In Week 39 of 2024, I packed up one new printer for return and took delivery of another one. I did lots of family tree research, I went to a quiz at La Zona bar, and I picked up some money at a money exchange bureau for my trip to Japan.
Monday, 23rd September.
I was up early today, got a coffee and had some porridge with bananas, walnuts and cherries for breakfast. After breakfast, I had another coffee, did the Wordle puzzle and then did some genealogy research before heading off to see Martin at the office.
I stopped at Pizzeria La Sombre with Martin, Dave, Lesley, Viv, Aria and Kate till around 2:30 pm. We sat talking about my research on their family tree and having a few beers. When we all left, I went past La Zona Bar on the way home, and for the first time in months, the gate was open. I was able to get my disability scooter in, so I stopped for a beer.
I sat chatting with lots of friends I hadn't seen for a long time, including Sean, Mike, Dave and Julia. As we were talking, Martin stopped off on his way to the shops for a quick beer before leaving to go shopping. I sat there talking to my friends and explained to them that I hadn't been because the gates were never left open, and I, like lots of other people, couldn't get in easily with the gates shut and had stopped using the bar because of this. Before I left, my friend Sean said that if I wanted to go to the quiz on Thursday, he would pick me up so I could go without having to try to get my disability scooter in. We arranged for him to pick me up on Thursday, and I left and went home.
Once home, I had some dinner and then continued to do my family tree research until I went to bed at around 10 pm.
Tuesday, 24th September.
When I got up, I had a coffee and some porridge and sat at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. I worked on my family tree till around 11 and then took some rubbish and plastic recycling out to the bins. After dropping the rubbish off, I went on my disability scooter along to Mercadona to get some groceries.
When I had finished my shopping, I continued to the office. Before I sat down with Martin, I ate a large cheese and bacon burger I had at Mercadona. I had picked the wrong burger up in my haste. I usually get a small burger that is gone in a couple of bites, but I had picked up an Angus burger by mistake. It was a beautiful burger, but it wasn't an Angus burger unless the name of the animal it came from was called Angus.
I sat talking with Martin and Dave at La Sombre Pizzeria, and while we talked, I had a phone call from the Eurochange shop in Los Alcazares. They had received the Japanese Yen that I had ordered for my holiday. I told them I would go and collect it tomorrow morning. We didn't work very hard today and left the office early.
I went straight home and put all my shopping away as soon as I got back in my apartment. I spent the rest of the day working on my family tree before going to bed around 10 pm.
Wednesday, 25th September.
I woke up early at about 5:30 am today. I got up straight away, had a coffee and sat down at my computer. I began doing some genealogy research and lost track of time very quickly. At about 11 am I suddenly remembered that I had to collect my holiday money. I quickly showered and then got on my disability scooter to go and collect my Yen.
When I collected my money, I decided to take it straight home rather than have a coffee and read my Kindle somewhere. I didn't want to carry it around with me all day in case I lost it somewhere. When I got back to my apartment, I continued doing my genealogy research. I added lots more cousins to my website and also added a link to a page on another website that explains what different cousins are, how to work out what distance and how far removed you are from your distant cousins.
Tonight, I watched the Arsenal vs Bolton Wanderers football match in the Carabao Cup. As expected, Arsenal made a lot of changes to their team for this game. Some were enforced because of injury and suspension, others to allow some of the youngsters at Arsenal to get valuable minutes playing for the first team. Arsenal had to field a young goalkeeper because of injury and others being ineligible to play. They gave a full debut to 16-year-old Jack Porter, whose squad number was nearly six times greater than his age. He had great support from the players around him and from the Gunners in the stadium, who cheered him on every time he touched the ball. He did let a goal in, but the goal that got past him would have been scored against most goalkeepers, and he was not at fault in any way.
Arsenal had a host of youngsters involved with a mix of older players who were coming back from injury or hadn't played much. The youngsters all played very well and deserved a mention, so here are the young players who helped Arsenal to a 5-1 win tonight: Joshua Nichols, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Maldini Kacurri, Ayden Heaven, Ismeal Kabia, and Alexei Rojas Fedorushchenko. A special mention has to go to Ethan Nwaneri, who, in his first game from the start for Arsenal, scored two goals and looked every bit the professional.
Thursday, 26th September.
When I got up today, I sat at my computer, had a coffee, and checked my email. To my surprise, I had an email from Air France with my tickets for my upcoming trip to Japan. They had even already attached them to my frequent flyer account. I went online to see if I could reserve my seat yet and was pleased to see that I could. I upgraded my seat to a seat nearer the front of the aircraft and got myself an aisle seat so that I could get up and walk around easily. The flight from Paris to Tokyo is around 16 hours, so I want to be able to get up and stretch my legs when I want without clambering over anyone else.
At 11:15 am, my cousin Jill messaged me to tell me she had finished having her nails done, and we arranged to meet at Cafetería Bar Chispazo for a coffee and a catch-up as we hadn't seen each other for nearly a year. When I arrived, Jill was waiting, and Peter arrived a short time later. We all chatted for about an hour and had a coffee and a tostada.
When I left Jill and Peter, I went back to my apartment. On the way back, I made a detour to get some lunch at the "Buen Sabor" takeaway shop in Los Alcazares. I got two meals: peppered pork in a sauce with chips and an eggplant with mince, cheese and chips. The two meals were sealed up for me to reheat in the microwave and only cost me €11. I took them home, put my disability scooter in the garage, put the pork meal in my fridge, and put the eggplant meal inside my stomach; it was delicious.
