Week 1 of 2024, started very quietly and I stayed at home until going to see Cartagena vs Valencia in the Copa del Rey in Cartagena with my friends, Paul and Jim.
2024, week 1.
Monday, 1st January.
I woke up around 6 am this morning but was able to get back to sleep. I woke up again when my alarm went off at 7:45 am but stayed in bed for another 45 minutes before getting up to get myself a coffee & some porridge with banana & blueberries in it. I am determined to get rid of this cold as soon as I can this year, I don't want the miserable end to 2023 dragging on into 2024.
I worked on my website for a few hours making my last post from last year's journal, week 52, before indexing more of my website pages on Google. The reason I have to do this indexing so often is that Google may find a website but it won't serve or post them in searches until they are indexed. You can do this manually but there is a limit of around 10 pages a day that can be indexed, hence why I do it daily.
Determined to start to shake off the fatigue & general malaise I have been feeling for the last few weeks I have decided to go for a walk every morning. Previously I have overdone it which has then resulted in me having to rest for long periods. My intention this time is to do small walks each morning & to limit myself to this so that I don't overdo it. At 11 am I leave my apartment & go for a short walk along the beach. I walk along the beach turn up towards my doctors' surgery & walk back along the main road until I turn back towards the beach on Calle Rosario & go back to my apartment.
When I get back to my apartment my knee is sore & I am puffing like a steam train but I feel happier for having gone outside for some fresh air. It wasn't a long walk but it is a start that hopefully I can keep going. I messaged my friend Martin when I got back to see if the office was open today, as it is a bank holiday I don't think it will be open but I sent the message anyway.
When I get back I get myself a mug of ginger & lemon tea, hopefully, it will help me fight off the cold. I have been intending to teach myself to make short videos & advertising memes this year & when I get home I order & install some new software on my computer to assist me with this.
For lunch, I got myself a chicken burger before sitting down at my computer to play a computer game for half an hour. I sat down to play ´The Bard´s Tale´, & the next time I looked up it was gone 7 pm, the game is simple but I get addicted to getting my roster of characters boosted up to the next level. I turned the computer off & got myself something to eat & then sat down to watch tonight's football match.
The Liverpool vs Newcastle game was great for neutral supporters but again was ruined for me by dodgy refereeing decisions & VAR decisions. Liverpool won 4-2 & stay top of the Premier League, I hope Arsenal buy a new striker soon or we will not overtake Liverpool who are scoring for fun.
When the game finished I put on the little electric heater in my bedroom & went to bed.
Tuesday, 2nd January.
I woke up at around 6 am this morning, I used the bathroom & went back to bed. I got up at around 8 am, got myself a coffee & checked my email for any messages before then getting myself some porridge & blueberries & a second coffee.
At around 11 am my neighbour messaged me to tell me I had mail so I collected the letter from my mailbox. When I opened it, it was a letter from the DWP in the UK. It was dated the 21st of November 2023 & asked me to fill it & return it by the 21st of December 2023. As I received it 13 days after it was supposed to be returned I rang the DWP to tell them. On ringing the office, I got put in a queue for 42 minutes whilst I waited for someone to take the call. The lady who answered asked me lots of security questions & then told me that my claim had already been cancelled & that she would speak to her manager to get some help. When she came back on the line she told me that as I lived abroad it would be a different office that dealt with my claim. She took my phone number & details again to pass on to the correct department & promised me that they would telephone me back.
At around 1:30 pm, I got on my disability scooter & went to the Economycash store for some groceries. On the way I saw my friends George & Yvonne & it seemed as if Yvonne was suffering from a cold as well. I continued to the store to do my shopping & as I was going around it, I saw my friend Moira who I hadn't seen for a long time. We had a quick chat & it seemed she also had a cold. I finished my shopping & went straight home & after putting my disability scooter in the garage I went back to my apartment. I put the heat on, got myself a roll for my lunch & had a mug of lemon & ginger tea, before sitting down to work on my website.
This afternoon I received my daily email from The Fussy Librarian website with my daily list of free books available for my Kindle. I was delighted with today's list &when I checked them out, I downloaded 11 free books.
I have been waiting to see if I can get a discount on a new air fryer in the sales online. They haven't gone down a lot but have a little bit. I want a new one to replace the two older ones I have. They are both working but take up too much room in my kitchen. along with other appliances that I don't use I will sell the old ones & have a clear out of my cupboards of things I don't use & can sell.
