This week was another cold week. I went out to eat three times at three different restaurants, saw a friend singing in one bar & met my good friend Alan Bond in another bar to celebrate his birthday at the end of the week.
Week 7 of 2023.
Monday, 13th February.
I woke up & got a coffee at around 8 am. I worked on my website until around 11 am & then took a big bag of rubbish to the bins. After dropping my rubbish in the bin I went to the Euronics store to drop off one of the pairs of trousers I have to return. Once again Amazon deliveries confuse me, I have two pairs to return, one pair SEUR will pìck up, one pair I have to take to the store.
After dropping off my trousers, I stopped at the Doctors surgery to make an appointment for a blood test & to see the Doctor now I have the results from my MRI scan. I get both appointments for 9 am tomorrow & then head off to Pizzeria La Sombre to meet Martin for a couple of beers. It is very cold out today & I am glad I went out with plenty of warm layers on. I am also pleased to see the restaurant has the windbreakers down to keep the wind off of us. Dave turns up for a chat & we talk until the school bus arrives with Martins's daughter Aria & then we all head off home.
I intend to go to D´Pollo for something to eat on my way home but as I go past it is all shuttered up & they are not open. I go back to my apartment sit in the warm & decide to get a Chinese takeaway to eat later. At around 5:45 pm Martin rings me to tell me he & Kate are going to a Chinese restaurant in San Javier & asks if I want to go. I gladly agree & they pick me up.
We have a meal in Yamami´s which is very nice & afterwards head to a shop for Martin to get some new trainers before Kate drops me off at home. I am quite tired when I get home, I watch television for a while before going to bed at 11 pm.
Tuesday, 14th February.
I had set my alarm for 7:30 am today to get me up in time to get ready for my appointments at the Doctor's. As normal I woke up before the alarm goes off. At 7:00 am I get up, get a coffee & make some porridge with banana, raisins, blueberries & a dollop of greek yoghurt in it. I work on my computer until 8:45 am & then leave for my doctor's appointment.
At the doctor's surgery, I see my normal doctor but he can't advise me what to do about the tinnitus & I will have to still see the specialist. After speaking with him I leave him & go through to the nurse who takes my blood for my INR test to regulate the amount of Sintrom I take. Today I see the nurse I prefer, she is much better than the male nurse & always gets my blood the first time. After having my blood test I ask at reception for an appointment to see the specialist who is only there once a fortnight. As luck would have it, he is due in this evening & I am given an 8 pm appointment to see him.
When I leave the surgery I go to the Economy cash superstore & get myself an apple pastry before heading home. Once home I spend the day working on my website. At about 7:10 pm I get a phone call from the surgery asking if I can come in earlier, I stop what I am doing & head to the surgery with the results of my MRI scan. I have to wait a little while to see the specialist but I am seen at about 7:40 pm. After looking at my results he tells me that the scan looks good & that I do not have any tumours. He prescribes me some tablets that I have to take for 3 months & then go back to see him again.
When I leave I get the tablets at the pharmacy next door. I hope the tablets work, they cost €27 for 30 & I have to take 1 a day for 3 months. When I get home I go online to get my blood test results from this morning & then adjust the amount of Sintrom I am taking. I sort my pills out into my monthly pill reminder. I am a few days short on my Sintrom & will have to get some more tomorrow.
Wednesday, 15th February.
I get a coffee with a bacon roll when I woke up this morning, then sit down at my computer & work on my website for a few hours. I am meeting my friends Frouk & Reinder for lunch today & around 12:30 I leave home & take a slow walk along the beachfront before going to meet Frouk & Reinder at La Casa de Papel where we are meeting for lunch.
When I arrived at the restaurant the doors were all shut & the metal grills were across the door. I tried the doors & they are all locked up. I wondered if they didn't open till 13:00 pm & as it was just before that time, I sat at one of the tables outside. I took my phone out & checked the opening times for the restaurant & confirmed that they should be open. I sat & waited for Frouk & Reinder & when they arrived we decided to go to Ramons restaurant just up the road.
