Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain
Summary: I spent the week juggling nurse appointments, website work, meals with friends, a few frustrating moments at the clinic, and the usual mix of football, errands and socialising. My ankle continued to heal, my new phone arrived, and my Japanese toilet finally got installed. It was a busy but productive week.
Monday, 26th May
I woke around 06:45, got a coffee and did the Wordle puzzle before finishing last week’s blog page. Lisa messaged to rearrange our coffee meeting. She is always busy, either at the gym, on holiday or getting her hair or nails done. The cancellation worked out well because I had other things to do and an appointment with the nurse before meeting Martin at lunchtime.
I showered and rode my disability scooter to drop my old phone at the DHL collection point. Afterwards, I went to Espressarse Bar for a coffee and tostada. I saw my friend Rob there and joined him. When I finished breakfast, I went to the health clinic, but the nurse never appeared. A note on the door said to make a new appointment at reception. I explained the situation using my phone, and the receptionist booked me in to see the doctor on Friday.
An Irish lady saw me and offered to translate. She recognised the Sharky Mobile outside. We walked together until the main road, then I continued to meet Martin. At La Sombre, I ordered a beer and chatted with Martin and Dave. I told Dave about my TV problems, and he said he would look at it tomorrow. After Aria arrived, we all left.
On the way home, I stopped at Harry’s bar to see Andy. He asked about having a website built, but I told him honestly that it wouldn’t benefit him and would cost more than it was worth. I went home, didn’t feel like cooking, and got a takeaway from Hong Kong Chinese.
Tuesday, 27th May
I got up, had coffee, did Wordle and showered before working on my website. At 11:30, Dave arrived to look at my TV. He updated some settings, and we hoped it would fix the issue. We then drove to Los Narejos to pick up his bike. Martin met us there, and afterwards we went to La Sombre.
After drinks, I walked to Rio Nalon. I stopped at Harry’s bar for a beer, then went to Roccos. I chatted with Terry outside and then with Wilma inside. It turned out it was her last day because the bar was closing. I went to Gin and Fizz to ask Rachid about it. He said the lease owner had raised the rent so much that the bar couldn’t stay open. Someone else had already bought it.
I went back to say goodbye to Wilma, then headed home and ate the leftover Chinese food. I watched TV and went to bed around 22:00.
Wednesday, 28th May
Lauren messaged to say she couldn’t go to the social services office with me because she had to look after her sister. Not knowing if she could help in the future, I contacted my friend Jo. She said she would call social services to find out what we needed to do to get me registered as disabled in Spain.
I spent the rest of the day working on my website and watching TV.
Thursday, 29th May
I spent the entire day working on images for my website. I started at 07:00 and didn’t stop until 22:00, only taking one break. It was a long day but productive.
Friday, 30th May
I got up at 08:00, had coffee, did Wordle and went to the clinic. I hoped Lauren would make it, and she did. We waited 40 minutes to see the doctor. Lauren asked about my test results. The doctor said I didn’t have diabetes, my cholesterol was fine, and I should continue taking blood pressure pills. She gave the usual advice: less red meat, more salads, less beer, more exercise.
Lauren then asked the nurse if she could dress my ankle. She told us to wait, and a short time later she called us in. The outer wound had healed enough that it no longer needed dressing. She told me to apply cream to keep the skin hydrated. She cleaned and dressed the other wound and said it should heal soon.
At 13:00, Jim picked me up for lunch. We drove to Mil Palmeras and ate at Los Celtas. The menu of the day was excellent and only €12. I had crab salad, then what I think was a pig’s trotter or shin with chips. It tasted fantastic. Bread pudding for dessert was okay. Afterwards, we went to Torre de la Horadada for a drink before heading home.
I watched TV for a few hours and went to bed around 22:30.
Saturday, 31st May
I woke at 05:30 and couldn’t sleep, so I got up. I stripped the bed and put the linen in the wash, had coffee, did Wordle and worked on my website. At midday, I remade the bed, put another load of washing on, ate something and worked on my website for the rest of the day.
Sunday, 1st June
I slept well and got up at 07:00. After coffee and Wordle, I decided to finish the website work I had been doing. I discovered that although the images displayed correctly on the frontend, they weren’t being registered for search results. I contacted the extension developer, my hosting company and the sitemap developer. They all replied quickly, and the hosting company added a line of code to my server configuration. That fixed the issue.
I had converted all my images from JPEG to WEBP, saving space and speeding up the site, so I was relieved everything worked properly again. In the evening, I watched episodes of Insane Pools. The pools are stunning, but the cost is about the same as what I paid for my home in Florida. I won’t be ordering one. I went to bed around 22:00, wondering if going to bed earlier means I’m getting old.
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