2024, Week 47 journal.

Week 47 of 2024 started bright but colder. I did a lot of work on my website and made lots of complaints to my bank in the UK. I did do an unexpected mystery tour of Los Alcazares at the start of the week, thanks to the local bus service.

Monday, 18th November.

I woke up this morning and quickly discovered an alarming problem that I would have to fix ASAP. I had no coffee left. I took my tablets with a large glass of water and sat down at my computer. I did the daily Wordle puzzle and then continued where I had left off the previous night on my genealogy research.

Just after 11 am, I decided I would have to go and get some coffee. I decided to walk to get the coffee and then jump on the bus to go and meet Martin. I took a bag of rubbish to the bin on the main road and then walked to Econmy Cash on Rio Nalon. I went into the store and bought a tube of coffee capsules, which were not my usual ones, but they would have to do. I also bought some chicken thighs to have for lunch.

I left the store, and when I checked the app on my phone for the local bus times, I realised I had time before it arrived, so I sat at a table outside Cafe Parking and ordered an Asiatica coffee. The coffee was lovely, and when I had finished, I went to the bus stop a few steps away. Strangely, the bus arrived from a different direction. The driver saw me and stopped to let me climb onboard. I sat down, and we moved off, unfortunately in the wrong direction.

Other people on the bus were all questioning where the bus was going, but I decided to enjoy the ride. At least I would see the whole of the route the bus went. It weaved its way through Los Alcazares, and I could only assume it was either very early or very late and on the return loop of the trip I usually take. I did start to wonder where it was going when it left Los Alcazares, went through La Serena, and continued to Las Lomas del Rame. It passed through some back roads before stopping for a short break in Bahia Bella. When we moved off again, there was only myself, the driver and one other passenger. The other passenger could have been another driver, as he continually talked to the driver while we were driving along, and they seemed to know each other well.

It was as we reached the main road again that I wondered if we were going to turn left back to Los Alcazares or right to Cartagena. I had nothing to do other than meet Martin, so I kept quiet and enjoyed the excitement of not knowing. The driver turned the bus left, and we rewound our way through Los Alcazares. We eventually got back to the stop I had gotten on at, and the driver shouted to ask if I was getting off. I told him where I was going, and the other passenger said something to him. We moved off again, and as we passed the Mercadona store, the other passenger got off. We moved off again and didn't stop until we got to my stop by the old Roblemar restaurant. The driver stopped and let me off. He then did a U-Turn in the road and headed back the way he had come. I have no idea what was going on with the bus today, but it got me where I wanted to go, even if it was an hour after I expected to be there. I wondered what all the other people on the route would now do, waiting for a bus that was now going back in the other direction again.

I sat down with Martin and Dave at La Sombre Pizzeria, and we chatted and had a couple of beers. Dave left after a while, and a short time later, Aria arrived on her school bus. At least her bus seemed to be running on time and going the right way. When Martin and Aria left, I walked with them, and as they went into their home, I continued to walk through the estate. I slowly walked through the estate, looking at the places along the street as I went by. I walked past the bar I used to drink in when I lived on the estate. It used to be called the Marrakech and has been owned by a few people since. It has had lots of different names over the years. I noticed as I walked past that it is currently in the process of being gutted and done out again. I wish whoever has it now all the best of luck. The bar holds many fond memories for me.

As I walked past the Las Claras Centre, I popped in to use the toilets. I noticed that although the cafe bar seemed to be open, no one was using it. I left without stopping and walked on to La Ola bar. I found a table where I could sit and watch the world go by. I ordered a beer and sat down. La Ola is a great little Spanish bar and is one of the few that still operate that way. The waitress brought my beer out to me and also put down some olives, peanuts and cheese biscuits for me to eat while I sat there. I had a message from my friend June while I sat there, so I phoned her back. We chatted and agreed to meet up again soon, possibly at La Ola bar.

As I sat in the bar, Salvador, the owner, came in. As soon as he saw me, he stopped what he was doing and came over to shake my hand and say hello. We exchanged pleasantries before he went back to work, but he sent the waitress back out to me with a fresh bunch of peanuts, olives, and cheese biscuits. I washed them down with a second beer before leaving. I walked back towards Los Alcazares along the main road, but when I got level with Rio Nalon, I turned down and walked along the beachfront.

