✍Journal: Week 25, 2025.

In week 25 of 2025, I conducted extensive research on my family tree and spoke with two women who were also researching their family history, one in Canada and one in the UK.

📝Monday, 16th June.

When I woke up at 7 am, it was already hot and sticky. It's fair to say the summer has now arrived. I had a coffee, did the Wordle puzzle online and then jumped into the shower. I say jumped, that's an exaggeration. I walked in slowly and sat on the shower chair I use, turned on the water, and cooled myself down before performing my ablutions. My friend Lawrence messaged me, and at about 9:45, he collected me and took me to Cafe Prensa.

I took the tablet that I had told my friend Kate she could have. I had hoped to see Martin at the Cafe, but he wasn't there. I had a coffee and a tostada and sat talking with Lawrence. We were joined by Theresa, Christine, Darren and Oyvind, and we all sat talking until around 11:45. As everybody started to leave, I paid for my breakfast and collected the tablet to walk to La Sombre Pizzeria to meet Martin.

When I arrived, I ordered a bottle of water. Martin arrived just after 12, and we were soon joined by Dave and a couple of Martin's friends. Sitting on a table near us was a local who thinks he is a big man, selling drugs to people who are addicted to them. I refer to him as Shania Twayne because he don´t impress me. He was getting louder and louder while telling people who would listen that drugs don't affect him. If drugs don't affect him, that would mean he is a loud, annoying idiot all the time. I can believe that.

A short time later, Aria got off the school bus, and Kate arrived from home. I was able to give Kate the tablet I was letting her have. I had checked that it used a standard phone charger to charge and explained that to her. Dave left just after 2 pm, and I got a lift home with him. He dropped me off on the main road near my home, and I walked the short distance back to my apartment.

I had some pate on crackers and a mini roll with ham and cheese for lunch before sitting in my armchair to work on my website. As I worked, I got an email from one of the Investment managers that I have some money with. I told them that I wanted to leave the private pension fund as it was, but instructed them to cash in the other investment I had with them. I want to use this money to pay for my next trip and put the rest towards a new kitchen for my apartment. Emails between the investment company and myself flew back and forth for a while, and I hope that my instructions will be taken care of soon.

I received a message from my sister this afternoon asking if she could share my phone number with my niece, as she wanted to message me. I laughed because I used to speak to her quite a bit before my Farcebook ban and hadn't realised she didn't have my phone number. A short time later, I received a wonderful message from my niece, Holly, informing me that I was going to be a Great-Uncle and that she and her boyfriend, Reece, were expecting a baby girl in November. 

Although this was great news, I suddenly felt a sense of age. I have memories of my niece, in my head, as a baby or very young child, back in the days when she used to love her Uncle very much. I still think of her as a little girl, not the young woman she has grown into. Congratulations, Holly and Reece, you will make great parents. PS, can I laugh at you when I think of you thinking about Lanesra as a name for your daughter?

I had chicken with peas and sweetcorn for my dinner, again avoiding any potatoes. I will buy some sweet potatoes to make sweet potato mash the next time I go to the market. I again tried to watch some of the Club World Cup this evening. Chelsea was playing Los Angeles, and I wondered how either team could secure a place in a competition for the world's best teams, while Arsenal and Liverpool didn't. It wasn't good enough to keep me interested, and I stopped watching. I went to bed early at about 10:30, hoping to sleep all the wya through as I had an early morning visit to the clinic for a blood test tomorrow.

📝Tuesday, 17th June.

I woke up around 6:45 a.m. It was already getting hot and clammy. I had a shower to help me cool off and then got dressed, ready to go to the clinic for my blood test. I got a coffee and sat at my computer. It was then that I realised that my blood test is on Thursday, not today and that my other appointment at the clinic, to have my ankle dressed, is for tomorrow, not today. I completed the Wordle puzzle, added some notes to the Eurobilltracker website, and decided to go to the market to buy some fruit and vegetables while it was still cool.

I took some recycling to the bins and dropped it off, and then continued onto the market. It was pretty busy already, and manoeuvring my disability scooter around was tricky. I found a stall with large, juicy oranges that I liked, so I stopped. I bagged up a few kilos of the oranges, some lovely big red apples, and although they were dearer than the supermarket, I got some bananas as well. I made the mistake of picking out plantains and not bananas, which were expensive, and I wished I hadn't bothered with them. I decided to Google Plantains to see why they are always more expensive than bananas.

