8:45 am. I was seen straight away & changed my home insurance company. It is very similar to my previous insurance but a couple of Euros less. When it renews it will cover my disability scooter as well. The law has changed & it is advised to get insurance for disability scooters. I asked my account manager to check that I had changed my credit card payments properly & she checked that I had. She also upped my limit in case I have any emergencies whilst I am away. I didn't put it up to the limit she offered but put it up to cover my expected holiday bills. I can put the limit down after I get back from my holiday.

As I left the bank I saw my friend Rob & we walked to the cafe next to the town hall. I had a tostada with tomato for breakfast with a coffee, We sat chatting whilst having breakfast & when finished we both went home. When I put my disability scooter in the garage I put it on charge so that I can use it tomorrow if I need to. When I got inside I went to work on the photo albums for my website & made a Skype call to my Uncle Paul. I chatted with Paul for around half an hour & when I finished talking to him I got myself some cheese & crackers. When I had finished my crackers I carried on working on my website.

At about 4 pm my new phone arrived & I spent the next few hours setting it up. It is a big improvement on my old phone, I guess that's the difference between a cheap phone & a mid-priced one. I managed to get it to connect to my new watch & it connects to all my Google accounts easily & downloads all the apps I had. It then had to update lots of apps, I guess this is because my older phone wouldn't accept the updates & this is why they stopped working. I had also ordered a set of wireless earphones to go with my laptop. After setting all of the old apps up & connecting the phone to my new watch. I will leave connecting the Bluetooth earphones for another day.

Tonight I continue working on the photos for my website.

Tuesday, 3rd October.

I woke around 8 am & got a coffee & got ready to go to the post office to collect a parcel. I had a message to tell me my parcel couldn't be delivered as it had the wrong address on it & it could be collected from the post office in Los Alcazares. I went down to the garage, got on my disability scooter & headed towards the post office. I parked outside & went in. There was a queue of people but after about 15 minutes I was seen by a nice lady. She checked for my parcel & said there wasn't one. She then checked the DHL website which said it wasn't even in the country yet. I believe DHL have been sending me messages for someone else's parcel.

I went home to my apartment & put my disability scooter back in the garage. I knocked on the door of my neighbour Liz to see if she was okay as I hadn't seen her, or her car, for a while. She was fine but her car had a problem & was in the dealership for repair. I said I would catch up with her later in the week.

I walked to Buena Vista restaurant & got a tostada & a coffee. I sat there & ate my breakfast whilst I read my Kindle until around 11:15 am. I then decided that as I had given my legs a rest for a few days I would walk to the office to see Martin. I walked along the beach before cutting through the houses to get to the office. As I arrived, my favourite waitress, Rosa, saw me & came out with a bottle of water for me & a pint for Martin. Dave turned up a little later & we sat chatting till around 1:30 pm when Dave left. He dropped me off at Rio Nalon so that I could get some shopping. I got myself a pizza & some chicken in the Economy Cash store & then walked home.

When I got back to my apartment I was puffing like a steam train & needed to sit down for a while to get my breath back. Once I was breathing slowly again I got myself the pizza for a late lunch & sat back down at my computer to work on my website. I decided that as my new phone was quite expensive I would order a protective case for it & I went on Amazon to order one that should be delivered tomorrow.

This evening I watched the Lens vs. Arsenal Champions League football match. Arsenal started very well & soon went into a 0-1 lead. Unfortunately, Lens got back into the game & deserved the win they eventually got, beating Arsenal 1-2. Arsenal will have to play a lot better at the weekend when they take on Manchester City.

I worked on my computer getting photos ready for my website photo albums until around 12:30 am & then went to bed.

Wednesday, 4th October.

I woke around 7:45 am & got myself a coffee before starting work on my website. The new case I ordered for my phone should arrive today I hope it arrives early as I have to deliver the external hard drive I set up for my friends Jacky & Alan sometime today. As I check my email I have an email from Fitbit. They have sent me an email containing my week's tracking results. I had to laugh as apart from plugging it in to charge I didn't wear it last week. The only figures on it are the steps I took when I unpacked it & plugged it in to charge completely. According to their figures, I did 9 steps last week. 