As I got to the Buena Vista restaurant and bar, I stopped and went inside, where I sat and had another beer before walking the short distance home. It had got colder by now, and I put on the jacket that I had been carrying around all day. When I got back to my apartment, I cooked one of the chicken thighs I had bought and put it with some salad for my dinner.

This evening I watched a bit of TV. The long walk, the fresh air and the beer had taken their toll on me, and I kept dosing off in my chair. At 9 pm, I woke up in my chair and decided I might as well go to bed. I got a large glass of water and went to bed, hoping that I would sleep right the way through till morning tomorrow.

Tuesday, 19th November.

I didn't manage to sleep all night. I woke up at about 1:30 am, and after trying and failing to get back to sleep, I got up around 2 am. I had a coffee and did the daily Wordle puzzle. The puzzle was tricky today. It was one of those puzzles that had lots of possible answers, but I managed to get it on my sixth and final attempt. After doing the puzzle, I edited photos for my website, including the Hiroshima photo album. I stopped around 6 am and cooked myself a large breakfast of sausages, bacon, fried egg, baked beans and plum tomatoes. Once I had eaten breakfast, I continued editing more photos for my website.

I took a break from the computer in the middle of the morning. I went into the kitchen and prepared some potatoes and leeks for a potato and leak soup and put them in my slow cooker. I sliced and fried red onion and a sizeable chorizo sausage and fried them off in a frying pan before I added them to the slow cooker, covered everything in a chicken broth, and put the slow cooker on low for six hours.

After the soup had been set to cook, I peeled and sliced a bag of apples. I placed them in a bowl of water and lemon juice and put them in the fridge in the hope that this would stop them from turning brown so quickly. When I had done this, I tidied the kitchen up a bit before walking to the Alaska bar at 2:45 pm to meet my friend Gerry for a coffee.

Gerry was already sitting outside the bar when I got there. I ordered a coffee and sat down with him. We sat chatting for a while and had a second coffee. While there, my friends Bob and Connie arrived and sat at a table near us. I gently gave Bob some grief because he had forgotten he had said he would come and look at my disability scooter this morning. He apologised and said he had forgotten entirely and would come on Saturday instead.

The temperature had started to drop now, and Gerry was going to head back to the place where he was staying. I said my goodbyes to Gerry, Bob and Connie and walked back along the beach to my apartment. It felt warm inside after being outside, with the cold wind picking up and blowing along the beachfront. I checked on the soup in the slow cooker, and it looked and smelled good.

I sat down in my armchair and flicked between TV channels until I saw that the film Hotel Mumbai had just started. I love this film, so I sat down and watched it. When it finished, I looked at the soup. It appeared to have cooked, so I added some cream and blended it using a stick blender. When I got the consistency I wanted, I tried a bowl. It was beautiful. I resisted the temptation to eat anymore and left it to cool off in the kitchen so that I could freeze the rest in single portions to have in the cooler weather.

I then sat back down to watch another film that I liked and that had just started, The Da Vinci Code. When the film finished, I flicked between channels for a while, but as I couldn't find anything that grabbed my interest, I turned off the TV and went to bed.

Wednesday, 20th November.

I woke up a few times during the night and quickly fell asleep again. I felt pretty good when I woke up and got up around 7 am. I got a coffee, sat down at my computer, and did the Wordle puzzle. I realised yesterday why my coffee tasted funny, and it tasted funny again this morning. I had bought decaffeinated coffee capsules by accident. I will be more careful next time. I have to say I prefer my coffee caffeinated.

It was cold outside this morning. When I looked at the digital thermometer next to my computer screen, it showed that it was only 16°c outside. Luckily for me, my apartment was quite well insulated, and it was 22°c inside. I had a second coffee and separated the soup I made yesterday into smaller portions, which I put in the freezer.

After putting the soup in the freezer, I decided I had better put some food inside myself. I repeated yesterday's breakfast of sausages, egg, bacon, beans, tomatoes, and mushrooms. After breakfast, I took a shower and made myself presentable for when I went to the vaccination centre in Cartagena later. After making myself look even more handsome than usual, I went back to work on my website for an hour, finishing typing up the notes for my day visiting places on the way to Mount Fuji in Japan.

While I was typing my notes, I had a call from Alison to apologise, but she couldn't take me to Cartagena today. I quickly rang other people, but no one could take me. I went online and was able to reschedule today's appointment for one on the 16th of December. After rearranging this appointment, I called the Nationwide Building Society in the UK to try to arrange a payment for my next holiday.

