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29 March 2024
2021, week 26

Week 26 of 2021 started well & went downhill quickly. My trust in people was shaken when I was mugged, & restored somewhat by the reaction of friends, neighbours & even people I hardly knew.

Week 26 of 2021.

Friday, June 25th.

Today started with a long swim in the Mar Menor before having a coffee & tostada at the chiringuito outside my apartment. I sat in the sun drinking a  large bottle of water, whilst I read my Kindle. It got too hot for me to sit in the sun after a while & I went indoors to cool off. 

This evening I went back down to the chiringuito to meet my friends George & Yvonne, we met up chatted & had something to eat so none of us had to cook today. After dinner, the bar closed early because of a staff member's birthday arrangements. George & Yvonne went to a bar near their home for a coffee & I walked to La Playa bar where I sat chatting with Emma who works there before being joined by Shellie, Jim & a few other people. We all had a good night but my leg was aching so I walked off home on my own. As I got outside the church halfway home, my leg had begun to swell up so I sat down for a few minutes to rest it before I carried on.

When I got to the front door of my apartment block I went to unlock the door. As I did so I felt someone behind me grab my bag, I span round & there were two young men right behind me & as I threw a punch at one of them the second one pushed me to the floor. I do not know if my punch even landed & both of them ran off with my bag before I could even get up. When I got up & woke my neighbours up using the intercom on the apartment door, telling them I had just been mugged. They let me in & called the police who seemed to me to be there very quickly. The police luckily for me found my keys to the apartment outside by the door, unluckily for me, they found nothing else & I lost my mobile phone. kindle, sunglasses, reading glasses & my wallet with my credit cards, debit cards, driving licence, residencia & various shop loyalty cards.

I never thought I would be a victim of this sort of crime, but when you are surprised from behind, in a tight spot, it could happen to anyone. It all happened so quickly that it was practically over as quickly as it began. The police were very good & told me to go to the police station in the morning. I left my neighbours & went home & spent the next few hours online cancelling different credit cards before I went to sleep.

Saturday, June 26th.

I woke this morning still very shaken after last night's events. I hadn't slept very well & although I didn't have a mark on me or look to be injured the butterflies in my stomach were still going crazy. I went to the chiringuito for coffee before my neighbour John took me to the police station to make a full statement. My friend Andrew who runs a chiringuito met me at the police station & was able to do all the translation for me, the police were very good & gave me a report & told me that I should make a claim on my household insurance for my losses as I should be covered for them. 

When we finished at the police station Andrew took me home where I was met by my friend Pat who then took me to the bank to make sure my accounts had been frozen correctly. Unfortunately for me, the bank was shut so I couldn't check that I had done everything correctly. After I got home my friend George came round to check on me. He should have been taking me shopping this morning but couldn't get an answer, my neighbours told him what had happened so he had come back several times to check on me. I was in my apartment when he called me from outside. He took me for a quick pint then I went home to cancel my telephone & Amazon accounts.

Whilst at home my friends Sheila & Bernard messaged me asking to take me to Sunday dinner & asking how I was after the mugging. Shortly after speaking to them my cousin Jill & her husband Peter came around to check on me. After finishing cancelling the last thing I had to cancel, we all walked back to meet George at Pyramide bar for a pint. Jill & Peter stopped for a chat before leaving me with George. We had a couple of pints before we both went home.

I was shattered after everything that had happened & went to bed quite early.

Sunday, June 27th.

I woke very early despite not sleeping very well again, I went for coffee & a tostada at the chiringuito before going back home to rest. At lunchtime, my friends Sheila & Bernard picked me up & took me out for Sunday dinner at The Lounge Bar in Los Alcázares. It was the first time I have been here for Sunday dinner & it was a really nice meal. I saw a few friends who all gave me their best wishes & commiserations for what had happened on Friday & I was then taken home where I very quickly fell asleep in front of the television.

Monday, June 28th.

I woke early, showered & jumped on my mobility scooter to get to the bank when it opened. Luckily for me, there were not too many people in the bank & one of the ladies that worked there came over to see what I was there for. I told her I had been mugged & that I had tried to cancel my cards but was unsure if I had managed to do it (Very stupidly you can cancel a credit card online easily but not a debit card if you don't have a mobile phone to receive a text for confirmation). She immediately took me to a desk & went through everything for me, cancelling the card I hadn't been able to cancel, checking that no money had gone from my account & ordering me new cards. She even looked up my insurance company for me, telephoned them & arranged to have copies of my insurance documents sent to me so I could make a claim. She then took me to the lady at the counter where you withdraw money & arranged for me to get some cash to use until my replacement cards arrive.

