It was not very warm at all yesterday, and
after dark the cold wind blowing through my
bathroom window was really chilly ! Early
afternoon featured some sunshine, and there were
sunny spells before and after, but I'm sure the
amount of sunshine was even less than the small
amount forecast. Despite a few times when it
looked like it might rain, and even a forecast 69%
chance of rain at 7am, it remained a dry day. The
temperature struggled to reach the forecast 11° C.
The forecast says it
should be cloudy at the moment, but possible
since sunrise there seems to have been a lot
of sunshine this morning. There are quite a
lot of clouds in the southern sky right now,
but there are large blue areas to be seen. The
latest revision of the forecast says the first
sunny spells should not happen until 10am, but
then the sunny spells should continue through
until sunset. At 6pm there is now the
possibility of the sky clearing enough to give
a whole hour of sunshine. The wind is from the
east, always a cool direction, and the
temperature will be no better than yesterday -
just 11° C. Tomorrow could potentially start
with a frost, but a sunny day is predicted,
and the temperature may briefly peak at 17° C.
Yesterday was a very lazy day. I felt
basically OK, but I thought it might be a good
idea to give my legs a rest, and let my feet
recover from their recent pounding. I did think
that maybe I might do some housework -
particularly in my back room/dining room to be -
but I just never seemed to get around to it. About
the only constructive thing I did, but only
by playing fast and loose with the definition of
constructive, was to rip a few obscure compilation
albums I found underneath my packets of
prescription drugs.
One CD was probably a cover disc from a
magazine, and the other was a home burnt disk that
maybe someone sent to me in my radio days. I
thought I could possibly add a few tracks to my
"psuedo radio" playlist, but I didn't because
nothing really caught my attention when I played
the CDs. Both had that curious quality of being
totally ignorable. Maybe it was just unfamiliarity
with the songs, and even most of the bands. There
was one song, "We Are All" by Gotthard, a Swiss
metal band, I thought I might know, but it seemed
different from the version sung by (I think) Doro.
One, in fact two disruptions to the day
were from more rambling phone calls from my friend
Lee. I think the first call was about his "new
girlfriend" who it turned out to be female fox who
he is feeding in his garden. The second was a call
to ask where his dad might buy some seeds now all
the garden centres are closed during the lockdown.
I suggested Poundstretcher because I knew they
most definitely have, or had runner bean seeds. I
suggested the Woolwich branch may have been his
closest. There then followed a lot of twaddle as I
described where Google said it was, and Lee seemed
to describe bits of Woolwich where it wasn't.
Eventually Lee decided it would be easier
to go to the Catford Hill branch between Halfords
and Wickes just off the South Circular road. In
one respect that was good because he could be a
guinea pig to find out what shopping was like in
there. It turned out to be pretty much as I
observed on the outside when I went passed on my
last long walk. There were substantial queues
outside Halfords as people bought bike parts, but
no queue outside Poundstretcher, and he said it
was not busy inside. That is useful knowledge
because I may pop in there myself today.
I did get one more brief interruption from
Lee when he called at my door. He just wanted to
thanks me for my suggestion of Poundstretcher. His
dad got all the seeds he wanted, and even his mum
bought a few things in there. He offered me a
present for all the times I have helped him over
the phone. It was a pack of frozen pork chops.
They could have been useful, but I declined them.
I know he gets lots of stolen meat - stolen by
drug addict/traveller friends of his - and I would
not be surprised if some of it has been allowed to
defrost before he puts it in his freezer to
re-freeze. I don't think I want to take a chance
on meat of unknown history.
During the day I did not eat that wisely. I
had a late brunch of 4 grilled Polish Hunters
Sausages - which were nice, but would have been
nicer still if not eaten while on the phone, and
ideally would have been accompanied with something
like some beans. I then had a late lunch of two
apples and a big chunk of Cheshire cheese. With
hindsight the cheese did not go well with the
apples. Cheshire cheese is a bit like life. It's
OK, but fails to bring any joy, excitement or
enlightenment. I only bought it because it was
reduced price, possibly even half price, the last
time I went to Tesco.
My dinner was an experiment that worked
surprisingly well - although it might have
consequences today. I started off by lightly
grilling some bacon. While that was under the
grill I cut up about a third of a small white
cabbage, and a medium sized white onion. I added
some spices to the two vegetables, and just a tiny
bit of water before zapping them in the microwave
for 10 minutes. When the bacon was lightly cooked
I chopped it into small pieces, and stirred it in
with the almost cooked cabbage and onion, and then
gave it all another 10 minutes in the microwave.