None of us had been to Ramons for their menu of the day before. We were not disappointed. We all shared a beautiful fresh salad & then I had the seafood soup before my main course of fish & chips. It was followed up with a piece of chocolate cake. The meal, which included a glass of wine cost €10.95, I thought it was very good & will definitely be going again.
After we had finished our meal we all left & went home. I walked back along the beachfront & after not walking far for a while my legs ached a bit when I got home. The wind had picked up a lot & it was nice to see the waves on the Mar Menor.
This evening I watched the Arsenal v Manchester City game which Manchester City won 1-3. I think Arsenal were the better team in the first half but Manchester City was the better team in the second half. Arsenal does not have a big squad like Manchester City & this was most obvious in an attack where Arsenal were not able to bring anyone on to replace Eddie Nketiah who missed two or three very good chances to score for Arsenal. Manchester City goes back to the top of the Premier League on goal difference but has played a game more than Arsenal. I hope Arsenal can soon find their way in front of the goal & start scoring goals again.
Thursday, 16th February.
I woke up around 6:30 am today. I was unable to get back to sleep so I got out of bed, made myself a coffee & started to work on my website.
At around 11:15 am my friends George & Yvonne picked me up to take me to the Espacio Mediterráneo shopping centre in Cartagena. First of all, I go to Primark & I look for some trousers in case the ones I have ordered from the UK don't arrive in time for my holiday. The ones they have there are all horrible, they are called joggers & have no zippers & have drawstrings instead of a button or belt. The materials are all different but some look like plastic, others rubber & others just feel horrible. I don't want any of these & I walk along to C & A. They do have proper trousers, the styles aren't great & the colours aren't brilliant but I do manage to get navy & karki coloured pairs of cargo trousers that I prefer as they have multiple pockets to hide stuff in. I also buy a new belt to go with them & I am happy that I will at least have something other than shorts to wear on my cruise at the end of next week.
After we have finished shopping George drops me off at my apartment. My friend Jacquie has asked me to give her some help with her email account & after I have dropped my new trousers off in my apartment I go around to her home to help her. I make a couple of adjustments to her notepad settings & instruct her how to delete images & videos that she doesn't want anymore as it is these that have completely filled all her storage capacity. I leave her to delete all the old files & will promise to go back tomorrow afternoon.
As soon as I get home I put my heating on as it got cold whilst I was out. I work on my website for a while before cooking myself some turkey fillets, jacket potato & mixed vegetables for my dinner. After my dinner, I settled down in front of the television to watch more episodes of Homestead Rescue before going to bed.
Friday, 17th February.
Today I woke at 7:45 am. I got up & made myself a coffee before settling down at my computer for a while. I have a few small jobs today & they annoy me, they are all little jobs that I should be able to do in my sleep but I find they make my back ache & I don't like doing them.
I go out at about 11 am to get the pills I need. In the UK they make all different sizes in terms of milligrams but here in Spain, I can only get two sizes. This is annoying because as my blood levels change I have to cut tablets in half & they are so small to start with it is easy to drop them, lose them or cut them wrong. After buying the tablets I pop into ATime4AChange to have a quick look around, they have a mirror that I consider buying but it will have to wait until I get back from my cruise.
I head home when I leave the shop & I am soon home in the warm. I trimmed my beard off over the bathroom sink without thinking. The beard hair blocked the plug hole & I then had to spend time unclogging it. This would be a quick job for most people but I can't see well enough to see the blockage & it takes me half an hour just to remove the hair. Whilst I am in the bathroom I clean the sink, the bidet & the toilet. I must admit it did look a lot better when I had finished & I was quite pleased with myself. I was not as happy with the back ache it had given me & I settled down to watch some television & stretch out my back on the sofa.
