In Week 22 of 2024, I flew back from England to my home in Los Alcazares, Spain. I finally got a new recliner chair delivered, and I had a lazy Sunday afternoon at a friend's, enjoying some great food.
Monday, 27th May.
This morning, I was up around 5 am. My body clock seems to think I'm still in Spain, even if my body temperature tells me I am most definitely in a cold, damp England. I got myself a cup of tea and indexed some website pages on Google. It is great having the new tablet which allows me to do this easily when I am travelling.
The morning was spent chatting with Karen and Brett. At one point in the conversation, Karen mentioned Cotton Traders, and I said I loved the clothes they did and that I couldn't get them in Spain. Karen told me there was a store in Port Solent nearby and asked if I wanted to go. Brett took us to Port Solent, and within 30 minutes I had tried on a few shirts and had bought four new polo shirts to take home with me.
Just after 3 pm, my friend Chris arrived to pick me up. I said goodbye to my sister and brother-in-law, and Chris drove us back to his home in Poole. When we arrived at his house, we were met by his wife, Gaynor and son Liam. They all made me welcome and got me a much-needed cup of tea. We sat chatting for hours, and in the evening, Chris served us all a lovely roast pork dinner. I had forgotten what a good cook Chris is; his roast potatoes are the best I have eaten anywhere.
We sat chatting late into the night, probably not a good idea as we had to get up early tomorrow to go to the airport, but it was good to catch up and remember old times.
Tuesday, 28th May.
I woke up around 3:15 am before my alarm went off. I went to the bathroom and had a wash, and when I got back, a cup of tea was sitting on my bedside table. I packed my small case and went downstairs. Chris was ready and we got in the car and made our way to the airport, arriving around 5 am.
I said goodbye to Chris and entered the airport. A long queue of people were lining up to check in for flights. As I walked towards the queue I noticed a very small sign next to an empty lane which said it was for the plane I was getting on. I walked up straight to the check-in and was checked in very quickly. the queue to get through security was not as well organised, though, and I had to queue for a while.
I get fed up with people trying to take too much carry-on baggage onto the plane. This time, two old-age pensioners were trying to get through five cases and three bags. They were told they couldn't take it onboard and would have to leave some of it. Did these people not read the travel allowances, or did they think because they are older, they could get away with it. They would probably be the same people complaining they couldn't get their bags in the overhead compartments on the plane.
Once I had got on the plane, the journey went very quickly. I spent most of the flight talking to a nice lady beside me, who, with her husband, were going to their lovely home in Spain for a couple of weeks. When we had landed I was first off the plane. I walked to immigration and gave the immigration officer my passport and TIE card. He ran my TIE card through a machine and waved me through without looking at my passport. I had to wait about 5 minutes for my case to arrive at the baggage hall, but I was still one of the first out of the airport.
When I walked out, I saw my friend Steve outside the airport, waiting to deliver a car to someone. I sat at the coffee shop as I couldn't see my friend Jim yet. Within a couple of minutes, I saw Jims' car approach and walked across to it and got in. Jim drove back to Los Alcazares and dropped me at my apartment before he left to meet some other friends.
I quickly dropped my small case inside and took my tablets before getting on my disability scooter and going for a cooked breakfast at Buena Vista restaurant just along the promenade. When I sat down, it was 11:15 am, and I had already been up for six hours. I was ready for something to eat and ordered a medium-sized fry-up with a coffee.
After breakfast, I went to meet Martin and Dave at the office. We sat chatting and were joined by Kate. Martin had bought me a new Tshirt, but Temu had sent the wrong size, and he will have to return it. Hopefully, they will replace it with a bigger size. Aria got off her school bus, and I got my regular cuddle as she said hello to my belly. I like to think it is because she was worried about me when I had my hernia operation, and she saw the nasty wound after the operation. It could just be that she likes my big fat belly or thinks a baby is somewhere in it.
When we left, I went with Martin, Kate and Aria to their house and accepted a pair of sandals from them. They fit me perfectly and can replace my old pair that are getting very worn because I wear them so much. I left my extended family and headed to Econmy Cash for groceries. After I got my groceries, I left the store, and as I passed by Harry's Bar, I saw my friend Andy, who called me to join him for a beer. I stopped for one beer and then continued to my apartment.
