I started Week 25 of 2024 by seeing a doctor about my painful and swollen legs. It was a sad week in which I heard about three different people I knew passing away. RIP Alan, Keith and Roxanne.
Monday, 17th June.
I woke up around 6:15 am today. I got up immediately and got a coffee and some porridge with banana, blueberries, protein powder, and honey for breakfast. I sat at my computer and ate breakfast while checking for messages. My legs were still very sore, and I decided that if I was going to continue to tell my friends to see a doctor for their complaints, I should heed my own words and go see a doctor.
When I had finished breakfast, I had a shower, got dressed and then got on my disability scooter and went to the doctor's surgery. I arrived just before 9 am and asked for an appointment, and as usual, they said I could see a doctor immediately. I had typed up what I wanted to say to the doctor and translated it to Spanish in case of confusion. The lady I saw today did speak some English but not a lot, so I was glad I had got the translation.
I was not surprised after getting on the bed that she immediately started looking at my right leg and the scar and open wound on it. I explained to her that it was the other leg giving me the most pain and that the wound was an old one. I told her that it was my thigh and hip on the leg she was looking at that were my other problems. She called in the young nurse, who insisted on cleaning the wound on my leg and taking a swab of it. At least it will be tested properly. The doctor said she would make two more appointments for me as well. One to have the bones in both legs scanned and one to have a Doppler done on my leg in case there is a blood clot. She then sent me away with the nurse, who cleaned my wound and took a swab of it to send away for testing.
When the nurse had finished cleaning the wound, she sent me back to the doctor, and when the doctor had typed up my notes, she gave me a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers and sent me back to the receptionist to make the new appointments. Within a few minutes, the new appointments had been made: one for tomorrow afternoon at the doctor's surgery and one for Friday when I have to go to San Javier for some scans.
I left the surgery, went home to pick up my sunglasses, and then went to see my friend Mike for coffee at The Oasis in Los Narejos. I sat with Mike, Christine, Steve, Øyvind and Thersa for around two hours. I had a few coffees, and we sat chatting until I left for the office.
At noon, I went to La Sombra to see Martin. We sat chatting and were joined by his dad, Dave. We were due to meet some other friends tonight to go for a curry, but because my legs hurt and I won't be able to drink because the doctor has prescribed antibiotics, I told them I wouldn't be going tonight. While there, I heard the sad news that Roxanne, a lady I had known for a few years before she returned to England, had passed away. I sat with them until Aria arrived at about 1:30 pm, and then I returned to my apartment. RIP Roxanne.
For lunch, I had a salad and then put the TV on to watch the Romania vs Ukraine football match from the UEFA European Championship. I didn't want to do much before seeing a doctor again tomorrow, so I stayed in all evening. I slept through most of the Belgium vs Slovakia game but did manage to watch most of the Austria vs France game which France won when Austria scored an own goal.
While watching the football I also had a message to tell me that my good friend Alan Bond had passed away. He had been very ill for quite a while, and I am glad that he is no longer in pain but also very sad that we won't meet to watch the football, go for a beer, or that he won't be able to make me sound a lot better when I sing at Karaoke anymore. You will be missed very much, my friend, by me for your company and others who will have to listen to my voice as it really sounds, not as it did when you had toned it down with all your magical skills. RIP Alan.
I also heard during the football that my friend Debbie's husband, Keith, had passed away. I didn't know Keith well but enjoyed his company when we did meet. We had a love of golf in common. He played it very well, and I liked to play. We always used to chat about the Masters golf competition. I will always remember him and our conversations about the competition in which we debated who would win each year. RIP Keith.
Tuesday, 18th June.
I woke up around 7:30 am and got a coffee and some porridge for breakfast. I spent the whole day pottering about on my computer and put the photos from the medina in Marrakech in a photo album on my website.
This afternoon at 4:30 pm, I returned to the doctor's surgery and saw another doctor. It seems the doctor I saw yesterday is a family doctor, and she wanted me to see a doctor that deals more with arthritis and bone problems. I saw him briefly, and he agreed with her that I should have a Doppler scan and x-rays on my knees and hips. When I returned to the receptionist, she could not get an appointment for the X-rays at the same time as my Doppler scan. She gave me a phone number and told me to call to make an appointment.
I left the surgery a bit unimpressed for the first time, one because the second doctor had just told me what the first one had and two because I had been told to make an appointment myself. When I got home, I sent my health insurance company a message saying I would see them in the morning. I also sent my friend Lisa a message to see if she would give me a lift to San Javier for my appointments on Friday. Luckily, she was free and would take me.
