2025, Week 5 journal.

During week 5 of 2025, I had a lot of pain in my knee, which luckily disappeared towards the weekend with the help of painkillers and rest. 

Monday 27th January.

I woke up early, around 6:30 am, and immediately got up, checked my email messages and did the Wordle puzzle. I pottered around in my house until around 10:30 when I went to meet my neighbour Liz, who took me to the health centre to see if my Spanish health card had finally arrived.

We didn't have to wait too long to see the receptionist, and I was soon handed my new health card, which allows me to use the Spanish health system. After we left, Liz dropped me off outside the Estribor restaurant in Los Narejos, and I walked to see my friends at Cafe Prensa. I sat with my friends there until midday, when I left and met Martin and Dave at The Corner Bar. We sat there talking for quite a while, and when Martin left, I had a chat with my friend Terry at Pizzeria La Sombre before I left.

I walked along to Rio Nalon, and my leg started to ache. I stopped at Harrys' bar, where I had a couple of beers and sat chatting to people inside about the stupid golf tournament that was on TV. It was a computer-generated screen, and people teed off from a mat and hit the ball into the screen so the computer could generate where the ball landed. Even when the ball landed in a bunker, the players would tee from the same mat. I thought it was ridiculous that professionals could get paid to play in a room smaller than the pub I was sitting in. When I left, I went to the lottery shop and bought a lottery ticket for tomorrow's lottery draw.

As I walked back home, my knee gave way, and I went to sit in the 19th Hole bar. I ordered a drink and sat chatting with the landlady. The pain in my knee did not go away, and when I stood up, I realised I wouldn't be able to walk anywhere. I messaged my friend Kate and asked if she could pick me up and drop me off at home. Kate agreed and came along to pick me up. She waited for me to finish my drink and then walked me back to her car and drove me home. My knee was in a lot of pain, and after taking a painkiller, I went straight to bed.

Tuesday 28th January.

I didn't have a very comfortable night and didn't sleep well. I woke early, and my knee was still in a lot of pain. I had a painkiller before checking my emails and doing the Wordle puzzle. At about 11:15, I left home and went to see my friend Steve at Cafe Prensa. It was his birthday, and I wanted to wish him a happy birthday.

On my way to the cafe, I stopped at a shop and bought a pot plant to give to Kate for helping me last night. When I arrived at Cafe Prensa, I had missed Steve and found him at Number 16 Cafe. I sat and had a drink with him, and once we had finished our drinks, we went to meet Martin and Dave at The Corner Bar. I sat chatting with everyone, leaving at around 1:30 pm after I had given Martin the pot plant to give to Kate when he got home. When I left, I went down to Rio Nalon, where I saw my friend Wayne sitting outside Annie's bar and joined him there. We had a drink there before moving to Harrys' bar and then Roccos' bar, where we sat with our friends, Andy and Mark.

I left the three of them in Harrys' bar and went straight home. My knee was in a lot of pain, and as soon as I got home, I took another painkiller before sitting in my armchair. Because of the pain, I could not get comfortable, so I went to bed. After going to bed, I couldn't sleep because of the pain and had a very uncomfortable night.

Wednesday, 29th January.

I woke up in a lot of pain today and took another painkiller before checking my messages. I wasn't going to go out at all today, but I couldn't get comfortable sitting in my chair at the computer, my armchair, or even laying on my bed, so I went to see if Steve was okay after his birthday.

I saw Steve at Cafe Prensa and had a coffee with him before he went home. I went past The Corner Bar, and Martin was there, so I stopped to chat with him. When he left, I approached a man and a lady who were sitting opposite. I couldn't think where I knew them from, and we chatted for a while, trying to work out where I knew them from. We couldn't work it out, but I met some new people, Steve and Debbie, and it was nice to meet them.

I then went towards home. I stopped for 20 minutes with my friend Colin at Annie's bar before I went along to the Buen Sabor takeaway shop to get something to eat. I got myself three different meals to eat over the next couple of days. I bought myself pork in pepper sauce with chips, grilled squid, and chicken wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cheese and sauteed potatoes.

When I got home, I ate the grilled squid for lunch and put the other meals in my fridge for later and for tomorrow. I found a series on TV to watch called Crossing Jordon and binge-watched lots of episodes of it while keeping my feet raised. I fell asleep a few times because of the painkillers I had taken, but I stayed awake long enough to watch the Girona vs Arsenal game. Arsenal went 1-0 down after defensive and goalkeeping errors but fought back to win the game 1-2. I still lived in the hope that they would buy a striker before the transfer window closed the following Monday. I went to bed as soon as the game finished, and I hoped I would sleep well.

Thursday, 30th January.

I didn't sleep well last night because of my leg pain, so I decided that I would have a day indoors, taking painkillers and resting my leg. I dropped off to sleep at different times during the day, thanks to the painkillers, but I didn't have a comfortable day. I did some more washing of dirty laundry, but apart from that, the only thing I managed, was to watch TV and sleep. I was glad that I bought the extra meals yesterday as I was able to reheat them in the microwave, which meant I could eat a good meal without having to cook or prepare anything else. I went to bed around 10 pm.

Friday, 31st January.