When I got in, I got myself something to eat and watched TV for a while before having an early night and going to bed.
Wednesday, 29th May.
I woke up at about 7:30 am. After a good night's sleep, I felt much better and got a coffee before working on my computer for a while.
Once the coffee had kicked in, I began to unpack my case from my trip to Cosham and then made a big pile of clothes to wash later in the week. My leg was in a lot of pain today, and I spent most of the day resting and took a few painkillers. I had a message from the company where I had purchased my new reclining chair asking me if they could deliver my chair tomorrow and giving me the phone number of the delivery company so I could contact them directly.
Not fluent in Spanish, I contacted my friend Lottie and asked if she would call the company for me. She agreed and asked me for all the details, which I forwarded her. A short time later, I had a phone call from the delivery company. An English-speaking lady said they would deliver the chair between 5 pm and 6 pm tomorrow. She also told me they could only deliver it to the front door. I agreed because it at least gave me time to organise help to move it into the apartment.
I then contacted my friend Bob, who said he would help me get it to my apartment and put it together. I also asked on Facebook if anyone had a sack truck I could borrow to move the chair. I rested for the rest of the evening before going to bed around 10 pm.
Thursday, 30th May.
I woke up at about 5 am, got a coffee, and sat at my computer to check my messages. I had two offers of loans for a sack truck and my friend Alli said she would bring it to me around 11 am.
Around 10:45 am, Alli called to tell me she was outside with the sack truck. I went down, collected it, and walked back to my apartment with it when my neighbour Liz came out of the apartment block and began talking to me. As we spoke, Alli passed by in her car, and Liz started waving at her to slow down and pull further away from the curb. Liz is a very abrupt woman who can be rude to people for no apparent reason. This time, as my friend very slowly drove past and wound down the window to say goodbye to me, Liz swore at her because she didn't want the muddy water splashed into her apartment.
There was grey water running down the road, but quite how she expected people to pass without going through it was beyond me. She shouted at the car as it passed, complaining the water and mud would all go into her apartment. It didn't even go up the curb, and once again, she had been rude to people visiting me or helping me out. On previous occasions, she has pushed people out of the way who were speaking to me on the video camera. She has been rude to my friends coming to see me and constantly shouts abuse at builders, delivery drivers and even the postman. She has helped me a few times, as I have helped her on many occasions, but I can no longer overlook her bad behaviour and language, and I will no longer go out of my way to help or meet her for coffee. Sorry, Liz, but you brought it on yourself.
When I returned to my apartment, I decided the only way to get the sizeable old chair out would be to take it apart, and I began to strip it down. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but I did get most of it apart. I was worn out and resting when my friend Paul messaged me to tell me he had a sack truck I could use. I explained that I had been delivered one but asked if he could help strip the last bit of the chair down. I had tried but couldn't see the screws that were holding the last bit of the frame together. He said he would come and help me later on.
At about 3:15 pm, Paul arrived, and between us, we managed to strip the chair down into smaller parts that I could carry out myself. I was very grateful for Paul's help but also glad when he was gone because I was in a lot of pain. I took some painkillers for my bad back and swollen legs and sat on my sofa to rest.
Just after 5 pm, the new chair arrived. I met the delivery driver outside and asked if he could put the pallet with the chair packages in the underbuilt garage below my apartment block. I showed him the car lift door, and he was happy to use the hydraulic pallet lift he had to take my new chair into the basement for me.
At about 5:30 pm, my friend Bob messaged me to ask if the new chair had arrived, and when I told him it had, he came to help me take it to my apartment. When he arrived, we first carried the remains of the old chair to the garage and then unpacked the new chair in the garage before carrying it to my apartment. By this time my knees and legs were sore and were beginning to give way. All the kneeling at awkward ankles to try to take the old chair apart earlier in the day was catching up with me. Bob told me to sit down while he connected the two parts of the new chair, tested it and put it where I wanted it.
Afterwards, we went down to the garage and between us, Bob using the sack truck on the heavier parts and me using my disability scooter to carry the smaller and lighter bits, took the old chair to the waste bin on the main road. Within seconds of us putting the first part by the bin, some locals had collected it. I told them that the rest of the chair was coming, and they waited there and took it from us as we dropped it off. I am glad that it might be helpful to them, but I wish I'd seen them earlier and got them to take it straight from my apartment instead of taking it apart and struggling with it all day.
