Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain
Summary: A week of massages, meals with friends, website work, cruise preparation, football highs and lows, broken glasses, fasting experiments, and a painful toenail incident. A busy build‑up to your Hawaii and Alaska adventure.
Monday, 8th April
I woke and had coffee before indexing my daily allowance of pages on Google Search Console. After a massage, I got ready to go out.
At 11:30, I took rubbish and plastic recycling to the bins, then rode to Mercadona to recycle coffee capsules. I bought a €3 cheeseburger for lunch. A Spanish man kindly told the cashier to let me skip the queue. A true gentleman.
I went to La Sombre to meet Martin, but he wasn’t there yet, so I said hello to Steve and Mike at The Corner Bar and ate my burger. It tasted great, but I had an acid reflux flare‑up and needed a tablet. I returned to La Sombre and sat with Martin. Dave and Sean joined us until Aria arrived from school.
In the evening, we met at Gurkha Durbar for Aria’s birthday meal. The restaurant was packed and understaffed, and we waited nearly two hours for food. My prawn puri starter was lovely, but the garlic chilli chicken was far too hot and overpowered the flavours. The coconut rice tasted of nothing. When we left, Aria hugged me and thanked me. Dave and Viv dropped me home, and I watched TV before bed.
Tuesday, 9th April
I woke several times in the night thanks to last night’s chilli chicken. When I finally got up at 08:00, I had coffee and several massages.
I worked on my computer until 11:30, then rode to La Sombre to meet Martin. After chatting until 14:30, I rode along the beach and stopped at La Playa bar when I saw Gina. We chatted for a couple of hours. When she left, I saw Tanja and Kenneth and stayed longer.
Back home, I made tacos topped with bolognese and cheese, cooked in the air fryer. They were delicious. I watched Arsenal vs Bayern Munich but fell asleep in my massage chair and woke just as Harry Kane scored a penalty. Arsenal equalised through Trossard, and I was happy they go to Germany level.
Wednesday, 10th April
I woke at 07:30, had coffee and a massage, then indexed more pages and removed old ones from Google. I validated the removals and hoped Google would update them soon.
In the evening, I received an email from Omo saying I had accidentally signed up for a 3‑month subscription. I had tried to cancel it, but they refused. I emailed them again to complain.
Thursday, 11th April
I woke at 07:00, had coffee and realised I had forgotten my tablets yesterday. I checked my messages and saw Omo had replied. They would not cancel the 3‑month subscription but extended it to a full year at no extra cost. I accepted.
I walked to Buena Vista for tostada and coffee. It was peaceful until I suddenly got terrible heartburn. Liz arrived and joined me for another coffee.
Back home, I indexed more pages and took a painkiller, which knocked me out for a few hours. I watched the delayed Masters golf and followed my fantasy picks: Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Byeong Hun An and Keegan Bradley. I went to bed at 02:15.
Friday, 12th April
I was woken by builders at 07:30. The empty plot next door is now having groundwork done, so the noise will continue for a while.
I had coffee, a massage and porridge before indexing more pages. In the afternoon, I walked to the pharmacy with a large bag of tablet packets. They accepted them for recycling, which pleased me. After buying tablets for my holiday, I went to La Playa bar and sat in the sun with a pint and my Kindle.
Back home, I cooked fish and chips, fell asleep in the chair and later watched more of the Masters before going to bed at 22:30.
Saturday, 13th April
I woke at 07:00, had coffee and a massage, and planned to repot plants, but the day turned into golf, football and travel programmes.
I did my website admin, then watched Newcastle beat Tottenham 4–0. I caught up on The Masters and then discovered Race Across the World. I watched the entire first season. It stirred my love of travel even more. The ending brought a tear to my eye when contestants helped each other finish.
I had planned to go out for dinner but stayed home and watched the whole series.
Sunday, 14th April
I woke at 07:30, had coffee, checked messages, did Wordle and had porridge.
I spent the day watching TV. I was worried about a toenail I had stubbed. It split in two, swelled and looked infected. When I applied antibiotic cream, half the nail fell off. It looked like a new nail had been growing underneath. It was painful, so I took a painkiller and decided to show the doctor at tomorrow’s blood test.
I watched Arsenal vs Aston Villa. Arsenal were poor and didn’t look like scoring. Gabriel Jesus missed chances again. Villa deservedly won 0–2. I hope Arsenal improve for the Champions League match in Germany.
For dinner, I cooked chicken, but a massive acid reflux attack hit me on the second mouthful. I spent an hour burping and throwing up acid. Very unpleasant.
In the evening, I watched more Race Across the World. The China episodes reminded me of my 2014 trip, and the South America season reminded me of Peru in 2013 and Brazil in 2023. The Canada season made me excited for Alaska next week.
Add comment