2025, Week 9 journal.

Week 9 of 2025 was spent mainly in Los Alcazares. I slowly got over the jet lag from my travels in the last few weeks, and the new reclining chair I had ordered from El Corte Ingles arrived early, to my great delight.

Monday 24th February.

I woke up very early today, at around 4 am and could not get back to sleep. I eventually gave up trying to get any more rest and got up at 4:30 am. I began working on the photos from my holiday. I began moving them from the different devices I had them stored on to the hard drive I use for storing photos.

At around 10 am, I decided to go out and see some of my friends at Cafe Prensa in Los Alcazares. I went to meet them for coffee, and we sat and chatted for a couple of hours. They told me that they were organising a get-together to remember my friend Mike, who had passed away while I was in India. They told me when and where it would be, and I said I would be there.

I left Cafe Prensa at about 12:30 and walked to the Corner bar to meet my friend Martin. Dave, Sean, Jes, and Aria joined us as we sat and talked. I asked if any of them had a black armband I could borrow for Mike's memorial, and Sean said he could lend me one.

When I left my friends, I went to my home via the Mercadona store. I bought myself some coffee beans for my coffee machine and then went straight home. After I got home, I got a message from El Corte Ingles telling me that the new reclining chair I had ordered was ready early and that they would be delivering it on Wednesday.

I was exhausted because of the jet lag I was still suffering from, and I couldn't stay awake for long. I eventually gave up struggling to keep my eyes open and went to bed at about 7 pm.

Tuesday 25th February.

Once again, I was awake very early, this time at around 4:30 am. When I got up, I got myself a coffee and immediately put some of the washing I had in the washing machine. I got myself some porridge and a coffee and settled down at my computer to do the Wordle puzzle.

I spent all day working on the first photos from my tour of India for my website. I managed to edit about half of the photos from my day in Delhi and uploaded them to the website. My friend Wayne called around today and helped me move one-half of my setee down to the lock-up cupboard I have in the garage. This made room for the new chair to arrive tomorrow.

Because I have now started to get so many photos and videos in my collections, I decided to split the different files onto different external hard drives. I will keep my current external hard drive for photographic images but put all of the video files on a separate drive. I did a bit of research on the speed of new drives and purchased one on Amazon. It has a much faster speed than my current one and should be able to easily connect to both my Windows PC and Laptop, as well as my Android phone and Notepad. This will make it easy for me to back up files from my phone and video camera when I am on trips and not worry about getting an intent connection to back them up or running out of space on them. It comes with a hard case to prevent damage when travelling and an adapter to use on different types of USB ports. The drives are so much smaller than they used to be, and if it works out well, it should provide me with a backup option for photos and videos for years.

I was exhausted again today but stayed awake for as long as possible in an attempt to convince my body I was back in Spain and not still in India. I finally couldn't stay awake any longer at around 9 pm and went to bed.

Wednesday, 26th February.

I woke up around 6:30 am today, a much more normal time for me to be getting up. I got up, made a pot of tea and stuck another machine load of holiday washing in the washing machine. I didn't want it to run during the day, and to save money, I set the program to run at 4 am tomorrow so that it would be finished when I got up tomorrow.

I finished editing the photos from my first day in India and uploaded them to my website. I added details to the photos and published the Delhi to Jaipur photo album. I will link it to the rest of my website next week when I have finished updating the rest of the details of my trip.

My new reclining chair arrived around 1 pm. The delivery men brought it in in one piece. They placed it where I asked, unwrapped it, showed me how to use it and then left, taking the broken one from Eco De with them. The difference between the service and quality of the two companies that I had bought reclining chairs from was incredible. El Corte Ingle's chair was well made, and the delivery and service were exemplary. The chair from Eco De was made of inferior material, and their service was diabolical. I eventually had to admit to myself that they would not replace the shoddy chair and that the money I had spent on it would not be returned. Once the delivery men had left, I sat in the chair and tested it for comfort. It was great, and within 15 minutes, I had fallen asleep.

