Yesterday's morning rain probably finished
earlier than expected, and the afternoon saw some
quite long spells of sunshine. For a few hours it
wasn't such a bad day, but there was still enough
wind to make even the sunny spells feel quite cold
even when the air temperature was 10° C.
This morning should be dry, and there
is even the chance of some sunny spells, although
the latest revision to the forecast shows less
than the earlier screenshot above. The trade off
for less sunny periods might be that the rain will
not start until 4pm now, rather than 3pm in the
early version. It is also now thought that the
temperature may reach 12° C by 4pm. Back in the
real world, I can see a lot of blue sky as I write
this, and there is a bright glow from the rising
sun behind the houses to the east. It is less
obvious now, but 5 or 10 minutes ago that glow
included some very pink areas that foretell of the
rain to come later. Tomorrow, which will feature
many hours of light rain, sees the start of the
temperature getting colder. The afternoon
temperature may still see 10° C, but after that
the temperature could drop low enough for some
overnight frost, and the weekend could be very
chilly with maximum temperatures of no more than
7° C.
Having passed my visit to the Diabetes
Nurse with flying colours the day before, I was
looking forward to a really good day - really good
mostly because I thought I was going to enjoying
eating some "forbidden" food. It didn't end up
like that, and while the day had it's very good
bits, some of it was not so satisfactory. A sort
of lack of energy, or maybe enthusiasm, seemed to
be a hangover from the cold I had been suffering
from.
One of the aspects of my cold that I think
I may have only mentioned once, and then rather
briefly, was the amount of times I would blow my
nose, and find the tissue splattered with blood.
For a while it did seem that it was something to
do with the bad cough I had, and ultimately that
was probably the cause, but not in the way I
thought it might be. Sometimes it did seem that I
might be coughing that blood up, but yesterday I
was in the right place at the right time to do
something I really, really hate !
I had gone to the toilet prior to going
out, and before I could do anything else I found I
needed a cough to clear mucus from my airways. It
was actually the last time I had to do that after
all the times I was doing it in the midst of my
cold (although it did happen at half
strength/quantity yesterday evening). As I say, I
hate doing it, but instead of not allowing the
expectorate into my mouth, I let it pass through,
and spat it into the wash basin. I was happy to
see there was not a trace of blood in it, and it
was mostly clear. I concluded that the small nose
bleeds I was getting was the result of rupturing a
capillary in my right nostril. I am also happy to
report that it seems to have healed now I am no
longer doing any energetic coughing.
If it wasn't for the fact that I was
very sure I would be meeting Angela in the pub, I
might not have gone out yesterday. Once again I
was feeling something like fatigued, and yet it
wasn't really fatigue. I am unsure how to describe
it. I guess some of it was all in the head. I had
no particular trouble walking, and I presume I
could have walked much further, but I just didn't
really feel like it.
I managed to push myself to walk to the far
end of the park, with the little hill up to the
exit, and to then walk down to the hospital exit.
I then walked through the hospital grounds to come
out next to the pub. Walking that route probably
added a quarter of a mile to my total of just 1.65
miles. I chose a very slight change for my walk
from the pub to home. I went through a few side
roads I rarely use - just for the novelty of it -
but I doubt that added any more than a few tens of
yards to my walk.
I arrived at the pub about 10 minutes
before 1pm, and I sent a text message to Angela to
say I was there. It wasn't long before she replied
to say that she was on her way. It is funny how 4
words can seem to convey a sense of urgency. It
made me think she was looking forward to meeting
up, and that thought continues after she had
arrived.
Angela wanted to hear some of the details
about how I had got on at my appointment with the
Diabetes Nurse, and congratulated me for achieving
so much. I feel sure that Angela knows it, but
maybe not just how much her encouragement and
praise means to me. I am sure I could not have
done so well without all the lovely lunchtimes
with her in the pub.
I feel sure that all is not well with
Angela on her home front. I have known for some
time that she has had troubles, but she has never
really explained them in any detail. What I am
unsure about is lover boys part in it. I don't
believe her troubles are specifically to do with
lover boy, but I am guessing he is being less
supportive than he ought to be. Reading between
the lines suggest that their relationship is
cooling a lot recently. I don't think they see
each other very often now. This view is reinforced
by the fact that Angela has booked today and
tomorrow off work, and will be spending time with
her daughter - who she described as her rock.
As I walked Angela back to work we talked
about a future plan of mine. It was not a new idea
for Angela, but we discussed some details for the
first time. I told Angela that I wanted to
celebrate getting free from the Diabetes Nurse by
enjoying one particular treat. I want to meet
Angela for breakfast in a cafe where I will have a
particular special treat - double egg and chips.
We both acknowledged that at this time of year,
when it is cold, dark, and frequently wet, may not
be the best time for it, but we did agree where we
would meet in future.
There wasn't much to take any pictures of
while walking through the park, on my way to meet
Angela. I thought this was worth taking a snap. It
is a slightly unusual sight. Most of the ducks,
coots, and moorhen stay close to the river, and
rarely wander around on the paths. I presume this
coot (or moorhen - I can never remember which is
which) got fed up with the river running at almost
flood levels after the recent rain. It is possible
it might have had a nest that got washed away.
