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Friday 10th
January 2020
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08:34 GMT
Yesterday was a day of two halves. The
first half was bright and sunny with some lovely
blue sky. The second half was dull and heavily
overcast, and it included quite a lot of rain too
! The change happened at around 1pm, but
fortunately the rain fell a few hours after that.
It was a mild day. The sun felt warm, but the air
temperature didn't exceed 13° C.
The early version of today's forecast
seems to have lost touch with reality ! At the
moment it is as dull as ditchwater outside, and
the chances of bright sunshine from clear blue
skies in 40 minutes seems very remote ! The most
recent revision now says that there will only be
sunny periods today, and they won't start until
10am. That is a bit of a disappointment ! At least
the temperature forecast hasn't changed - not that
8° C is anything to get excited about. The sunny
periods, if indeed we do get them, should last
until sunset. The best that can be said about
today is that it should be dry. Tomorrow is
currently predicted to be a little less cold with
an afternoon temperature of 11° C, but it is
thought to be an overcast day with no hint of
sunshine. The cloud will thicken further at
sunset, but the day should remain dry.
Yesterday's morning sunshine was a very
strong lure to go out and get some fresh air.
Before I could indulge in a longer walk, I did a
bit of shopping. It was only a short walk, done in
the sunshine, and with the air temperature just
over 10° C when I went out. I took a chance on
just wearing my sleeveless denim jacket instead of
a proper coat, and it felt good. It is going to be
great when it can be an everyday occurrence -
until it is warm enough to omit any coat. That
will be greater still !
I went to Poundstretcher with a few
specific purchases in mind. I was crossing my
fingers that all the Xmas junk, that had taken up
so much space in the store, had now gone, and that
gardening stuff might be back on the shelves. I
was partly right. Some shelf space is still being
used for heavily discounted Xmas stuff. It is a
good time to buy strings of LED lights right now.
What I was hoping for had actually appeared
on the shelves, and there was a greater variety
than expected. That something was seeds, and even
some bulbs that were already beginning to sprout.
I bought a selection of flower seeds that I am
going to sow in my front garden at the correct
time. That correct time, for most of the seeds, is
(roughly) mid February to Mid march.
I may sow them a little earlier than
that. My small front garden faces south, and traps
the heat of the sun nicely. If all the seeds
germinate, and the plants flower, I could end up
with a riot of colour out there - the first time
ever since moving here in 1983 ! Maybe next year I
might try to make it seem a bit less random, but
this year I will sprinkle the seeds at random, and
hope for the best.
Once my shopping had been done, and my
purchases put away, I rested for 10 minutes before
getting ready to go out again. This time I would
wear a coat in case the forecast afternoon rain
came early, and I would wear my best walking boots
for extra comfort. I must admit I was doing much
of this almost on autopilot because in some ways I
didn't want to go out.
I wasn't feeling all that good yesterday
morning. My cough had spoiled my sleep again, and
from time to time I was still coughing in the
morning. It was actually improving to some extent,
but I had become fed up with it. So I had to force
myself to try and enjoy a walk in the sunshine.
There was also the possibility of bumping into
Angela as an extra lure, although I had told her I
would not be seeing her yesterday.
It was either some sort of masochism, or a
cunning plan, but I decided to do an extended walk
via the Sainsbury's by Catford station. That
assured that my walk was going to be more
substantial than a simple walk to the pub and
back. As the screenshot of my phones tracker
shows, I walked 2.37 miles in total. The
real reason for going via Sainsbury's was to buy
some of their ready made salads. My blood glucose
has been running high during the cold, and I
though eating some salads, instead of other stuff,
may have been beneficial.
I am not sure if it was the cold, or the
way the cold was responsible for raising my blood
glucose level, but I constantly felt a mildly
fatigued, and I had ton consciously push myself to
keep my pace up. I found it sort of strange that
while it seemed harder than usual to walk on the
flat, I had no trouble walking up the long spiral
slope of the footbridge that crosses the railway
in the middle of the park. I guess that is the
benefit of all the practice I have been putting in
for the last month or so now.
I have to admit that while on one hand it
felt like a bit of a slog as I walked through the
park, on the the other hand it seemed worth it for
the brilliant blue sky, and the feel of the warm
sun on my back.
There wasn't always sun on my back. Behind
me the clouds were starting to thicken, but in
front, to the north, only a few fluffy clouds were
appearing in the sky.
I think my subconscious knows the timings
of these walks better than I do. I did adjust my
route a bit after checking the time, but only to
make sure I wasn't too late, or too early when I
got to the pub. I actually arrived spot on time !