In the evening, I watched the Turkey vs Georgia football match, which Turkey won 3-1. I thought Georgia was a little unlucky, and the scoreline didn't do them justice. I also watched the Portugal vs Czech Republic game, which Portugal won 2-1. I thought Portugal was lucky to win this game. The Czech Republic scored first, and Portugal equalised a short time later when the Czech Republic scored an own goal. Portugal didn't manage to score the winning goal until injury time. As soon as the game finished, I went to bed.
Wednesday, 19th June.
I woke up quite early, at around 6:45 am. I got a coffee and some scrambled egg on toast for breakfast. I checked for messages on my computer and was pleased to see a message from my accountant saying that my tax return had been entered for another year. I left to visit the ASSSA office in Los Narejos and was there at about 9:45 am.
Sofia welcomed me and said she had just messaged me. I sat down and told her about the appointments and that I needed another one and showed her all my paperwork. She quickly arranged the second appointment for me, saying that the Doppler scan would be done in the next room when I finished having the X-rays done on Friday. She also said that I would need authorization for the Doppler scan but that she would do it for me and send it to the surgery for me as well. I left her feeling much better about the appointments and went around the corner to have a coffee with Mike.
I had a quick coffee and then went to Buena Vista restaurant to meet my friend Lynda, who had asked me for tips on visiting Marrakech. I hadn't seen Lynda for a long time, and seeing her again was nice. She and her husband David want to visit Marrakech later in the year, and she asked me a few questions about my visit, about Riads, restaurants, bars and excursions. She seemed to like what I told her and I think she will have a great time if she does go. We talked for an hour or so, and then both left.
I went back to my apartment and got a salad for lunch. I watched all of the football matches today. I was pleased that Scotland managed to get a point after losing their first game to Germany, but I think it will be very hard for them to qualify for the next round. They will, I think, probably need to beat Hungary in their last game.
Thursday, 20th June.
When I got up this morning, I had some porridge and a coffee and worked on my website for a while before getting on my disability scooter and getting some more tablets at the pharmacy.
After buying my tablets, I went to the town hall to ask about a bill I had been sent. I could go into the townhall on my disability scooter as they have a ramp which makes access easy. Unfortunately, the bill is no longer dealt with at the town hall, and I had to go to a new building next door. I approached the door and found that the disability ramp was right next to a pillar and was so thin it wouldn't give me access to the building. It also had a notice on the door saying you had to have a translator. As my bill was for less than the translator would cost I decided against seeing them.
I went to my bank around the corner to see my account manager, who always helped with bill translations. She wasn't in the building, so I went home to message her to see if I could get an appointment for her to help me. I got a message later telling me she had left the branch and passed my query to a new account manager.
I watched the Slovenia and Serbia football match this afternoon and in the evening, I watched the Denmark vs England game. The first game was quite good and finished 1-1. The second match, the Denmark vs England game, also finished 1-1 but England were terrible. It was the worst performance from an England team I have seen, and I don't think they deserved to get a point; they were that bad. The third game, Spain vs Italy, was good for the Spanish, and they won 1-0, which saw them qualify for the next round a game early.
Friday, 21st June.
When I woke up, I had my normal coffee but was unsure if I could eat anything before going for my Doppler scan today, so I went without breakfast. I edited some photos until 11:30 am when my friend Lisa came to pick me up to take me to my appointments in San Javier.
When we arrived in San Javier, there was nowhere to park outside the medical centre, so Lisa dropped me off and went to find a parking space. There was a new building with the name of the medical centre down the side of it, and I walked in and up to the reception desk. The receptionist told me I had to go to the old building in the next block so I walked to the next building. I went inside and gave the receptionist my details, and as I stood there waiting, Lisa joined me inside. The receptionist told me to wait along the corridor to be called for my X-rays first.
After waiting a while, a nurse called my name and took me into the X-ray room. First, she took about six X-rays of my knees from the front, back and side. Once they were done, she started flirting with me and asked me to remove my shorts and get on the bed. I quickly whipped off my shorts and jumped on the bed. She ran her hand across my thigh, moved my boxer shorts up, and then asked me to arch my back a little to raise my bottom off the bed. She slowly slipped a large, black, flat, rectangular plate under my bottom. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I was excited. She smiled at me and asked if I was ready. She quickly went into a small cupboard when I told her I was. I thought she must be getting some toys, but she closed the door behind her. I heard a strange whirring sound, and she came out and stretched my legs apart on the bed. She again disappeared into the cupboard, and I heard the whirring noise before she reappeared and told me I could get dressed. I'm not sure what she had been doing in the cupboard, but it hadn't been good for me.
