Location: Los Alcázares, Murcia, Spain.
Summary: A personal recap of week 37 in Los Alcázares, daily swims, breakfasts with friends, website updates, cruise planning, and a football-filled weekend that kept life busy and familiar.
Monday, 7th September
I got up just after 07:00 and did the Wordle puzzle while I waited for the sun to come up. When the sun did come up I walked down to the Mar Menor and did my swim to the rocks and back my regular three times.
When I had finished my swim I went back to my apartment, I took a shower and then ate some overnight oats for breakfast. At 10:00 I walked along to Buenavista to meet my friend Jim who has just flown over from Scotland and is staying not far away. My swim had made me hungry, and even after eating the oats earlier I was still hungry, and I had a tostada with tomato and tuna with my coffee. I sat chatting with Jim for an hour or so and when we left, Jim wanted to go to a local Chinese shop for a couple of things.
I went with him to buy a brush to help wash my dishes as the one I had bought a couple of weeks ago broke the first time I tried to use it. We both got the things we needed and Jim then dropped me back at my apartment. I spent the rest of the day working on my website.
Tuesday, 8th September
I woke early again today. I went down to the Mar Menor and took a swim before returning to my apartment for a shower. I then sat down and began working on my website again. As I worked I went to take my tablets and realised I had to go to the pharmacy to collect my prescription.
I walked along the promenade, cut up by the large church and walked to the pharmacy. I was seen by a lady who I have seen many times, and she got me my prescription but told me I could only have one lot of Sintrom today. When she checked she said I could go back on Friday and collect two more packs. It makes me mad that my awkward bitch of a doctor won't give me a prescription to cover me for enough tablets for a month. She gives me enough tablets for 20 days, not even enough for 3 weeks let alone the standard 28 days that all pill dispensers are designed for. The pharmacist apologised but told me I would have to keep going back at different times every month for one lot of tablets. I took the tablets I could have and walked home.
Once home I continued to work on my website again, slowly adding image descriptions to many photos in different photo albums. This afternoon I took a short break before walking to the nearby DIA store to pick up a delivery from Amazon, some protein powder. Once I had collected it I went home and continued to work on my website until I went to bed around 23:00
*Today was the 36th anniversary of me being pronounced dead the first time I died.
Wednesday, 9th September
Last week CoPilot had advised me to take breaks in my exercise to allow my old broken body time to recover better. So, I decided to swim three days and have a day off, then swim three days and rest again. Therefore, when I got up this morning I didn't go for my swim in the Mar Menor.
At 9:30 I picked up my Kindle and walked to Buenavista for breakfast. Lawrence was already there when I arrived. A strange occurrence, one that has never happened before, Lawrence is normally late, today he was 30 minutes early. We sat chatting over coffee and tostada until after 11:00 and then when Lawrence went for a dental appointment I walked home.
Just after 13:00 Jim messaged me to tell me he was outside. We had arranged to go to Ruf Mari in Los Urrutias and he was driving us there. We drove to the restaurant and managed to get a table. The meal was excellent, I had a salmon tostada for my first choice of starters, followed by garlic prawns for my second. Both were fantastic, and it was worth coming just for those, the beautiful waitress serving us was an unexpected bonus. My main meal was beef steak with chips and vegetables with Roquefort sauce. It was perfect, we had made a good decision to go the restaurant. For my dessert I chose the cheesecake but when the waitress bought it out she had added strawberry ice cream and cream to it. Not one to complain I wolfed the lot down. Jim did point out that my plate had had a pattern on it before I started.
While we were sitting eating our dinner some old friends, Alison and Derek had walked in so as we left we went to say hello to them. After a brief chat to them and an introduction to the people with them, we left. Jim asked if I wanted to go for a drink somewhere, but I was ready for a nap so he dropped me off at my apartment. I hadn't been in long when I did drop off for about 40 minutes.
I worked on my website this evening, adding header images to the pages about my NCL Spirit Cruise. When the Napoli vs Arsenal Champions League game came on TV I stopped work and watched the game. Arsenal played very well and won the game 0-1. It would have been nice if they had scored more goals, but it was a good result away to a good Italian football team.