After going to the bank I then continued to Liberty Seguros to see if they could help me get a new TIE card to replace my stolen residencia card & a replacement driving licence. Jordan told me they could help me. As I left, I saw my friend Wayne who was just going in for help, he had his car broken into over the weekend. It seems there were a few robberies & break-ins over the weekend. During the day I had many people message me to say keys & credit cards had been found at different places by people but unfortunately nothing of mine.

I left the Liberty Seguros office & then went to the ASSSA office as my health card had been in my wallet as well. They quickly ordered me a replacement card & told me that it would be sent out quickly. From here I went for a coffee with my friend Mike before then going to see my cousin Jill. I wanted to get my spare key from her so I could get a few more copies cut, luckily for me, her husband Peter was just going to get some cut for them, while I sat chatting with Jill, Peter went & got extra copies of my keys for me.

The last few days have been hectic & I slept through most of the football this evening, just waking in time to see the scores & in the case of the France v Switzerland game, the penalty shootout. After watching the football I went straight to bed.

Tuesday, June 29th.

Today was my friend Jacqueline Carpenters' birthday, yes I do mean the famous author. She had kindly invited me to the Number 6 by Genoa restaurant, where she was having lots of friends for a meal to celebrate her birthday. My friend George very kindly gave me a lift there before he took his wife shopping so I didn't have to worry about getting there.

Once there I met a few friends I hadn't seen for a while & met a few people I had never met before. I am not sure if it was the good food, the happy atmosphere, lots of good looking ladies or the talk about the football this evening, but it kept my mind of everything else that happened in the last few days & I really enjoyed myself. After the meal my friends Pat & Sandra dropped me off at home in time to see the England v Germany football match on the television.

Even England managed to lift my spirits by beating Germany 2-0 & progressing through to the next round. I watched the second game whilst updating my website, for some reason I have been a bit preoccupied in the last few days & hadn't managed to write anything down. After watching the Sweden v Ukraine game which Ukraine won in the last few minutes of the game, I went to bed.

Wednesday, June 30th.

I woke up this morning & got myself a tostada at home. I then walked around to the local recycling bins to dispose of all the boxes that my recent packages from Amazon had been delivered in. On the way home I stopped for a coffee at the chiringuito by my apartment, it seems strange sitting here without my kindle to read, so I drink my coffee quickly & return to my apartment.

For lunch, I have some pork ribs & after lunch, I binge-watch a TV series about a Canadian Emergency Medic who can read people's minds. It is the usual story, the hero saves lives, people think he is strange, the leading lady doesn't trust him then falls in love with him, sort of thing.

Thursday, June 1st.

I slept well last night & woke up around 8 am. I potter around the apartment for a while & then go for a swim in the Mar Menor. After my swim, I have a coffee & tostada at the chiringuito before taking some rubbish to the local bin. After dropping the rubbish off I go to the Avatel office to see if they can give me a new sim card, for a new phone, to replace the stolen one & if I will have to change my phone number. They are able to issue me with a new sim card which keeps the old phone number. I am very happy as this will save me a lot of hassle changing my phone number everywhere.

For lunch, I have leftover ribs from yesterday. I accidentally knocked some photos over this morning, smashing their glass frames, so I have to clean the mess up quickly as I have a cleaner coming round to clean my apartment for the first time today. I don't want her to cut herself on any broken glass. A lot of things seem to have gone wrong this week & just before my cleaner arrives I find that the butler sink in my utility room is blocked & it is beginning to stink. I take the drainpipe off to unblock it & have just unblocked it, when the cleaner arrives, the apartment stinks & I try to explain that I have been unblocking the sink but I am not sure she understands. On top of that, the cleaning supplies I have are incorrect but her husband nips to the shop to purchase new ones. 

To stay out of the way I sit on my balcony & do the next Spanish lesson on the course of lessons I have bought. Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing about cleaning or blocked sinks but I hope as I do more of the lessons in the weeks to come, I will be able to speak with her a little more. It is around 100f/38c on my balcony & the longer I sit here the more I realise why I prefer to do things in the mornings when it is cooler.

The cleaners that came to clean my house have done a fantastic job so far, I think it is cleaner now than it was when I moved in 6 years ago. They haven't finished the deep cleaning they are doing but when they have finished I will be sitting at the beach all day & eating out all the time so that I don't make it untidy or dirty.