Week 5 of 2024 started slowly, waiting for a delivery, but it soon got exciting when I booked my next adventure. I hadn't planned to do anything, but I still went out to eat on four different occasions.

2024, week 5.

Monday, 29th January.

I woke up around 8 am and went to get myself a coffee before sitting down at my computer to work on my website for a few hours. At about 10 am, I took a break & got myself some porridge for breakfast. I had it with a banana, blueberries, honey & yoghurt & it was lush. I could eat this every day.

I had a message at about 1 pm to say that the parcel I was waiting for had been delivered to Tecnyshop, so I went to the shop on my disability scooter to collect it. The lady in the shop recognised me & I had collected my parcel & was back home less than 10 minutes after leaving. I unwrapped the parcel & tried on the T-shirt I had ordered, it fit very well & I was thrilled with it. It will be perfect for the Six Nations rugby competition when it starts.

It started to get cold again this afternoon & I had to put the heat back on. I was feeling well again after getting over the cold I'd had since returning from Brazil & I started looking for a new adventure. I looked at a cruise around Japan, but it was expensive & travel was complicated. The cruise started in South Korea, so I had to get a flight to South Korea, stay there for two days before the cruise & get a visa for South Korea. The cruise finished in Japan & the flights from Japan to Spain are extortionate. I decided to give this trip a miss & continued to look for a new one.

The other trip I had been interested in was a two-week escorted tour of India, but it meant going via the UK, which would have added more expense to the trip. It would also mean getting a few different jabs at least eight weeks before travelling to India for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, typhoid, cholera, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, polio, & tetanus. This put me off the India trip.

While looking at different trips, I found a cruise with NCL that I liked. I would fly from Madrid to Honolulu, & cruise around the Hawaiian Islands for five days before sailing to Alaska. I would then cruise around Alaska for five days before returning to Vancouver in Canada to fly back to Madrid. The deal included the flights, the cruise, all food, all drinks, entertainment onboard & discounts on any excursions I take that I want to go on.

I have always wanted to visit the Hawaiian Islands, so that was one more thing off my bucket list. I have always wanted to go whale watching around Alaska, so that would be a second thing off my bucket list. I made a provisional booking & then went onto the US government website to apply for an ESTA to allow me to visit America. The ESTA came back within 15 minutes & had been granted, allowing me to visit Hawaii & Alaska. I went straight back onto the NCL website to book the cruise & I am now officially excited & looking forward to what will probably be my only trip this year.

This evening, I got one of my homemade stews out of the freezer, defrosted it & then heated it to have for my tea. After eating, I wrapped up under a blanket & watched television before going to bed at 11 pm.

Tuesday, 30th January.

I woke up at 5:30 am today & was unable to get back to sleep. I got up, got a coffee & some porridge & then settled down at my computer to work on my website until around 12:15 pm. My friend June had arrived at around 11:30 am & she waited whilst I finished the work I was doing. We went to   Buena Vista restaurant at about 12:30 pm.

June bought me breakfast as a belated birthday present & we sat inside the restaurant chatting until around 2:30 pm. My knee had been aching while we were in the restaurant & June insisted on dropping me off at home to save me from walking.

In the afternoon, I began to watch a film, but I soon fell asleep, waking up about an hour later. When I woke up, I worked on my website until the Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal football match came on the TV. Arsenal had a lot of possession & were deservedly winning 0-2 with around 10 minutes to go, but Nottingham Forest scored a goal to make the last bit of the game nerve-racking for any Arsenal fans. Arsenal held on & won the game 1-2.

Excited about my newly booked holiday, I made several attempts to pay the deposit online, but it wasn't working, so I emailed NCL for help before I went to bed at around 11:30 pm.

Wednesday, 31st January.

I woke up at around 5 am but was able to get back to sleep & woke again at 8 am. I got up, got myself a coffee & some porridge & sat down at my computer.

I had a reply from NCL & they sent me their bank details so I could pay my holiday deposit by online transfer. I made the transfer & emailed them with the details & then waited for confirmation they had received it.