I got dressed, and she handed me a CD with the X-rays on and told me to wait outside, where I would be called for the Doppler scan. I spoke quickly with Lisa and waited for the Doppler scan. While I waited, a Spanish lady kept questioning people about what time their appointment was and complaining that her appointment was before all of them and that she hadn't been called through. When the nurse came out to call the next person for their Doppler scan, the Spanish lady started to complain to her. The nurse disappeared briefly and returned to speak to the irate Spanish lady. It turned out they weren't expecting the lady, and on further investigation they discovered she was waiting for an appointment in the wrong medical centre.
I was about the third person to go in for the scan. When I entered, the new nurse carried on where the previous nurse had left off and immediately started flirting with me. She told me to get my trousers off, pull my boxer shorts up and get on the bed. I did as I was told, and she immediately started to rub a vaseline-type oil on my thighs. This was getting exciting again. Until a male doctor approached with an electric implement in his hands, plugged it into a screen of some sort and then began rubbing it over my thighs and legs while watching the screen. After a couple of minutes, he made me turn over and did the same again on the back of my legs. When he finished, the female nurse told me I could get up, clean the vaseline of my thighs, and get dressed. Before I left, they gave me a strip of photos of the veins in my legs. Some looked good others looked terrible, but I will have to wait until I see my normal doctor in Los Alcazaes next week to see what they mean.
When I left, I found Lisa waiting for me, and we walked around the corner for a coffee. Because I was hungry after not eating, we stopped at a restaurant in the square by the town hall for something to eat. We both ordered the Menu del Dia, and I had the cold soup, pork fillets and a chocolate sponge. The soup was beautiful, the pork was very nice, and the chocolate sponge was good. The Menu del Dia at the restaurant was worth the time spent at the doctor's.
After finishing the meal, we returned to the car and went to the Iceland store to shop before heading home. On the way back home, Lisa showed me her home in Roda, and as she had shown me hers, I invited her in to see mine when she dropped me off. After Lisa left, I sat down to watch the football on the TV. It couldn't have been very good as I dropped off to sleep quickly and only saw bits of the matches between waking and falling asleep again.
I had a ham roll this evening and watched the Holland vs France game. France won 0-1, but Holland had plenty of chances and had a goal disallowed for offside. Still very tired I went to bed as soon as the game finished.
Saturday, 22nd June.
I woke up early today, got myself a coffee and sat at my computer. I started working on the photos for my website and edited some pages. I got a bit caught up in what I was doing and before I knew it, the afternoons football was starting.
This afternoon I got myself a chicken salad and watched the football. Like yesterday, I kept drifting in and out of sleep and didn't manage to watch any of today's matches all the way through. The game I saw the most was the Turkey vs Portugal game, which Portugal won 0-3. From what I saw, the scoreline was very flattering, and Turkey deserved more out of the game.
I went to bed when the last game, Belgium vs Romania, finished with Belgium winning 2-0.
Sunday, 23rd June.
I woke up early and got a coffee before continuing to write up details of my Marrakech holiday for my website. I finished the page about my hot air balloon flight over the Agafay desert and then finished writing about my day in the Agafay desert when I went on a camel and a quad bike and saw a show.
During the day, I could see and hear the stage being set up in the Plaza de Espejo outside my apartment. Today there would be a large party for the San Yuan festival. The festival of San Juan, or St John the Baptist, is one of the biggest annual festivals celebrated in Spain. Originating in pre-Christian ritual, it aligns with the Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice. It takes place on the shortest night of the year, usually around June 20-24, and symbolises the triumph of light over dark.
As the day progressed, the noise from the square got louder and louder and more and more people arrived for the festival. In the afternoon, I got myself a late lunch, and before this evening's Scotland vs Hungary football match came on the television, I went outside to look around. There were now thousands of people in the square enjoying the party. I saw lots of friends and people I knew, it was nice to see Lesley and Gordon, Jacqueline, Stuart and Jordana, Peter and Jill, and so many others I hadn't seen for a while. I looked for the bonfire and was surprised to see that this year, it was a square shape with wooden seahorses and a guy sitting on it. Quite why the seahorses were on the bonfire, I couldn't work out. I thought we were supposed to be saving them, not grilling them over an open fire.
After taking some photos, I returned to my apartment to watch the Scotland game on the TV. It was very boring, so I binge-watched the final season of Sweet Tooth instead. I flicked over to see the Scotland score every now and then, and as the game was supposed to be finishing, I switched it back on to see the final score. I was just in time to see Hungary score a goal with about 20 seconds left to win the game and knock Scotland out of the tournament.
Because of the noise and the fact that the party was still outside, I watched Sweet Tooth until about 1:30 am and then went to bed.