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Thursday 9th
January 2020
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08:25 GMT
Being mostly heavily overcast made
yesterday a fairly grim sort of day. Even a
temperature of 12° C was no compensation. I guess
it was sort of appreciated, but it wasn't high
enough to be enjoyed in any way. All the hours of
daylight were dry, but rain did fall in the
evening, and through the night. Some of was heavy.
The latest revision to today's
forecast shows some improvements. The last rain of
the morning should soon be falling, and then there
might be some sunny intervals from about 11am to
1pm - although when I look out my window I find
that very hard to believe at the moment. Rain is
forecast to resume at 2pm, and continue through to
at least 11pm, but at least it will be light rain.
The temperature continues this series of unusually
mild January days. Around midday the temperature
could be 13° C, although maybe 12° C is more
representative of the day. Tomorrow could be a lot
cooler, maybe only a max of 8° C, but it should be
dry, and there could be sunny periods, and even
long periods of sunshine !
I didn't feel good yesterday morning, and
it was mostly because of my cough. My throat
seemed so sensitive that anything, even yawning,
could set off another bout of coughing. Some of
the problem is the dry air caused by the fan
heater I use for heating. The air outside is often
kinder in these situations, and so it turned out
to be when I did some more "gardening" yesterday
morning.
The most significant thing that spurred me
on to do this gardening was that today should see
my brown, garden waste, wheelie bin emptied. For
months now it was in my back garden no more than a
third full of garden waste, but frequently topped
up with kitchen/food waste. That has been slowly
composting down, aided by flies and maggots plus a
few snails. The trouble was it was getting really
stinky, and a cloud of flies would come out
everytime the lid was opened. I had left it too
long, and it had become an embarrassment. The only
solution was to cover all that rotting food waste
with weeds and twig. The front garden provides an
excellent source.
I spent 30 to 40 minutes out in the front
garden pulling up weeds, dead plants, and other
stuff. Although not obvious in the "before"
picture on the left, there were also lots of dead
leaves to add to the layer above the rotting food.
While working out there my cough was minimal, and
I think it was almost non existent apart from the
very occasional "ahem" to clear my throat. I
didn't go as far as taking it back to bare earth,
but at least it looks cared for, and for the first
time in ages it gives the daffodils, which manage
themselves, a bit of breathing space. Maybe I
might get a fair display in spring.
I thought that if I could manage that
gardening without too much stress (although all
the bending over to pull stuff up was starting to
take it's toll on me) I could equally manage a
short walk.
It was a lousy, dull day to go for a walk
in the park, but there seemed to be good reasons
for doing it. The simplest reason being that I
could do it. I also had nothing better to do. I
wanted to do enough to stay in practice for when I
finally feel I am over this prolonged cold to
extend my range again. I thought it about time I
took the Toshiba digital camera I bought from the
British Heart Foundation charity shop out for a
spin. Almost top of the list was to have a pint or
two of Guinness, and top of the list was to spend
another lunchtime with Angela.
The only possible flaws in this list were
that the day was as dull as ditchwater, and so not
really great to assess how good or bad a camera
is. It was also not definite that Angela would
turn up in the pub. I had told her the day before
that I would probably be there, and said that I
would be fine of she was not feeling well enough,
or was too busy to come out at lunchtime.
The camera, as I said, was made my Toshiba,
and while I haven't checked, I estimate it was new
about 20 years ago. It cost me something like
£4.80 (although I have forgotten the exact price).
A memory card for it, a now obsolete Smart Media
card, cost 3 or 4 times the cost of the camera.
It's performance on a dull day was probably about
what I expected - not impressive. Very few cameras
can produce a decent picture under that flat grey
lighting.
There was one picture I expected to come
out a lot better, and that was when I took this
photo of Angela. The camera was on auto, and the
flash gun allowed to fire. I am not happy with the
result. The detail is good, but Angela's face
looks slightly over exposed because of the glare
of the flash. My mobile phone could do a better
job - probably. For other pictures I actually did
use my mobile phone.
I thought it about time I took some
pictures of the paintings on the wall of the pub.
These are painted directly onto the wall, and
probably cannot be preserved if the pub ever
changes it's decor. I don't think they can be
classified as high art, but I am no export. This
one does seem to be quite satisfying.
