Today should be a degree warmer than yesterday, but whether that will be noticeable will be down to the wind. That extra degree, taking the temperature up to 10° C, won't happen until after sunset, and it looks like it will be at the expense of rain from sunset. Before then it will just be dull and overcast. The rain may finish after 6pm, but by then it will have been dark for a few hours, and it won't matter if it is overcast, or not. One small change has happened in the latest revision to the forecast, there could be sunny spells at midday. Tomorrow there is a very small risk of rain. The strange thing is that the temperature will slowly increase during the day. It may start at just 6° C, and rise to 13° C by 6pm. Unfortunately no sunshine is currently forecast for tomorrow.

   It felt like I was almost over my cold yesterday. I didn't seem to be coughing, apart from a very occasional need to clear my throat, and my nose was almost dry - even in cold air. For all that, I didn't think I had the energy for a long walk, which is what I thought I needed, but I did go on a short walk to the shops. It seemed like a good time to test my new severe weather coat.

  Of course the problem was that there was no severe weather yesterday. There was just a cold wind, but the air temperature, when the wind wasn't making it feel cooler, was an almost mild 7 or 8° C. In the 6 or 7 minutes it took to walk to Savers, my new coat felt comfortable in terms of how well it fit (and I had zipped it up), but it was feeling a bit warm inside it. After spending 10 minutes inside the shop I was cooking ! Once I had paid for my purchases, and slung my rucksack back on, I had to unzip the front to let some cool air in !

  I was still feeling very warm when I got home again. That coat is going to be great in a blizzard, but I don't think it is suitable for general winter wear. Maybe it will be OK if I manage to lose a few more kilograms, and there is a bit more room for air to circulate under it. It was a relief to take it off before putting my purchases away. I didn't buy anything exciting. It was just boring stuff like bleach, shower gel, cod liver oil capsules, and high strength vitamin D tablets.

  My morning blood glucose was higher than desired yesterday morning, and so I did my best to avoid eating anything until dinner time. I did part give in, but only late in the afternoon. One distraction on what was a typical boring Sunday, was to wash another pair of jeans. Washing one pair was newsworthy, and washing two pairs on consecutive days has probably never happened before - even in past weight losing periods.

  I think my sense of boredom was heightened by the feeling that I just about conquered the cold I had been suffering from, and could now do anything I desired - except of course I couldn't ! My cough may have subsided to just a very occasional desire to clear my throat - possibly less than once an hour, but I wasn't timing it. Also, my nose had dried up to the point where I rarely needed to give it a good blow. Once again it may have been less than once an hour. The downside, as my little walk earlier had shown, was that I still felt a bit weak - so a run around the park was out of the question (and so was the more realistic idea of a walk around the park).

  I think it was as early as 3pm that I started to prepare my dinner for something to do. I didn't intend to at it until 6pm, but the (alleged) piri-piri flavoured chicken breasts needed 50 minutes in the oven, and I had some vegetable to prepare. The vegetable to go with the chicken were sprouts, leeks and mushrooms - all cooked in chicken stock. I noted that the mushrooms, very big mushrooms, were just starting to deteriorate, and I thought it best to use them up. I cooked a sort of snack of part sautéed, and mostly steamed mushrooms and a couple of tomatoes that were getting near the end of their shelf life.

  I think I only waited until about 4.30pm before I checked my blood glucose, instead of just before 6pm, and it had dropped nicely, but I would have preferred it is it had been a bit lower. Having checked my blood glucose I gave in to waiting, and had my mushroom and tomato snack - taking care to leave as much of the oil I had added to stay in the cooking bowl. I had also added a bit of seasoning, and it was quite tasty.

  Once 6pm came around I had my main course of grilled chicken (with piri-piri flavouring - not that it was very noticeable) with the sprouts, leeks and mushrooms. It was tasty, and in theory fairly healthy. It would possibly turn out to have a more beneficial effect. It used to be a far more frequent occurrence when I used to have meals that were 100% vegetables cooked in stock. The heat of that would appear to start some sort of fermentation process in my gut.

  Yesterday, for the first time in ages, it happened again. It was possibly around 8pm, 2 hours after dinner, that I felt a strong desire to go to the toilet. That was the start of a series of visits to the toilet - with the interval between visits once as short as the time it took to wash my hands after the previous visit. Over the course of 5 or 6 visits, it felt like I had completely, and utterly emptied my entire digestive tract. Looking at it on the bright side, I was expecting a good reading when I got on the scales this morning.

  After a couple of hours for everything to calm down, I went to bed. I was soon asleep. There were no delays from any coughs, or runny nose - everything seemed perfect. I think I slept for 3 or 4 hours before I woke up coughing. The coughing made my eyes water, which made my nose run. It was like I back in the middle of the worst part of my cold. I think I was awake for about an hour coughing and spluttering.

  This morning I seem to have a mild cough back, but otherwise I feel generally OK. I am unsure how much energy I have, but I don't think I'll be doing any mad dashes through the park today. My blood glucose has started out with a reasonable figure for the morning, and if I can avoid eating anything, or maybe if I am very, very careful about anything I might eat, I think my blood glucose will be good by tonight. My weight is pretty good this morning, although without the excesses brought on by that cold, it could have been lower still. Provided I can continue to be careful, I will have nothing to worry about when I see the Diabetes nurse on the 14th January.

  I sent Angela a message yesterday. I hoped she was now over her cold (which started about a day before mine), and that if she was back at work, and likely to be out at lunchtime, to let me know. As yet I have heard nothing, and I don't think I will. However I have heard from Amazon. I have a parcel delivery heading my way today. It left their Dartford depot unusually early, and so could be here as early as 2pm. So staying at home may be beneficial for that parcel delivery. I don't really know what else I might do today.