In Week 21 of 2024 I flew back to England to see my sister get married.
Monday, 20th May.
This morning, I woke up around 6 am. Before working on my computer, I got myself a coffee and some porridge with banana, peanuts, and raisins.
I was expecting a delivery today of a new Google tablet. While waiting for it to be delivered, I managed to add more photos to my holiday photo album and do a lot of administrative changes to hundreds of other pages on my website.
The delivery finally arrived at about 4 pm, and after checking it was as expected I carried out the initial setup of the new tablet. I only did a basic setup on it, and it seems to be what I need when travelling and working on my website.
Tuesday, 21st May.
I was up at around 8 am this morning and slept well last night. Once I had got up and had a shower I got a coffee and cereal and checked my computer for messages.
After I had read my email and done my daily Wordle puzzle I set off on my disability scooter to do a few chores. First, I went to the Euronics store to drop off a parcel for return to Amazon, but when I arrived, it was closed and didn't open till 10 am, so I continued to the pharmacy to get some sintrom and omeprazole tablets.
Once I had my tablets, I went to the Espressarse cafe near the Rambla in Los Alcazares. The Tuesday market was busy, and many people were in the cafe. I ordered my coffee and sat to wait for my friend, Lisa. When Lisa arrived, I got a Tostada, and we sat chatting until around 10:30 am when I returned to Euronics to return my parcel to Amazon.
Once I had given the parcel to be returned to the Euronics staff, I returned to my apartment briefly. When I returned to my apartment, I parked my disability scooter outside and went in. In my apartment, I received a message from Amazon saying the replacement stylus pens I was expecting would be there shortly, and we're only a few roads away.
Because it was so warm and sunny outside, I sat on my disability scooter outside to await the delivery. Around 75 minutes later, it still hadn't shown up, and the tracking software had said it had gone past my road several times but was still due. As the delivery wasn't important and could be left at my door, I met Martin at about 12:45 pm.
I sat chatting with Martin, Dave, Karen and Aria before I returned to my apartment. I had been home for a couple of hours when my delivery from Amazon arrived, and I was glad I hadn't sat at home waiting for it all day.
The package was for a set of plastic, rubber-tipped pens to use on my tablet, phone, or anything else my stubby fingers are too big for. They are not great quality, but at €3.99 for a pack of ten, they are ideal, and it won't matter if I misplace or lose one.
This evening, I worked on my website before having an early night going to bed around 10 pm.
Wednesday, 22nd May.
I did very little today. I worked on my website and packed my case for tomorrow's flight. At about 5:30 pm I had a message from a company saying they had a parcel for me and would drop it off soon. They didn't say who they were or what it was.
Just after 6 pm, my security door buzzed, and I let the delivery driver in. I could see on the video screen that he hadn't come through the door, so I collected my walking stick and went down to see him. He was at the door with a large delivery packed on a wooden pallet. It was the recliner chair I had ordered and asked to be delivered after May 29th. He said he would only deliver it to the door and no further. As there was no way I could take it to my apartment or even move the pallet I refused the delivery and went inside to complain to the company I had ordered it from.
I watched TV till around 11 pm and went to bed, hoping for a good night's sleep before I travelled to England in the morning.
Thursday, 23rd May.
I woke up before my alarm went off this morning and immediately showered. After showering, I packed my wash bag in my small suitcase and put it by the door. I got myself a coffee and checked my computer for messages.
When my friend Jim messaged me to say he was on the way, I finished my coffee, locked up the apartment and took my case outside, where I waited for my lift to the airport. Jim arrived a short time later and drove me to Corvera airport to get my flight to Bournemouth.
I walked into departures, and the only people in the queue were four women with about 8 cases, bags and a long trunk open on the floor in front of them. They were removing prohibited items from the bags and transferring things from bag to bag to case to trunk to try and get the weight correct in each one. As I approached, they waved me in front of them. I stepped around the scattered luggage and approached the check-in and drop-off desk. The lady working there took my small case and checked me in inside of two minutes. She wished me a good flight, and I smiled at her and told her the check-in process had been easy. She winked at me while looking at the four ladies behind me, still repacking all their cases and pointed me toward the departure gate.
I joined the queue for security and was quickly at the point where my baggage was scanned. The girl there told me that I should have just gone through the disabled gate instead of queuing and went to show me where it was for next time. People were standing before the gate, blocking it from view, seeing off their friends. The security lady moved them away and apologised to me for the people blocking my view of the disabled gate. I was quickly through security and a few minutes later had also passed through immigration.
I found the gate the plane was leaving from and sat down. Almost immediately, the gate opened, and people began queuing to get on the plane. I remained seated untill nearly everyone had passed and then made my way through the gate. The lady at the entrance took me down to the runway in an elevator so I didn't have to walk down the ramp, and when we got down, I found I was again at the front of the queue of people waiting to get on the plane. I couldn't see any point in getting on the plane first to have everyone push past me in my seat at the front, so I waited till everyone was on before I got on and took my seat.
I had the front seat, which gave me the extra legroom I wanted, but I couldn't believe how narrow the seats were. I had to take my phone and wallet out of the side pockets of my shorts to fit in the seat. With the items safely stored in my front-facing pockets I was soon seated and ready for take off. The couple next to me sat reading their Kindles, and not wanting to be left out, I opened mine and started to read. We looked like an exclusive row of seats reserved for Kindle-reading passengers.
