I am happy to say that I didn't feel nearly so bad yesterday as compared to the weekend. Ibuprofen seemed to be doing a good job of calming down the inflammation that was causing so much discomfort from my chest. Other bits of me continued to ache, notably my right shoulder, and right elbow, but I think the Ibuprofen calmed both those down too (although maybe not as much as my chest). I was also buoyed up by the hope that I would be seeing Angela.

  Yesterday seemed like another good day to put on my new winter coat. It was definitely cold, and I definitely wanted to keep my chest warm even if I got cooked at the same time. I also decided to give my spare hiking boots another chance after I had loosened the lacing to give a bit more room at the toe end of the lacing.

 I combined three things into one walk for greater efficiency...or because it just worked out that way. The first part of my walk was to the pharmacy to order my next repeat prescription. I suggested that I would pick it up on Wednesday (tomorrow) morning. They said that should be OK, and I hope they stick to it because I took the last of one of my drugs today, and although I will be taking it a bit later in the day, hopefully I'll be collecting it tomorrow (which will probably mean I'll be writing this diary later in the morning than usual.

  By the time I had got to the pharmacy I knew that my spare hiking boots were still uncomfortable. It is hard to say exactly why they are uncomfortable - they just do not feel right. In one respect they feel like a very loose fit. There is a definite feeling of my foot sliding inside when walking on uneven ground. They are a medium wide fitting because I feel I need that for my toes, but I think the rest of my foot would prefer a narrower fitting. It makes me wonder how my other hiking boots are so comfortable. I might have to order an identical pair if I can, but it seems a shame to not use the spare pair. I am sure a paid a fair bit of money for them 10 years ago.

  Anyway, the good news is that despite my feet not feeling very comfortable (although not being damaged - as far as I can tell) my walk was otherwise quite comfortable. I don't think I can say it was enjoyable though. At least I didn't seem to overheat while wearing my well padded winter coat. It did keep me, and in particular my chest, warm while my fingers were almost tingling with cold. When the sun was shining, which was probably only when I was on my way home after stopping off at the pub, I still wanted to discard the coat, and walk bare armed in the sun. Of course that would have been a very cold experience in yesterday's chill.

  I sent Angela a message to say I would be in the pub at 1pm, and she very quickly replied that she would be there too. She arrived at about 10 minutes after 1pm, and we had a very nice drink together. Some of the talk was about medical matters. I told her how my weekend was not very nice because of all the 'flu like aching I was experiencing, and how my chest was having a flare up. It was then that she mentioned lover boy. He rarely comes into our conversations. Maybe it is in deference to my feelings, or, as I sometimes think, he is not spending much time with Angela these days. Anyway, it seems he too is suffering after his heart bypass operation too.  His pain is described as being inflammation of the inter-costal muscles - which could also describe my pains as well.

  On a more positive note it seems that Angela spent most of her weekend with her daughter Miranda rather than with lover boy. I am wondering if it might be possible to see Angela at the weekend rather than just in the pub at lunchtime a few days a week. As we left the pub to walk back towards Angela's workplace the sun was shining brightly - straight into our eyes. I said I couldn't wait until we had some warm sunny days, and how I would love it if Angela could join me for an occasion country, or coastal walk. She didn't sound very positive, but said she would like that. It was as if she wanted to, but wasn't sure how she could find the time...or account for the time.
 It was on my way to the pub that I noticed these ceramic items laying near the fence by the river. When I first spotted them I thought they were old style ceramic insulators used on ancient telephone wires between poles. When I got a bit closer I realised that they were oil heaters (for scented oils) as sold by the late lamented 99p shop. I have a couple here.
  It was one of those crazy coincidences that I looked to the far side of the river and on the opposite bank was a real insulator. It was the ceramic insulator used for the third rail on the railways. This one may have become uncovered when the river was a raging torrent after all the rain we had recently. Over the last 55 years (!) I have spotted many of these insulator pots in or by the river. I am unsure how they got there. Maybe some were thrown in the river by bored rail workers, or maybe some were washed into it during the great flood of 1968 (?) when I remember the railway through Catford Bridge station looking more like a canal. I would not be surprised if one or more are revealed after more storms raise the river depth, and flow rate for a few days.

  While I was very warm in my winter coat, I still felt a different sort of cold. The cold that seeps into the bones despite the bones still being at blood heat. I felt the need for some hot food, and so I had a couple of cans of soup - one can of oxtail, and one can of beef broth. Both had a sprinkle of hot pepper sauce to make the sensation of warmth even more intense. Sometimes I forget how delicious soup can be. It was the start of eating too much by the end of the day. I thought that most of what I ate was chosen to be fairly innocent, but that didn't include all the tomatoes I ate as part of a couple of salad like meals. Tomatoes do contain quite a bit of sugar, and I could see the effect when I checked my blood glucose this morning. It was annoyingly high - not high enough to cross the danger line, but enough to mess up what should have been a nice series of readings.

  The only thing of note that I did after getting home from my walk was to wash the last of my pending laundry (except for one sock - I'll wash that when I find it's partner). I think I had a snooze for a while. I did some reading and some food preparation, but that was about it until the evening. All I did in the evening was to spend a bit of time playing with my old laptop - the one I recently updated to Linux Mint 19.1 (and I think I meant to use 19.3). I spent very little time trying to get the internal Broadcom WiFi working, and instead spent most of my time trying to install me-tv on it. Me-tv is an application to watch TV using a DVB-T (Freeview) USB dongle.

  Unfortunately there was a conflict with one of the supporting libraries, and I couldn't be bothered to pursue that. Instead I installed Kaffeine - a video, TV and DVD player. That worked perfectly, although ultimately I don't know why I thought I needed it. I guess I am seeing how far that old laptop can be stretched. Apart from the internal WiFi problem, it does seem to really like Linux Mint 19 - better than it did with Linux Mint 16 (or possibly even version 13). Maybe the Wifi Problem will be solved by installing version 19.3 - which I think is the "long term support" version.

  The main thing about last night was that it was bloody cold. The impact of that was that I had to make sure I was well wrapped by my duvet. I was, but I was expecting that, because of the positions I was sleeping in, to inflame my chest even more, but I am starting to think that this recent flare up is actually dying down this morning. My chest is not that sore this morning, and maybe even my shoulder is not quite as sore - although I have to remember that I have not really tested these things yet. As I have already mentioned, the stuff I ate yesterday has caused a blip in the blood glucose this morning, and maybe even a blip in my weight (that could take days to recover from, if I can recover from it while it feels so wintry outside). I hope I can recover from the blood glucose blip with a day.

  Today I should press on with tidying up my back room, but what I am sure I will be doing is going for a walk in the park, and calling into the pub for a Guinness along the way. I hope Angela will be able to join me. I expect I will have some hot soup when I get home, and then snooze away the afternoon. If I have time, I might pop in to Aldi to buy a few things before setting out on my walk.