✍Journal: Week 42, 2025.

Read my journal for week 42 of 2025. I spent most of the week in Los Alcazares working on my website, but I did take a trip to San Javier for a meal with friends. I managed to build two bedside tables, remodelled my bedroom, arranged train tickets for a journey to Madrid, and had a root canal operation.

📝Monday, 13th October.

I woke up around 7:00 feeling refreshed and ready for the day. When I looked outside, it was very overcast and almost dark. I would have to check the weather forecast before going out for any long walks today. I got myself a mug of tea and checked for messages on my computer before doing the Wordle puzzle. After I had eaten my cold porridge this morning, my back teeth started to ache. I hoped it was just the combination of hot tea and cold porridge that was causing the ache. 

One of the plants I bought a couple of weeks ago is not doing well at all. The Lemon thyme was looking very sorry for itself, sitting on the cabinet next to my computer. I had it in a self-watering pot, so it got enough water. I wondered if it wasn't getting enough direct sunlight, so I moved it to my balcony. As I sat at my computer, my phone beeped. When I checked, it was a reminder to book my train tickets to and from Madrid for my holiday to Australia and New Zealand next year. I went online and was dismayed to see that the morning train had already sold out; they only went on sale today. I checked, and the afternoon one would fit my travel plans, so I booked it and then looked for my return journey. That was available, and I booked it as well. I think train travel in Spain is quite affordable, so I treated myself to upgrades to the first-class section both ways. I didn't book a meal, but I did get the extra-large comfy seats, which I love.

My train ticket booking confirmation arrived promptly, and I was able to download the tickets to Google Wallet as well. This means I don't have to worry about losing the ticket, although I will also print off hard copies just in case they are needed. After arranging the travel, I looked outside and saw the sky clearing, so I decided to walk to Los Narejos to see Martin this morning. It was noticeable in the exercise data my Oura ring provided last week that the exercise I did and the calories I burned were lower than the previous week, which would explain the weight gain. I didn't intend to make that mistake this week. I had a shower, then went to the garage to unplug my disability scooter from the charger, and I began walking towards Los Narejos.

I managed to walk to Pizzeria la Sombre, although I did have to stop twice for short rests. The rain had held off, and I arrived at about 11:40, earlier than I expected and before the place officially opened. I sat at our usual table outside, and a short time later, the waiter asked what I wanted. I ordered a large bottle of water. I was happy they hadn't made me wait for 20 minutes till they opened. I sat and waited, resting, for Martin, who appeared at midday. We were soon joined by the man who had tried to murder his mother, who lived close by. I was not happy and thought about leaving until Dave and Lol arrived. Luckily, the man had ordered a pizza, and he left as soon as he got it.

We all sat talking, and when Kate arrived with Aria, everyone except for Dave decided to go to the Asia restaurant in San Javier for the menu of the day. They asked if I wanted to go, and since I hadn't been there before and only had cold leftovers at home, I decided to join them. We all piled into the car and went to San Javier. The Asia restaurant was quite busy when we arrived, and we had to wait quite a while to be served. I was sure the wait wasn't helped by Lol going outside to smoke because the staff couldn't take our order when she wasn't there.

When the food did arrive, it was excellent. I started with the hot and sour soup, and although it was okay, it was obviously based on a tomato soup base and wasn't as good as other hot and sour soups I have had. For my main meal, I had a "happy family" meal which included chicken, beef and prawns. I had it with fried rice, and it was really good. Martin had ordered some salt and pepper ribs as a side order, and I tried one of them as well. They were just how I like my spare ribs cooked, and I would go to the restaurant again just to have them. Lol, and I shared a bottle of house wine between us. We had ordered the menu of the day, and the wine was included. It wasn't the best wine, but it wasn't the worst I have ever had. For dessert, I had a crème caramel, and I was full up after eating everything. I was very impressed with the food, especially since the menu of the day had only cost €10.95.

