In Week 38 of 2024, I met my friend Alison for a chat and a drink in the sun. I had a very minor operation, and I did a lot of research on my family tree. I discovered that there was a slim chance that I could be a distant cousin to my friend Martin.
Monday, 16th September.
I was again woken up by noisy people last night. At 3 am, people were getting in their cars, making a noise, slamming car doors, and shouting a lot. I hope that now that the weekend is over, it may stop. I managed to get back to sleep but was woken again 2 hours later by the road sweeper below my bedroom window. Once it had gone, I was able to get back to sleep and slept till about 8:30.
When I finally got up, I got a coffee and checked for messages on my computer. I did some work on my website and left home to go and meet Martin at around 11:40. I got to Pizzeria La Sombre just after midday and saw that Martin was already working hard in the office. A short time later, we were joined by Dave, and we had a beer and chatted till Arias's bus arrived at about 1:20 pm. I continued talking to Martin when Dave left until I left myself at about 2 pm.
I went back to my apartment and continued working on my website until my friend Alison messaged me to see if I wanted to meet for a drink. We met up at Buena Vista restaurant and spent a couple of hours chatting together. It was a lovely afternoon, just sitting in the sun. I feel so lucky to have good friends and to live in such a beautiful place. I feel even luckier now the thousands of tourists have dwindled and that Los Alcazares is returning to the quiet little village that I love.
When I went back to my apartment, I got myself a piece of steak and had it with some salad. It tasted fantastic, and with a full stomach and a comfortable chair, I quickly dosed off in front of the TV. I woke a short time later and watched a police interceptor program on TV until I went to bed early, at around 10 pm.
Tuesday, 17th September.
I woke up around 7 am, got up, got a coffee and sat at my computer. I checked for messages and had a chat with a distant relative, Lynn, in Australia. I love being able to chat with distant relatives all over the world, and it is always great to catch up on stories that others in the family tree may or may not have been part of. It was great to talk to you again this morning, Lynn.
At 11:40, I got on my disability scooter and went to meet Martin. We had only been chatting for a short time when Dave arrived with Lesley, his daughter, Martin's sister. We sat chatting, and I left them all around 2 pm. I went back to my apartment but decided against having anything to eat, preferring to wait until later tonight.
This afternoon, I worked on my laptop and did some family tree research. When I get back from my holiday, I may start doing genealogy research for other people to earn some pocket money. At about 7:30 pm, I decided I would like a pizza and that I would go to La Rucola in Los Alcazares to get one. I went on my disability scooter and parked outside on the street. I ordered a Verona pizza that had tomato, mozzarella, ham, mushroom, prawn, and pineapple on it. I didn't have to wait long, and I took it home to eat.
When I got home, I ate the pizza, and while the flavours were quite nice, they weren't anything special. I think my homemade pizzas are better and certainly have a lot more toppings on them. After clearing away the pizza box, I carried on working on some family tree research and eventually went to bed at 11 pm.
Wednesday, 18th September.
I slept well last night and wasn't disturbed by any noise outside in the early hours of the morning. I did, however, have a bizarre dream in which I was helping King Charles rearrange some raised beds on a flat in Downing Street. We rearranged beds of melons to make better use of the layout of the rooftop garden. I have no idea of any hidden meaning behind this dream other than perhaps, maybe I should finally get outside on my balcony and finish tidying it up. I have no excuse that it is too hot anymore.
After having a coffee, I did the Wordle puzzle before having a second coffee and taking my tablets. I updated the last of my pages about my Hawaii and Alaska cruise and added photos to the Vancouver photos page. When I had finished this, I took a bag of paper recycling to the waste bin and then continued to Economycash to get some rolls and a couple of groceries so that I could make some soup later in the week.
This afternoon and evening, I spent time tracing new branches of my family tree. I found a new branch for the Morris side of my tree and had another lead on the Lewis branch that I had not been able to trace at all until tonight.
Thursday, 19th September.
