In week 2 of 2024, I finally started to get over the cold I have had since the beginning of December last year. I spent most of the week at home but did go to see FC Cartagena play football on Sunday.
2024, week 2.
Monday, 8th January.
I woke up around 7 am & got myself a coffee, took my tablets, had a shower & got ready to go for my blood test at the doctors' clinic around the corner from my apartment. At 8:40 am I set off on my disability scooter & went to the clinic. I only had to wait a short time before I saw the nurse. I was glad to see the nurse who was working today because she knew me, & how difficult it is to get blood out of my veins. She knew which arm to try & where to try to get blood from. It took her a couple of goes but she got enough for the test & I was soon back at my apartment. I plugged my scooter in to charge & worked on my website for a while.
At 11:30 am I went to Tecnyshop to pick up a parcel from Amazon & after collecting it I went to the office in Los Narejos to meet Martin. We sat talking till around 2:30 pm. Martin took Aria home & I headed towards my apartment. As I passed La Petit Bistro I saw some friends I had not seen for a while & I stopped off for a chat before then popping into Harry's bar to see another friend, before going home.
Once home I watched TV for a while & then went to bed.
Tuesday, 9th January.
I woke up around 7 am & got myself a coffee before logging on to my doctors' website. I checked for the results of the blood test I had yesterday, but they hadn't been uploaded to the website yet. I got another coffee, had some porridge for breakfast & then surfed the internet until around 10:30 am. I rechecked to see if my blood test results were available again, & was pleased to see them & that they looked perfect.
During the morning I went to the Economycash superstore for some bread & milk. When I got home I made myself a sandwich & realised I had forgotten the milk. It will at least give me something to do tomorrow. After I had eaten I added descriptions to some of the photos on my website before indexing some more of my website pages.
The temperature seemed to drop quite quickly in the afternoon & I put the heat on & lay on my sofa watching TV from under a blanket. I watched TV until around 11:00 am & went to bed but could not sleep. I think I probably finally fell asleep around 2 am.
Wednesday, 10th January.
I woke up when my alarm went off at 7:45 am today. I hadn't slept well & had a horrible dream in which I had gone for a job interview & had been made to go through a test to prove my worth. It wasn't a written test it was one where I had to go orienteering & climb up the sides of steep mountains with no climbing gear to help me. As someone who doesn't like the feeling of not being in control & safe the dream was horrible. Other people taking the test at the same time would rush past me & try to dislodge me from my precarious position on the cliff face or steal the markers that I had collected on my journey. When the alarm went off & woke me up I was still very tired & it felt like I hadn't slept at all.
When I got up, I got myself a coffee & sorted out my tablets for the next month. After taking my tablets for today, I indexed more pages of my website on Google, removed old pages from Google that I had previously removed from my website & then got another coffee & had breakfast. After breakfast, I finished writing up the details of my day at Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden & finished adding photos to the album for my day there.
In the afternoon I took some recyclable plastic to the recycling bin & then went to the Dia supermarket just around the corner & got the milk I had forgotten yesterday. In the afternoon I had a short siesta before playing a game on my computer & then watching TV in the evening. I had a message from my friend Alan to meet him for a drink tomorrow night & told him that as long as my cold continues to get better I would meet him at La Playa bar. I cooked myself some spaghetti & meatballs for dinner, splitting the portion into two to have the remainder tomorrow.
At about 10:15 pm, I got myself a warm Horlicks drink with honey & when I had drunk it, I went to bed.
Thursday, 11th January.
I woke up several times during the night & had to turn my heating up a little bit. I woke up & got up at 7:45 am when my alarm went off. I got up, got myself some coffee & porridge & then checked for messages on my computer. When I finished my breakfast I did a little bit of work on my website, I updated the Joomla version & some of the extensions that the website uses before turning my computer off & getting another coffee.
I then sat down, & read through my PIP form again before I sat down to continue filling it in. It was quite straightforward & I only had to fill in the details in sections that had changed since the claim was made in 2015. Most of it was the same, I had to include a few more hospital visits for operations & details of ongoing treatments & to say if my situation had changed & how it had changed. It took me a while to complete & I scanned it so that I have a copy of it, before putting it in an envelope to send back to the UK tomorrow when the local post office opens.
For dinner, I had the leftover spaghetti & meatballs from yesterday & then went back to work on my website. I indexed more pages & removed old directories from the search engine before turning my computer off & having a siesta.
I was expecting a delivery from Amazon to Tecnyshop today & I watched TV while waiting for a message to say it had arrived. The message arrived at around 6 pm & I went to pick up my new cardigan. When I got it home I unwrapped it & tried it on, it fitted well & was lightweight & very warm.