When the meal was finished, we sat outside so that Lol could have a cigarette. After paying the bill, we all got back in the car, and Kate dropped me off at home before the others went shopping. I hoped Martin would enjoy walking around the shops with the three ladies, looking for clothes. When I got back to my apartment, I sat down in front of the TV and soon fell asleep. The mix of good food and a few glasses of wine, after not drinking for so long, probably sent me into a deep sleep. I didn't wake up for an hour and a half.

When I woke up, I worked on my website. As I worked on it, I received a call from Churchers' solicitors in England, who informed me that some money I was expecting would be wired to me soon. I decided that I would get myself a new disability scooter. I had been looking for a new one to replace the old one for a while and had seen one with lithium batteries, which would last longer than regular acid batteries and offer me a greater range of places to go. I looked at it online again and ordered a black one. I also spent some time watching videos of the Ninja coffee machine. I had been getting fed up with the one I have. After watching the videos, seeing that the Ninja machine did everything I wanted, and learning about its cleaning and extra functions, I decided to order it.

These are photos of the disability scooter and coffee machine I ordered. Can you tell which one is which without the captions 😁? I hope these images are not to scale.

Disability scooter.Ninja coffee machine.

After making my Amazon orders, I continued watching TV for a while and then went to bed.

📝Tuesday, 14th October.

I was woken up just after midnight by the youngsters who work and hang around the chiringuito by my apartment. Im not sure if they had had trouble with a drunk or a drug-taking customer, but I had heard a loud idiot shouting and screaming earlier in the night. However, I was not happy when they gathered under my bedroom window and began discussing the night very loudly. I may have slept through them talking, but one of them had one of the very annoying electric scooters that you see everyone zooming about on these days. He seemed to enjoy making the wheels scream and screech outside my bedroom.

I eventually got up because I couldn't sleep. When Maria, the owner of the chiringuito, saw my bedroom lights go on and stay on, she got everyone to quiet down. They soon moved off and went home. Quite why they couldn't have had their conversation sat at the bar instead of standing under my window escaped me. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I sat at my computer and worked on a couple of the Genealogy pages, adding census records to my great-great-grandparents, 🔗Lancelot Read and 🔗Emily Wilson. I went back to bed around 2:00 and managed to fall asleep quite quickly.

I woke up at around 9:30, got up, got a coffee, sat at my computer, and did the Wordle puzzle. I managed to do it in three, which pleased me as it was a difficult word today; I just got lucky when my first word guess gave me a few letters that narrowed down the possibilities for my next go. I tried to find out if we could use the water yet, as the Town Hall had advised people not to drink or shower with it after the heavy rains over the weekend. Not being on Farcebook, I couldn't check messages from the town hall, and they don't put any notices on the town hall website. 

My friend Andy rang me today in response to a message I had sent him yesterday asking for help to move furniture in my apartment. He couldn't help today but told me to call him tomorrow. He had a few jobs of his own to do, but if he could, he would help me move the furniture tomorrow. It's not a big job; it just involves moving heavy or awkwardly shaped furniture around in the same room.

I decided not to risk drinking any tap water or top up my coffee machine until I could buy some bottled water. I left my apartment at about 11:00 and went to EconomyCash. I drove around the store in my scooter rather than drag heavy water around in a trolley. I got six two-litre bottles of water, a salad, and a pasta salad, and paid before heading to Los Narejos to meet Martin & Dave. As I went up the road, my phone went off and I stopped to answer it. I pulled over and took the call. The company supplying the new disability scooter I ordered called to confirm they had the correct address, thanked me for the order, and said it would arrive in about two weeks. It would take a little longer than normal because I had ordered one with lithium batteries, which added some extra time.

I arrived at Pizzeria la Sombre just before midday and sat outside to wait for Martin. I decided to have a beer today and ordered a beer. When the beer arrived, Martin arrived just after. He was followed by Dave and Lol, and we all sat chatting till just after 14:00. I got back on my disability scooter and went straight home.