After Bob left, I swept up some of the remaining bits of the old chair we had missed and then sat in the new chair. I put it in a near-horizontal position, put the heat function on for my back, and ran one of the massage programs on it. It was very comfortable, and after taking another painkiller, I lay in it and fell asleep almost immediately.
I woke up about an hour later, had something to eat and then sat watching the TV, falling asleep and waking up now and then, until I finally went to bed around 10:30 pm.
Friday, 31st May.
I woke up around 7 am and felt quite good this morning. I had a coffee, checked for messages on my computer and did the day's Wordle puzzle on the NYT website.
At about 9:45 am, I got on my disability scooter and drove to the Oasis Centre to see my friend Mike. I hadn't seen him for a while and thought I'd see how he was. As I arrived, his friends began arriving and told me they would be sitting in a different place from where they usually did to get a bit of shade from the hot sun. I sat with them and got a coffee, and a short time later, Mike arrived on his disability scooter and pulled up to the table to sit with us.
We all sat talking for an hour or more before, one by one, we headed off to continue doing whatever we had to do. When I left, I went to the Mercadona store and got enough shopping to see me through till I leave to go to Marrakech next weekend. As I left the store, I saw and talked briefly to my friends Arthur and Bubbles, who were going to do some shopping. They invited me to their home for Arthur's birthday party next week, but I won't be able to go because I will be out of the country. I hope Arther remembers that he did promise to make me an apple crumble though.
When I got home, I got something for my lunch, ate it and promptly fell asleep in my new armchair again. I woke up a couple of hours later and worked on my computer until I went to bed at 11 pm.
Saturday, 1st June.
I woke up at about 7:30 am today. I felt quite good and got a coffee before working on my computer. At some time during the morning, I heard very loud music coming from the square outside my apartment. When I looked out, I saw that hundreds of chairs had been set up for a PSOE event. The loud music was all in English, which I found strange for a Spanish political party event.
I put some washing in my washing machine, and then I continued to work on my website. As the day went on and people started to arrive in the evening for the PSOE event, I noted that the music was now being played in Spanish. The person setting up preferred English music but had to change when the political event began. The event lasted for some hours, and I couldn't understand why they had to speak through huge speakers, which could probably be heard in the next village, rather than speak generally to the few hundred gathered people.
Political events and speeches are the same worldwide by different political parties. They are generally nothing more than loud, self-congratulating opportunities for people in power or those who want to be in power to tell you how good they are. They are not for people to express what they want the elected officials to do. I couldn't understand any of the garbled loud speeches coming through the enormous speakers but I would guess this was no different.
When the event had finished, I had just finished my work for the day, and I got myself something for dinner. After dinner, I put more washing in the machine before watching TV, including The 1% Club, which I found very good. I would have done very well on it and answered every question correctly, apart from the last one. If I had been in the same position as the young lady who could win the money by answering one last question, I would have done as she did and taken the money I had already won.
After the show, I got some water and went to bed.
Sunday, 2nd June.
I woke up at about 7:30 am and got a coffee before working on my website. After a few hours, I got some porridge with peanuts, hazelnuts, raisins, banana and honey. After breakfast, I worked on my website, updating the details of my blog about the day I travelled to Hawaii for my cruise.
At 1:30 pm, my friend Jim picked me up, and we drove to our friend Lottie's house. We soon arrived and were met by Lottie and Alison. We sat in Lottie's beautiful garden, and for the next 5 hours, we enjoyed lovely food, had a few drinks and enjoyed each other's company. We exchanged stories of our travels and health in equal measure and marvelled at each other's tales of life.
Just before 7 pm, we all said our goodbyes and left Lottie´s home to return to our own. Jim dropped me at my apartment, and I immediately sank into my new recliner and fell asleep. Later in the evening, I started to watch Britains Got Talent on the TV. I thought it was garbage and turned it over. It left me with two questions: why is it called Britain´s Got Talent? Most of the participants were not from the UK, and how were the contestants the best talent in the competition?
I went to bed tired but content. Thank you, Lottie, Alison and Jim, for a great day.