2025, Week 1 journal.

2024 ended cold and dark, with thoughts of people who had departed from this beautiful world we live in. 2025 started with plans for the New Year and thoughts of people we would see again and new people that we would meet. 

Monday 30th December.

When I woke up this morning, it was pretty cold, and I couldn't get back to sleep. I got up, put on my dressing gown and shuffled through to the kitchen to make a coffee. When I had my coffee, I sat down at my computer in my lounge and checked for messages before doing the Wordle puzzle. I did the puzzle quite quickly and began editing a couple of pages on my website. Before I knew it, it had gone 9:15 am, and I decided to get myself some porridge for breakfast.

After I had eaten my porridge and drank my coffee, I realised I had some excess energy and was bored. It's a dangerous combination for me. I got myself ready and went out on my disability scooter. I was going to do some shopping but changed my mind and went to Cafe Prensa in Los Narejos to see some friends there before meeting Martin at Number 16 bar at lunchtime.

Rainbow in a grey sky.Kate joined us today, and I gave her one of the apple crumbles I had made to take home with her. It was her birthday, after all. We sat chatting for a few hours, and Aria seemed happy playing in the park opposite. There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky a little North of us, and I should have guessed that rain was on its way.

When we left, I went towards my home via Rio Nalon, where I saw my friend Andy and stopped for a beer with him at Annie's bar. The rain started, and very quickly, it came down very heavily, and I had to move my scooter to the other side of the street where it would be undercover. After leaving the bar, I stopped at Harry's bar, where I spoke to my friends Stuart and Jordana before carrying on home.

After putting my scooter in the garage, I walked to the J&G bar to see about going there on New Year's Eve. Like many other bars, they were charging people to go in on New Year's Eve, and I declined the ticket I was offered. I think it is terrible that the bars that people use all year suddenly feel the need to charge for the customers to enter. Some bars do provide some food for the entrance money, but I would like to think it would be a time for various owners to say thank you to the customers who have supported them all year and not to charge an entrance fee.

I got a taxi back to the square when I left the bar and went to The Celt, where I saw my friends Mick and Nita. We sat and chatted until I left and went back to my apartment.

Tuesday 31st December.

When I got up today, it was overcast and raining heavily. I decided straight away to stay home today and tonight. It wasn't worth getting cold and wet when I could stay warm and comfortable at home.

I spent all day watching films. In the early evening, I heard a couple of fireworks outside in the square. Because of the yellow weather alerts in the area, the local council cancelled the planned fireworks show on safety grounds.

By 10 pm, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, so I went to bed early.

Wednesday 1st January.

When I woke up at around 7 am, it was very dark outside and quite cold. I put the heat on in the apartment, got a coffee and then sat at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. I managed to do the puzzle, but it wasn't easy. I wonder how far into 2025 I will be able to go before I fail to get the puzzle correctly.

I spent most of today watching films, old ones, new ones, good ones and rubbish ones. It seemed to rain on and off most of the day, and I stayed in my warm apartment all day. 

This evening, I watched the Brentford vs Arsenal game on TV. Brentford took the lead with their first foray into the Arsenal half after Arsenal had initially looked comfortable. Gabriel Jesus scored an equaliser for Arsenal, and the game was level at 1-1 at halftime. As the second half started, Arsenal were flying and quickly went ahead with goals from Mikel Moreno and Gabriel Martinelli. They held on and won the game 1-3 and jumped above Nottingham Forest into second place in the Premier League, six points behind Liverpool, who have a game in hand.

My eyes were tired from watching TV all day, and I went to bed very early, at about 9:45 pm.

Thursday, 2nd January.

Because I went to bed so early last night, I woke up early at 2 am, and after falling asleep again, I woke again just before 6 am today. I was wide awake, so I got up, got myself a coffee and some porridge and sat at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. The coffee kicked in quickly, and I did the puzzle before getting a second one. Now that the New Year has started, I am able to transfer some money from one bank account to another without worrying about losing any interest. I moved some money from a savings account to an account I use for buying things and scoured the internet sales.

Because I used my last coffee capsule today and because I wanted to buy myself a new coffee maker, I went online to browse coffee machines. I decided on a model which grinds coffee beans and makes different types of coffee. I love the smell of coffee and thought the model I chose would be lovely because of the smell of the coffee it would produce. I had looked at one that could be told to make coffee from your mobile phone, but as my apartment is tiny and my lounge is less than ten steps away from the kitchen, the extra money for this option was a waste. I ordered a different machine directly from Cecotec as delivery, and a three-year warranty was included in the price, something that you had to pay extra for elsewhere. The model I chose was the  Cremmaet CompactCcino.