I had wanted to get my kitchen refitted for a long time, and now that the money I had been waiting for had arrived, I had decided to get it done. I had asked Martin if he knew anyone qualified to fit a new kitchen. He told me that Lauren, who had helped me by doing some translation for me in the past, might be able to help since her dad was a chippy. When I got home, I messaged Lauren, who sent me her dad's contact details. I then sent him a message. As I sat watching TV, I dozed off, woke up later, and received a message from Jez, Laurens' dad, saying he could take a look at my kitchen next week and would contact me again.

As I was dozing off again, my friend George called me to see if I was okay and had water. He told me that the town hall had now announced that the water would be turned off completely in the town until remedial work was carried out on the reservoirs. Apparently, neighbouring towns are having the same problem, so I was glad I had gone out to get bottled water earlier. I thanked him for letting me know and asked him to let me know if he heard anything else from the town hall in the next few days.

This evening I waited for the Latvia vs England to come on the TV. If England won, they would qualify for the World Cup next year. England won the game 0-5, and it was very one-sided. England's qualifying group has made England look really good, but when we go to the finals next year, it will be very different. I hope the manager, Tuchel, keeps their feet on the floor and their minds in the game in the finals. As soon as the match finished, I went to bed.

📝Wednesday, 15th October.

I woke and got up just after 7:00 today. I stripped the bed linen from the bed and put it in the washing basket before making a coffee, using bottled water. I checked the Los Alcazares Town Hall website, and their ↗️bulletin board still had nothing on it about the water situation. I think that, in general, the Town Hall has done a fantastic job in Los Alcazares, but whoever is responsible for their website needs to be replaced. Information is never put on it, and they rely on social media and word of mouth to send out messages. The website's design is also terrible; it does not allow screen readers to function correctly for partially sighted people, and the constant use of banners instead of text makes it impossible for translation software to translate important information. My question to the Mayor about the water situation on Monday has still not received a response.

I got myself a second coffee and did the Wordle puzzle. I was delighted to get the first three letters with my first go, but worried I wouldn't get it with so many possibilities. I did get it on my fifth go, extending my winning streak to 77 games. I worked on my website at my computer until my friend Andy arrived to help me move my furniture. I met him outside and took him to my apartment. Together, we managed to move the furniture, even with Andy's help; it was hard work and would have been impossible on my own, but we got it all moved in about 20 minutes. Andy left straight away, and I took a rest to get my breath back and wait for my delivery from Amazon, which was two bedside tables for my bedroom.

After Andy left, I continued to work on my website, specifically the 🔗Genealogy section. I added a few photos to the 🔗Family Tree Photo Album, including descriptions for each one. I also added 🔗Merthyr Tydfil to the list of places in the genealogy section of my website. I stopped work at about 13:30 to have something for lunch. My tooth was aching, so I took a painkiller and then looked for something to eat that would be easy to chew.

I had a salad for lunch and then began assembling the two bedside tables I had bought. The instructions were not very clear, and some of them were just incorrect. It took me hours to complete the first one and three-quarters of the second one. Worn out from the effort, I decided to put one in my bedroom and finish building the second one tomorrow. I put the first one in my bedroom, and after moving the furniture around this morning, the room looked great. The change in the bedroom layout had given me a lot more room and made my life a lot easier.

After having a short rest, I made my bed up with clean bed linen. Even making the bed was easier for me, and I wished I had changed the bedroom layout a lot earlier. Once I was happy with the bedroom, I went to the kitchen, cooked myself some bass fillets, and had them with some potato salad; it was lovely. I hope that when I get my kitchen refitted, the changes I make there will make my life even easier.

After looking after my mum for so long and making changes in her life to make it easier, even when she didn't want them, I realised how helpful small changes in a home's layout could be. I can be very stubborn, but I do think that over the last few years, I have been making some good choices and decisions to make my life easier.

This evening I rested in front of the TV until I went to bed at around 23:00.

📝Thursday, 16th October.