Once I had got my fruit, I took it all home. While I was there, I checked for messages from my Investment company. They had messaged me and asked me for a photo so they could certify who I was, so I sent one off immediately. I received a quick reply stating that she meant a copy of my passport, so I sent that off as well. They soon sent me the DocuSign documents, and I completed them promptly and returned them.

At about 11:30, I went back out on my disability scooter and went to get my head shaved and a beard trim. I stopped at a local barbershop, and the barber told me to wait for a minute, and he would be with me. I sat down, and as I sat down, he asked what I wanted. When I told him I wanted my head shaved and my beard trimmed, he said he couldn't shave my head all the way down and no longer trimmed beards. I got up and left, going towards Cafe Prensa for a coffee.

When I arrived, I saw Lawrence and sat with him for a chat. While we sat there, his son arrived and joined us. Lawrence left with his son, and I counted out the correct change from my pocket for my coffee and then went to Pizzeria La Sombre to meet Martin.  I ordered a bottle of water and sat down outside. Martin and Dave arrived a short time later. I could feel flies on me, so I got up and got some fly and mosquito repellent from the box on my disability scooter and covered my bare skin with it before sitting down again. The repellent seemed to work, and the flies stopped bothering me. Terry joined us and informed me that people were all wondering what had happened to me and were concerned about my well-being. All because I am banned from Farcebook and they can't message me on the social platform anymore. I wonder why people who are all so worried about me couldn't be bothered to ring me or knock on my door to check on me.

A short time after Aria got back from school on the bus, we all got up to leave. I suddenly realised I hadn't got my wallet. I checked under the table and couldn't see it, and I went inside the restaurant to see if I had left it on the bar when I got my bottle of water earlier. Nobody had seen it. I went back to Cafe Prensa, where I had had coffee earlier, and nobody there had seen it either. It meant I couldn't get any shopping and would have to cancel all my cards if I couldn't locate it.

I wondered if it had fallen out of my pocket when I sat down in the barbershop and stopped there on my way home. As I got there, the barber was locking up, but he went back inside to look for my wallet for me, but it wasn't there either. I thanked him and then jumped back on my disability scooter, heading back to my apartment. When I got back home, I went inside, and the first thing I saw under my computer desk was my wallet, where it had fallen after I got back from the market this morning.

I felt very relieved that I hadn't lost. I was also pleased to see that my investment company had emailed me to confirm that everything I had sent was satisfactory and that the investment had been actioned for sale.

After all the worry about losing my wallet and the uncomfortable heat this morning, I couldn't face cooking anything for dinner and went to Buen Sabor on my disability scooter to get something to eat. I got a pork fillet in pepper sauce, my favourite, and took it home to eat straight away. Almost as soon as I finished my meal, I fell asleep in my armchair and slept for about an hour.

When I woke up, I sliced up the oranges I bought at the market this morning and then juiced them all. I then cored and juiced half of the apples I bought and mixed the juice in with the orange juice. The rest of the apples I cored and put them in the freezer to use to make apple crumbles later in the week.

During the evening, I got myself two mini rolls with ham and cheese spread. After eating them, I sat in my armchair and spent some time doing family tree research on the Ancestry website. I went to the garage at about 10:30 and put my disability scooter on to charge overnight. I then returned to my apartment and went to bed, after ensuring I had set my alarm for the next day, when I would have the dressing on my ankle changed.

📝Wednesday, 18th June.

I woke up at 6:45  this morning. As I got out of bed, I realised that the plaster on my ankle had finally fallen off during the night. It had been looking a bit worn and sad, and I was surprised it had stayed on for two weeks. I got up and realised I didn't have any milk for my coffee, so I had a glass of orange and apple juice instead of coffee. I completed the Wordle puzzle online and browsed the Internet before taking a shower and getting ready to go to the clinic to have my ankle re-dressed.

I arrived at the clinic a bit puffed out and sat down to wait for my appointment. When the lady who was in with the nurse left, no one else went in, and I heard the nurse say something, so I asked if she had called my name. The nurse who was training told me that the regular nurse was on the phone and hadn't called me, so I sat back down. A short time later, the trainee nurse came out of the room and asked me what time my appointment was. I showed him the paper with my appointment time on it, and he went back to see the nurse. He came back out a few minutes later and said that my appointment was for the 11th, not the 18th. He said that he thought it said the 18th as well and that if I waited a while, they would see me anyway.

