Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain.
Summary: Week 25 was a mix of server chaos, World Cup football, coffees with friends, and small victories at home. Between endless file sorting, surprise meet‑ups, new gadgets, and plenty of matches, it turned into a busy but satisfying week in Los Alcázares.
Monday, 15th June
I got up late today, after finishing watching World Cup football in the early hours of this morning. I got a coffee and spent the entire day transferring files from my expired Google Drive account to my server at home.
I finished the transfer and started to organise the near 40,000 images and videos. I estimated 75% of the files are duplicates that Google or other errors have created and it will take months to sort through them all.
I didn't intend to but because I was working on my server late at night, I watched and listened to more games in the World Cup tonight.
Tuesday, 16th June
I spent most of the day buried in server work, sorting through files and images and trying to get everything back into some kind of order. Late in the morning I headed over to the Buenavista restaurant, where I met Lawrence for a coffee. We sat chatting and a short time later I was surprised when Kate and Martin arrived and sat down with us. It was a nice break before going home and diving straight back into work on my server again.
I did have some good news during the day. My accountant sent over my tax return and I’m actually getting a refund, which was a pleasant surprise, and the new Arsenal shirt I had been waiting to be delivered, finally arrived.
During the day, I noticed that my robot vacuum was not working again. It wasn't picking up dirt anymore, the battery charge wasn't lasting long and it kept getting stuck going around in circles. I looked it up and discovered I had had it longer than I thought and that they didn't have that long a life anyway. I used CoPilot to recommend new models and then watched YouTube videos on the best current ones. I really liked one, but when I looked it was around €1400, way more than I was willing to pay. I continued watching recommendations. Reviews suggested that the model I liked wasn't a great deal better than the model it had just replaced. When I looked on Amazon at last year's model they were having a 70% flash sale on it. It worked out that the small tax rebate and the 70% sales price meant I could afford last year's model. After lots of comparisons and video watching of robot vac/mops I decided to order one while the sale was still on and got an extended 3-year warranty with it as well. It should arrive next Monday.
I had noticed that recently I seem to be short of energy and re-reading my journals I saw that the last time I felt this way I had got some vitamins that helped with my memory and gave me more energy. I checked the tablets I had used before, to check that they would not interfere with my medication and ordered some more. They should arrive on Thursday.
In the evening I tidied some of the rubbish in the utility room and set the dishwasher to run overnight. I didn't want to cook anything so at around 21:00 I walked along to the Indian Pizza takeaway round the corner from me and got a pizza. It didn't take long for it to be cooked, and I took it home and watched what remained of the France vs Senegal football match. I managed to watch all the second half, and it was very good, France won 3-1. I didn't feel tired and stayed awake to watch the Norway vs Iraq game. I began getting tired and went to bed just before it finished, but Norway won 4-1.
Wednesday 17th June
I woke up at 07:00 this morning when the alarm went off. I'm not sure why I set it for 07:00 but I got up anyway. Because I hadn't eaten the chicken I got out of the freezer at the weekend, I decided to not risk eating it and threw it out. I bagged up the trash ready to take to the bin later.
I took my tablets, did the Wordle puzzle and then took a shower before heading out for a coffee at Cafe Prensa in Los Narejos. When I arrived I got a coffee and sat chatting with Christine and Tess. A short time later Lawrence arrived and a little later Oyvind arrived. Lawrence had bought a security camera for his home and asked me to help install the app on his phone.
When I had finished my coffee, I set off for Lawrence's house, he beat me back and let me in so I could look at his phone and camera. It all seemed fairly easy to do but I noticed straight away that the app had to be downloaded from the manufacturer's website and that it wasn't a secure site and that it also wanted credit card details to set an account up. I explained to Lawrence what was happening and said it was up to him but that if it was for me, I wouldn't add my details to an unsecure website. He agreed with me and I didn't install the software.
Before leaving Lawrence, he told me was going to Leroy Merlins tomorrow so I said I would go with him so I could look around Carrefour next door to it. I need to get a few bits of shopping so I can do it while there. He said he would pick me up after his bank appointment tomorrow. We decided that we would do our shopping and then try the new Chinese restaurant, World Kitchen, out afterwards. It was something to look forward to tomorrow as I wanted to see the robot waiter, they have there.
I left Lawrence and went home and just after getting home the postman arrived with a postcard from Germany for me. It was from someone on the PostCrossing Website. After reading the postcard I went back to work on my server, deleting thousands of duplicated files and organising others into a file system that would work going forward.
This evening I had a ham and boiled egg roll and settled in my armchair to watch two of tonight's football matches. Portugal vs Congo, and then after, England vs Croatia.
Thursday, 19th June
This morning was another morning spent working entirely on deleting and sorting through the images and videos on my server. I am slowly beginning to see an end in sight but it will still take a long time.