My knee felt a little better when I woke up, but I still wasn't feeling great. Just before 9 am, I went to my local doctor's surgery for my blood test. The test showed that my INR reading was high. I wasn't surprised about this because of the amount of painkillers I had taken this week. I used an online website to calculate what level of Sintrom I should take. It told me to skip some days on the tablets and then to get my INR reading done again.

When I left the doctor's surgery, I went to get some rolls for my neighbour Liz. I got her rolls in Economy Cash, but they didn't have the milk I wanted, so I went home. I dropped the rolls at Liz's apartment before going to my friends George and Yvonnes' house to see if I could fix their laptop as they couldn't log onto it. I fixed the problem, explained what I had done, and deleted some unused apps on George's phone. Before I left, George offered to take me to Mercadona to get the milk I wanted, and when I finished, he took me to get my shopping before taking me back to my apartment.

For lunch, I had a cheeseburger and then did some work on my website. After a few hours of work, I took a break and walked to Buena Vista Restaurant to book the Sunday buffet that they were advertising. I booked the meal for five people and then walked back home and got a drink of coffee before sitting in my chair to put my feet up and rest while I binge-watched more episodes of Crossing Jordan. For dinner this evening, I had the last of the cottage pies I had made and kept in the freezer. I went to bed around 11 pm.

Saturday 1st February.

I slept well last night and woke up at 6:45 am. I attempted to go back to sleep but couldn't, so I got up just after 7 am. Because of the high INR reading at my blood test yesterday, I skipped taking my Sintrom tablet and only took my fish oil tablet and omeprazole when I got up. I got myself a coffee, did the Wordle puzzle, and checked for messages on Facebook and my email.

At around 8 am, I got myself some cereal for breakfast and got another coffee. I have worked out which coffee I like best on the new coffee machine and how to change the strength and size of the coffee I want. I put some washing in my washing machine, loaded up the dishwasher, set it running and then spent the morning and afternoon working on my website.

I kept my feet up while I sat in my armchair and dosed off a couple of times while I binge-watched more episodes of Crossing Jordan. I started watching the second season today, and the storylines have become a lot better, and some of them were real tear-jerkers. I spoke to my friend June this evening to see if she could still take me to catch my train on Tuesday next week. I was thrilled that she could, and we arranged a time for her to pick me up.

When the washing machine had finished, I hung all my clothes in the wardrobe and then carried on watching TV until I went to bed at around 11:30 pm.

Sunday 2nd February.

I woke up around 7:30 this morning. My legs felt much better and were pain-free for the first time in a few days. I got up, stripped the linens from my bed and put them into the washing machine. They would be the last lot of washing I do before I go away next week. Once the washing machine was running, I got myself a coffee and a bacon sandwich for breakfast.

I ate breakfast while checking my messages online. Afterwards, I had another coffee before spending a couple of hours doing the monotonous job of deleting unfound links from Google's Index pages for my website.

Just before 1 pm, I left home and walked to Buena Vista restaurant to meet my friends and to try the Sunday lunchtime buffet. I walked along the beachfront, and as I arrived, Martin, Kate, and Aria had also just arrived. We went inside and sat at our table to wait for Lawrence. When Lawrence arrived, we all ordered a drink, and I tried a Mango Lassi, a drink I expect to be able to try in India next week. It tasted pretty nice but wasn't as lovely as I was expecting it to be. We all had the buffet and helped ourselves with the different Indian foods. I enjoyed all the starters and the curries and will probably go again when I have nothing else planned. After we had finished our meals, we sat chatting for a while before we all left and went back to our homes. I was quickly in my apartment after walking along the beachfront.

When I got home, I did some more work on my website before the good food I had eaten earlier made me a bit sleepy. I then turned off my computer and sat in my chair for a sleep before the Arsenal vs Manchester City game came on TV later. I set the alarm on my watch to make sure I woke up in time to watch it.

I woke up just in time for the football, and I was not disappointed. Arsenal played brilliantly, going into a 1-0 lead in 104 seconds when Martin Odegaard scored. Within a few minutes, they had a second goal disallowed for offside, and it was only poor finishing that prevented them from going further ahead before halftime. Manchester City played better at the start of the second half, and Erling Haaland scored a goal. I did wonder if this would be the signal for Arsenal to crumble, but it wasn't. Within a minute, Arsenal scored again to go ahead 2-1 when Thomas Partey hit a shot in off a City defender. Arsenal got better and better. Myles Lewis Skelly scored a beautiful goal to make it 3-1 before Kai Havertz scored a great goal to make it 4-1. Arsenal's 5th goal was my favourite. Declan Rice hit a long ball across the pitch to Ethan Nwaneri, who controlled it and jigged around a couple of City defenders to curl his finish into the net from the edge of the box to make it Arsenal 5, Manchester City 1. The final whistle went a short time later, and the score ended 5-1. Poor old Erling Haaland had been well and truly humbled, and the crowd at the game made sure he knew it by singing to him throughout the game. Arsenal even played a record called Humble, over the tannoy system to him at the end of the game.

I enjoyed the game so much that I watched more episodes of Crossing Jordon until MOTD came on late at night, and I was able to watch the highlights of the game all over again. I went to bed around midnight, and I was a delighted man.