I didn't have to wait long, and after cleaning the wound on my ankle, they redressed it. The wound had a couple of scabby bits near it, probably from scratches and having the plaster on for too long, but the actual wound appeared to have shrunk again. We are all trying to learn some of each other's languages, but the nurse told me my accent is so strong they can't understand what I say in Spanish. I am saying the right words as far as I am concerned because I am reading short sentences from Google Translate, but I know my accent is very strong. We all laugh about my attempt to speak Spanish, and this time, when she gave me an appointment for next week, I added it to my Google Calendar and had them verify the date and time. There should be no misunderstanding because of poor handwriting next week.

I left the clinic and walked back to my apartment, where I rested and cooled down. After I had cooled off, I contacted the Nationwide Building Society in the UK to obtain my ID number for the card reader I need to use to log in to my account.  The lady was able to help and provided me with my ID number. I thanked her, ended the call and attempted to log in to my account. Unfortunately, when I inserted the debit card into the card reader, it informed me that the card had been locked as well. I contacted the Building Society again and was helped this time by a man who told me that he would need to replace my card. He said he would send a new card and PIN to me immediately and that I should expect them in 5 working days. If it arrives within 3 weeks, I will be absolutely amazed.

After I finished my calls, I went out on my disability scooter to do some shopping. I had intended to go to the Mercadona store, but it was too hot outside, so I went instead to Economy Cash, which is closer and should have had the things I needed. It didn't have everything I wanted, but the small amount of shopping I got meant I could have some dinner tonight, as well as breakfast and dinner for the next couple of days.

When I got home, I made myself a sandwich and a short time after eating it, I fell asleep in my chair. I had a nap for about 40 minutes, but when I woke up, I still felt very lethargic and had no energy. I spent the afternoon and early evening watching TV, and an old documentary show that Romesh Ranganathan made back in 2018 called Just Another Immigrant. I hadn't seen it before and found it highly entertaining.

I had a phone call from my friend Theresa this afternoon. The lady who runs Cafe Prensa, where we meet for coffee, had told her that I had gone back there yesterday to look for my wallet and had asked her if I had found it. Theresa had called to check that I had retrieved it, but I thought it was so kind of the Spanish cafe owner to ask my friends if I had managed to retrieve it.

This afternoon, I did a bit more research on my family tree.

📝Thursday, 19th June.

I woke up just before my alarm went off at 7 am and walked through to the lounge in my apartment to turn the alarm off before it went off. I then took a shower before doing the Wordle puzzle, and then went to the garage to retrieve my disability scooter to visit the health clinic for my blood test. I arrived at the health clinic just before 8 am and joined the end of the queue of people waiting to go in.

I was soon inside, and when I showed the people at the desk my paperwork, they ushered me in a different direction. I walked in the direction I was shown and found an office with an open door and one lady sitting at a desk inside. I asked her if I was in the right place for a Sintrom test, and she confirmed that I was. I sat down, and she took my paperwork and asked if I had taken all my doses of Sintrom correctly. I told her I had, and she found my name on her list, checked it off, and then pricked my finger with the blood test machine. The test machine quickly provided my reading, and she wrote it down before showing it to me. I asked if I could pick the results up at the clinic as well, and she said yes, at the reception desk this afternoon. I left her, got on my disability scooter, and thought I'd go shopping for some items I hadn't bought yesterday. I went towards Economy Cash, and when I arrived at about 8:20 am, it was still closed. I decided to get a coffee at the bottom of Rio Nalon and went in that direction. As I went down the middle of the pedestrian area, I saw a vehicle blocking the bottom of the strip, so I decided to go to Mercadona to get my shopping and get a coffee at La Zona.

When I arrived at Mercadona, it was still closed, and La Zona bar was also closed, so I decided to keep going to Cafe Prensa in Los Narejos for a coffee. As I arrived at the Oasis, I saw my friend Martin waiting at the bus stop with his daughter, Aria, for her bus for school. I shouted hello, and he said he would follow me for a coffee when the bus had gone. I continued to the cafe and parked my scooter at the side of the road between two cars.