Thursday, 10th September
When I woke this morning, I did feel a lot more refreshed after the day off swimming yesterday. It must have helped my body recover a little from the previous three days. I went down to the Mar Menor and after setting my new watch to connect to the satellite tracking stations correctly I went for my swim. When I finished the swim I was pleased to see that my swim had been recorded a lot more accurately. Apparently, because my swimming stroke keeps my arm underwater typically, the satellites can't be contacted while its underwater, to get an accurate location. This means the distance measured will always be 10 to 20 percent short of the real distance I swim, but its close enough for me.
Once I had finished my swim I went back to my apartment and took a shower. After my shower I got dressed, collected my Kindle and walked along to Buenavista for breakfast. While I was sat there reading my Kindle, two of my neighbours, Richard & Val, came over to say hello, and we discussed the apartment block and the remedial work that still has to be done. After a short chat, they left and I continued reading my Kindle.
While I was reading I had a message from my friend Tony to say he was at Buenavista if I wanted to join them for breakfast. I messaged him back telling him I was already there and a couple of minutes later he found me. He and his wife Kim were halfway through breakfast but said they would join me when they finished. I ordered another coffee and continued reading until they did join me. We sat chatting for a while and after paying our bills we all left.
I had had a message from Amazon telling me the blood pressure machine I had ordered had been delivered to DIA so instead of walking home, I walked to the DIA store and collected the parcel. I took the parcel straight home. Once I was home I checked the blood pressure machine worked and was all there and then went online to discover the best time for me to check my blood pressure regularly.
This afternoon I worked on my website again, stopping to get myself chicken and chips for lunch, before continuing to work on my website. As I worked on my website I also talked to a couple of people that will be on my upcoming repositioning cruise to Cape Canaveral, via a Facebook Group. I also received a message from my friend Gail, as she passed by my general area in the Mediterranean, while she was on her current cruise on the way back to Barcelona.
Friday, 11th September
When I got up this morning it was still dark, so I couldn't go swimming straight away. Yesterday my research had told me to take my blood pressure when I first got up in the mornings, so after sitting in my chair for a few minutes I took and recorded my blood pressure. It was okay even if it was just in the slightly higher than normal bracket.
When the sun had some up I went down to the Mar Menor and took my regular swim. Once again when I had finished, I was pleased to see that the distance had been recorded a lot more accurately now I had calibrated my new watch. After the swim I went back to my apartment, showered and after resting for a few minutes I took my blood pressure again. It was slightly higher than it was earlier, but it wasn't above what should be expected after my exercise.
After a brief rest, I went to the pharmacy on my disability scooter to pick up the Sintrom tablets I couldn't collect earlier in the week. The girl who served me even asked if I wanted two boxes of tablets. So, I guess the system had had a note added to it explaining that every other 4-week period I should be given an extra lot of tablets. After I left the pharmacy I was going to go to Mercadona to get some shopping, but I realised my disability scooter probably didn't have enough charge to get there so I just went to the DIA store. I got some fruit and some bread and then went back to my apartment. As soon as I got my scooter in the garage I plugged it into charge and went back to my apartment.
This afternoon and evening I did lots more work on my website, loaded my dishwasher to run overnight and put some some homemade soup on to cook in the slow cooker. It was primarily using up vegetables I had in the fridge. While I worked on my website I could smell the soup cooking and it smelt great. For my tea I had a couple of lots of the soup with bread and then continued working on the website.
Once the leftover soup had cooled enough I put two double portions in plastic containers and stuck them in my freezer before going to bed. I remember a day, not to long ago when I would have gone out at 18:00 on a Friday night to go drinking in the pub and not go home until kicking out time. Since coming home from Australia and New Zealand I rarely go out drinking any more and once again tonight I was in bed before 23:00.
Saturday, 12th September
I woke up before the sun came out again this morning but when it did, I went down to the Mar Menor for my swim. As soon as I finished my swim, I went back to my apartment, showered, and got ready to go out and meet Tony & Kim at La Encarnacion. I hadn't been there for a long time, so it would be different for me.
I went along the beachfront on my disability scooter and parked alongside the side entrance. I was looking for my friends, but Tony had seen me drive past and called out and waved to me. I joined them both at the table, and we sat talking and had breakfast there. I paid the bill which seemed high to me until I worked out what we had had. I'm just used to buying for one and when I worked out what I would have paid everywhere else it was roughly the same. I said goodbye to Tony & Kim and went back to my apartment and picked up some shopping bags before going to Mercadona.
