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Sunday 2nd
February 2020
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11:39 GMT
Once again the weather forecast undersold
the amount of sunshine there would be yesterday.
The sunshine was just the occasional short spell
of hazy sunshine, but before the "official" time
of the first sunny spell at midday, the sun got
stronger, and the sunny spells got longer and
longer. By mid afternoon it could have been
described as sunny. The temperature only rose to
about 12° C, and if it wasn't for a rather cool
wind it could have felt nice in the sunshine.
Indoors, with no wind, the sunshine was getting my
front rooms nice and warm. I even had the windows
open for an hour or so ! In some ways it wouldn't
have been bad for an April day, and probably
rather excellent for the 1st of February.
There was rain in the small hours of the
night, but I think it had finished before 8am this
morning. In fact I am sure that it was almost
sunny at 8am. It was certainly bright. Since then,
in defiance of the forecast, the sun has popped
out a few times, although the sky is quite cloudy.
The latest revision to the forecast hasn't changed
anything, and it is probably that most of today
will be lightly overcast, and dry. It will also be
almost warm. From 11am it has probably been 13° C,
and apart from the possibility of a small blip to
14° C, it will stay 13° C until after sunset. The
cloud will stop it getting too cold tonight, and
tomorrow should stay mild with a few sunny spells
possible.
I ended up doing just two things of note
yesterday (and I went to the corner shop to buy a
couple of magazines). With the sun shining I
decided it was time to sow a load of seeds in the
front garden. I put on my gardening jeans, and my
gardening boots, grabbed my hoe and a small
trowel, and then stepped boldly into the front
garden. Oh, I also grabbed a half a dozen or more
packets of seeds as well.
On this, the first time I have attempted to
flowers in the garden (not counting some that grow
all by themselves to some degree or another every
year) I have randomly sown the seeds. I am not
really sure what to expect, but if this year
produces a colourful display, I may try something
a bit more formal and/or planned next year. Most
of the seeds said they could be sown in February,
some didn't, but at the moment it seems like
spring is coming very early this year. I think by
accident I might have selected a very good time.
Yesterday the soil was being slightly
warmed by the sun. It rained in the night to bed
the seeds down (or something), and today it is
very mild. Unless we suddenly get plunged back
into winter again, which is possible - snow in
March or April is not that rare - it is possible
that the first flowers might appear in a month or
two. Of course there is one other unknown - how
long the seeds from Poundstretcher have been
sitting in their stock room - years maybe ? - and
how viable they are now.
The one other notable thing I did was some
hand laundry. It seemed like I had a lot of
unwashed underpants, and not many t-shirts in my
laundry bag. Maybe it is because I have been
putting smelly old t-shirts back on when doing
dirty jobs - like when cleaning the bookshelves in
the back room, or just doing hoovering around the
house - not that I have done much of that lately.
I probably spent a fair bit of yesterday just
reading.
One paradox about yesterday was that it
seemed like I had eaten quite a lot, but in actual
terms I didn't eat much. I thought I might go out
in the evening, and so should eat a fair lunch,
and little or nothing for dinner. I would then
probably have a supper. For lunch I had some
delicious pork belly strips. I tried to cook them
well to drive off as much fat as possible, and to
crisp up the remaining fat. They were well cooked,
but another 20 minutes might have got them a bit
crisper.
As the evening approached it became obvious
to me that I would not be going out. Maybe that
was a premonition ! I stuck to my idea of a light
dinner, and had salad with tinned fish - twice ! I
chased it down with a large whisky. I am not sure
how much later it was after eating those salads,
but I suddenly started to feel ill. My guts felt
rotten, and worst of all I started to sweat
profusely. I was quite convinced I had come down
with the Sol virus.
It is a bit like the Corona virus, but
usually drunk with a slice of lime in the bottle
neck (or should that be the other way around). I
was convinced I was going to vomit, and in
preparation I tied my hair back, left the bathroom
light on, and the toilet seat up. The worst thing
is that I had just poured a large glass of whisky,
and could only take a few sips. That glass is
still mostly untouched just 10 inches from my left
elbow, and I am not sure when I might finish it -
or if I will.