I sat outside and ordered a coffee and a tostada with tomato. The lady who owns the cafe asked if I had my wallet, and after showing it to her, I sat down outside. My breakfast was soon brought out to me, and I was eating my tostada when Martin arrived and got a coffee. We chatted for a short time, and when Lawrence arrived, Martin left to go to work. Lawrence joined me and we sat chatting, and I had another coffee. As we talked, we were joined by Theresa, Steve and then by Oyvind. I got a bottle of water, and when I finished that, I paid my bill and went to leave to return to Economy Cash. As I approached my disability scooter, I realised some idiot had parked their three-wheel tricycle right up against the back of my scooter, blocking me in against the kerb. I picked the tricycle up and moved it across to a nearby space, and as I did, an old Spanish man came out shouting in Spanish at me. I just ignored him and got on my disability scooter and left. Quick tip for anyone who blocks me in, be prepared to have anything I can lift moved, I won't always do it so politely and carefully though.

I went to Economy Cash and bought a pasta salad for lunch and a salad for tomorrow before heading back to my apartment. When I got home, I had the salad for lunch and sat down to do some family tree research. Before I knew it, it was 3 pm. I wasn't sure if the health clinic would still be open, but I went back out on my disability scooter to get my blood test results and schedule my next test. It didn't take me long to get to the clinic, but when I arrived, the gates were shut and it was all locked up, so I would have to return later.

When I got back to the apartment garage, I put my scooter inside and on the way back up to my apartment, I popped in to see my neighbour Liz. I sat chatting with Liz in her apartment for an hour and a half, and while I was there, I got a call from the Investment company I had been using. They were trying to get me to recommend them to my friends and family. I told them that their services were subpar and that I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. It was pretty strange timing, as I was talking to Liz about them when the call came through. She could hear me and was finding it challenging to stifle her laughter at my responses to their questions. When the call finished, I finished chatting with Liz and then went back to my apartment.

I spent the evening watching TV and checking the sports news to see which football transfers had been announced; there still hadn't been any Arsenal signings announced. I went to bed around 11 pm.

📝Friday, 20th June.

I got up when my alarm went off at 7 am today. I turned the alarm off and got myself a coffee before attempting the Wordle puzzle, which I managed to complete in two tries today.  I worked on my website for a short time before going for a walk, before it got too hot later in the day.

I walked to the health clinic to pick up the results from my blood test that was done yesterday. There was no queue when I arrived at 10:00 am, and I successfully requested my blood test results in Spanish. The lady behind the reception desk gave me my printout of the results and confirmed the date for my next test. The results are a great way to see what tablets you have to take as they print out a calendar for the number of weeks and days before your next test, and on each day is an image of the tablets as well as a written amount of the dose you should take every day. The sheet makes it easier to determine how much to take and provides a way to note any medications that you may have forgotten to take, which you can then give to the phlebotomist on your next visit.

When I left the phlebotomist, I sat outside the health centre and made a note of my next appointment on Google Calendar so I would not forget it. I then decided to go for a walk. I walked towards Rio Nalon and down to No Name Cafe. I sat outside under the shade and ordered a coffee and a tostada with tomato. I didn't have to wait long before my breakfast arrived, and I ate it and drank my coffee while I cooled off. When I was ready to leave, I asked for my bill, but, like so many places in Spain, asking for your bill and receiving it takes longer than finding a seat, ordering your meal, waiting for it, and eating it combined. When it arrived, I immediately paid and left. I also made a mental note of the price so that next time I can leave the correct money on the table and leave.

I left the cafe and walked home. It was getting much hotter, and I was glad to get home and out of the direct heat. When I got in, I got a glass of orange and apple juice and sat reading my Kindle on my balcony for a while. As the sun moved around and I lost the shade, I went back inside to work on my website, using my laptop from the comfort of my armchair. I completed some work on my website before downloading half a dozen new Kindle books from Amazon.

Panang Thai curry.For lunch, around 2:30 pm, I had the salad I bought yesterday, and then spent the afternoon researching members of my family tree. I discovered that the person I thought was my third great-grandmother,  Elizabeth Prescott, was only distantly related to me by marriage. Her husband, Richard Wilde, my third great-grandfather, remarried after she died, and his new wife, Elizabeth Davies, was my biological third great-grandmother. I made the changes to my website and added my new 3rd great-grandmother to the website.

This evening I walked along to the Thai Aroi restaurant for dinner. This week I had a Panang Thai curry. A light curry that looks like a soup, made with curry paste, coconut cream, vegetable oil, peanut butter, serano chiili, sugar, fish sauce, sweet basil leaves with kaffir lime leaves and chicken. It was delicious, and I feel lucky to have this lovely restaurant so close to where I live. To go with it, I had a banana milkshake.

