Spain 2023 - February 20th to 22nd

Monday 20th February

The villa was so quiet this morning.  I so enjoyed the family being here.

I had hoped to have a late start to the day as I hadn’t been sleeping well but we had to take the car seats back to Vera at 10am.  We popped into Iceland for a few things then drove back home via Dia.  I have still forgotten the loo paper!

We were able to have lunch outside and Richard actually put his shorts on – only the second time this trip!

I had to turn our sign round to “just a way of life” from “on holiday” ☹  Still, I can turn in back in two weeks time 😊

My afternoon was taken up with catching up on some emails and the blog – 6 days of it.  I was messaging the children asking if they could remember things.  It makes me smile when I refer to them as the children 😊

While I was in Dia, I had a phone call from my doctor in the UK.  It was a planned call.  Before we came away, I had a blood test and when I rang for the results, I was told that the doctor wanted to speak to me.  They made an appointment for this morning but when the doctor rang, she said that as I am in Spain, she couldn't consult with me and that I must go and get another blood test here in the next couple of weeks.  This has rather put the wind up me as I'm sure you can guess.  I have found a clinic who I hope can do the blood test, I’m just waiting for a response to my email.  The doctor sent over the results of my last blood test which says that I have Chronic Intermittent Neutropenia.  I didn’t like the sound of that at all and had to Google it.  Neutropenia is a very rare blood condition that causes a reduced number or complete lack of neutrophils. Neutrophils are a type of blood cell that defends the body against bacterial infections.  Google says that a person has neutropenia when the ANC is less than 1.9 x 109/L – mine is 1 x 109/L.  White Blood Cells or leukocytes are a group of cells responsible for fighting infections in the body. About 120,000 white blood cells are produced every second. There are three types of white blood cells: granulocytes, monocytes, and lymphocytes. Neutrophils make up most of the granulocytes.  Sorry to bore you with all this but the blog is also my diary, and it is interesting for me to look back on.

An update on Victoria’s car.  Her father, my ex-husband Derek, had been staying in Robert and Laura’s house to look after their dog and cat.  Derek is a whizz with cars, so he has stayed on for a couple of days to mend the car.  The brake shoe had come adrift because it had got brake fluid on it from a leaking wheel cylinder.

Tuesday 21st February

Another nice day, it was 18° this morning. 

I had to strip all the beds as the property managers, Dee and Chris, wanted to take the bedding to get it laundered.  They have people coming in here the day after we leave so it seemed to make sense.  Dee commented on my cough and “cold” and suggested that I get some Vitamin C and some Zinc.

The battery in Richard’s watch had gone so we pootled up to the Parque Comercial to visit the jewellers.  While we were in there Richard bought me a silver Indalo man for my 70th birthday in April.  I’m not sure if I have to wait for it or if I can have it now!  I already have two Indalo men charms but I wanted a slightly bigger one.

I visited Consum while Richard rescued the dog from the car.  We then stopped at the Pharmacy to get my Vitamin C and Zinc and finally to get some milk.

After lunch I had a nice video call with my sister, Penny.   She and Jim are going to stay at our house for a few days before moving on to stay with a friend.  She wanted to ask me some questions but I’m not sure she actually did as we were talking about everything else under the sun!!

Earlier this year Amanda, the villa owner, had gardeners in to landscape the front garden which is on a steep hill.  Today I realised that the flowers are coming out and how pretty it is looking. 

I got an email from the clinic during the afternoon and have an appointment for a blood test on March 1st.

Wednesday 22nd February

Another nice day.

We had arranged to meet up with Sue and Andy, our boating friends, for tapas.  They have been coming to Mojacar since 2016, a year longer than us, though they didn’t come last year which make us even 😊  We went to a new place for us called Marlon’s Gastrobar.  We sat out in the sunshine and had tapas which was very good, and we talked and talked!  In fact, we talked so much that we forgot to give Muffin his lunchtime snack, he was not amused and kept whining but neither of us really tuned in to him!!  Rotten parents, aren’t we??  It was so lovely to see Sue and Andy again, the last time had been in 2020 when we all rushed back to the UK because of Covid.  I’ve just looked back at the blog for March 2020.  I wrote on March 13th “Things are now beginning to kick off a bit in Spain with the coronavirus.”  I don’t think any of us understood just what was ahead of us.

I realised, this afternoon, that I should let the travel insurance people know about my Neutropenia.  I rang and waited for about 20 minutes before someone picked up.  I assume that the guy I spoke to was new as he kept saying, can you please hold on, the line would go dead, then he would come back and ask more questions.  Eventually he said that he had added Neutropenia to my records but that I needed to speak to the claims department.  The guy there said that he had to pass me on to someone else, in fact a different company from Aviva altogether.  The lady at CEGA was lovely and I now have a claim all set up and just need to send them bills etc.  A total of 1 hour 22 mins on the phone!

Richard has given me my birthday present, I love it.