Thursday 9th April 2020

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Thursday 9th April 2020

10:56 BST

The weather turned out to be very "average" yesterday. The rain, that was a feature of an early version of the forecast, didn't fall, and the day was lacking in sunshine. There were sunny spells, but somehow they didn't seem to form a major feature. The most significant thing was that the afternoon temperature reached 20° C.

The latest revision of the forecast does not really deviate from the screenshot above. It is, and will continue to be sunny until sometime after 3pm, and then there will just be sunny spells for the rest of the daylight hours. Once again it will be warm with the afternoon temperature reaching 20° C again. It looks to be a mild night, and tomorrow should start at around 9° C. After non stop sunshine the temperature could be exploring the very low reaches of "hot" at 23° C. The day after, Saturday, could see 24° C !

I had some grand ideas for yesterday that failed to materialise. I thought I would finally go out for a long walk, but the lack of strong sunshine at the right time meant that I could not overcome the inertia of feeling under par. Superficially I didn't feel that bad, but I was often aware that my chest was still tender. There were quite a few times during the day when I would make a certain movement that would cause a mildly painful twinge. Fortunately such twinges were usually very brief, and served more as a reminder that, as in the past, it can take some time to heal after doing whatever I did to my rib cage and it's supporting structure of muscles and ligaments.

One such reminder was when I was in bed, just prior to going to sleep, I stretched out to pick up a torch so I could quickly shine it on my weather station. As I reached my furthest stretch there was a sort of ping and crunch from the left side of my rib cage. It was accompanied by brief sharp pain - the type that often leaves an ache long after the initial pain has gone. It was the last thing I wanted when trying to get to sleep. Fortunately it didn't interfere with my sleep in the end.

The pain, or tenderness in various spots around my rib cage was probably the only real physical thing that held me back from that walk, but I guess depression was a factor too. I couldn't help thinking "what would it achieve ?". I knew that if I could overcome that inertia I would probably enjoy the walk once I got moving, but there was another factor. I was hoping I would see Angela in the park, but not being able to get close, and hug her would be like waving a plate of food under a starving man's face, and not letting him touch it. It would be so nice to see Angela, and yet so frustrating.

As I said a couple of paragraphs up, if there had been strong sunshine at the right moment it might have helped, but at midday, when I had intended to start walking, it was actually dull. The sky was quite cloudy, and it felt like the sun wouldn't come out for ages. It just felt so easy to stay in, and do other stuff - not that I did a great deal of "other stuff". Like the previous couple of days, it wasn't until the afternoon was well under way before I continued with my main project - cleaning and tidying the back room to transform it back into a dining room.

I must admit that seeing my collection of glasses, all freshly washed and polished in the clean and polished drinks cabinet does look good, but there is a small problem that is causing a headache. I don't think I realised just how many glasses I've collected over the years. I still have more glasses ready to be washed and polished, but without making a messy jumble of glasses, I have almost run out of room to store them. I used to have small glasses inside bigger glasses to reduce the space needed, and I guess I will probably have to resort to that again unless some other solution comes to mind. The annoyance is that I wanted to use the glass fronted top as a display cupboard rather than a cram-them-all-in storage cupboard. I guess I will work out a compromise in the end.

After a big, but slightly light lunch, I decided to try another takeaway last night. Lunch was a sort of salad of raw white cabbage, and raw white onion with a few tomatoes and some ham. It was sort of nice, but even though the amount of onion was quite small, it left an oniony taste in my mouse for hours that even brushing me teeth would not cure. I think it was probably made worse by the mustard oils in the white cabbage.

For dinner I decided to explore the delights of an Indian takeaway. Before eating it I checked my blood glucose level, and it was very satisfactory after that very high fibre lunch. I ordered a tandoori mixed grill for dinner last night, plus a chicken tikka with salad for dinner tonight. I also ordered a tarka dall (lentils cooked with garlic and onion) which I also had last night, and a Chana Dall (chick peas in a spicy sauce) for tonight. All these things were relatively healthy, but the free poppadoms were probably not. They get the blame for my blood glucose being higher than expected this morning, although it was still under 9 (and over 10 is the danger area).

I went to bed to read for an hour or so before going to sleep. Just after I turned out the light I got a message from Patricia. It was just a bit of inconsequential news from the other side of the world. I guess I probably got to sleep at about 10.30pm. Although I know I had some dreams, whose details have now evaporated, as dreams do, I seemed to sleep really well until 3am. I woke up then, probably for a pee, and then it took an hour to get back to sleep again. The odd thing was that I don't know why. I was feeling quite comfortable, and I seemed to feel sleepy, but sleep would just not come.

When I finally got back to sleep I slept badly. I woke up a few times, and felt uncomfortable. Usually that discomfort was my old enemy - feeling too hot or too cold. I think it was about 6am when I switched the heater on, and after a while I could throw off the duvet inch by inch. I then seemed to be able to sleep a lot later than usual. At some time before finally waking up I had a vivid dream, and thought I should describe it. Now the only thing I remember is the desire to describe it, but absolutely nothing of the actual dream itself !

This morning I think I feel mostly OK. The sun is most definitely shining. I have already had a shower, and midday approaches. I think I am going to have another try at a long walk. It will probably take me within 2 metres of Angela if she is is in the park, and I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth, and keep my desire to hug her under control - unless she wants to hug me. It is not impossible, but I expect we will both stick to the official guidelines, and stay that 2 metres apart.