Mid-morning, I started to prepare my pork stew for lunch, and I expected to have some leftovers to put in the freezer. It wasn't until just after I had chopped and diced some potato that I realised that the diced pork I had bought was actually diced turkey. I carried on, added some white beans and put the ingredients in the slow cooker. Twenty minutes later, I remembered the mixed root vegetables I had but hadn't put in the stew. I quickly peeled and chopped the mixed root vegetables and put them in the stew and beans. It may not be the most organised meal I have prepared, but it sure smelled good cooking away. 

I walked to the local rubbish bin, put my rubbish in and continued to the local store to get some french bread to go with the stew. When I returned, the whole apartment smelled terrific, and I instantly started feeling hungry. In the middle of the afternoon, I couldn't resist the smell of the turkey stew any longer. I got myself a bowl of it with a bit of French bread covered in butter. It was lovely, and it was hard work for me not to have a second bowl. 

This afternoon, I dosed off in front of the TV, and when I woke up, the temperature had started to drop, so I put the heat on and wrapped myself up under a blanket. Having not done it for the previous two years, I decided to budget for myself this year. I had found in the past that it helped me stop buying things I didn't really need and stopped me going to the pub as much. I had been thinking about possibly booking the last big long-haul trip I could go on in January 2026. It will be an expensive trip if I do it, but because of the way I have felt recently, I believe I am running out of time for me to be able to go on long-haul trips. Two of the places that I really want to visit are Australia and New Zealand, and I may be able to visit both places in one trip, but it would depend on my budgeting correctly in 2025 and my investments doing well. I can budget and start today by adding the things I bought today to my budget software. All I need now is for the investments I have made to come good.

This evening, I changed the linen on my bed before sitting in my chair to watch TV, but then I logged in to my website and added descriptions to some of the photos from my Japan trip. After I finished working on my website, I watched the River Monsters TV program, but in this episode, the presenter, Jeremy Wade, was looking for big Greenland sharks in the ocean. One of the ones he caught was over 700 lbs and 10 feet in length. It was estimated to be over 400 years old. The shark lives in depths between 100 and 1200 metres in depth. The presenter of the show lowered an aluminium can into the water with a camera and weight on it, and at around 150 feet deep, the can was utterly crushed.  It made me realise again how little we know about the world we live on.

Friday, 3rd January.

I woke up a few times during the night but got back to sleep quickly each time. I woke up and got up at 7 am. I had no coffee, so I made a pot of Thai Ginger Oolong Tea and had a bowl of porridge with it for breakfast. I started watching the English news on TV this morning and remembered why I don't watch it anymore. People on news programs are no longer newsreaders. They are self-styled interrogators. They should stick to giving the news as it happens and stop interrogating every person they interview. I turned the TV news off and put Radio 2 on to listen to some music instead.

I have some essential oil being delivered today for my infusers. The oils I have have run out, and I have ordered a new one to make my apartment smell nice. I looked outside while I sat at my computer, and there was a lovely blue cloudless sky outside, but the temperature was still only 8 °c outside. It made me feel cold even though my apartment is a comfortable 21°c, and I put on my thermal clothes and layers to keep me warm through the day.

This morning my neighbour Liz asked me for some advice and I went down to see her. We talked for about an hour and had a coffee before I went back to my apartment to wait for my Amazon delivery. In the early afternoon, knowing that I couldn't go shopping, Liz knocked on my door with some milk so I could have a coffee at home and my porridge in the morning.

While I waited for my delivery, I updated many of the photos in the Japan section of my website with descriptions. I took a break from this in the afternoon and started to add some details to the India section of my website. I had looked at the itinerary of my trip in February many times. If I hadn't been excited about my trip already, I was very excited now after reading about many of the places I would be visiting in more detail.

My delivery didn't arrive until after 4:30 pm, and I didn't want to go shopping that late, so I decided to wait until the local Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong, opened and get a takeaway. I really enjoyed the meal I had there over Christmas and thought I would get a set meal again. I waited until 6:30 pm and walked to the restaurant. I ordered a set meal for two people. I will have some tonight and the rest tomorrow. Once again, when I went to leave, they gave me a bottle of wine to take with me.

After walking the short distance home, I put the heat on in my apartment and picked some of the dishes from the set meal for my tea. I had one of the bowls of soup and then ate the sweet and sour prawn balls. It was all excellent and filled me up. I left the other dishes to cool down before putting them in the fridge to eat tomorrow.

This evening, I poured myself some white wine, topped it up with casera (like English lemonade) and then settled in my armchair to watch the film Young Guns II.