At about 11 am, I went to see some friends for coffee in Los Narejos. After chatting with them for half an hour, I went to Mercadona to get a few groceries & then returned home.

This afternoon, I added more photo albums to my website. I made photo albums for my visit to the   Needles Rock Formation in Custer State Park, South Dakota & my visit to   Devils Tower in Wyoming in 2011. After doing this, I noticed that my friend Ali was selling some terracotta flower pots. I said I would buy them & arranged for June to take me to pick them up tomorrow.

This evening, I got confirmation for my cruise, including its flights. Once I had the details, I added them all to my diary & then booked overnight stays in Madrid the day before I fly to Honolulu & the day I get back into Madrid on my return. Once the hotels had been booked, I booked return train journeys to Madrid. 

I finished working on my website & went to bed at 11 pm.

Thursday, 1st February.

This morning, I woke up around 6 am. After getting up & getting myself a coffee, I sat down to work on my computer. I looked up how to get a Canadian Visa & after discovering the correct website to do it on, I applied for the Canadian Visa I would need for my cruise. It was easy to do & once I had done it, I worked on my website.

At 11:30 am, my friend June picked me up & took me to pick up some terracotta plant pots from our friend Ali. I bought 12 pots from Ali to repot some of the plants on my balcony. I want to move some of the Dracaena trifasciata I have in a wooden trough into separate flower pots & keep them inside. The plant, aka Mother-in-law tongue, helps to purify the air by exchanging oxygen & carbon dioxide using the   crassulacean acid metabolism process.

After we had collected them from Ali, June dropped me at home & I took them all indoors. I was surprised at how much effort it took to get all the flower pots into my apartment. I had to put them all outside my apartment block, open the door, move the pots inside, & then carry them up a flight of stairs to the lift. Once I had the pots outside the lift, I had to prop the lift door open while I put them inside. I took them up to the floor I live on & propped the door open while I took them out of the lift. After getting them all out of the lift, I opened my front door & moved them all into the hallway of my apartment. Once I had done this, I was puffing like a steam train & had to rest.

As I sat there, my friend Bob arrived. He had a look at a foot massage unit that I have that has stopped working. I had wondered if it was just a break in the power lead & Bob was checking it for me. The lead appeared to be okay & Bob took the unit apart. He did get it to work, but it was nowhere near the power it used to be. I will try it out for a few days, but if it doesn't work correctly, I will throw it away.

This evening, I carried on working on my website & put lots of photos in my photo albums. All I have to do now is add the descriptions of the images to each one. I stopped work at 11:30 pm because my eyes were very sore & I went to bed.

Friday, 2nd February.

I woke up at 6 am & got my coffee & cooked myself a full English breakfast: bacon, sausage, beans, eggs & toast. After breakfast, I sat down at my computer & checked for any messages. I was happy to see that my Canadian Visa had been authorised & that I was now ready for my cruise to Hawaii & Alaska.

While working on my computer, I messaged my friends George & Yvonne. I hadn't seen them for a while, so I asked them how they were getting on. After chatting for a while, we arranged to meet at 1 pm in Buena Vista restaurant just along the beach from my apartment. At 1 pm I walked to the restaurant & after having a coffee, we decided to have lunch there. I had a meat samosa starter, & a chilli garlic chicken curry with pilau rice. It was beautiful & I was glad that we had gone there. We sat talking until 3:30 pm before leaving to go home.

Once home, I got a drink & then had a siesta before starting work on my website again. At 5 pm, I had a message from Amazon telling me the Welsh flag I ordered had been delivered to Tecnyshop, so I walked to the store & collected it. When I got home, I worked on my website before having a burger for my tea. I finished working on my website at 11:00 pm & went to bed.

Saturday, 3rd February.