If there was one fault with this recipe is
that I could have added even more cabbage. It
seemed like a lot until it was cooked. The final
result was pretty good, and I am sure I'll be
cooking it again sometime soon. I was a bit
concerned about the onion, and also the two apples
I had, for being hidden sources of sugar, but
everything else I ate was selected with low sugar
in mind. The results finally came through this
morning. My blood glucose was 7.7mmol/l. I would
still prefer it to be a bit lower, but 7.7mmol/l
represents roughly what is described as a
pre-diabetic condition. It would be considered a
bit high, but wouldn't be diagnosed as diabetes at
that stage (for a new patient).
I did watch some TV last night, but nothing
really grabbed my attention. I still refuse to
watch any news programmes because they only
describe the failures and not the successes during
this pandemic - at least that is what my belief
is, but it is only a belief because I refuse to
expose myself to the news to really find out ! It
was at 9.30pm that I sent a message to Angela
(that she hasn't responded to yet), and it may
have been 30 to 40 minutes later that I turned out
the light, and if I recall correctly, fell asleep
quite quickly.
I seemed to sleep quite well last night. It
was because it seemed so cold outside (the
temperature was down to 7° C, and still falling)
that I left the heater on low last night. It
seemed to keep my bedroom at a good temperature -
not too warm to feel too hot under the duvet, and
not too cold if I kicked it off. Apparently
sleeping well, or perhaps easily is a better
description, didn't stop me waking for a pee more
than the previous night, and didn't stop some
strange dreaming.
There is only one dream where I can
remember an almost complete sequence of events.
Remembering the beginning would give it some sort
of context, but any memory of that has evaporated.
The bit I remember is being on a railway station
platform, or something very similar, and going
down a line of three or four caravans which were
hitched together - like a train. Instead of
destination boards on them they had name boards. I
was with someone, a woman, who I was walking with,
and it seems we were both to use the same caravan.
I have no idea who the woman was, but she was
friendly without having any particular sexual
attraction.
We entered our caravan, and chose which
beds we would sleep in, and then checked what was
supposed to be our luggage that seemed to be
already there. I don't think either of us knew why
we were there, or even if we were going anywhere.
In some ways it reminded me of a school journey
back in 1966. I am not sure if anyone of us
schoolkids really knew what was going on most of
the time. It was soon obvious that our caravans
had started to move, and move very smoothly. I
guess we were on some sort of holiday, but with no
memory of how the dream started it was impossible
to know. I suspect that the real reason for no
memory of the start is because there was no start
!
The only additional bit of that dream that
I can recall was finding a broken Kodak digital
camera in amongst some stuff left by previous
users of the caravan. It looked like it had been
dropped, and was inoperative, but I suspected that
it's memory card, if only I could find it, would
still be OK. The last thing I remember was
wondering if a deep undelete of the memory card
would reveal any "erotic" pictures. There is
actually a precedent for this. One of my cameras,
bought from a charity shop, had a memory card in
it, and there were indeed a couple of deleted
pictures of a topless lady in a sort of classical
pose and of a stature that Rubin was known for
painting. All the snaps were holiday snaps, and I
have an idea that someone was trying to duplicate
something they had seen in an art museum.
This morning I seem to feel mostly OK. I
might still have a bit of mild stiffness in my
legs, but it definitely feels like the sort of
thing that a walk would make better rather than
worse. I have already mentioned my blood glucose
was very satisfactory this morning. The same is
true of my blood pressure and temperature. The
thing that is not good is my weight. It seems I
have out on over a whole kilogramme overnight.
That should not have been possible, particularly
when my blood glucose has come down. I can only
conclude that the cabbage and onion has yet to do
it's stuff yet - although I did seem to have two
very productive visits to the toilet this morning
- neither of which seemed to show any weight
reduction after they were done - which is rather
strange. It could be water retention - something
that happens every now and then.
If it is water retention than my ankles are
going to swell badly if I take a long walk, but at
least that would be confirmation. If it is not
then I have to assume it is still some devilry
going on in my gut, and I might have to take a
dangerous chance if I am to wander too far from a
toilet. I think it is safe to say that I have no
idea what I am going to do today. If it wasn't for
these doubts I would be aiming for a long-ish walk
that would pass the Catford Hill Poundstretcher on
the way home. Maybe that will happen. I will
reveal all tomorrow.
To finish - something
soothing and relaxing. It is very short. So make
the most of it.
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