I worked on the photos for my website this morning. Jacky messaged me to rearrange my visit till tomorrow. At around 11 am my delivery arrived but when I tried to fit the new case I ordered, to my new phone, it was far too big. I now know that the Google Pixel 7 is a lot bigger than the Google Pixel 7a, who knew? I arranged to return the case straight away & ordered another one, ensuring it fit the phone I have. I then continued working on my website.

At around 3:15 pm, I took a break from my work & decided to walk to the stationary shop on Rio Nalon to return the phone case to Amazon. I take a slow walk to the shop but when I arrive it is closed, I forgot they close for a siesta. I see my friend Joe outside his bar, Perlita´s, where he is cleaning & preparing for this evening's opening time, I have a quick chat with him & he tells me the stationary shop reopens at around 5 pm. I decided that rather than walk home with my parcel, to come back almost as soon as I got home, I would get a pint & sit reading my Kindle.

I walked to La Petit Bistro, got a table in the shade, ordered a pint & sat reading my Kindle. There was a nice Irish lady there who introduced herself to me & began talking to me. Unfortunately, she was standing on my blindside & I assumed she was talking to someone else & continued reading my Kindle without answering her. A little later she tried again but as I had stopped reading & she had moved slightly I could now see that she was in fact talking to me. I spoke to her for a while before returning to the book I was reading on my Kindle. I ordered another beer & had finished by the time the shop reopened.

I walked across to the stationary store to return my parcel but the young man in the store didn't have a clue on how to accept the parcel to be returned. He told me to come back in 3½ hours when his friend, whose shop it was, would be back & would be able to take the parcel. I was not going to go back to the bar for 3½ hours so I walked home. I will have to return the parcel later in the week, I hope I remember to go in the morning.

Once home I cooked myself some chicken for my meal & then carried on working on my computer until around 11 pm & then I went to bed.

Thursday, 5th October.

I woke up after only a few hours' sleep & couldn't get back to sleep, so at 2:15 am I got back up & carried on working on the photos for my website. I worked until around 5 am & then went back to bed. I woke at about 9 am, got myself a coffee to wake myself up properly & then continued to work on my website.

The morning went by quite quickly, in my dreamy half-asleep state I still managed to get quite a lot of work done on my website. In the afternoon Jacky called to rearrange the hard drive delivery for tomorrow, this suits me as I can return my parcel to Amazon & then continue to her house to take the hard drive around to her.

The rest of the day was again spent setting up the new photo albums on my website. I have now added hundreds of photos correctly to the albums & they are there to be looked through. I have mainly been working on photo albums for my cruises but have done a couple of other albums as well. Although the photos can now be seen, I will go back to add full descriptions to each of the photos in the near future. I am adding the photos first as that is the difficult part & needs to be done sitting at my computer, the adding of descriptions can be done from my laptop, from anywhere.

I finish work around 10:30 pm & go to bed to catch up on my sleep.

Friday, 6th October.

I woke up at 7:45 am today. I slept much better last night & feel a bit more like my normal self. I got myself a coffee before checking my computer for any messages. After drinking my coffee I took a shower & then picked up my unwanted parcel to return to Amazon. I went down to the garage to get my disability scooter.

As I got to my disability scooter one of my Spanish neighbours was already waiting for the car lift so I would have to wait for him to leave to call it back to get out. As I backed up on my scooter he called to me through his van window & insisted that I use the elevator first as he was in no hurry. I thought this was a very kind act, it is sometimes the little things that people do that make you feel better. 

I thanked him & got in the elevator, went up to the ground floor & went towards the shop where I had previously not been able to return my Amazon parcel. As I pulled up on my scooter at the front of the shop, the man who was normally there saw me coming & stopped me before I got off my disability scooter. He had seen the parcel I was returning, & told me to stay sitting down as he could bring the machine to register the return out to me, & take the parcel from me to save me from getting off my scooter. The parcel had soon been registered & the telltale ping came from my phone to tell me it had been accepted & I could then leave to go to my friend Jackie's home. Once again someone's small kind act had cheered me up & after a few days where I had been feeling a bit down, their small thoughtful acts had cheered me right up.

As I went up Rio Nalon I saw two more friends, Jim, who I hadn't seen for years & Fi, who I hadn't spoken to for a few months. Their smiles & conversation had me smiling again. Being stuck indoors all week had got to me more than I thought & the four people who had spoken to me or helped me in a small way had me smiling & cheerful again. 