I was not impressed with Nationwide's response. I have been locked out of my account for more than 3 months due to their inability to get a new debit card sent to me, which I need to log in to my online account and make any payments. This means I can't pay for the holiday I am going on next year. I registered a complaint with the girl on the phone, and she told me that they may write to me to confirm my complaint details. This had me laughing out loud at her, and I had to explain why I had been laughing at her. The fact that I had been waiting over three months for the correct debit card and that she wanted to write to me about me not receiving their previous posts made me laugh out loud.

When I had finished speaking with her, I contacted the JustYou travel company to see if they could extend the date I had to pay for the holiday. They agreed to give me until the end of the month to pay for the holiday. I then went online to my Spanish bank to make an appointment with them tomorrow to transfer money from one of my investments so that I could pay for the holiday with money from one of my investments. I made the appointment for 8:30 am tomorrow and hope they can help. With the appointment made, I then went to my Currency account to make sure it was still active. As soon as Nationwide gives me access to my account, I will transfer all the money to Currencies Direct and close the Nationwide account.

It had been a busy morning, and I had done nothing apart from taking a shower. I had missed one appointment, been unable to access one bank account, made two more appointments, and had to wait for one bank to give me access to my money so I could pay for something I wanted to pay at another bank.

At around 2 pm, I went for a ride on my disability scooter. I had to check the air in the tyres and had some old boxes to take to the recycling bin. As I was leaving my spot in the garage, I noticed my neighbour had left some shopping by her car. As I left the garage lift, I was stopped by some fibre optic workers trying to access the building. I gave them the management company's details so they could get access through them. I don't want to let people in to do work who shouldn't be there. As I was talking to them, my neighbour Liz called me. I told her about her shopping and told her I would bring it up to her when I got back.

I rode to the recycling bins, dropped off the old boxes, and then continued on my way to the garage to put some air in my tyres. I put my 50 cents in and was disappointed to find my tyres flatter after the machine had allegedly put air in than before. All it did was let more air out. I gave up before they went completely flat and went back to the apartment block. I parked my disability scooter in my spot and then took Liz's shopping up to her.

When I got back to my apartment, I cooked a chicken thigh in my air fryer and put it in a salad bowl for lunch. When I finished, I had a short siesta in front of the TV. I spent the evening watching films before going to bed at 9 pm. I had to be up early Thursday for the bank appointment, and I didn't want to oversleep.

Thursday, 21st November.

I woke up at 6 am today, an hour and a half before I had set my alarm. I got a coffee and reheated the leftover apple and raisin crumble from yesterday and had that for breakfast. The sugar rush soon woke me up, and I did the Wordle puzzle before taking a shower and then heading to the bank for my 8:30 appointment.

I left home around 7:40 and got to the bank before it opened, so I stopped at La Colicha cafe, had a coffee and a tostado and waited for the bank to open. When the bank opened, I went in. The lady who helped me was able to transfer money from one account to another but wasn't able to make the payment for my holiday as I didn't have an IBAN for JustYou. I left the bank and walked back along the beach to my apartment.

When I got in, I messaged JustYou and asked them for the IBAN so that I could make the payment for my holiday. They quickly replied, and I now have to wait for the transferred money to clear before making the payment. I made some additions to my website in the afternoon, adding details of my trip from Kawaguchi to Kyoto to the pages about my Japan trip.

I had a lazy evening with my feet up resting and watched a couple of films before going to bed around 10 pm.

Friday, 22nd November.

When I got up this morning, I got myself a coffee. I decided that before I started working on my computer, I would sort out all the leads as they were getting all tangled up, and I wanted to move the position of some of them to give me more room on a shelf that did house many of the leads and my router. This turned out to be more complicated than I thought, and I spent nearly an hour and a half doing something that I should have been able to do in minutes.

The biggest problem I had doing this easy job was connecting the leads back up. Because I have no depth perception, I take a long time trying to put small cables in small holes in places that are usually badly lit. In the end, because I was getting annoyed with myself, I took all the leads out and started again, but I did away with a couple of the leads and made use of my apartment's WIFI network to make some of the connections wirelessly. I was thrilled when I finally got everything running again. I made another coffee and got myself some porridge with banana, blueberries, and walnuts for breakfast, and then I sat down for a rest.