I woke up at 6 am, got up, had coffee, and then showered. For breakfast, I had porridge with bananas, cherries, and protein powder. When I had eaten breakfast, I worked on my genealogy research before getting ready to go to the doctor. At 10:15, I walked downstairs, where I was picked up by my friends Alison and Lottie, who drove me to San Pedro del Pinatar to the doctor's surgery I had to go to.
When I walked into the surgery, I was quickly seen by a receptionist who handed me over to a young nurse who took me to a treatment room. She made me comfortable in something that looked like an oversized dentist chair. She raised my legs and feet so that they were level with her in her seat and then examined the ingrowing toenail on my left foot. She quickly cut the ingrowing nail away and then went on to cut all my nails and filed them all back. She also asked if I needed to see a nurse about the wound on my leg, and I told her that it was all okay. She told me to go back if the nail grew back inwards again and to put iodine on it for a couple of days to keep it clean.
When I left, I went to a cafe just around the corner from the surgery to meet Alison and Lottie. I had a coffee with them, and then Alison drove me home and dropped me off. I spent the rest of the day doing family tree research after finding out more information on my 3rd great-grandfather, Lewis Lewis. Some of his children emigrated to Australia, which I didn't know about, and this opened a whole new branch for me.
Friday, 20th September.
After getting up early today, I spent the entire day tracing my family tree. When I got up and had my coffee, the sky outside was black, and a storm was rolling in. Pretty soon, there were loud claps of thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I decided going outside was not an option and settled in my chair to work on my genealogy research.
I also started to add my distant cousins to my website, and I added a new section that will allow anyone interested in my family tree to find information on the places my ancestors lived, the occupations they had, and the churches they attended. I even managed to do a little bit of research on my friend Martin's family tree.
Saturday, 21st September.
I got up early again today at around 5:30 am. I sat at my computer and drank my coffee while looking at my family tree. While working on my friend Martin's family tree yesterday, I noticed that distant relatives of mine had the same surnames as distant relatives of Martins and that they all lived in the same place. It could be that we are very distant cousins.
I tried to watch some of the football this afternoon, but I spent more time working on my family tree than I did watching the football. I eventually turned the computer off at about 10 pm and went to bed.
Sunday, 22nd September.
I woke around 6 am. I got a coffee, had some porridge with bananas, walnuts and cherries for breakfast and then sat at my computer to continue my genealogy research.
This afternoon, I took a break from my research to watch the Manchester City vs Arsenal football match. Quite quickly, Manchester City took a 1-0 lead, but Arsenal started to play a lot better and equalised. Before the second half ended, Arsenal scored a second and were winning 1-2. The game was getting quite fiery, and Leandro Trossard was sent off with seconds of the half to go. I do believe that his second yellow card if given for a foul, would have been correct, but it was given for time-wasting and was ridiculous. The referee had completely ignored Manchester City players doing the same thing.
When the second half started, because Arsenal were a player short, they changed to a 5-4-0 formation. This meant that Manchester City were constantly playing in the Arsenal half and that Arsenal had no outlet to clear the ball through. I found myself getting very wound up and decided I couldn't watch the second half. I turned the TV off, turned my phone to silent and carried on working on my genealogy research instead.
When I knew that the game had finished, I turned the TV back on. Although Manchester City had equalised in the 9th minute of injury time, I was pleased that Arsenal had held on for a 2-2 draw. I don't think any football fans mind when players are carded for doing things they shouldn't, but we all get annoyed by the apparent inconsistencies of the referees. In the case of the referee for today's game, I wonder if he should be allowed to referee games involving Manchester City, as he has been paid and flown to the UAE to referee games there. This could be seen as a conflict of interest when he is paid a lot of money to referee games by the owners of a club he has to referee in his weekly job.
After listening to overpaid idiots, or pundits as they are professionally known, talk rubbish about the game, the referring and the outcome of the cards on the result of the game, I turned off the TV, did a little more research on my genealogy and went to bed around midnight.