At around 7:45 pm I walked down to La Playa bar to my friend's daughter's birthday party. I had a good evening talking to people I hadn't seen for a while & my friend Jim invited me to go & see Cartagena play football again on Sunday. At the end of the night, Shellie gave me a lift home. I put my bedroom heater on & then sent some birthday messages to friends on Facebook before going to bed.
Friday, 12th January.
I woke up at 7:45 am when my alarm went off. I got myself a coffee & watched the news on TV before going to the post office to post a letter. After posting my letter I went towards Buena Vista restaurant for breakfast. As I went past my apartment I realised the battery on my disability scooter was about to run out. I parked my disability scooter in the garage, took my walking stick & walked the short distance to the restaurant.
I had a cooked breakfast with a coffee & sat reading my Kindle until midday & then went back to my apartment. I had to transfer some money from one of my bank accounts to another & was finally able to do it today. I will check that it worked correctly tomorrow & if it did I will be able to close one of the accounts down.
It was quite cold in my apartment so I put the heating on, got myself a drink & then climbed under a blanket on my sofa to try to warm up. Unable to warm up properly today, I binge-watched Fast & Furious films & went to bed around 10:30 pm.
Saturday, 13th January.
I woke around 7:30 am today & got myself a coffee. Once I had finished my coffee I put some washing in the washing machine & had some cereal for breakfast.
After breakfast, I worked on my website for a while before walking around to Tecnyshop to collect a pair of slippers that I had ordered from Amazon. When I got to Tecnyshop I realised my mistake, they no longer open on Saturday mornings so I will have to wait until Monday morning to collect my slippers.
When I got back from the shop I put my disability scooter on charge so that it will be fully charged for next week. I went to my apartment & got a ginger & lemon tea & sat down at my computer to work on my website. Today I typed up the page about my visit to the Christ the Redeemer statue & Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil.
This evening I watched some of the Newcastle vs Manchester City football match, it was a great game for neutrals but the result, a 2-3 win for Manchester City isn't good news for supporters of all other teams. It looks like Manchester City are on their usual second-half-of-the-season run of good results early this year.
Sunday, 14th January.
I woke up at 7:30 am today. I got up, stripped the linen from my bed & put it in the washing machine before getting myself a coffee & sitting at my computer to check any messages I had received overnight.
After taking my tablets I got myself a second coffee & some porridge with blueberries for my breakfast. After breakfast, I worked on my website until around midday & then got my washing out of the washing machine before walking down to La Playa bar.
When I got to the bar they had run out of draft beer so I had a small bottle of beer while I waited for my friend Jim. When Jim arrived & the other people that were going with us to Cartagena football ground arrived, Jim introduced me to everyone. I had no hope of remembering all the names & to be fair the only name I will probably remember is John, purely because he is another Arsenal fan. We had two taxis ordered & were picked up at 1:30 pm to go to Cartagena.
When we arrived at the ground we went to the ticket office to buy our tickets for the game but it was not yet open. We walked to the beer tent in the car park & we waited for the ticket office to open whilst having a drink & chatting to each other. When the ticket office opened, Jim went & got everyone's ticket & once we had finished our beer we made our way inside the ground to find our seats. Inside the stadium there is no one to show you to your seat & the numbering of the different sections is not very clear. Whilst everyone was looking for our seats I used the bathroom & when I came out I quickly found the other 8 people in our group.
They were sat on the upper level but right on the front row. We were level with the corner flag & I had a great view. It turned out that unable to find the seats the group had just sat in those seats until someone complained we were in their seats. No one complained & we watched the whole game from them.
It was a great game for us to see. There were five goals, two penalties, a few yellow cards & lots of goal-mouth action right in front of our seats. Villareal had a penalty in the first half, right in front of us, & were winning 0-1 at halftime. In the second half, Cartagena got a penalty, again right in front of us, to make it 1-1. Cartagena where a much better team in the second half & scored three more goals in the goal we were sat next to. Cartagena won the game against Villareal b, 4-1.
After the game, we waited in the car park until our taxi drivers picked us up. We quickly left Cartagena & were dropped off at La Playa bar in Los Alcazares. We had a few drinks & some pizza whilst we sat chatting until people started to leave & go home.
My leg had been in quite a bit of pain again today & Shelley kindly dropped me at home to save me from walking & I was home by about 8:30 pm. I put the heating on got myself a coffee & a painkiller & sat watching films. I must have been more tired than I thought because I fell asleep, waking up in the early hours of Monday morning. As I was comfortable & warm I stayed where I was on the sofa & went back to sleep.