Week 6 of 2024 was spent entirely in Los Alcazares, mainly in my warm apartment. I purchased some thermal clothing for my trip to Alaska, did lots of work on my website and repotted some plants around my apartment.
Monday, 5th February.
I woke up around 6:30 am and got myself a coffee before sitting at my computer to work on my website. At 8 am, I got ready to go to the doctor’s surgery for my regular blood test. I went to the surgery at 8:45 am and saw a new vampire lady. She was beautiful, and although it took her a couple of goes to get blood, I didn’t mind. It was freezing out, and I went home for a hot drink as soon as she finished.
At 10:20 am, I went to see Mike at Los Narejos. I went on my disability scooter and sat there with Mike, Lawrence, and Christine, chatting and drinking coffee. I visited La Sombre Pizzera (the office) at midday to see Martin. As I am off the beer for a few more weeks, my work today consisted of drinking a large bottle of water with sliced lemon. I left Martin just after 2 pm and went straight home.
Once I got in, I cooked myself a turkey breast for my lunch and ate it before going on the Amazon website to make a couple of orders. I keep looking for batteries locally but haven’t seen any, so I ordered some AA and AAA batteries. At the same time, I looked for some warmer clothes for my trip to Alaska. I found some clothes I liked and ordered two sets of thermal longjohns, thermal vests, thermal gloves and waterproof ankle boots to wear when I go ashore in Alaska. I ensured the deliveries were on the same day and delivered to my apartment this coming Thursday. That will give me time to ensure the clothes fit before I go on holiday.
I did more work on my website this evening before watching the Brentford vs Manchester City football match. Brentford scored first against the run of play, but Manchester City still won easily with a final score of Brentford 1, Manchester City 3. When the game finished, I went straight to bed.
Tuesday, 6th February.
I woke up at 6:30 am and got a coffee before checking my email. I had a message from Metro Bank in the UK about an account me and my sister have been trying to close. The service they have given us is terrible, but it finally looks as if they have taken note of our complaints to them. I send them the document they want straight away, tell my sister about their email, and hope that the account can now finally be closed and the money transferred to us.
I cooked myself bacon, egg, sausage, baked beans, plum tomato and mushrooms for breakfast. I washed it all down with another coffee and then went out on my disability scooter to get some tablets at the pharmacy in Los Alcazares. I bought my tablets and on the way home, I went through the market in Los Alcazares looking at the vegetables and fruit. Once I have finished the fruit and vegetables I have at home, I will start using the market more often. It is nice to buy what I want rather than a large bag from the supermarket that I only use half of before throwing the remainder away because it has gone off.
When I got home, I indexed some of my website pages on Google and got myself a cup of tea. The rest of the day was spent updating descriptions on the photo albums for the days I visited Tiananmen Square, Xi’an, Han Yang Ling Museum, and the Terracotta Warriors while I was touring China.
At around 3:30 pm, my friend June took me to Ala 30, a garden centre in San Javier. I bought myself some compost for my cactus and got myself a new pot plant, a Justicia Carnea, just because I thought it looked nice.
In the evening, I watched TV and went to bed early, at around 10 pm.
Wednesday, 7th February.
My Justicia Carnea plant.I woke up early this morning, drinking my first cup of coffee and checking my email and messages by 6:30 am. My neighbour Liz had messaged me and asked if I was going shopping today and if I was, if I could get here something. At around 10 am, I got on my mobility scooter and set off for the Mercadona store to get the shopping for Liz.
When I got to Rio Nalon, I realised that the charge left on my disability scooter wasn’t enough to get me to Mercadona for the shopping for Liz, so I went to Economy Cash to look for it. Unfortunately, the store did not have what she wanted. I went to the Dia store on the way home, but that didn’t have what she wanted either. I went home and plugged my scooter in to charge it up before messaging Liz to tell her what had happened and that I would try again later.
I had a beefburger with cheese and mushrooms at lunchtime before returning to work on my website. At about 2:30 pm, I checked to see if my scooter had charged up, and when I saw that it had, I went to Mercadona and got the shopping Liz wanted and a few bits for myself. When I got home, I dropped off Liz's groceries and then returned to my apartment.
This afternoon, I washed one of the plant pots I bought last week and repotted the plant I had bought yesterday. I placed it in pride of place in the lounge of my apartment. It shouldn’t be affected by the cold in my apartment and I will be able to keep an eye on it without worrying I will forget it.
In the evening I got cold so I put the heating on, got under a blanket on my sofa and watched TV until I went to bed at 10 pm.
Thursday, 8th February.
I woke up at 7 am today. I got up and got myself a coffee and checked my messages on my computer. I had one from Amazon confirming that the order I made earlier in the week would be delivered sometime today. I indexed more of my website pages on Google and then got some porridge with banana and blueberries for breakfast.
After eating breakfast, I added details to my photo album for my Huangpu River Tour and my Sichuan Opera and Folk Arts photo album from my visit to China in 2014. Then, I took a break from the computer and repotted some of the plants on my balcony. I put one of the Mother in Laws Tongue plants in my bedroom and repotted another one, leaving it on the balcony until I get a flower pot tray and can also bring it inside.
Because I had been working outside and sitting at the computer with my balcony doors open, my hands had become very cold, so I had to stop doing any work at about 12:15 pm. It was a bit early for lunch, so I got myself a mug of hot Bovril before I lay on my sofa under a blanket for half an hour to warm up. I noticed the helicopter flying around the Mar Menor was still out there; I hoped it wasn’t looking for anyone lost in the Mar Menor.