My friend Deeana messaged me tonight to let me know she is singing at Boochies bar in Los Alcazares tomorrow & I am glad of an excuse to go out to see her sing. This evening I manage to connect my smart watch back up to my phone & get it working with all the different keep fit apps. I do find the apps spur me on to do exercise & as the warmer weather will hopefully be coming back soon, I hope to be able to begin to walk a little bit each day.
Saturday, 18th February.
I woke up around 7 am today. After getting a coffee I sat down to work on my website for a while. I stopped work at around 1:30 pm to watch the Aston Villa v Arsenal game on the television.
It was a great game to watch & Arsenal won the game 2-4. The first four goals were all really good but the one I enjoyed the most was the fifth goal. The Aston Villa goalkeeper, Martinez, had been time-wasting the entire game & in extra time, which was only being played because of his time-wasting, Jorginho had a thunderbolt of a shot for Arsenal which came back off the crossbar & hit the Villa goalkeeper in the head & went back into the goal. The fourth goal in the final seconds came from an Aston Villa corner, in which Martinez had left his goal & tried to score in the Arsenal penalty area. The ball fell loose & Arsenal raced to the other end of the pitch to score. Martinelli was celebrating scoring into an open net before he even kicked the ball into the goal. Later in the day Manchester City could only draw against Nottingham Forest which means Arsenal are back at the top of the Premier League & still have a game in hand.
This evening I went to see my friend Deeana sing at Boochies. When I arrived the place was very busy & there was nowhere to sit down. After getting a drink I sat outside where I could still hear her sing & also watch the Newcastle v Liverpool game on the television. Shortly after sitting down, I was joined by my friend Ady & whilst we sat talking our friends Bob & Connie arrived. We sat chatting for a while before I left to go to Rocco's bar for a quick pint. I had a pint whilst I sat at the bar & was about to leave when another friend Helen came in, I sat talking to her for a while before leaving to go to another bar just down the road. As I passed Perlitas bar I saw my friends Bob & Connie so I popped in to see them. It was only after going in I realised how late it was, it was 1:15 am, when I looked at my watch a short time ago I thought it had said 11:15 pm. I apologised to Jo, the owner, for turning up so late, turned around & walked home.
As I approached my apartment building I saw two young men looking through my neighbour's ground-floor window, as I approached they ran off. I also noticed that the apartment opposite had a large group of youngsters in it having a party. They may or may not have been connected but I am sure the owner will not be happy to find her grandchildren had used it to host a late-night party. I went into the apartment block & although it was late I better check on my neighbour to see if she was OK. I knocked on her door but didn't get a reply. I will check on her again in the morning.
Sunday, 19th February.
I woke up around 8 am but stayed in bed until around 9:30 am. After getting up, I got myself a coffee & sat down at my computer for a while. I worked on my website until around lunchtime. I then went downstairs & again knocked on my neighbour's door. She answered the door & said that she had heard someone at the window last night, probably the kids I saw, & had heard the front door but not opened it. I told her that it was me at the door & explained what I had seen outside, I left her & she said she would check on her car which was parked outside.I then went outside to meet my friend June who was picking me up to go for Sunday lunch at Campbell's bar.
This week I had the roast pork with all the trimmings it was lovely but unfortunately for me, my GERD stopped me from finishing it. I had it boxed up to take home with me. June & I had a good chat & as always seemed to spend a lot of time laughing. When we finished June took me back to my apartment so that I could put my boxed-up dinner in the fridge & collect my walking stick before she then dropped me off at La Playa bar so that I could join my friend Alan Bond for his birthday party.
I enjoyed chatting with Alan & my friend Gary but also bumped into a few people that will be on the same cruise as me next week. There was lots of singing at the party, some very good, some good, some not so good but none that was terrible as I didn't want to sing & spoil the fun time for everyone. At around 6:30 pm I walked back to my apartment.
Once I was home I had some crab salad on toast for a light snack before watching the Aston Villa v Arsenal game on the television again. All in all, it had been a good week & Arsenal being back top of the Premier League really made it for me.