This is another painting on the wall. I
find it both good and bad. The shape of the
animals are not quite right. Nevertheless, it is
another picture were recording. There are a few
more that I will try and photograph, but
unfortunately one fairly large mural is covered by
a couple of gaming machines.
Also on the wall is this poster about the
quiz night. I asked Angela if she still wanted to
have a go at it with me, and she definitely was,
although she did display some apprehension about
explaining the time away to lover boy. Having said
that she was maybe also a little too keen, and
would almost have gone last night. I suggested it
might be better if we waited until both our coughs
had completely stopped.
Angela doesn't seem to be coughing at all
now, and until I mentioned coughing, I had really
coughed since entering the pub. As soon as I
mentioned coughing I started coughing. I had to
take many gulps of Guinness to calm my throat
down...well any excuse !!
It was a most convivial time with Angela,
but after I had walked her back to work I told her
I didn't want to monopolise her lunchtimes, and
wouldn't see her today. I said that without
realising my circumstances were not, and would not
be the same as I was thinking they would be. The
first thing is that the regular Thursday night
drink with Chris and people is not happening
tonight - not enough people would be available to
make it worthwhile. The other fact that only came
to light this morning was that instead of rain
there will be sunny spells this morning, and that
makes a walk in the park almost mandatory...or
something like that. If I am at the north end of
the park near 1pm I am also near the pub, and I am
well aware of the need to keep hydrated while
exercising......
After saying goodbye to Angela I had more
energy than I thought I would had, but it still
wasn't enough to really extend my walk by taking a
silly route home. I made a small change to my
route for the novelty factor, but it didn't really
make any difference to the length of the walk. I
think I am glad that I didn't try and lengthen my
walk because it did feel about right when I got
home.
It was good to put my feet up, although
before I did that I had a strong yearning for some
food. I didn't want any more than soup, and that
is what I had - two cans of it. I knew that even
cans saying they have very small amounts of sugar
would still affect my blood glucose level when I
measured it later, but I just had to live with
that. Although I wasn't that cold, maybe not cold
at all, but I still wanted something hot, and soup
was the answer. I suppose those who indulge in the
filthy stuff would have had a gallon of tea or
coffee if they were that way inclined.
Once indoors, and particularly when laying
down, my throat would start getting tickly again,
and my cough would perk up. It began to feel like
another very bad night coming my way. My blood
glucose was already high, and I didn't dare have
any more cough mixture, and for some reason I felt
reluctant to drink enough whisky to help. Maybe it
was the first sign of hope that towards bedtime it
seemed as if my throat, and cough were calming
down.
By the time I went to bed it seemed like
the sensitive spot in my throat had calmed right
down, and my cough turned from dry and tickly to a
wet cough. That did turn out to be the case
through the night. Once I had coughed up
sufficient heavy mucus I was OK to fall asleep
again. Somewhat sadly it seems to have reverted to
dry and tickly again this morning.
I have a feeling that this morning could
almost be a re-run of yesterday morning in terms
of how good or bad my cough is. I am expecting it
to be OK once I get out into the fresh air. This
morning my blood glucose has dropped to a better
level, although it is still higher than I would
like. My weight has also gone back up. Yesterday,
before I went for my walk in the park, I made a
surprising large deposit in the toilet, and my
weight dropped to a very nice figure. I am overdue
a visit to the toilet as I write this. Maybe it
will happen before I go out today, and my weight
will once again be nearer to where I hope it will
be.
I think my plans for the first half of the
day are very simple. I want to go to
Poundstretcher. I assume that by now they have
cleared the shelves of all the Xmas junk, and may
have gardening supplies back. It is probably a
stupid place to buy them, but if they are back I
will buy some assorted seeds for flowers to be
sowed in my front garden. I won't be doing it with
any planning. I'll just scatter the seeds wherever
they fall. I hope that the seeds actually
germinate. Most of the seeds I bough last year
said sow in early spring, but it was mid to late
summer when I bought them. I don't think a single
one germinated. I hope that if I get the timing
about right I might have better luck this year.
After Poundstretcher I will go for a walk
in the park. I doubt it will be a long walk, but I
have no doubt that I will be calling in the pub
for a Guinness. I would not be surprised to find
Angela in there, but at the same time I will not
be upset if she is not. Once I am home again I
have no idea what I will do. Maybe I'll just
quietly read. Maybe I'll do something more
physical. Maybe I'll just see what happens.
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