I woke up at around 6:00 this morning, and after lying in bed for a while, I got up and got a coffee. I didn't think we could use the tap water yet, so I used bottled water for the coffee machine and used the wet wipes I had found yesterday to give myself a wash before getting dressed.

Once ready for the day, I sat at my computer and checked for any messages before doing some work on my website. I added a couple of new pages to the Extra Japan information section:

• 🔗Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.
• 🔗Tenryu-ji Temple.
• 🔗Fushimi Inari Taisha’s Senbon Torii.

I was expecting my new coffee machine to arrive from Amazon today. I moved the coffee machine in the kitchen out of the way and decided to check the delivery status of the new one on the website. On checking the delivery, I realised it had been moved to Sunday. As I didn't have to wait for the delivery, I took some rubbish to the bin and went to Mercadona to get some more water and salads for lunch. On my way back from the store, I saw my friend Rob, who is also disabled. I asked if he had water at home, and he told me the council had delivered some to him and had checked on him. I need to find out why I hadn't received any water and why they hadn't even informed me about the water problem.

Bedroom layout. When I got back from the shop, I sat down and finished building the second bedside table that I had delivered yesterday. It all went well until I opened the drawer and realised it was upside down. I quickly unscrewed it, turned it the right way up and put it back together. I hoovered the bedroom and put the second bedside table in place. It even left room for a bedside chair, which I hadn't been able to have before I moved the furniture around.

Once I had finished putting a bedside lamp on one table and plugging in my clock radio, phone and Oura charger into the USB ports on the desks on either side of my bed, I sat down and had some lunch, one of the salads I had bought earlier and some chicken wings.

My toothache hadn't improved during the morning, and I had to start taking painkillers. I decided to try and see a dentist tomorrow after I have my leg dressed at the health clinic. I don't know if the health clinic has a dentist or can recommend one, but if it can't, I will pay to have my toothache checked where I went a few years ago. It was expensive but worth the money in the end.

Feeling sorry for myself and not wanting to do anything, I spent an afternoon watching different films. The first one I watched was "↗️A Big Bad Beautiful Journey", the second was "↗️The Woman in Cabin 10", and the third one was "↗️The Way". All of the films were good in their own way. The first one, A Big Bad Beautiful Journey, was fantastic, and I could see much of myself in the lead character. The second film, The Woman in Cabin 10, was a murder mystery with a twist, and I had guessed the crime and people involved before the murder took place. The third one, The Way, was brilliant. It had me crying every time Emilio Estevez made an appearance, laughing at different things during the film, reminiscing about my dad for most of the way through, and absolutely loving the whole film.

When I finished the films, I took some more painkillers, and after looking up ways to help with the pain on the internet, I washed my mouth out with lukewarm water with half a teaspoon of salt stirred in to it. It didn't seem to help; if anything, it made the throbbing worse. I watched some TV and went to bed around 23:00.

📝Friday, 17th October.

I had a terrible night's sleep, waking up several times because of the toothache and having to take more painkillers at 4:30. I eventually got up at around 7:00. I made a warm, not hot, cup of tea and added a spoon of honey to it, in the hope it would help with the toothache and took two more painkillers. I had a wash using the wet wipes, then sat at my computer to check my messages before doing the Wordle puzzle.

I decided that the tooth pain was too much to bear and that after visiting the health clinic to have my leg dressed, I would see a dentist. I had some scrambled eggs for breakfast because it was the only thing I could eat easily without causing more pain. I left on my disability scooter to go to the health clinic at about 10:30 and arrived early for my appointment. I sat and waited until I was called in to see the nurse. She cleaned and redressed the wound, telling me it was healing very well and that hopefully the skin would start forming over it soon. She made me an appointment to see her again on Wednesday next week, and I left, jumped on my mobility scooter, and made my way to the dentist near my apartment.