I slept on my sofa in the afternoon, waking up around 3 pm. At 4 pm, my delivery from Amazon arrived. The gloves I ordered were great, and the thermal longjohns and shirts were lovely, warm, and comfortable. The boots, however, were terrible and I logged in to Amazon to arrange their return. I searched Amazon for a better pair and saw some others that looked much better; they are more expensive but are by a brand I have heard of, and I can have them for seven days before paying for them.
I worked on my website for a few hours in the evening before going to bed at 10:30 pm.
Friday, 9th February.
I woke up at 7 am today and immediately got myself a coffee. It was very dull outside, and the wind was blowing a cold wind along the beach and I decided to stay inside in the warm. When I got dressed, I put on the thermal longjohns and shirt I had bought this week, and I immediately felt warmer. When I got dressed, I got myself a bowl of porridge with blueberries, banana, Greek yoghurt and a bit of honey.
After breakfast, I sat at my computer and finished adding descriptions to my remaining China photo albums. I then began to rewrite some details of the escorted tour of China I had done in 2014. I hadn’t checked it properly when I initially posted it on my website and hadn’t realised I had just put up notes rather than a proper story on most days. At around 11:15 am, my friend Jackie messaged me, and we arranged to meet at Buena Vista restaurant for a coffee at lunchtime.
At 1 pm, I walked along to Buena Vista restaurant and as I arrived, I could see Alan and Jackie walking down the road. We got a table outside but under the awnings so we wouldn’t get cold in the wind. We all started chatting and ordered coffee. As we sat talking, we decided to get lunch there. Alan and I both had curries, and Jackie had some Mexican tacos. All the meals were delicious, and I left feeling full.
When I got home, I got a drink and then continued to rewrite some of my China holiday web pages. After finishing the work on the China section of my website, I crawled under a blanket on my sofa and took a siesta for an hour.
The TV signal went off this evening for some reason, so I worked on my website instead of watching TV. I lost track of time as I retyped my China holiday experiences, finally stopped at midnight, and went to bed.
Saturday, 10th February.
I woke up at 7:45 am this morning when my alarm went off. Sleeping late is unusual, but I felt better after yesterday’s late night. I got up and got a coffee before checking my computer for new messages. I had a message from the Euro Lottery telling me my ticket had won a prize. I scanned the ticket and discovered I had won €8.50. I immediately thought about how to invest this money, and after thinking about it for a while, I decided to share my new wealth with another lucky person. Unable to determine who the lucky person would be, I placed an ad on Facebook informing the world that I would buy one lucky person a coffee if they could find me drinking in a local cafe this morning.
At 9:15 am, my neighbour Liz messaged me to go for a coffee, but the free one from my winnings had already been claimed on Facebook. We decided to go to Buena Vista for a coffee anyway and arranged to go at 10:30 am. I jumped in the shower, got clean and refreshed and then headed downstairs to meet Liz outside her apartment. We walked along to Buena Vista restaurant for coffee, and I decided to have a cooked breakfast there. We sat chatting until around midday and then went back to our apartments.
Once in my apartment, I put some washing in the washing machine and tidied up my kitchen. I prepared some vegetables for a soup and put them in my slow cooker. As I watched the rugby in the afternoon, I could smell the soup cooking in the slow cooker, which smelled fantastic. The rugby wasn’t so good. Wales did go into a lead, but only against a reduced England team because they had two players who were sin-binned. England deservedly clawed their way back and won the game 16-14. Wales’s second loss in two games, but I think they played well in both games, and with such a young squad, the future looks bright for them.
When I tried my soup this afternoon, it was far too bitter. I had put too much garlic in. I checked on how to rectify it, and tomorrow, I will try adding some brown sugar to it to see if it becomes more to my liking. This evening I watched a film called The Shift, it wasn’t brilliant, but it was pretty thought-provoking and the message from the leading actor after the film brought a tear to my eye. If you have nothing else to watch, it’s worth a couple of hours of your time.
I worked on my website this evening until MOTD came on the TV. I watched it and then went to bed.
Sunday, 11th February.
I woke up as my alarm went off this morning. After I got up, I got a coffee and some porridge with banana, blueberries, honey, walnuts and yoghurt. When I finished my breakfast, I started to work on my website. After I had indexed some more pages on Google, I notified the search engine that I had made a couple of changes to my robot’s text file. I hoped it would now remove thousands of pages from my Google index that shouldn’t be there.
To try and save the big batch of soup I made yesterday, I added some brown sugar and some tomato sauce to it, hoping it wouldn’t be so bitter. I reheated it and tried it after it had warmed up. It tasted lovely, and I can now freeze all the extra soup rather than throw it away. For lunch, I had some cheese and ham croquettes. They were beautiful, and my Ninja air fryer cooked them beautifully in 8 minutes.
I settled down to watch the West Ham vs Arsenal match on the TV this afternoon. I was hoping that Arsenal would win, but I was not confident. West Ham had beaten Arsenal twice this season. I needn’t have worried; Arsenal played well and the final score was West Ham 0, Arsenal 6. The whole team played well, and I couldn’t pick a man of the match. The score could and probably should have been even more. I still hope Arsenal buy a new striker in the summer, but for now, it’s nice to see five different players score.
When the Arsenal game finished, I cooked myself chicken and chips before settling to watch more football. I watched the Aston Villa vs Manchester United game, which finished Aston Villa 1 Manchester United 2. Erik Ten Hag is a good manager, and it will take him a while to sort out Man United. In the same way that Mikel Arteta had to get rid of many players who weren’t good enough, Erik ten Hag has to do the same at United.
I watched some more TV tonight before watching the Arsenal game on MOTD again and then going to bed at midnight.