When I arrived at Jackie's, I sat down & had a cup of tea, with both her & Alan. I then showed her how to put the external drive she had asked me to buy for her, into her laptop. I showed her the folders I had already set up for her to store her documents, videos & photos in. I then showed her how to set up her own folders & promised that when I got back from my holiday, later in the year, I would give her & Alan some basic computer lessons. I used to give basic computer lessons to people in the council library in Fareham when I lived in England. It was called The Silver Surfers club & was very popular, teaching people the basics of using their computers & laptops. I will definitely set up something similar here to help people.

After leaving Jackie I went into the Economy Cash superstore to get something for my dinner before going home. Once in my apartment, I ate my lunch & when I had eaten it I went back to work on my computer. I worked until around 7 pm & then got myself some dinner. I thought about going out for a drink after dinner but decided to stop at home & continue working on my photo albums. I ended up working until around midnight before going to bed, my eyes were getting sore & I had to take a break from the computer.

Saturday, 7th October.

I woke up at around 7 am today, I got myself a coffee & checked my messages before deciding to go for a walk while it was still relatively cool outside. Before going out I stripped the linen from my bed & put it in the washing machine & set it to run. When I went for my walk, I walked along the promenade until I got to the Encarnacion Hotel. Then I turned up & walked to the main road through Los Alcazares before turning & heading back towards home.

I stopped next to some of the street art near my home & got took a photo of myself there (the one at the top of this page) before continuing towards home. As I got to the Mar Menor Bodega, where I would normally turn to go to my apartment, I remembered that my cousin Jill had told me about a shop that took parcels that were to be returned to Amazon. It was apparently behind the Bodega & as it would be my local pick-up & return centre for Amazon parcels & I turned to walk that way to check where it was. I quickly found it & then went home, the shop would indeed be much closer for me to use.

When I got home I prepared some more photos for my website photo albums before stopping for lunch. After finishing my lunch I took my bed linen out of the machine & remade my bed before settling down to watch some of today's Premier League football matches. I watched the Luton vs Tottenham match & despite going down to ten men when Yves Bissouma was sent off for a second bookable offence, Tottenham managed to get a 0-1 win & go to the top of the Premier League.

My friend June rang me this afternoon to see if I wanted to go to Campbell's for Sunday dinner tomorrow. I had already got a chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow's dinner but we did arrange to go out on Tuesday morning for a coffee & a trip to a garden centre in Torre Pacheco. I watched the last game of the day´s football, a nil-nil draw between Crystal Palace & Nottingham Forest. It wasn't a great game but the scoreless game helped out my fantasy football team as I have a Crystal Palace defender in my team this week. I had to make a lot of changes to my team this week because of injuries & suspensions, hopefully after the international break, the injuries will have cleared up.

After the game, I carried on working on my photos, preparing them to go on my website, eventually going to bed just after 11 pm.

Sunday, 8th October.

I woke around 7:30 am & got myself a coffee before starting work on my computer. After checking for messages I had a second coffee & then decided, in my coffee-induced euphoria, to go for a walk whilst it was still cool. I got dressed & headed to the main road where I turned & walked into Los Alcazares, past the town hall, & eventually turned & walked to the beach at Club Nautica. I then walked along the beach back to my apartment where I got myself a large glass of water & sat at my computer to rest & get my breath back.

After a sit down to get my breath back, I decided to put my chicken in my air fryer to cook. It has a rotisserie fitting so I will be having rotisserie chicken for dinner today. Whilst sitting at my computer working I get a message from Amazon telling me my delivery for tomorrow will now arrive today at sometime before 10 pm.

I worked on my website all morning & Amazon delivered my parcel at around 11 am. For dinner I had the chicken I had cooked, it looked good, it smelt good & it tasted great. 

In the afternoon I kept flicking between channels on the television & watched bits of both the Brighton vs. Liverpool game & the West Ham vs. Newcastle game. Both games ended up in a 2-2 draw. Next up was the Arsenal vs. Manchester City game. I didn't have much hope of Arsenal winning as they hadn't beaten Manchester City in the Premier League for eight years. Arsenal played really well & both teams defended very well. With just 5 minutes remaining Arsenal made the breakthrough when substitute Gabriel Martinelli got a deflected goal to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead. They managed to keep the lead & finished up as winners, beating Manchester City 1-0.

I stayed up long enough to watch MOTD & see Arsenal beat Manchester City again, before going to bed in a good mood.