I went to the dentist and used Google to inform the receptionist that I was in a lot of pain and requested an appointment with the dentist. She told me I could see her in 50 minutes and could wait if I wanted. I sat in the reception room and waited. The dentist soon called me through and did an initial inspection. She told me that there was a hole in the tooth and that I needed a root canal operation. I agreed, and she told me she could do it straight away. I was given something to numb the cheek, then given a pain-killing injection. It felt like my cheek had swollen up, but I couldn't feel anything.

The operation took around an hour, and she gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I told her that I had antibiotics and painkillers from previous treatments, and she told me the ones I had would be fine. She told me that she had removed the nerve, cleaned the tooth, filled it, and filled another hole. She also told me to come back in three weeks' time for her to check it all again. The receptionist scheduled an appointment for November 7th and provided me with a bill. I´m unsure of what dentists in the UK or anywhere, for that matter, charge, but I thought the €132 was a good price to make me feel better.

While at the dentist, my neighbour Liz called and asked me to buy her some batteries if I was out. I messaged her back and told her I couldn't go and get her any because I was in pain, but told her I had some she could have. I went home, put my disability scooter in the garage and went up to my apartment. Before I did anything else, I took Liz some batteries. I didn't stop because I was in pain and went back to my apartment. I took some painkillers and antibiotics and made some more scrambled eggs to eat. I ate the eggs using the good side of my mouth and then sat in my armchair to rest. Within a few minutes, I had fallen asleep.

I woke up around an hour later, my teeth still aching, and I decided to remain where I was for the rest of the day. I checked the tablets I had at home and as well as the antibiotics I had, which meant I didn't have to buy any more; I had gabapentin painkillers. I looked up gabapentin, and they are for use on nerve pain and could be used after dental treatment, so I will use them rather than my regular paracetamol.

This evening, I messaged my cousin Peter to tell him about the water situation in case he wanted to cancel his trip. He assured me it didn't bother him and that he was happy to rough it if necessary. My tooth and the area in my mouth where the nurse had operated were still very painful, and before I went to bed, I set up reminders on my phone of when to take the new medication I have to take. I took the antibiotics and painkillers and went to bed at 23:00.

📝Saturday, 18th October.

I slept better last night, but that could have been because of the medication I took before going to bed. My alarm went off at 7:00 to take the first lot of medication for the day, and after taking the tablets, I went back to bed. I lay in bed for another hour before getting up just after 8:00. Since I had already made room for the new coffee machine, which arrives tomorrow, I couldn't have a coffee, so I got myself a mug of tea with a spoonful of honey instead of sugar. I also made some scrambled eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast, I sat at the computer and did the Wordle puzzle. I was very pleased with myself when I got it on my third attempt today. Premier League football was back after the International break today. I worked on my website, got ready for a long football session, and then remembered I had no milk left in the fridge. I was going to go to EconomyCash to get some milk when I noticed that Amazon had changed the delivery date for my new coffee machine and that it would be arriving today. I decided it would be better to wait for it.

I worked on my website while waiting for the delivery, which arrived at about 13:30. I unpacked the new coffee machine and immediately noticed the difference between it and the previous one I had bought. The quality of the build was significantly better, and even the instruction manual was of a different class. You get what you pay for, and I think the extra money I paid for this will be worth it. I placed it where I wanted and followed the instructions to watch a setup video. It appeared that you had to adjust the machine for the local water hardness, and it ran an initial test to do this. There were also a few other things to do when setting it up, so I decided to go shopping before finishing the setup to get some milk and extra water for the coffee machine.

Advertising video of my new Ninja coffee machine.

Before going shopping, I had some chicken wings for lunch. I managed to eat them out of the good side of my mouth and not hurt the tooth that had the root canal work done on it. After eating, I went to EconomyCash and bought some milk, water, soft bread rolls, tomato and avocado spreads, fruit, and some yoghurts, then took them straight home. Unfortunately, the battery on my scooter was very close to death. I had to go at a snail's pace and stop every now and then to coax a bit more out of the battery. It crawled home and just managed to get me back into the garage before it died. I plugged it into the charger and took my shopping back to my apartment.