Saturday 4th January.

I woke up at about 6:30 am and got out of bed at about 6:45 am. Because I had not got any coffee until my new coffee maker arrived next week, I got myself a pot of tea before sitting down at my computer. I did the Worlde puzzle and left a massive clue for my friends to get. I am sure one of them will get it in one guess today because of the clue I left.

I added more descriptions to photos on my website for an hour or more before taking a break. I took a large bag of paper recycling to the bin and then returned home. When I got home, I cleaned my kitchen and took the coffee out of all the old coffee pots I had kept to recycle. I put the used coffee granules in the kitchen compost bin and put the plastic pots in the plastic recycling bag to get rid of later.

By the time I had finished, I was a bit out of breath. I do seem to get puffed out quickly. I don't think the colder weather helps much, but then again, I complain that the hot weather makes me feel out of breath quickly. I really need something in between.

While browsing the internet, I found a recipe online for a beautiful ham chowder, so I printed it off so I could try to make it sometime next week. I also saw a recipe for making overnight oats with Greek yoghurt, peanut butter, and honey. I will try that next week as well. If either of the recipes works well, I will put them on my website in the new recipes section that I will be building.

For my lunch, I had half a rice dish and half a beef dish that came with my takeaway from yesterday. It was lovely and saved me from doing too much cooking today. After eating my lunch, I settled in my armchair to watch the second half of the Tottenham vs Newcastle football match on TV.

I was still waiting for the delivery for my friend Lawrence at 6:30 pm when the Brighton vs Arsenal football match started. I figured that if I started eating and watching the game, the delivery would arrive, so I sat down in front of the TV with a bowl of soup. It didn't work, and I watched Arsenal go into a 1-0 lead when Arsenal's 17-year-old player, Ethan Nwaneri, scored a great goal. At half-time, Arsenal were winning, and the delivery hadn't arrived. I reheated the leftovers from yesterday's Chinese meal and sat down in front of the TV again to watch the second half of the game. Brighton equalised when they were given a ridiculous penalty. Two players went to head the same ball, and their heads collided. The referee gave a penalty, and Brighton scored from the penalty spot to equalise. Brighton were the better team in the second half, and the number of injuries in the Arsenal squad is getting very bad. After the game, we were told that the reason Ethan Nwaneri had been substituted at halftime was because of an injury. Unless Arsenal buy some new players to help in the next few weeks, their season is over.

After the game, I sat waiting for the delivery. Before the football match started, the Amazon app had been telling me the delivery was very close and would be at my apartment very soon. It eventually turned up at about 9 pm. I really hate the fact that when you have to wait for a delivery, the time they give you for a delivery is from 8 am to 10 pm, and the tracking app is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

After I had taken delivery of the parcel, I watched a bit more TV and went to bed around 11 pm.

Sunday 5th January.

I woke up early today, at around 6 am. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up. I checked for messages on my computer, did the Wordle puzzle, and started editing my website.

At around 10:15, Lawrence called me, and I told him that the parcel from Amazon was ready to pick up. Lawrence said he would drive around to get it. Lawrence arrived, picked up his parcel around 10:45, and asked me if I wanted to go and get a coffee with him at Prensa cafe. Having no plans, I said I would go with him, and we left in his car and drove there. When we arrived, the two Steves and Bev were already there. We sat with them and sat chatting. We had a couple of coffees, and around 12:30, when the others had left, Lawrence asked if I knew anywhere he could get a good Sunday dinner. I suggested he go to Campbell's bar in Roda and asked if he minded if I went with him.

Lawrence said he would be happy for me to go as well, so I rang the owner, Mike and asked if he could fit us in for 1 pm. He said he could, and after finishing our coffees, we drove up to the bar. I said hello to my friend Martin before we sat down to eat our meals. Lawrence had the chicken, and I had the lamb. As we sat eating and talking Lawrences' phone rang, and it was his daughter. She told him that she was going out for dinner and asked where he was. When he told her where we were, she burst out laughing because that was where she was going with her other half and some friends. Before Lawrence and I finished, his daughter Chanel arrived, and I was introduced to her.

When Lawrence and I finished our meals and drinks, Lawrence dropped me off back at my apartment. I hadn't been in long when my sister called me. We had a good chat, and after speaking to her, I did a little work on my website before retiring to my armchair to watch the remainder of today's first football match and then the Liverpool vs Manchester United game this evening.

As I had expected, after such a good lunch, I fell asleep before the game even started. I did wake up before the first goal, though, and what I saw was quite a good game that finished in a 2-2 draw. I spent the rest of the evening watching TV before going to bed early.