Week 15 of 2024 started with my friend's daughter's birthday meal and finished with me stuck to the TV watching golf, football and travel programs in my pyjamas.
Monday, 8th April.
When I woke up today, I got myself a coffee and sat at my computer to index my daily allowance of web pages on the Google Search console. After doing this, I had a massage and got myself ready to go out.
At around 11:30 am I took a bag of regular rubbish and some plastic recycling to the local bins. I then continued to the Mercadona store and took a bag of coffee capsules to be recycled into the store. While there I bought myself a €3 cheeseburger for my lunch. I queued up at the till to pay for my burger, and a Spanish man in the queue who saw I only had the burger to pay for instructed the cashier to let me bypass the queue. I paid for my burger and left without having to queue, thankyou Sir, you are a Gentleman.
I went to La Sombre to meet Martin, but he wasn't there when I arrived, and I saw my friends Steve and Mike at The Corner Bar. I said hello to them and began to eat my burger. It tasted great, but I had an acid reflux reaction and had to take a tablet. I hadn't had to use the tablets for over a week, so I hope it is just a blip. I finished my burger before returning to La Sombre to sit with Martin.
Dave and Sean arrived later, and we talked until Arias's bus arrived. When Aria got off the bus, we all went home to get ready to meet for Aria's birthday meal at the Gurkha Durbar restaurant. When I got home, I got a massage and slept for an hour before getting ready to go back out. At 6: 45 pm I walked to the main road and was picked up by Dave and Viv and taken to the restaurant. We arrived at just before 7 pm and were soon seated inside. We ordered a beer but had to wait a while before our meal orders were taken. This popular restaurant is always packed, but I don't think they have enough staff working. We had to wait until nearly 9 p. for our meals to arrive.
My prawn puri starter was lovely but the garlic, chilli chicken I had ordered for my main meal was not to my taste. It was very hot, and the chilli overpowered the garlic, ruining its flavour. I was supposed to have had coconut rice, but there was either very little, if any, coconut in the rice or the amount of chilli was so overpowering that I couldn't taste the coconut. This dish has had a delicate flavour in previous restaurants I have had it in, but here, it was overpowering, and I didn't like it very much.
When everybody had finished their meals, and Kate's choir friends had sung Happy Birthday to Aria we all started to leave the restaurant. As I left, Aria hugged me and thanked me for coming. She is such a well-brought-up young girl. Dave and Viv dropped me near my apartment, and after walking the short walk home, I watched TV for half an hour before going to bed.
Tuesday, 9th April.
I woke up a few times during the night. Last night´s overpowering chilli chicken forced me to the bathroom several times. When I finally got up around 8 am I got myself a coffee before sitting in my massage chair for several massages.
I pottered around, working on my computer in my apartment until 11:30 am I then got on my disability scooter and set off towards La Sombre to meet Martin. We chatted until around 2:30 pm when I left to head home. As I got near my apartment, I decided to go along the beach to enjoy the sun. When I got to La Playa bar, I saw my friend Gina sitting outside and joined her for a drink. We sat chatting for a couple of hours, and when she left, I went in to pay my bill but saw some other friends, Tanja and Kenneth, so stayed a bit longer to talk to them. At about 7:45 pm I went back to my apartment to get something to eat.
I got some tacos, covered them with a bolognese I had in the freezer, scattered cheese over the top and cooked it all for ten minutes in the air fryer. It tasted great and was just what I needed before watching Arsenal play Bayern Munich in the Champions League. I sat in my massage chair, had a heated massage and promptly fell asleep. I woke up just as Harry Kane scored a penalty to put Munich ahead 1-2. I watched the rest of the game and was very happy when Arsenal equalised when Trossard scored in the second half. I couldn't understand the referees' decision not to give Arsenal a penalty when Saka was brought down in injury time. I was happy that Arsenal would at least go into the second leg in Germany on level terms.
Wednesday, 10th April.
I woke up at about 7:30 am but didn't get up until around half an hour later. I got a coffee and had a massage before starting today's job of indexing more website pages. After doing this, I removed old pages from Google Index. I removed a lot of pages from the search index and stopped working for a toasted sandwich at lunchtime.
In the afternoon, I removed more pages from Google before instigating a new Google Index validation job for the removed pages. I hope these pages will be updated in the search engine in the next few days.
This evening I received an email from Omo, the app developer for the diet app I had trialled. I had cancelled the app because I didn't want to pay for it while on holiday and unable to use it. I had somehow mucked up cancelling it and had signed up for a 3-month subscription. I realised this as soon as I did it and contacted Omo. They told me I had cancelled any more payments but not the 3-month subscription. They also said there was no way they would cancel the 3-month subscription as it wasn't cancelled in time. I was very upset about this as I felt it was in on time, and emailed them back to tell them this.
Thursday, 11th April.
I woke up at around 7 am, got up, and got a coffee. As I took my tablets, I realised that I hadn't taken them yesterday. I sat down at my computer to check for any messages and saw I had an email from Omo. After complaining again yesterday, they have told me that although they won't cancel the 3-month subscription, they will extend it for 9 months to give me a year's subscription for the three months charge. I would probably have tried it again when I returned from my holiday, so I accepted this offer.