This evening, I had one of the last turkey stews I had in my freezer. It was delicious. I watched the Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal game on TV during the night. Arsenal had most of the possession, but because they had no strikers available to them, they were toothless in front of goal, and the game finished in a 0-0 draw, a result which probably handed the Premier League championship to Liverpool. 

Thursday, 27th February.

I woke up around 7 am today and felt much better after getting a good night's sleep last night. I am slowly returning to my usual self, not so tired and not in so much pain. I did the Wordle puzzle, pottered around on my computer for a while and got ready to be picked up by my friend Lawrence.

At 9:45 am, I walked downstairs and outside and met Lawrence in his car. We drove towards Cafe Prensa, and I asked Lawrence to drop me off at my friend Martin's house so I could pick up something that he had left out for me. I walked across to pick up the black armband, and I picked it up. Unfortunately, it was not what I was looking for. It looked like something that you would wrap around curtains or something, and it wasn't the black armband I wanted for Mike's memorial tomorrow. I rejoined Lawrence, and we went to meet our friends for coffee.

Steve and Tessa were already at the cafe, and I ordered coffee and a tostada with tomato for breakfast. It wasn't long before Øyvind joined us. We sat chatting and laughing till around 11:45 when we all left to go on our way. Lawrence likes to eat lunch early, so we made our way towards El Puente cafe bar in Avileses. When we arrived at around 12:20 pm, we went in and sat down. When the waitress came to see us, she told us that the menu for the day wasn't available until 1 pm. We ordered a drink and waited until 1 pm so we could have the menu for the day. We both had a lovely salad and Turkey Stew. Although the stew tasted great, it had very little meat in it and seemed to consist of beans, potatoes, carrots, peas, and turkey bones. A flan and a coffee followed it up. The table behind us had chosen rabbit paella, and they seemed to have gotten the better deal with the day's menu.

When we left, Lawrence dropped me home at my apartment, and I was soon inside, testing out my new recliner again. The chair worked wonders, and I was quickly asleep again. I woke up about an hour later and spent the evening watching TV. I started to rewatch the Grimm series again. I went to bed at around 10 pm.

Friday, 28th February.

I woke up around 6:45 this morning. I got up and made myself a pot of tea before sitting in front of my computer and doing the Wordle puzzle. Strangely, I had a message on WhatsApp from El Corte Ingles asking me to contact them about getting my new chair delivered. I wondered if it was a message that had been held up in the electronic world of messaging somewhere or whether they had made a mistake and I was about to receive a second chair. I messaged them back and asked them how I could help.

For breakfast, I made myself a very American PBJ sandwich and then got ready to go out for a coffee. I went on my disability scooter to Cafe Prensa but had to make a slight detour on the way because there was a children's parade happening on the main road on the way to the cafe and on the road next to it that leads back to the school. I eventually got to the cafe and sat with Theresa, Øyvind and Christine and ordered a coffee. It was around 40 minutes before I eventually got my coffee because it was so busy.

When I finished my coffee, I left and went towards the Mercadona store to get some milk. On the way, I stopped for a brief chat with my cousin Jill at La Zona bar, where she had been doing a boot sale. I then went into Mercadona and got a cheeseburger to eat and some milk. For the first time I can remember, I had a long wait at the till, and the man on the till kept ringing the office to get more staff at the tills because of the queues forming, but he had no response. I eventually paid for my milk and cheeseburger and headed back to my apartment. I ate my burger on the way home, and when I got in, I put the milk in the fridge and messaged my friend Lawrence to try and get a lift to the Las Claras centre for a memorial that was being held there for our departed friend Mike.

I couldn't get hold of Lawrence and decided I would have to leave early and walk to Las Claras. Just before I left, there was a knock at the door, and a pickup guy had arrived to collect my coffee machine to return to Cecotec for repair. They hadn't given me a day or time for the pick, so I didn't have it ready. Luckily, the man waited while I boxed it up and took it away with him. He didn't give me a receipt or anything but allowed me to photograph his order to pick up the machine that was on his phone. It did at least have my name and the correct work number for the repair. As soon as he had gone, I left for my walk to Las Claras.