I woke up at 7 am & after getting a coffee & some porridge for breakfast, I sat at my computer & uploaded more photos to my website. At around 10:30 am, I got on my disability scooter & went to the Economy Cash store to get some groceries. On my way home from the store, I went to the local Chino store to buy cable ties to hang my new Welsh flag from my balcony. When I left the Chino shop, I went to the local Indian spice & grocery shop & bought some potatoes & some garlic for a soup I wanted to make.

Once I got home, I put my disability scooter on charge & took my shopping to my apartment. I made myself a bacon & egg roll & got a cup of tea. After I had finished, I set about hanging my Welsh flag on my balcony. This was harder than it should have been because of the heavy table I had on the balcony with large cacti all over it. I moved the table & many of the plants & attached the new Welsh flag to my balcony. Pleased with the job, I moved to my spare bedroom & attached a new Save the Mar Menor flag to the Juliette balcony in that room.

This evening, I sat down to watch the Wales vs Scotland rugby game in the Six Nations competition. It started evenly, but Scotland soon took the lead & the very young Wales team started to crumble. At half time, the score was Wales 0, Scotland 27. At half-time, my friend Pat messaged me to see if I wanted to go for dinner. As I hadn't eaten, I said I did & went to get ready. I had a shave, cut my hair & had a shower. As I got out of the shower, I could hear lots of cheering from the TV in the lounge. When I returned to the game, Wales had come right back into the game & the score was 26-27. Unfortunately, Pat was outside & I couldn't watch the last couple of minutes of the game.

After Pat had picked me up, he drove us to Roldan, where we went into   The Rustic Grill. I had the Amazon ribs cooked in spicey honey sauce. They were very nice. We talked until around 10:30 pm. Pat insisted on paying for our meal, saying it was my late birthday present. When we left to go home, Pat dropped me off at my apartment & I was soon tucked up under a blanket on my sofa with the heat on.

I intended to watch MOTD but fell asleep before it came on. My snoring woke me halfway through the program & rather than watch the end, I went to bed.

Sunday, 4th February.

I woke up just before 7 am. I got myself a coffee & sat down at my computer. I like to do the   Wordle word puzzle when I first get up each morning & today was no different. I got a second cup of coffee & sat down & did today's puzzle before checking any messages I might have received overnight.

I worked on my website for a while, stopping when MOTD came on. I didn't see many of the games as I fell asleep during the second game & woke up at 10:30 when the program had finished. I got washed & dressed, got myself a cup of tea & then worked on my website until June was due to pick me up for Sunday lunch.

At 12:45 pm, I walked to the place where June would be picking me up from. I sat on the wall there for a couple of minutes until June arrived & we went to Campbell's bar in Roda. The lovely Lauren served us with our dinners & we didn't stop laughing with her. For some reason, my acid reflux started as soon as I began to eat, but I stopped eating for a while & my hiccups stopped. I didn't get heartburn at all & I could carry on eating my dinner. My dinner was excellent & I had a piece of Bailey's cheesecake for my sweet. As I have stopped drinking alcohol for a while, I had a couple of coffees with my dinner. It did feel strange having Sunday dinner out & only having coffee for a drink, but I was pleased I didn't succumb & have a pint.

When June & I had finished our dinners, June drove me back to my apartment & dropped me off. I went back inside & worked on my website for a while before sitting on my sofa before the Arsenal vs Liverpool football match came on the TV. The game was great, especially for the neutral fans. Arsenal were winning 1-0 until the end of the first half when they scored a bizarre own goal & the first half ended 1-1. In the second half, it was Liverpool's turn to make a significant error & they gifted Arsenal a second goal. Before the game finished, Arsenal scored a third goal & the game finished Arsenal 3, Liverpool 1. I was pleased Arsenal had won & cut the gap between themselves & Liverpool to two points, but the happiest fans will be the Manchester City Fans, as it now means they can go above Liverpool & Arsenal if they win both games in hand.

I worked on my website after the game, working until MOTD came on TV when I turned my computer off. I went to bed at about midnight, setting my alarm in case I didn't wake up early to go & get my regular blood coagulation test tomorrow.