What my picture doesn't really show is that it is
crossing the river on a footbridge instead of
swimming in the deep and fast flowing water.
Very near to where I took the previous
picture I saw this very rotund looking pigeon, and
it seemed to pose for me.
As I walked through the park I was treated
to some short sunny spells. The sun was actually
obscured by cloud when I took this picture that
shows how thin the cloud was to the north, and how
much blue sky was visible.
I also shot this
video of the river as I walked through the
park. It started with views of the weir by the
bridge that connects the park to the hospital
grounds. Normally there would just a placid
flow over the weir with many rocks to be seen,
but yesterday lunchtime it was a raging
torrent. I then show the little man made
stream that is fed before the weir. Normally
it is just a light trickle, but for the first
time it looked as if it could almost flood
over onto the playing field it runs through.
This is actually how it is designed - the
playing fields should act as an emergency
place to collect the water before it can
spread to places it is less wanted. The final
sequence shows the little stream, but now like
a fully fledged river, as it return to the
main river.
I contemplated trying to extend my walk
by walking down to the centre of Catford, as I
have done a few times in the past, but when it
came down to it I just could not be bothered.
Maybe it was the depression that sometimes
follows a period of high elation. Maybe it was
just a case of still getting over the recent
cold. Maybe it was because I was looking
forward to eating the last Sandwich I had
bought from Tesco the day before. Whatever the
reason, I did eat that last sandwich, but
somehow I didn't seem to enjoy it the way I
should have. Could it have been some kind of
guilt ?
Yesterday evening was the second
evening after being discharged from the care
of the Diabetes Nurse, and with it the
possibility of relaxing my self imposed
dieting, and it was also the second night when
I enjoyed luxurious eating - but eating stuff
that was not too far removed from my dieting
specification. Last night I had a two part
dinner. Part one was grilled bacon and big
mushrooms. It was fairly low fat (because it
was grilled) and low to zero carbohydrate. I
found I didn't want to eat much after that,
but I had already cooked a pile of purple
cauliflower.
I really should have taken a before
picture before taking this shot of the cooked
item. By the way, don't be put off by some of
the brown stuff that looks like grease. It is
just chicken Oxo that I didn't stir in well
enough before cooking. I thought the purple
cauliflower I bought from Tesco looked very
exotic, and I guess I expected it to taste
somehow better, or more luxurious, but it is
no more exciting than ordinary cauliflower,
and to be honest it is not all that nice.
I probably only ate about half of the
cauliflower I cooked before I sealed up the
container to save the rest for today. I think
I intend to add some chicken, and many another
vegetable before eating it for dinner tonight
(although there may be a complication to that
I'll explain soon). Later on, while watching
TV, and not being deeply enthralled by it, I
did eat some peanuts, but it seems that at the
end of the day, I had not wandered very far
from my diet. This is obviously a good thing.
Probably thanks to getting over the
very last symptoms of my recent cold, I seemed
to sleep better last night. I am not sure if
that is really true if judged on the amount of
times I woke up, but maybe true based upon the
apparent ease of getting to sleep. There were,
I think, two specific time when that magic
happened - the magic where you glance at
the clock, close your eyes for what you think
is a couple of seconds, and then open them
again to find that it is now an hour or two,
or three later.
This morning it initially felt like I
had got up too early, but try as I might, I
could not get back to sleep again. It is
interesting that I woke up feeling almost
hungry. After one final wee (but no poo yet),
and before I drank anything, I weighed myself.
It is possible that I have lost another 100
grams, although there are so many things that
can cause a small change, plus or minus, such
a small amount. However, it is possible that
if I had a rather decently sized poo my weight
could have been low enough to drop a whole
units digit. It seems that somehow I am still
fighting temptation. This is also reflected in
my blood glucose level this morning. It is now
down to the sort of figure I would hope to
start the day with.
I think I might need to re-evaluate my
diet in view of recent changes. Although my
waist has not shrunk as much as I dreamed
about, it is possible that I am now entering
an area of less Insulin resistance, and I
should be incorporating a small amount of
carbohydrate to my diet (and probably reduce
the fat content to compensate). Maybe I will
experiment with some of the sugar free
cookies/biscuits I still have in my cupboard.
Although they may have no sugar added to them,
the flour they are made of is still starch -
aka carbohydrate - and will turn to sugar in
my gut. They could be a halfway point, and
maybe better than things like peanuts or
cheese as snacks. Those two things being good
for my blood glucose, but bad for my waist !
The main thing on today's agenda is the
resumption of my Thursday night drinks. Late
this afternoon, and with the days getting
noticeable longer, it should still be daylight
when we meet in the Wetherspoons pub in
Bromley for some beer. It is not my favourite
destination, but maybe they might have some
interesting ales on. I think I will probably
stick to my three beers maximum before getting
the bus home. I don't know if I will actually
do it, but it is not outside the bounds of
possibilities that I may buy some chicken and
chips on the way home. It might be the treat I
have been promising myself for two days now.
1
