Yesterday morning started bright and sunny,
but eventually the sunshine gave way to clouds.
Initially there were sunny periods, but by 1pm the
cloud cover was complete, and by 3pm it was
raining. For a few minutes the rain was very heavy
with hail mixed in with it. The afternoon was
about 10° C, but it felt much cooler in the wind.
Today has started off cold and bright, but
like yesterday the clouds are starting to thicken,
and we are in for another wet afternoon. With any
luck it will only be light rain, and it may finish
at about sunset. The start of the afternoon will
only see a chilly 8° C, but by mid afternoon the
temperature may rise to 9° C. Just after midnight
the temperature is supposed to rise to 10° C. The
headline feature for tomorrow is hail showers, but
they are only shown for 6pm. The day will be
heavily overcast, and rain may start at around
midday, and if we are lucky it will stop after the
hail at 6pm. Tomorrow morning will probably be 10°
C rising to 11°C by midday, and then the rain will
cool things off again.
Although it was rather cool, I was looking
forward to going out in the sunshine yesterday
morning. It turned out to be less pleasant than I
hoped. The sun did feel nice, and the angle of the
sun gave a strong impression that it should almost
be spring, but the cold wind blew any warmth away,
and left me feeling a bit chilly. That didn't
matter too much because it was a relatively short
walk. I first walked to the Tesco Express store on
the high street to use their cash machine, and
then I walked down to Poundland.
There was one particular thing I wanted
from Poundland. On my previous visit I had noticed
they had some A3 sized picture frames, and I had
use for maybe a couple of them. It wasn't until I
got home that I realised I really wanted A2 sized
picture frames, and my desire to frame a couple of
posters will have to wait for now. It wasn't a
wasted journey because I managed to spend £15 in
there. I didn't measure my walk, but the round
trip was over half a mile, and possible a full
mile.
I had a bit of time to pass before going
out for my lunchtime walk. I had intended to try
and walk for about three miles yesterday, but
circumstances proved otherwise. To pass a bit of
time I did some tidying up in the back room. There
is a pile of stuff on the desk in there that needs
sorting into rubbish or to be filed away
somewhere. That pile is now getting quite small
after I spent a bit of time on it. It takes me a
long time to go through stuff like this to decided
what to bin, and what not too. Mixed in with the
mundane is important stuff. One thing I hadn't
seen for a long time was a little photo album
book. It was mostly pictures of me while in
Infants and Junior school, but tucked in with them
was this -
This form, dated 2nd October 1956 was from
when I was admitted to Lewisham Hospital after
suffering from severe scalding after pulling a
saucepan of just boiled greens onto me. It was a
rather traumatic time for all, but fortunately I
remember nothing about it. The first medical aid
on the scene after the accident was a local
doctor. So family legend has it, he administered a
potentially lethal overdose of Bromine - a
sedative used in those days. He also bandaged the
burns.
Apart from the overdose of sedative, his
bandages just made things worse for me. When the
hospital removed them they pulled a lot of skin
off. The prognosis was that I would probably not
survive the first night. Perhaps fortunately I had
the attitude I still have today - laziness - I
can't be bothered to die today. maybe I'll do it
tomorrow. That accident left some interesting
mental legacy. To this day I have a phobia about
babies crying. It is not as bad as it once was,
but I still have it. The theory is that it is
echoing my own screams while I was in terrible
pain.
My idea of going out for a long walk
yesterday was thwarted by an almost sudden stomach
ache. I had to make two visits to the toilet in
quick succession before I began to feel
comfortable. Evidently I am eating more than I
think I am because I thought what I had done
earlier in the morning was quite sufficient.
Perhaps I underestimate how much indigestible
fibre there is in salad ingredients.
Once I felt comfortable to leave home I
barely had time to walk to the pub, and walked
there by the most direct route. I only arrived a
few minutes before 1pm. I knew that Angela would
be meeting me there, and ordered her usual. I then
learned the bad news that they only had enough for
one single vodka left in the pub. It is the second
time this has happened.
Angela was fascinated by the pictures of me
in infants and junior school, and even more
fascinated by my hospital admission form. She said
that it was such a special relic that it should be
framed, and that is what I did later on when I got
home. It is useful keeping a small stock of £1
photo frames from Poundland (and some slightly
better £1.49 frames from Poundstretcher). It is
probably only in the last 12 months that I have
appreciated that some of my own photos can look
very good when printed and framed. They have made
what I hope were nice presents (although maybe
some people were just being polite, and dumped
them in the bin on the way home).