The flight was uneventful, and we had touched down in Bournemouth in less than two hours. I used the loo in the baggage claim room and then sat down in the hall to wait for my bag. I didn't have to wait long and was soon walking through customs. As I walked through I was asked to take my case to have it searched. When the lady asked how long I had been out of the country, I replied 4 to 5 years and she was surprised and asked where I had been travelling all that time. I told her I lived in Spain and was back for my sister's wedding, and she seemed to relax and change her mind about me being a drug mule.
I asked if she would mind if I took my suitcase jacket out of my case because I was freezing, and she let me open the case and take it out to put on. She quickly looked through my boxer shorts and t-shirts before handing me back my case and sending me on my way.
I walked through the terminal and waited in the car park for my friend Chris to arrive to pick me up. There were no cars in the car park so I stood there to wait for him. After half an hour I hadn't seen him so I messaged him to let him know I had arrived. A short time later, I saw him leaving the terminal and walking to his car a few places down from me in the car park. Somehow, we had passed each other with out one seeing the other.
We greeted each other and were soon on our way. We left the airport, and Chris drove me to the Sir John Barleycorn pub in Cadnam for lunch. I had a tuna, onion and cheese sandwich and a pint of cider, which filled a hole nicely. We were soon back on the road, the M27 to be precise, and I noticed that roadworks that had been there some 28 years previously were still there. After around 40 minutes, we arrived at my sister Karen's house, and Chris dropped me off before heading back to his home in Poole.
My sister Karen arrived home shortly after I had let myself in and we were soon catching up and talking about the wedding. Brett soon joined us, and we had fish and chips for our evening meal. At around 6 pm, one of Karen's friends arrived and whisked her away for a drink with some friends for a surprise hen night party. Brett and I went to Port Solent and sat outside the Slug and Lettuce pub, having a pint and talking about memories of what the area used to look like and how much it had changed. We stayed only for around an hour and a half as it had started to get cold, especially for me, being used to the warmth of Spain.
We went home and sat chatting until I was too tired to stay awake and went to bed.
Friday, 24th May.
I was awake very early this morning and quietly went downstairs for a cup of tea and I sat updating my website until Brett and Karen woke up and joined me. Karen and Brett were busy throughout the day getting ready for the wedding tomorrow, and I kept myself amused scouring the internet and indexing pages of my website on the Google Index page.
At some time during the day, I got an email from the company that had sold me the reclining chair. They told me they would charge me a restocking fee if I didn't want the chair. I told them I did like it, but they hadn't followed my delivery instructions. They replied to my email, telling me they would tell the company to contact me to make a delivery on my return to Spain.
This evening my friend Chris, from Portsmouth, picked me up and we went to the Spice Village Indian restaurant for a meal. We had a great meal and sat chatting for a couple of hours before we left and returned to Chris´s house, where we continued talking until around Midnight, and I got an Uber taxi back to my sisters' house.
Saturday, 25th May.
I woke up early again today, got myself a cup of tea and indexed more pages of my website on Google. Karen and Brett were soon making last-minute changes to the house for their guests arriving after the wedding for drinks and some food. A few of their guests, and their daughter Holly popped in to drop things off before leaving again.
At around 2 pm, Brett left with my cousin Peter, who was acting as his best man, and they went to Brett´s mum´s house to pick her up to go to the registry office. Karen and I were picked up a short time later by her friends, who took us to the registry in a car decorated with wedding ribbons. When we got in the car, my sister grabbed my hand and held it, all the way to the registry office. It reminded me of a picture of the two of us, sitting on the front stop of our grandparents' house in Chingford. We are both very young, probably about 2 and 4 years old and holding hands, looking cute.
We arrived at the registry office, where we were met by a few people before going inside for a beautiful ceremony. I was asked to look after the rings and gave them to the couple at the appropriate time. I was also one of the written witnesses to the wedding, along with my cousin Peter. After the wedding had been completed and lots of photos had been taken by Peter, acting as the wedding photographer, we all returned to the house for a wedding reception.
It was very nice at the house, and we sat in the garden eating, drinking and toasting the married couple. I caught up with some cousins I hadn't seen for years, and later in the evening, I met more of my sisters' friends. We continued celebrating until late at night, and I was ready for bed by the end of the day.
Sunday, 26th May.
I woke up later than the previous couple of days today but was still up by about 6 am. I went downstairs, got a drink and sat indexing some website pages on Google before checking my messages. I spent the morning talking to Mr and Mrs Paine, my sister and her new husband, Brett.
At around 2:30 pm, my friend Del picked me up in his car and drove me back to Fareham, where we went to the Hill Park Memorial Working Mens Club for a drink. I saw a few old friends there, including my good friend Jez, who came to see me and my friend Sean, Dels' brother. We chatted away until Dels' mum, Christine, phoned and invited me for dinner. Del and I returned to his house, where we had dinner with his mum and Sister, Sharon.
After we had finished dinner and chatted a while longer, Del took me back to my sisters' house in Cosham.