Once in my apartment, I put my shopping away, got some water to drink with a pack of milk chocolate biscuits to suck on, so they melted in my mouth without me having to chew. Then, I sat down to watch the end of the Man City vs Everton game.  Manchester City won the game 2-0, and Haaland scored twice. I was glad that this week I had made large-scale changes to my fantasy football team so that I could get him in my team.

At 18:30, the Fulham vs West Ham started. I watched the game intently. Fulham started the better team, but the first half ended 0-0, despite Arsenal rightly having a goal chalked off for being offside.. In the second half, Arsenal played a lot better, and Leonard Trossard scored from a Bukayo Saka corner to send Arsenal into a 0-1 lead. Later in the game, Bukayo Saka was taken down in the penalty area and awarded a penalty, but VAR got involved, and after about 7 minutes, it was decided that the player had played the ball before taking out Saka. It was a disgusting decision, and VAR officials should hold their heads in shame over it. The game had a lot of extra time because of the amount of time VAR took to make the incorrect penalty decision. After the extra nine minutes, Arsenal finished as winners, holding the 0-1 lead, and they went back to the top of the Premier League.

I did a bit of work on my website after the game. When the alarm I had set to remind me to take my tablets sounded, I took my last antibiotics and painkillers of the day and went to bed at 23:00.

📝Sunday, 19th October.

I woke up when my alarm to take my antibiotics went off at 7:00. I took the antibiotics, but as I was not in a lot of pain, I didn't take any more painkillers. If the pain comes back during the day, I would take a painkiller. I got up, did my weigh-in for the week and was very happy to see I had lost weight again. I did very little exercise this week and hadn't eaten much because of the toothache, so it probably balanced out. I checked for messages on my computer and got ready to watch MOTD, and as it started, I got myself a mug of tea with honey instead of sugar.

When MOTD finished, I went to get myself some breakfast. I had bacon, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, beans and plum tomatoes and washed it down with another mug of tea. As I walked into the kitchen, I learned that the water was now safe for washing and cleaning, but not for drinking. Since we have a separate tank at our apartments, we still need to have it cleaned, and the management company has already informed me that they are arranging this. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal very soon. I let my cousin Peter know that the water was back on, and he might now be able to take a shower during his visit next week.

During the morning, I did some research on using Emoticons on my website. They seem to be working great for people with good vision, but I am trying to make them work for those who do not have perfect vision. Some of the emoticons seem to work fine, but on others, I get an error code. I think it will take more time and cause more errors, but I continued with the work. For lunch, I had a couple of toasted cheese and ham rolls, then began watching some of today's football while working on my website.

The football results worked out well for Arsenal, as Tottenham lost to Aston Villa and Liverpool lost to Manchester United. At 15:00, the alarm on my phone reminded me to take my next lot of antibiotics, so I took them. This afternoon, on top of the good football results, I worked out how to add descriptions to emoticons on my website, making them more accessible to people with vision disabilities. I was very pleased with this and also worked out how to change many of the images on my website in one go using a database tool. On top of this discovery, I figured out how to add long pieces of code to my site quickly without typing them in all the time, using an extension for the editor pages on my website. I was thrilled with these discoveries today, as they made changing my current site much easier and quicker. They also allowed me to add code I use frequently to pages without having to type it out or cut and paste it from a text file into my HTML editor.

Although I was dying to set up my new coffee machine and try some of the recipes that came with it, I decided to leave it until the drinking water is back on and safe to use. I could use bottled water, but I had read that when I set up the new coffee machine, I would need to test the water's hardness using a pH strip to get the best coffee out of the machine. I thought that setting it all up for maybe only a day or two was silly and that I should wait for the water to be restored and set it all up just once.

I was strangely tired today. It was probably a lot to do with the tablets I am taking and my body needing time to recover from the dental operation. I wanted to go to bed very early but stayed up so that I could take my last lot of tablets before I went to bed at 23:00.

Health and exercise metrics for week 42 of 2025.