I ordered a pint of Guinness, and waited, hoping
that Angela might pop in. Sadly she didn't. I
suspect she used the time for something else
knowing I would not be there. I guess I had better
warn her I will be there today in case she fancies
meeting for a drink.
I finished my single pint, and left the
pub. The first thing I saw was that the sky had
changed from still showing large areas of blue to
being completely covered by dirty grey clouds. It
looked like rain was imminent. It was lucky I was
wearing a coat that I could comfortably wear done
up. In fact it didn't rain until some time after I
was safely home - and that was after taking a
chance and taking a slightly longer route to
increase my mileage. Maybe that wasn't a good idea
because the last half mile did feel like hard
work...or maybe that was actually good for me. Who
knows ?
I had a fairly lazy, and in some ways,
slightly miserable afternoon. The misery was part
not seeing Angela, and quite a lot of seeing dirty
grey skies again, and rain. I'm not sure how long
it was after I got home - I'm pretty sure it was
longer than half an hour - before the rain seemed
to be coming down in torrents. It certainly seemed
out of proportion to the light rain that was
originally forecast. I probably spent a fair bit
of the afternoon, and some of the evening, eating
"safe" stuff to distract me from eating "unsafe"
stuff. In practice that meant eating a lot of
salad instead of having a proper hot meal of
something or another.
In another of those paradoxes that confound
my brain, and perhaps are a bit schizophrenic, I
felt increasing pissed off about how my cold was
dragging out, and in particular how my cough
seemed never to end. At the same time, a more
rational bit of my brain was realising that each
cough session was actually getting a bit milder,
and the time between any two bad coughing sessions
was getting longer and longer.
One thing I was determined not to do was to
have any more cough mixture. The stuff that did
seem to help, a mentholated cough syrup, was
almost pure sugar, and it knocked my blood glucose
level for six. In the end I am not sute I even
took any paracetamol before going to bed.
Paracetamol probably works better in the long term
than the cough syrup, but the cough syrup does
provides a bit of help very quickly.
I was hardly coughing at all until I laid
down and tried to go to sleep. I was soon
coughing, but not that badly. It didn't seem to
take long for it to settle down, and I quickly
fell asleep. Every time I woke up I had to clear
my throat, and sometimes that meant coughing up
what seemed to be a fair amount of mucus.
Fortunately I could usually get back to sleep
again fairly quickly. This happened every time I
woke up, and I was probably waking up every 90
minutes to 2 hours through the night.
This morning my blood glucose is a lot
better, but still not as low as I hope it will be
when I see the diabetes nurse at the hospital in
just 4 days time now. My weight is still showing
the right units digit, but I would have preferred
it of the tenths of a kilogram was a much lower
number. At this time I have only done what seemed
a very small poo. If I bigger one happens later
then I will be happier that things are still on
target. My blood pressure is still boringly low.
That just leaves my cough, and maybe other
remnants of my cold. My nose is not running, but
often feels a bit stuffy. I am finding it hard to
evaluate my cough. It is probably milder than it
has been, and yet it is not as infrequent as I
would hope (although I would hope it goes away
completely !). I think it will improve after a
shower (because of the increased humidity under
the shower), and I think it will improve once I
get out into the fresh air and sunshine.
There is just one flaw in that argument. It
looks more like it might rain than the sun
breaking through. The weather forecast has been
revised again since I started writing. It is still
insistent that in 10 minutes (as I write this) the
sunny intervals will start. As I look out my
window I can see that the clouds may look a little
thinner to the west, but the east, where the sun
should be lurking behind the clouds, the clouds
look s thick as ever.
Oh well, even if there is no sunshine I
will still go for a walk today. In sunshine it
might be an extended walk, or if it is as dull as
it is now it will be the shortest route between
home and the pub, and back again, possible -
probably. I don't hold that much hope that I will
see Angela, but I will let her know I will be
there. As for the rest of the day....I have no
idea what I will do apart from one possibility. I
have an idea that I will be ordering a takeaway
shish kebab or two tonight.
My experiments have proved that shish
kebab, being grilled meat with salad plus a slice
of pitta bread that I will discard, is actually a
healthy option for me. I tend to lose a bit of
weight after having one for dinner, and my blood
glucose level likes it too. There is one argument
against it - and that is financial. It would be a
bit of a luxury, and my finances are dwindling all
the time. I checked my bank balance when I
withdrew some beer vouchers yesterday, and it
seems that since quitting work my savings (in my
main bank account) have halved. I am probably
doing better than I thought, but I still ought to
be careful. My little Post Office
Telecommunications pension helps a bit, but my
state pension is still 18 months away - assuming
our wonderful billionaire overlords in the
government do not move the goal posts again so
they can steal our money, and hide it in their
secret offshore bank accounts.
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