While it felt like I was about to vomit, it
seems the real action was going on a bit lower in
the digestive tract. It turned out to be a full
blown attack of Delhi Belly. I suddenly had to
rush to the toilet where I exploded out the
correct end. 10 or 15 minutes later I had to rush
again. Apart from a small after shock it was all
over for the night, but my guts still felt a bit
sore, and even when going for a pee at 3am I could
feel/hear a few ominous gurgles from deep inside
me.
I am rather glad I did not go out now
because the worst of it would have happened while
in the pub - and that could have been so
unpleasant. I sometimes wonder if I now suffer
from an, as yet, mild form of IBS or something. My
visits to the toilet are becoming more and more
random, and thus unpredictable. I suspect the
cause is actually to do with my diet. In these
half and half days - some bright, and some
miserable, I keep adjusting my diet to try and
keep my blood glucose stable while eating varying
quantities and types of food.
I am unsure what time I went to bed last
night. I know that I missed most of a repeat of
"Yes Prime Minister" on BBC2 because I was in, or
hovering near the toilet. That programme finished
at 8.30pm (I think). I didn't actually go to bed
then, but I did lay on my bed to read while I
waited to be sure I wouldn't have to dash to the
toilet again. I read for a while, and maybe I got
into bed, and turned the light out sometime before
10pm. For the second night running I seemed to
sleep well.
I did have one instance in the night where
I couldn't tell if I was awake or dreaming. I am
pretty sure I was awake when a thought came to me.
It was to do with Smoothwall, the firewall I use
on my PC network. A thought came to me that I was
sure I had seen somewhere that it was possible to
get Smoothwall to load what could be thought of as
the drivers to access PCMCIA cards. I did have a
plan to use an old laptop as a firewall (in much
the same way that I use an old laptop as a server
for these pages). I gave it a very quick go, but
it couldn't see the PCMCIA (PC Card) Ethernet
interface card I was hoping to use. As I say, last
night I had this idea that it was possible to add
"drivers" to the installation - possibly even USB
drivers to use a USB to network interface. I'm
sure that I fell asleep while thinking this, and
started to imagine doing a web search for more
info. It was so seamless that it seemed like I was
still awake, but gradually clues emerged that it
was a dream.
This morning I had a bit of a lay in -
based upon the assumption that I had fallen asleep
by, and maybe before 10pm. I could still feel a
bit on tenderness from my gut, but it was mostly
ignorable. In other respects I was feeling fairly
good. I only checked my blood pressure once
because the first reading was quite low enough..
My blood glucose level was one of the lowest yet -
just 5.8mmol/l. I think that is something like a
perfect level for a healthy person. The best thing
of all ws my weight. I know it won't stay like it,
but it was down a fair bit, and getting closer to
some of the lower reading I was getting in the
first week of January.
I have already carried out part one of my
masterplan for today. I have been to Tesco to buy
all sorts of food - some good, some less so, and
one bad one. The bad one was a tub of (alleged)
low sugar, low calorie (maybe) ice cream. I say it
in the past tense because I have already eaten it.
I can't remember when it was, but I was possibly
feeling a bit low, or maybe I just got fed up with
whatever I was eating, but I fancied some ice
cream - nothing fancy, even plain vanilla would
have been fine. I actually bought some salted
caramel flavour. How that can be low sugar is
anyone's guess !
The second part of my master plan is to
wash some of the t-shirts I have been re-wearing
while doing stuff on my own indoors. They are
currently soaking in detergent, and I will finish
them soon - I think. There is a possible third
section of masterplan, and that is to meet Kevin
for a few beers this afternoon. There is about a
50% chance it will happen. If I doesn't I could
fall back on reading, or maybe I ought to actually
research to see if it is easy to get Smoothwall to
access a PCMCIA network interface card.
There is one picture I think I meant to
show yesterday. It is the view out of my bedroom
window looking to the west at 19 minutes past 5pm.
It is almost dark outside, and would be dark if it
wasn't for how bright the western horizon was. It
really was a sign that the days are getting longer
and longer now.
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