I messaged my neighbour Liz to see if she wanted a coffee, but she was at the doctor's, so I walked to Buena Vista alone. I ordered a tostada and coffee and sat reading my Kindle. It was beautiful sitting in the sun reading. It was very peaceful, and I felt great until I suddenly got terrible heartburn and felt a bit of pain. As I was considering whether to leave or not, Liz arrived. She walked past me at first before spotting me and walking back to sit with me. I had another coffee with her before heading home.
When I got home, I entered more of my web pages into the Google Search Index before taking a painkiller. The painkiller knocked me out, and I slept in front of the TV for a few hours. When I woke up, I looked to see if the Masters' Golf had started, but a storm in the area had delayed it. It eventually started two and a half hours late, and I followed the golfers I had picked for my Fantasy Golf pick team. The golfers I had picked, John Ram, Rory McIlroy, Byeong Hun An and Keegan Bradley, scored okay but Keegan didn't finish his first round and will have to finish in the morning.
I went to bed around 2:15 am and fell asleep very quickly.
Friday, 12th April.
I was woken up by builders banging around outside my bedroom window at about 7:30 am The house next to my block and my apartment, demolished earlier in the year, has started to have groundwork done on the empty plot. There will be a lot of noise for the foreseeable future whilst whatever is being built begins to go up.
Unable to get back to sleep, I got up and had a coffee. I took a massage and checked my email for any messages. I had some porridge for breakfast before continuing to index some website pages and rewrite others. This afternoon, I took a break from the computer and walked to the local pharmacy. I took in the large bag of tablet packets to see if they did recycle them. I was pleased when she took them off of me. If you have to take tablets like me, please recycle your tablet packaging. After getting the tablets I needed for my holiday, I walked to La Playa bar, sat outside in the sun with a pint and read my Kindle for a couple of hours.
When I finished my beer, I walked back to my apartment and cooked myself some fish and chips. I quickly ate my meal and was soon fast asleep in the chair. This evening I watched some of the Masters golf on TV. I was tired and didn't watch it until finished today. I went to bed at around 10:30 pm
Saturday, 13th April.
I woke up at around 7 am today, got up, and had a coffee. I checked my email and then got another coffee before having a massage. I had good intentions of repotting some plants today, but those plans seemed to get lost in a day of watching golf, football and travel programs on the TV.
This morning, I did my regular administration jobs on my website before I watched Newcastle beat Tottenham 4-0. I then caught up on the second round of The Masters from yesterday before watching some of today's early starters tee off. I saw an advert for a TV program called Race Across The World that looked very interesting. I looked it up on the Internet and saw some previous seasons. I decided to watch the first season, and once I started watching it, I couldn't stop.
I have always had the travel bug, indeed, I am going away again next week, but this program stirred my need for travel and adventure even more. I loved the people in it and how some of their personal stories came out as we watched them attempt to travel from London to Singapore, overland, on a very limited budget, with no access to mobile phones or Laptops.
I had fully intended to go out for dinner tonight, but because I got so interested in the TV program, I ate at home and watched the entire first season of Race Across The World. I wanted various people to win it at different stages throughout the series and didn't think the winners would have won it. I loved the fact that probably the two people you expected to win it ran out of money at the last bit but were bailed out by other contestants so that they could finish the trip. It did bring a tear to my eye.
Sunday, 14th April.
I woke up around 7:30 am and got up to get myself a coffee. I then sat at my computer, checked my messages, did the daily Wordle puzzle and got myself some porridge for breakfast.
I spent all day watching TV. I was worried about a toenail that I had stubbed and split in two. It started to swell and looked like it was infected. I spread some antibiotic cream from a previous injury on the toe. As I did, half the nail dropped off. It almost looked like a nail was growing under the nail that had dropped off and that it had been the reason for the top nail breaking off. It was pretty painful, so I took a painkiller and decided I would need to show the doctor when I get my blood test tomorrow.
I did watch the Arsenal vs Aston Villa game and was very disappointed with Arsenal's attack. They didn't look like scoring, and once again, I am left hoping that they buy at least one attacker in the close season. Gabriel Jesus doesn't score enough, and again he missed a couple you would expect him to score. Aston Villa deservedly won the game 0-2, and it was evident from all the empty seats around the ground before the end of the game that all the fans were disappointed with Arsenal's performance. I hope they can pull themselves together for a better performance midweek in Germany against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
This evening, I cooked a chicken for dinner. It tasted fantastic, but on my second or third mouthful, I had a massive acid reflux attack. I spent the next hour throwing up acid and burping. I felt very uncomfortable and had an unpleasant few hours until it settled down.
I sat watching more episodes of Race Across the World tonight. The first series was great, and when it visited China, it reminded me of the great times I had there when I visited in 2014. The second series went through South America and reminded me of my trip to Peru, in 2013 and Brazil in 2023. The third series that I started to watch went across Canada. I haven't seen much of Canada, but it excited me about my visit to Alaska, where I sail after leaving Hawaii next week.