Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain.
Summary: Week 32 in Los Alcázares was full of early swims, breakfasts with friends, apartment viewings, Kindle reading sessions, and small everyday stories that shaped a warm, relaxed summer week in Murcia.
Monday, 3rd August
I went swimming for an hour as soon as I got up today and afterwards I walked to the Buenavista restaurant where I met Lawrence and Theresa for breakfast. I had booked an appointment to view the apartments being built above the Sol garage, and Lawrence had asked to come with me. He had also asked Theresa if she wanted to have a look.
When I left Buenavista I walked the short distance to the Sol garage and met Paul the agent who was going to show me around. Lawrence and Theresa took an age to arrive in the car, and I wondered why they just didn't walk the short distance. We eventually went in and had a look around. The building was still very much a shell and the inside of what was to be a hotel is still open and none of the apartments have been built yet. We looked in the basement where the parking, gym and sauna will be. We were also shown the 1st floor, where a couple of apartment shells had been completed. Unfortunately, the agent hadn't brought any plans with them and didn't seem to know much about the building, tax situation, or anything else for that matter. He took me up another floor, but again it was still just an open shell.
The apartments, we were told, are due to be finished in 3 months, but I can't see that happening. We were also told that the whole building was for short-term rentals, but this contradicted another agent that was there at the same time. I asked the agent to send me more details to look at and said I would like a second look after seeing the plans.
After viewing the apartments Lawrence dropped me at home. I needed a rest from the heat and put the air conditioning on straight away when I got home. I went back out to meet Martin at about 13:00. I went to Pizzeria la Sombre and sat chatting with him but left at 14:00 because it was too hot. My gout was hurting a lot today and on the way home I bought some cherries at Mercadona, they seem to help when I am suffering from gout.
At home, I cooked some chicken tenders for lunch and spent the rest of the day watching TV.
Tuesday, 4th August
I went swimming as soon as I got up again today. I swam for an hour again before going back to my apartment. I had a different breakfast this morning, sitting in the rocking deckchair on my balcony. I had a coffee and a punnet of cherries. My toe felt better than yesterday, and I hoped more cherries this morning would help the gout.
I sat reading my Kindle outside, until around 11:30 and then went back inside out of the heat. At around 12:30 I had a message from Amazon saying my Kindle case had been delivered to EconomyCash and I could collect it. I went to Pizzeria la Sombre to see Martin and sat chatting with him for an hour and then went to Economy Cash to pick up the parcel.
When I got home I put my Kindle in its new case, which was a vast improvement over the old broken one, and sat reading on my balcony again. I had a pasta salad for lunch and moved back inside to keep cool. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV, hoping to see news of any new Arsenal signings.
For dinner, I cooked a bit of steak and was going to have a fried egg with it, but when I tried to crack the egg it was already hard. Confused, I thought it may have gone off and checked that my fridge was working. The fridge seemed to be okay, so I cracked another egg. It was the same, hard-boiled. It seems in Spain they don't just sell eggs in plastic cartons, they also sell pre cooked, hard-boiled eggs in the same type of carton. I had never realised this until today, I will have to read the labels more carefully next time I buy eggs. Not wanting to waste the eggs, I mixed them up with half a tub of cottage cheese and had steak over a cottage cheese egg salad. It was very nice.
The remainder of the day was spent watching TV and contemplating the absurdity of boiling eggs to sell pre cooked.
Wednesday, 5th August
I went swimming at around 08:00 this morning. As I swam out to the rocks, I saw a pair of swimming goggles on the sea bed. On the way back from the rocks I passed over the goggles again and this time I dived and collected them from the seabed. I asked the other people nearby if they belonged to anyone, but they didn't belong to anyone in the sea. I threw them onto the beach next to my bag and continued with my swimming and my water aerobic exercises.
When I finished my swim I collected the goggles and took them home to give to my friend Lawrence who said he had wanted to buy some. At home, I showered, did the Wordle puzzle and then took my plastic recycling to the bin before walking to the Pharmacy with a bag of recyclable tablet packs. When I left the pharmacy, I crossed the road and went into ATime4AChange to collect a plastic container that I had had books in that were donated to them last week. I was given a container, but it looked too big, I took it to check the size and went home to get out of the heat.
I spent a few hours watching TV for news on Arsenal. It was announced that they had bought Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle for £75,000,000. I rested for an hour or so, then got lunch. This afternoon, I weeded a couple of plant pots, put broken pots and old plastic pots in a rubbish bag to go to the bin and then went back inside, hot and puffed out.
This afternoon I decided to go for a walk to take the rubbish from my balcony to the bin, and then to go on to Rio Nalon. I got a bottle of water when I arrived at Harry's bar and sat inside until I had got my breath back, then got a beer and went to sit outside and watch the world go by. I met an English couple outside Harry's bar, and we ended up chatting and drinking until around 20:00. I left and decided not to walk home and got the tourist train home.
There was loud music in the square tonight, but It didn't disturb me too much. I watched Arsenal lose 1-3 to Real Betis with a team mainly made up of kids and reserve team players. It was not a good game. It looked more like a chance for Arsenal to give people that may be sold, time to prove they are fit. I went to bed straight after the game.
Thursday, 6th August
I got up when my alarm went off at 7:30 this morning. My arms ached a bit and I decided to skip swimming this morning. I am beginning to feel a bit fitter and my weight is starting to go down, but I would rather not overdo the exercise, something I have done before and have caused more problems than I fixed.
Lawrence picked me up at around 10:00, and we went to Los Narejos for coffee. We sat chatting with Christine, Theresa, and Steve until around 11:30. Lawrence and I decided to go out for lunch later. We first went back to Lawrence's house so he could collect his reading glasses. We sat there for about an hour cooling down and chatting before going to World Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant in Los Alcázares.