Just before 13:00 Lawrence picked me up and we drove to Catagena to the Leroy Merlin store. We looked around and I helped Lawrence decide on a new security camera. When we left we drove back to Los Alcazares to the new Chinese restaurant, World Kitchen. I had seen mixed reviews on it but we decided to go there for lunch and to try it out. I thought it was good, the place was quiet and we were seated quickly. The waiter explained what we could and couldn't order from the menu and left us with tickets to write down what we wanted.
Lawrence went straight in for a main meal; I had salad and soup. We both ordered a few more items that were included on the buffet menu and Lawrence also ordered items that weren't included but we were told this when ordering so we knew before the bill arrived. I thought some of my food was excellent while other items were just average and it was noticeable that the lunch menu was restricted and that some of the nicer dishes were only available in the evenings when the price goes up. That said I would definitely go back and will probably go once a month on a lunchtime. The robot waiter that brought some of our dishes to us was a nice touch but I'm not sure it would be great if the place was busy.
When we left, I got Lawrence to stop at the Dia store so I could get some ice cream. because I'm tight, I refused to pay €4.50 for a couple of small scoops of ice cream in the restaurant. I instead bought two small pots of ice-cream for €5.80 instead. Lawrence then dropped me off at home. I put one pot of ice cream in the freezer and ate the other while I watched the football.
Tonight, I began to watch the Scotland game, but they went 1-0 down in the second minute of the game and because I was tired, I went to bed earlier than planned and was asleep very quickly.
Friday, 20th June
Today was another day spent entirely sat in my armchair working transferring files to my server. I hardly moved all day and only stopped a couple of times for food or to get something to drink. Around lunchtime I went to Buen Sabor and got two meals, I had one when I got back for lunch and kept the second for tonight.
Tonight I watched some of the Netherlands vs Sweden football game but really, I was more listening to it than watching as I continued working. I did watch the Germany vs Ivory Coast game, and I felt the Ivory Coast was unlucky to lose 2-1.
Saturday, 21st June
I woke early today. I stripped my bed put all the bed linen in the washing machine and then got a coffee. I worked transferring files for a while and at about 10:00 I walked along to the Buenavista restaurant to have a coffee and tostada.
When I arrived at Buenavista it was already very busy, I guess because it's the weekend and there are a lot more tourists beginning to arrive in town. I sat at the side of the restaurant in the shade. I got a coffee and a tostada and sat reading my Kindle for half hour before going back to my apartment.
I have slowly been tidying up my kitchen over the last few weeks, moving things around to see how I prefer them placed in different places and which works better. I finally settled on a new place to put my coffee machine, right next to the sink. I then went back to work on my server again.
When my washing machine finished, and the bed linen was nice and clean, I remade my bed and put a second set of sheets on top of the bed in the spare room. When I have finished tidying up the room I will make the bed ready for any visitors I may get this summer. Then I put the washing machine on again, this time with a load of dirty clothes before continuing to work on my server again.
This afternoon I finally finished transfering all my files into the correct filing system on my server. It didnt mean the job was finished but it meant all the videos and images were now in the correct folders that I wanted them in. All I had to do afterwards was to continue sorting through the tens of thousands of files to remove duplicates or files that were no longer wanted. My server has done a lot of work in the last couple of weeks and if it could talk I think it would be saying, give me a break.
I remembered the washing machine and load of clothes late in the night and took them all out, hanging up or putting away all of my clothes before going to bed at around midnight.
Sunday, 22nd June
I had a more relaxed day today. I did some work on the server, removing duplicate images and I finished cleaning the kitchen. I cooked myself some salmon fillets and had them in a brown roll for lunch. They were very good.
In the afternoon I watched the Spain vs Costa Rica football match. Spain were 3-0 up after 20 minutes and eventually won 4-0 but they should really have scored a lot more and possibly got a double figure score. After they went 3-0 up, they seemed to take their foot of the gas a little. It was a good game to watch, and Spain were a lot better in this game than their last game.
I put on a last load of clothes washing and spent the rest of the day watching bits of different football games, deleting files from the server and writing up old notes to go on my website. I wrote up my Southern States Tour notes and put them on my website and used CoPilot to help me build new banner graphics for all the new pages.
I am always amazed my AI. It is a great tool, but it doesn't seem very logical, which for a logic machine is very illogical. It doesn't seem able to follow simple commands, and I wonder if it is programmed this way to stop the public from doing too much with a free or low-cost service. When I get some spare time, I will have to look into this more, maybe I can even type up my findings and post them online to help others.
I went to bed around 23:00, directly after the Belgium vs Iran game. Iran were very unlucky with a free kick that they were given. They scored a very well worked goal, when a player rolled the ball to a player in the wall who turned and scored. It was very good and different from what teams normally try. Unfortunately, the player was a knats hair offside and the goal was disallowed. The game finished 0-0, Belgium had a player sent off, and I felt sorry for an Iranian team who have been badly treated throughout the tournament and could have got more from this game
Add comment