I got all my shopping and went towards home. As I passed by Porscha Bar I stopped and and gave them my choices for the Christmas Dinner that I ordered last week. I didn't stop after giving John my choices and I went straight home with my shopping before the heat started making it go off. When I got in, I had the salmon poke bowl for lunch and then spent the rest of the day working on my website again.
I did watch some of the the afternoons football but was more interested in the late game, Sunderland vs Arsenal. The game was a tough game and at half-time was 0-0. The referee made some terrible decisions and in the second half he got worse, giving Sunderland a penalty that VAR upheld. The ref and VAR said that Arsenals Konsa had brought down Sunderland's Ballard in the penalty area, when it was obvious that Ballard had made the foul. Arsenal goalkeeper, Raya, made a fantastic save from the penalty and the score stayed at 0-0.
In under two minutes Arsenal had gone to the other end of the pitch and Bruno Guimarães scored an absolutely incredible goal with a volley from outside the box that left the goalkeeper no chance to save it. The game continued to be refereed terribly, but as the game was about to end, the ref finally made a correct decision, giving Arsenal a penalty of their own, which Bukayo Saka scored. This made the game 0-2, and it finished a few seconds later.
The after match discussion on TV, was all about the poor referring and all agreed the penalty Sunderland were given should not have been given. Mikel Arteta was absolutely livid, and I will not be surprised if he isn't fined by the FA for his after match comments but all the commentators and pundits at the game agreed with him. Happy for the win, I went straight to bed, knowing there was a good chance Arsenal would finish this weekend top of the Premier League after four wins from their opening four games.
Sunday, 13th September
After last week's weight gain, I was careful to take a rest day between my swims this week. When I got up this morning I weighed myself and I was ecstatic to find I had lost 0.8 kg since last week week. It has inspired me to keep doing what I am doing. As long as it stays warm enough I will swim for three days then rest for one day, then start again. Today was a rest day so after getting up I sat and did a bit of work on my website.
Tony messaged me at about 8:20 to say he was at the chiringuito outside my apartment. He had asked for help with his laptop. I walked downstairs, and we had coffee and a tostada before going back to my apartment to see what the problem was. It turned out to be an easy issue to fix. He hadn't been able to log in because the ´0´ key on his laptop wasn't working. After a brief look at it, I discovered it was just the num lock not being depressed. I pressed the num lock button and then tested his login and it worked fine. I told him about the num lock key and he went home happy.
After a salad tortilla lunch, I walked the short distance to the park with the static bike in it. After consulting CoPilot it had told me doing just 15 minutes on the bike would help on my rest day but not to do more. I did the 15 minutes it had suggested and then took the short walk home again.
When I got home, I remembered I had to contact Nashi the people who supplied my Japanese toilet. It is currently making a whine or whistle when flushing and after Googling the problem I was told it was probably due to hard water and the toilet water inlet filter being blocked. I contacted Nashi and asked them for help.
After messaging Nashi I worked on my website while half watching the football. Coventry were hammered by Brighton, but I didn't really watch it, I just listened to the commentary as I worked. I also exchanged messages with my friend Rispa who is taking a break in Wales. The poor girl may have to stay in the pub she is in if the rain starts, I felt for her and hoped she didn't get soaked in the rain.
I got myself a protein shake for dinner and sat down to watch the Manchester United vs Manchester City football match, but again, only while working on my website. Again the referring and VAR decisions were incredibly poor. Bruno Fernandez kicked Phil Foden after he went down under a tackle. It wasn't accidental, it was deliberate. Phil Foden lashed out and kicked Fernandez back as he lay on the ground. The referee sent off Foden but did not even issue Fernandez with a yellow card. Manchester City regrouped and scored a goal. Erling Haaland was offside when he scored, another player was offside in the build up and the referee and VAR again got the decision wrong and the goal was given. It was a diabolical decision.
Football referees do have a hard job but the two big decisions from this weekend's football were both wrong and VAR got both wrong. VAR is being managed by people who know-nothing about football and until it is run by ex-footballers who know about how the game is really played, there will be more and more controversies. Tonight I watched Match of the Day and the pundits all agreed with me about the VAR decisions this weekend.
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