The walk was challenging in the strong winds along the beach, and I had to stop a couple of times to rest before I got to Las Claras around 40 minutes later at about 1:45 pm. I was the first of Mike's friends to arrive, and I sat down to rest and got myself a pint. It wasn't long before more of Mike's friends began to arrive, and soon, a few of us were having a chat and remembering Mike. I had prepared a short speech to make, and when everybody arrived, I read my speech, remembering our friend Mike. It seemed to go down well, with a couple of people shedding a tear or two in his memory, and we all finally left around 4 pm. RIP Mike, you will always be fondly remembered by your friends.

Lawrence and I had decided we would meet for dinner tonight at El Patio. It wasn't worth my walking home to turn around and go back out to meet Lawrence, so after showing Lawrence where the restaurant was, I walked to Rocco's bar for a beer. I sat there talking with a few people I knew, Terry, Matt and Jo and a few people who were there playing pool. I sat reminiscing with Rashid, the bar owner, about my friends who had passed and frequented the bar at different times: Mike and John and my friend Paul Hooper, who used to love Rocco's bar. I had a drink or four in their memory before walking back to El Patio to meet Lawrence at 7 pm.

I had a calamari starter and steak in Roquefort sauce with sweet potato chips for my main meal. Lawrence and I sat chatting for a while before we left, and Lawrence dropped me off at home. I had considered going for a few more beers, but as the weather looked like it was going to get colder and wetter, I was happy that Lawrence was able to drop me off and save me a walk.

When I got back to my apartment, I put the heating on to warm it up for a while and went to bed a short time later.

Saturday 1st March.

I woke up around 6:30 am and got up around 7 am. I got a glass of water and checked my computer for messages. I did the Wordle puzzle and then got myself some porridge for my breakfast before editing some more photos from my holiday.

I sat working on more of my photos, and in the afternoon, the new external hard drive I had ordered arrived. I was amazed at its small size. It was only around 3 cm by 3 cm by ½ cm in size but had a 1 TB capacity. When I started using it, I realised that it was fast as well. I managed to back up all of my old videos and all of my new videos on it. When I get around to editing them, the speed of the new drive will make it much quicker to use, and its size will allow me to carry the hard drive with me when I travel on future trips.

This evening, I watched some episodes of the Grimm TV series before going to bed at 10 pm.

Sunday 2nd March.

I woke up around 6:45 this morning. It had rained most of the night, and when I looked at Plaza Espejo through the window, I could see that the rain was still falling in the large puddles that had formed on the ground.

By 10 am, I was hungry and decided to get breakfast at the Buena Vista restaurant along the beach from my apartment. I walked down to my neighbour Liz to see if she wanted to go. She was not ready to go but said she would meet me there in a short while. I walked to the restaurant, and because it was cold, raining, and there were powerful winds, I sat inside next to one of the picture windows.

I was served straight away and ordered myself a medium-sized breakfast and a coffee. My coffee arrived straight away, and as I sat watching the waves on the ordinarily flat Mar Menor, my cooked breakfast arrived. I tucked into the bacon, eggs, beans, sausages, tomato and toast, and it was delicious.  A short time after I had started breakfast, Liz arrived and ordered coffee and a tostada. We sat talking while we ate, and after finishing breakfast, we ordered another coffee. We sat talking until around 11:45 when the rain started to slow down a bit, and we walked back to the apartment block.

Liz went to talk to one of the Spanish neighbours, and I went back to my apartment. I decided to play a computer game on my laptop. I settled comfortably in the new reclining chair and sat with my laptop on my lap. I loaded up a game called Civilisation VI and started to play it and to keep things in line with my recent holiday, I played the game as India. I stopped playing a couple of times to eat or get a drink, but I was surprised when I yawned and looked at the time. It was 1 am, Monday morning, and it was time to go to bed.