This evening I played a game on my computer for a while & then watched the TV before going to bed at around 10:30 pm.
Wednesday, 3rd January.
When I woke up this morning at about 6 am turned over & went back to sleep. I woke up again at about 7:45 am & got up to get a coffee before checking for messages on my computer. Despite feeling a bit better today my cold seems to have worked loose from my chest & I am now coughing up lots of flem & my nose is blocked up again.
I messaged my sister Karen, to wish her a happy birthday & then cleaned my kitchen ready for a day of cooking later in the week. I then made some porridge with honey & blueberries before going for a short walk to the rubbish bin to drop off my rubbish. It is strange when I think back to how rubbish is collected on a certain day of the week in England & that you have to put your bin out the night before to have your rubbish collected. Here in Spain when your rubbish bag is full you walk it to the nearest large bin in the street & it is emptied every night. There are separate bins for recycling & it seems to work quite well.
When I got back from my walk I worked on my computer for a while before playing a computer game for an hour or so then I got myself a late lunch. I had two chicken rolls & then worked a bit more on my website.
Tonight I watched the World Dart championships between Luke Humphries & Luke Littler. It was a great contest between the two of them with Luke Humphries winning but I was impressed by the speed & accuracy of both players. It brought back memories of my playing days when I played my friend Mike Campbell in his pub, Fitzers. I wasn't a very good player & with my first three darts, I scored a 180. It was the first time I had ever done it. Mike responded with a score over a hundred & I threw again. For the second time in a row, & only the second time ever, I scored 180 again. Mike scored over a hundred again & I was left with a 141 finish & threw a treble 20, treble 19 & a double 12 to win the game & get my first & only 9-dart finish.
A great memory for Luke Littler & he will continue & will win the World Championship one day. I on the other hand immediately quit playing darts as I could never hope to do it again. When the darts was over, I had a warm Horlicks with milk & honey & then went to bed.
Thursday, 4th January.
I woke at around 6 am this morning. I used the bathroom & went back to sleep. I woke up when my alarm went off at 7:45 am & went to the kitchen & got myself a coffee & some orange juice. I sat at my computer to check for messages & started indexing my website pages on Google. Before I started I took my tablets, my anticoagulant tablets, my anti-acid tablets, a multivitamin tablet, an Omega 3 fish oil tablet, & finished it all off with the tablet I am taking for my cold.
Once I had finished my coffee I got myself a second one & while I waited for it to brew I emptied the dishwasher, I put it on overnight as the electricity is cheaper after 11 pm. I also got myself a cooked breakfast to feed my cold. I had two sausages, two rashers of bacon, a fried egg, some fried potatoes & a slice of toast with strawberry jam.
At 10:45 am I met my friend Paul & he drove us to Cartagena, to the football stadium. We purchased tickets for this Sunday's Spanish Copa del Rey game between Cartagena vs Valencia. I am looking forward to it, it will be the first time going to see a football match in Spain & probably the first time I've seen a live game since my friends took me to see Southampton vs Arsenal when I was still in a wheelchair in 2015. After we had got the tickets & had a quick look around the shop Paul dropped me off at home & I got myself something for my lunch.
The rest of the day was spent meta-tagging my photos to make it easier to find specific photos. In this case, I ran face recognition software on my photos, to start tagging individual people in my photos.
Friday, 5th January.
I woke up at around 7 am, got myself a coffee & some orange juice & then checked my computer for messages. My cold is getting better but I decided to spend another day at home in the warm to try & help it on its way. I got myself some porridge with blueberries & honey for breakfast with a slice of toast & jam afterwards. If nothing else the sugar rush should give me the energy to continue working on my computer all day.
At around 10:30 am I took a break from my computer & went to Tecnyshop to pick up my omega 3 tablets that Amazon had dropped off there. Once I had collected them I popped into the Dia store & bought some red peppers to go with the aubergines I already have, that will make a nice soup.
When I got home I put everything away but felt very tired all of a sudden. The temperature had started to drop again by about 12:30 pm so I got myself a sandwich for lunch & had a mug of hot Bovril to go with it. This afternoon I seemed to have no energy again So I continued working on my computer until around 5 pm. For my tea, I got myself chicken & chips & enjoyed it immensley. Tonight I stayed warm under a blanket on the sofa & watched TV until around 10 pm then went to bed.