When I had finished my meal, I walked back to my apartment via the beachfront. When I arrived, I sat in my armchair and worked on the Bing Webmasters page, deleting outdated webpages from the pages it had indexed for my website. I listened to Sky Sports News in the hope I might hear some news about Arsenal because it had been rumoured that the midfielder, Martín Zubimendi, had arrived in London today to have a medical before joining Arsenal. He may well have done, but if he had, there was no news of it on Sky Sports tonight.

📝Saturday, 21st June.

I couldn't sleep last night, partly due to the heat and partly because of the noise from El Lobo chiringuito, which continued until about 4:30 am. I gave up trying to get to sleep just after 1 am and started researching my family tree. I discovered more details of my third great-grandfather, Richard Wilde´s family and life. Through my research, I began speaking with a woman in Canada. It turned out we both shared many distant relatives, but didn't think we were related ourselves. It was fascinating to hear her family's story and how she and her immediate family had travelled around the world, living in Wales, England, Nigeria, America and Canada. I stopped my research at 5 am and went to bed.

I woke up at 9:30 am and got myself a large glass of orange and apple juice. I took my pills and typed up a couple of notes on my computer before doing the Wordle puzzle online and having some toast with peanut butter for breakfast. After I had eaten, I stripped the linen from my bed and put it in the washing machine, which I then set running.

I had intended to go for a long walk while it was cool, but I couldn't resist continuing with my research into my family tree, and by the time I had finished, it was too warm to go out walking. I instead decided that my beard was very uncomfortable in the summer heat, so I shaved it and my hair off. I must have been more tired than I thought, as I sat watching TV afterwards, I dozed off and slept for a couple of hours. I woke up mid-afternoon and watched one of my favourite all-time films, Rooster Cogburn. When the film finished, I had a snack of sardines and then prepared a whole chicken, which I put in my air fryer to cook for dinner later. I poured myself a can of San Miguel Radler and continued watching TV.

As I watched, I saw a program about the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. It reminded me of my visit there when I cruised around Hawaii and Alaska in 2024. I am delighted to have such good memories, and I am amazed that I remember so much of what I was told and learnt while I was there.

This evening I cooked a chicken in my air fryer. Once it was cooked, I split it up into three sections. I chopped the carcass in half and then removed the skin, legs and wings. I ate the meat from the legs and wings, along with the skin and kept the remaining halves for my dinner tomorrow and Monday. When I had finished, I put the chicken bones in the bin and remembered the washed bed linen was still in the washing machine. I removed the bed linen and put it on my bed to make up later tonight. I then got myself a slice of chocolate cake and a cold drink.

It was still around 28 °C inside my apartment, and not wanting to be unable to sleep again tonight, I closed all the doors and windows, drew the curtains in the bedrooms to keep the sun out, and then put the air conditioning on to cool the apartment down. It was the first time I had done it since last year. I watched the digital thermometer I have, and even though the outside temperature was still slowly going up, the temperature inside slowly started to drop. Hopefully, I will sleep well tonight.

I decided to add another information page to my website. This time, for extra information about the Grand Canyon in America, which I have visited several times. It didn't take long to add the page to my website, and as I wrote it, I started to remember other places I had been over the years. I will slowly add them all to my website as I remember them.

📝Sunday, 22nd June.

I slept really well last night, putting the air conditioning on obviously helped. I got up around 7:30 am this morning, had some coffee and cereal, and then sat down at my computer. While I had breakfast, I completed the Wordle puzzle and then put some laundry in the washing machine before beginning to research my family tree.

I was working on my website when my friend Lawrence rang me to see if I wanted to go out for Sunday dinner. I had already arranged my dinner for today and didn't need to go out. It wasn't until Lawrence rang that I realised how much time had passed while I did my research; it had already gone midday.

I decided to continue my research and then stop for dinner. I got carried away with what I was doing, and next time I looked at the clock, it had gone 5 pm. I stopped what I was doing and got myself roast chicken, sweet potato mash, sweetcorn and garden peas. It was lovely and I have enough left for dinner tomorrow as well. When I had finished, I emptied my clothes out of the washing machine to put away in my bedroom. I put the dishwasher on to clean the pots I had used during the day, and then returned to my research.

I made numerous discoveries today regarding different parts of my family tree. I managed to post a significant amount of information from my genealogy research on my website and even contacted some additional relatives through the Ancestry website. All in all, the last couple of days have been very productive as far as my genealogy research has gone, but very lazy apart from that. I stopped work at 11:30 pm and went to bed.

This week's exercise.

This is the exercise I managed this week.

Walking is measured by the steps taken.