After breakfast, I tried to start another of the small chores I had written down to do. I have been losing weight this year, but I want to keep going and try to lose more. In an attempt to do this, I thought I would try to use the Fitbit app on my mobile phone to do more than track my steps and my sleep. I noticed that you can register your food and liquid intake as well. This would help me track the calories I take in against those I use during the day.

I tried to scan some of the food in my fridge to see if it worked, but it wouldn't register 90% of the things in my fridge. I didn't think it could be correct, so I Googled it to look for a solution. It turned out that the Fitbit app was set up to use the US database of foods and that I had to change my country database in the Fitbit settings. This was relatively easy to do, and when I tried again, it recognised nearly everything in my fridge. Next time I go to get my shopping, I will try scanning everything in the shop as it will be easier using the flat labels in-store than the scrunched-up, ripped labels on the food when I get home.

For lunch, I cooked a chicken thigh and had it with some new potatoes, peas and sweet corn. It was an easy meal to cook but tasted fantastic. After lunch, I had a phone call from the Nationwide Complaint Department. We had a pleasant conversation in which they said there was nothing they could do. I suggested that because of their outdated way of issuing login IDs and passwords and granting access to online accounts, I could still be waiting in ten years to get access to my account. I suggested that I might have to pay for a flight back to the UK to withdraw and close my account. I was then told that if I did this, I would need to tell them which branch I would visit and take my passport and debit card with me to be able to close the account. I pointed out that this was the debit card that I had been waiting for 3 months to receive and that the organisation was laughable. I have no choice but to wait, hoping that the third card they have apparently sent arrives soon.

Just before 4 pm, I walked around the corner to the Avenida bar and cafe to meet George and Yvonne. The time passed quickly, but to keep warm, I swapped my lukewarm coffee for a steaming hot Asiatico coffee. As the sun went down and the temperature dropped further, I had a second Asiatico. I decided to put an accumulator bet on the weekend Premier League football and went inside the sports bar section of the bar to place a bet. I picked five teams to win and tried to place a bet, but the machine was locked. The barman unlocked the machine and tried to show me how to place my €1 bet. Somehow, all the matches I had picked disappeared from the slip. Five random games from European weekend fixtures appeared, and the bet was printed out. Oh well, I got odds of 24:1, and it will give me an interest in more than the premier league this weekend.

Before I left George and Yvonne at the bar and walked back to my apartment, George offered to take me to my appointment in Cartagena in December. I am so lucky to have so many good friends to help me when I need help. Once home, I got a glass of water, sat in my massage chair and pulled a blanket over me to keep warm. I spent the evening watching TV. There used to be a time that I would go to the pub at 7 pm on a Friday and wouldn't leave the pub until at least 2 am on a Saturday, and sometimes it would have been closer to 4 am. These days, I enjoy a comfy chair, a warm blanket, and watching repeats on TV more than going to a pub in the cold and staying out late.

Just before going to bed at around 10 pm, I made the mistake of looking at a hint that had popped up on the Ancestry website for one of my 3rd great-grandmothers. It was a good lead, but it kept me working on my family tree until around 1 am before I eventually went to bed. 

Saturday, 23rd November.

I got up at around 7:30 am and had a coffee to wake me up. After I had woken myself up and done the Wordle puzzle, I cooked myself a couple of poached eggs and put them on toast for breakfast.

After breakfast, I did some more genealogy research on my 3rd great-grandfather, Henry Benjamin Warner, before typing up notes about my day in Kyoto and my day travelling from Kyoto to Osaka.

My friend Bob popped around at about 1:30 pm to take a look at my disability scooter for me. It had a strange knock and feel when I put it in reverse when it first started up, and he thought he might be able to see what was wrong with it. He also said he would bring a car foot pump around for me to use so that I could inflate the tyres on it.

When Bob arrived, he quickly put my mind at rest regarding my disability scooter. One of the back wheels has a small dink in it, and this is what causes the strange feeling. Bob did say he could only just feel it, and it is probably because I use it all the time that I have become more aware of it and started to worry about it. He looked the rest of the scooter over for me and pumped the tyres up with his car's foot pump before he left. I plugged the disability scooter in to charge and went back to my apartment to work on my family tree.