Saturday, 6th January.
I woke up at 7:45 am when my alarm went off. My nose wasn't blocked this morning but I did have a tickly cough. I got up & got myself a coffee & got some orange juice to take my tablets with. For my breakfast, I had porridge with blueberries. My porridge didn't seem to taste as good this morning & it was only when I took the bowl out to the kitchen that I realised I hadn't put any honey in the porridge to sweeten it.
After breakfast, I put some clothes in my washing machine & put my dishwasher on before playing a game on my computer for a while. At lunchtime, I decided to make a soup. I had some aubergines & red peppers that I wanted to make soup with. I roasted both the peppers & the aubergines before adding them to some pre-prepared vegetable stock. I added some salt, pepper & onion salt but nothing else. After the soup had been cooked for a while I blitzed the soup with a handheld mixer before heating it some more.
When I tried the soup it was okay but not one I would make again. I added a tin of skinned tomatoes to it, & blitzed it again. It tasted better when I tried it but not as a soup. I think it would make a good sauce to go on pasta though so I will freeze it & use it for something else.
I was watching some football on the television this afternoon when I had a coughing fit. I coughed so hard I hurt my ribs & somehow twisted hurting the right side of my stomach as well. I took the last of my cold tablets & pondered whether to go out tonight. It was my friend Stuarts' birthday today & he was having a party with about 80 guests. I was supposed to be going to it but decided that it would be a good idea to stay in one more night, my cough had subsided, & my cold seemed to have gone but I didn't want to chance it as I planned to go to a football match tomorrow night.
I watched a film tonight on the television. It was called Saltburn & had great write-ups. I thought it was terrible, the story was unbelievable & quite sick in places. Now I have slated it, it will probably win lots of awards but I hated it.
Sunday, 7th January.
I woke up at around 6 am, used the bathroom & went back to bed. I woke up again at around 7:30 & got up & made myself a coffee. I checked for any messages on my computer & took this morning's tablets. I finished the course of cold tablets yesterday so that will mean the number I have to take has gone down by three a day.
For breakfast, I made myself sausage, bacon, tomato, mushroom & fried egg. For the rest of the day I either worked on Google, indexing site pages for my website & removing out-of-date links. I also finished writing up the details for my first day at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. I then played a game on my computer to kill some time before going out this afternoon to watch Cartagena play Valencia in the Spanish Copa del Rey competition.
At 4:15 pm I walked to the main road & a short time later I was picked up by my friend Paul & two of his friends, in a minibus. We carried on & stopped to pick up our friend Jim, a bit further up the road, before continuing to Cartagena. We parked on a bit of wasteland opposite the ground & the five of us went to a small beer tent outside the ground to have a beer before going into the ground. Strangely, & I don't know if this is the same in all football grounds in Spain, but you can only get water in the ground. We sat chatting & drinking until around 6:30 pm & then walked around the ground till we found the entrance we needed to go through.
The seats we had were great for me in that I had a great view of the game but getting to them was difficult as there were no handrails & the steps were different heights. Even the row we were on had two steps at the end of it that made getting into the row difficult.
The game was quite good & not having been to a live football match for a while I kept looking around to see the replay on big screens every time something happened. Cartagena scored first & was winning 1-0 at half time when they had a player shown a straight red card & sent off. The decision looked very harsh to me but alas with no reply & no screens to watch it on, we couldn't argue about it. The linesman & the referee seemed to make some very dodgy decisions throughout the game & before the second half ended Valencia scored an equaliser.
I had to use the bathroom & made my way down to the bathroom & by the time I got back the first half of extra time was underway. Valencia scored another goal to lead 1-2 against the ten men of Cartagena but I couldn't believe how poor the goalkeepers' effort to save it was. It looked like he had watched it thinking it was going wide then at the last minute realised it was going in & tried to save it, but was too late. It was a very soft goal to let in & I was left hoping that maybe the shot had got a deflection on its way in, as the goalkeepers' attempted save was terrible. Even with my dodgy eyesight & strapped-up knee, I would have saved it. The game finished 1-2 & Valencia carried on through to the next round.
We left the ground & were very quickly back at the minibus & were on our way home. Paul dropped off Jim first & then dropped me off before taking the others home. When I got in, I turned on my heating & got myself some cheese on toast for supper before going to bed.