I ordered my first selection quickly while Lawrence was still working out what he wanted, and I was soon eating a salad. Lawrence eventually wrote out his order, but the waiter soon returned telling Lawrence he had ordered from the wrong menu, he had ordered from the evening menu. Lawrence ordered again and handed it back.
As we sat waiting, my next course arrived. Lawrence grabbed it, saying it was what he had ordered. A short time later, half my order arrived. I couldn't wait for the rest because I was hungry, so I ate one dish without the rice I had ordered to go with it. We both finished and sat waiting for the next part of our orders to arrive. Nothing arrived and we re-ordered. A short time later Lawrence's food arrived, but mine did not so I ordered for a third time.
Lawrence received a dessert he had ordered, before the main menu items he had asked for. He ate his dessert while he waited for his main meal, and I waited for my rice dish with the meat dish I had ordered. I called the waiter over again and told him that I still hadn't had the rice dish I had ordered, and he went to find it. He retuned 10 minutes later with a noodle dish I hadn't ordered. We believed it was the noodle dish that Lawrence had ordered but now didn't want. Because I was still hungry, I ate it with the remainder of my last meat dish.
We waited for a while longer after eating to see if our missed meals would arrive. Nothing else arrived. We had been in the restaurant for two hours and neither of us had received what we ordered, and we were still waiting. We gave up waiting, paid our bill and left. If I go again with Lawrence, I will sit at a different table, so I get what I ordered without him eating it. I will also be able to monitor what I've had, and I am waiting for, without anyone else pinching my order.
After leaving the restaurant, Lawrence dropped me home. I spent the afternoon and evening watching TV. My friend Pat called to ask if I could have a look at his TV box that needed updating. He said he would pick me up at midday tomorrow and take me to his home to examine the TV box.
Friday, 7th August
I woke early this morning and walked down to the Mar Menor for my swim at around 07:30. I went for a swim and did my water aerobics out near the rock reef. I don't know if it's the swimming, the tablets the doctor had prescribed for the arthritis in my hip, or a combination of the two, but my hip isn't in as much pain as it had been.
After my swim I returned to my apartment, took a shower and then walked to Buenavista for breakfast. I treated myself to a medium size cooked breakfast today. It tasted great and made a nice change from the normal tostada with tomato and tuna that I have for breakfast. Before I finished my breakfast, Lawrence turned up for a chat. We sat chatting, and I told him I would show him where the Dialprix supermarket was in Los Alcázares so he can go there instead of going to San Javier for his food shopping. As much as he insists he loves Spain and eating in the local places, he does have a very English idea of food, everything fried and frozen and very plain. He only buys frozen food from England, that he can reheat in a microwave. His idea of healthy cooking is to have fried peppers with his fried sausages potatoes and eggs and call them salad.
We left Buenavista and I showed him where Dialprix was, at least he can buy his frozen English food in Los Alcázares rather than go to San Javier now. He dropped me at home afterwards, and I cooled off before walking back to the main road to wait to be picked up by Pat. It was very hot waiting for Pat, even in the shade of a palm tree, and I was glad when he arrived, and I could get out of the heat.
We went back to Pats house and I had a look at his TV box. Unfortunately, although I knew what to do to resolve the problem his set-up was slightly different to mine, and I was unable to enter the details because I couldn't delete the old details. I struggled for a while, but eventually had to give up and tell Pat he would have to get the TV box supplier to look at it. We sat chatting for a while longer, and then Pat dropped me off at home mid-afternoon.
This evening I kept cool inside the apartment and watched TV. I went to bed around 22:00.
Saturday, 8th August
I was up around 07:00 and did the Wordle puzzle before going down to the Mar Menor for my swim. After swimming for about an hour, I returned to my apartment and had a shower.
While swimming, I had seen the new chiringuito was open, so I walked down to try it out and have breakfast. The service was a bit slow, even with only a couple of people waiting. I ordered coffee and a tostada with tomato and tuna. A short time later, the waitress returned to tell me they had no tuna, so I said I would have the tostada with just tomato. When my breakfast arrived, the coffee was nice, but the tomato tostada was poor. The kitchen staff were using a food processor to chop tomato rather than chopping it by hand, and it was just very watery tomato purée, not the pleasant pieces of tomato that I am used to. I finished breakfast and was pleased to at least find the prices had gone back down from the extortionate prices the previous owners were charging. I decided I would give it a couple of days before I go back as they are still obviously getting used to running it, it should get better.
I returned to my apartment, got a cold drink and sat in my rocker deckchair on the balcony to read my Kindle. Sometime while reading I dropped off to sleep but luckily woke up after about 30 minutes, before burning too much. I went back in my apartment, shut all the doors and windows and put the air conditioning on. I spent the rest of the day watching films and went to bed around 23:00.
Sunday, 9th August
Once again, I woke early today and went down to the Mar Menor as soon as I was able to see to swim. I swam out to the rocks, did some water aerobics to stretch my hip, and then swam back to the shore. I repeated this a couple of times, lasting around an hour, before finishing and going back to my apartment.
Back in my apartment I got myself a coffee and took it and my Kindle onto the balcony. I then got some muesli and after finishing the first, I got a second coffee. I sat reading until it got too hot and then went back inside my apartment to cool off.
I spent all afternoon, reading, and watching TV. In the evening, I watched another Arsenal friendly football match. They lost 2-3 and although a couple of the players were excellent, the youngsters and players considered replaceable and not likely to play when the season starts, were not good enough. I went to bed after the game around 22:30.
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