Before this afternoon's football game started, I cooked a chicken thigh and had it with new potatoes, peas, and sweetcorn. I then sat down to watch the Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest game. Arsenal rested a few players and gave a few others some game time, but they performed well. At halftime, they were winning 2-0. I heated some apple and raisin crumble during the first half of the game, and at half-time, I made some custard and had it with half of the crumble. Arsenal scored again in the second half, and they won the game 3-0. Ethan Nwaneri, Arsenal's 17-year-old wizard, played the last 10 minutes and also scored the third goal. He will be a fantastic player in the very near future.

I thought about going to the pub this evening, but as I was warm and comfortable, I stayed home and did more research on my family tree. I placed details of some of the census surveys I found my ancestors in onto various relatives pages on my website.

When I went to bed tonight, I realised I hadn't put the clean linen on my bed when I stripped the old linen from it this morning. I quickly made my bed and then jumped in it. The fresh sheets helped me to fall asleep very quickly, at around midnight.

Sunday, 24th November.

When I got up this morning, I had the last of the decaffeinated coffees I had bought accidentally this week. I struggled to do the Wordle puzzle this morning, and I blamed it entirely on the inferior coffee. After pottering around for a while, I decided to get some more coffee. I knew that Mercadonna, where I usually go, would be shut, but Aldi next to it opened on Sundays, so I went there.

When I arrived at Aldi, I parked my disability scooter outside and went in to look around. I tested my Fitbit app by scanning various items' bar codes to see if they would register in my app database. I was pleased to see they did. I bought a couple of things to have next week, and I got the coffee that I can't survive without. Strangely, I never drank coffee until I came to Spain. I was always a tea man. I saw that the bakery section was selling fresh rolls made with beer that looked really good, so I bought a couple to try them out. I paid for my shopping and was walking out when I saw that they had an offer on Ponsietta plants, so I picked one up and hurried back to the till to pay for it. It always amazes me that shops have things for sale after you have been through the till area and paid for your shopping. I was lucky that there was no one else waiting, and the shop was lucky because I wouldn't have bought it if it had meant queuing up to get it.

I went home and got a coffee, and as it had gone 11 am and I hadn't eaten, I decided to have elevensies. As it was in the fridge, I reheated the leftover apple and raisin crumble and ate that. I remembered when I was young, my grandma used to peel the spuds and put chips in a bowl of water till they were needed for dinner. While I was getting my coffee, I peeled a potato cut it up for chips and placed them in a bowl of water to use later when I have fish and chips for dinner tonight.

After putting my few bits of shopping away, I carefully pulled away the plastic protection from around the Ponsietta I had bought, placed it on a flower pot dish and placed it on the shelf near my computer where I could see it. Poinsettias are one of my favourite plants and are one of only a very few small things I do around Christmas to decorate the apartment. I guess now it is there, I will start watching 24-hour Christmas films on the TV as well.

As I was surfing the Internet, I messaged my friend Donna to see how she was after she broke her arm a while ago. While she was talking, she told me that Lionel Richie tickets were now on sale for his show in Murcia next year. I had tried to book a ticket earlier this year, but they weren't available when I looked. I quickly went online and was able to book myself a ticket for the VIP area in front of the stage. The tickets are more expensive in this part of the bull ring, but I don't get squashed by crowds there and get an excellent view. As soon as I had confirmation that I had a ticket, I booked a room for the night as well. The hotel I usually stay in was only taking reservations for a minimum of two nights, so I looked for somewhere else to stay. I found a whole apartment available on Booking.com, a short distance away from the place I usually stay, and it was less money than I typically pay for a hotel room. I quickly booked it. I now have two things booked for next year: my holiday in India and a trip to see Lionel Richie in Murcia.

This afternoon, I called my uncle Dave, and we spent over an hour on the phone catching up with each other. We spoke about my family tree research and my trips for next year. He had a bit of a cold. I hope it clears up soon so he feels better.

I tried to watch some of the Southampton vs Liverpool football game but It didn't have any interest for me and I found it hard going to watch so I turned it over and watched a film. I cooked myself fish and chips for dinner tonight and finished in time to watch some of the Ipswich vs Manchester United football match.

The temperatures are dropping quickly in the evenings now, and I don't think it will be too long before I have to start using my bedroom heater at night or even put on the warm air unit to warm the whole apartment. I went to bed early tonight. At least it was still warm in bed, and I didn't have to put the bedroom heater on tonight.