My lunchtime meeting was a short one
yesterday. Angela had drunk the pub dry, and so
couldn't have a second drink, and lover boy kept
trying to phone her. Sometime I wonder, but it
seems that sometime I am very important to Angela,
and she didn't answer the phone while we were
together. We left the pub about a quarter of an
hour early - most unusual ! - and before we got to
Angela's work entrance we had a quick hug before
she pulled out her phone to call lover boy. I
headed home by a slightly longer route that took
in the Tesco Express where I bought some salads
and a few other bits.
I was hurrying home because I had some work
to do. For a few nights I have had my trailcam out
again to see what has been happening in my garden
at night. I might have mentioned yesterday that I
had seen fresh earth outside the old foxes earth
under the fence. When I looked at the memory card
in the trailcam there was quite a bit of activity
going on. One interesting thing is that the two
cats, one black, the other Siamese, that are
regular visitors, and I have seen go into the
foxes earth in the past, both sniffed it, and
decided to move on. I also saw a fox digging out
the entrance to the hole - that was the fresh
earth I had seen in the morning. At one point I
nearly had two foxes in my garden. While one was
doing the rounds of my garden, another appeared on
the back fence, but didn't come in. The best video
was the fox in daylight.
This is only a very
short clip, but seeing the fox by natural
light, instead of by infra red light, which
doesn't show colours, is a rarity. I am no
expert, but my guess is that this is a vixen
who may well be pregnant by now. If so I can
look forward to seeing cubs playing in my back
garden later in the year. I'll have to be a
bit careful how I do my gardening now.
Yesterday I did some unusual eating.
After getting back from the pub I would have
liked to have had something hot (and probably
greasy), but I had a ready made salad in the
fridge that needed to be used as soon as
possible. I had that, and a ready made salad I
had bought on the way home. Both had added
ham, and both had extra dressing on - balsamic
vienagr and oil instead of lashings of
mayonnaise. There was a theory that it might
have been a healthy meal.
When it came to dinner I took a
completely different tack. I just had a couple
of big bowls of cup-a-soup. One was chicken
and leek, and the other was my second attempt
at trying the chicken noodle soup. I made the
latter with less water, and it was much nicer
when thicker. If I understood the nutritional
information, and sometimes I doubt that I do,
it should have been a low calorie/low sugar
meal.
I spent the evening watching some TV,
and scanning old photos. I turned the TV off
early because I thought I was getting tired,
but it turned out I wasn't. I was in bed by
about 9.30pm, and I read until about 10pm.
Then I turned the light out, rolled onto my
left side, and then onto the other side. Then
I tried laying on my back before trying both
sides again. It seemed like I wasn't tired at
all ! It seemed to take ages before I
eventually got to sleep, but I think it felt a
lot longer than it actually took. I may have
been asleep by 10.30pm
I can't be sure, but I think I may have
only woken up 2 or 3 times in the night. At
the time it felt more frequent, but I think
that was because on each occasion it seemed to
take a long time to get back to sleep again.
It may have been that I actually fell asleep
for a few minutes while I thought I was awake
trying to get to sleep. My last bit of sleep
was surprising. I had woken up at about the
time when the sky had the first hint of dawn
in it, and I knew that it would be not that
long until it was light. I thought I would
never get to sleep, but the next think I knew
was that the sun was shining behind the
curtains, and I had slept for over 2 hours.
I had some dreams last night, but
unlike the night before I can't seem to recall
any details beyond that fact that I knew I
dreamed. I guess I don't feel too bad this
morning, but I don't feel very dynamic at the
moment. My blood glucose was a bit
disappointing. My first measurement was
7.30mmol/l. That is perfectly OK, and maybe
even very slightly lower than my running
average, but I was hoping it might be a bit
lower. Out of curiosity I took another
measurement from a pin prick of blood from the
other hand. That said 7.00mmol/l. That was
more like I was hoping for, but really it just
shows that the blood glucose meter is not
terribly accurate - either that or one hand is
running richer than the other. The other
good-ish news is that I may still be ever so
slowly creeping back down to the lowest weight
I achieved before my mid January 'flu-like
illness messed everything up. The trouble is
that I can't speed things up. I am clutching
at straws, or in this case milligrams !
Oh well, maybe in spring I can start
doing some long coastal or country walks. A
few 5 mile walks can have a most beneficial
effect. I won't be doing anything like that
today though. I want to go to Aldi, and
hopefully I can get there and back before it
rains. I am unsure if I will be ready soon
enough to do both Aldi, and take a walk in the
park to possibly see Angela at lunchtime. It
is rare to see Angela on a Wednesday, although
it is good when I do because I often wil not
see her again until the next week. I'll see
how things go.
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