At 2:45 pm, my friend Sean messaged me to tell me he was on the way, and I went outside to meet him. He picked me up, and we went to do the quiz at La Zona bar. I wasn't surprised to find the gates not fully open again. Despite the owner promising to make sure they would be open in the future, they were still closed, making it impossible for people with disability scooters or large prams to get in easily. The person who works there seems content to do as little as possible to get customers through the door and pay money into the till.
The quiz was late, and Mick joined Sean and me before it started. None of us were brilliant, but we didn't come last, which was the main objective of the quiz. We had a good laugh, and after Mick had left, another Mick joined us. When the quiz finished, Sean took me back to my apartment and asked if I wanted to go next week, telling me to let him know, and he would pick me up if I decided to go.
When I got inside, I reheated the pork meal I had bought earlier and sat in front of the TV. It tasted fantastic, and I will use the takeaway place a lot more in the future. I spent the rest of the night working on my computer and went to bed at midnight.
Friday, 27th September.
I woke up late today, and I did not get up till around 8 am. When I did get up, I got a coffee and had a bacon sandwich with avocado. Even though these days all travel tickets are sent to your mobile phone, I still like to have a paper copy in case I lose my phone or the battery runs low. Because the printer I had recently bought didn't pick up the paper correctly, I decided to return it and get my money back from Amazon.
I initiated the return, and Amazon arranged for a courier to collect it next week. I then went on to Amazon and ordered a different printer. I got a much cheaper printer and hoped that it would do everything I needed it for. It looks as if it does, and it has a different design, which makes it look like it will sit in my lounge and fit in better than the other one. Amazon had it in stock and promised delivery tomorrow.
The rest of the day was spent working on either my website or my family tree research. I am combining the two as I add details from my research to my website.
Saturday, 28th September.
I woke up around 6:45 this morning. I got up, got a coffee and had some porridge with cherries in it. I then had another coffee while I did the Wordle puzzle online. Once I had done the puzzle and woken up properly, I stripped the linen from my bed and put it in the washing machine. I then loaded up the dishwasher and set it running.
I had a new printer delivered this morning, and while I waited for it, I did some more work on my website, adding more cousins to its cousins section. After adding quite a few new cousins, I decided to add different tags to the articles so that in the future, anyone looking at the site will be able to look at people with the same surname. I started by tagging people with the surname Morris, then Daniels, Burrows, Wylde, Tincknell, and Lewis.
When my new printer arrived, I set it up quickly. It was much easier to set up than the complicated one that arrived last week, and when I finished it and tested it, it worked perfectly. The one last week that was rubbish, an Epson printer, cost me €180 and was returned within a few weeks. The new one, a Canon printer, cost me €61, a third of the price and in my opinion is a much better printer. It goes to show that because something has a heftier price, it is not always superior.
Before today's football started this afternoon, I made three large cottage pies. I rarely follow recipes completely, and today was no different. I didn't have any Worcestershire sauce, so I substituted it with sweet chilli sauce. I also realised that what I thought was plain beef mince was, in fact, mixed beef and pork meat. Once I had made the pies, I left one out for later and put two aside to put in the freezer when they cooled off.
This afternoon I watched the Arsenal vs Leicester City football match. At halftime, Arsenal were winning 2-0, and it looked like it was going to be a big score and a good day for the Gunners. During halftime of the football game, I warmed one of my cottage pies and ate it during the second half of the game. I need not have worried about the unconventional changes to the recipe I made; it tasted wonderful.
Leicester hadn't read the script and scored almost as soon as the game restarted. It wasn't long before they scored a second goal to make it 2-2, and Gooners everywhere were worrying that the game may have been thrown away. We shouldn't have worried, as Arsenal have done so many times in the last few years; they left it till the last few minutes but score again they did. They scored two more goals in injury time and won 4-2.
After the game, I sat down to do some family tree research. I love the fact that I can communicate with distant relatives all over the world via my computer, and today was a good day for talking to distant cousins. I started talking with Lynn in Australia, who pointed me in the right direction for a relative with a strange name on a census. A short time later, I had a conversation with Andrea in Wales, where the same strangely named relative was from. Andrea gave me the person's correct name and that of two of the person's siblings as well. Later in the evening, I had a quick chat with Sandi in America and promised to try to find the link between the two of us. We know there is one, but we have not yet pinpointed the exact branch of the family tree that we should be hanging out on.
I put the two remaining cottage pies in my freezer, and when MOTD came on the TV, I rewatched the highlights of the Arsenal vs Leicester game and then went to bed.
Sunday, 29th September.
I woke up around 7 am today. I got up, had a coffee and then did some work on my website. Just before 11 am, I turned off the computer and went into the kitchen to make some soup.
The soup was another wholly made-up recipe. I had a butternut squash, some leeks, onion and mushrooms and decided to combine them to make myself a soup. It would hopefully be a nice thick soup, and there should be enough to put quite a lot of servings in the freezer. When the soup was finished, I tried it, and it was lovely. I saved a bowl for later, put a double serving in the fridge for tomorrow, and put three more double servings in the freezer.
I watched bits of the football this afternoon but kept working on my family tree. I was so interested in my research, trying to help out a distant relative in America, yes Sandi, that is you, that when I looked up from my laptop, it was 1 am. I turned the laptop off and went to bed.