Today started dull, and now it is
duller. It will apparently stay like this
until mid afternoon when the cloud will start
looking less grey. The latest revision to the
forecast says there may be a sunny spell
(maybe just one !!) just as the sun starts to
set at 9pm. By 4pm the temperature should rise
to 21° C, and it will hardly fall all night.
Tomorrow may see a big change in the weather.
It should be sunny all day, and the
temperature may rise to 27° C. The sad thing
is that it looks like tomorrow may just be an
isolated day of summer weather, and later days
will get worse.
I did two shopping trips yesterday
morning. First of all I went to Tesco. I was
very happy to see they have pulled up all the
one way signs on the floor, and now I can shop
in there without any guilt that I am going my
way, and not some time wasting, twisty turney
route through the store. As per my plan, I
bought very little fresh food. Most of what I
bought was long life stuff like canned food. I
also include cheese as long life food. Even if
it gets a green rind it can be "peeled" to
find perfect, if not even tastier cheese under
the mould.
I lugged back a very heavy rucksack,
and a heavy bag - both heavier than my usual
shopping from Tesco, but the total cost at the
checkout was rather less than usual. Some
soups are very cheap ! The next time I go to
Tesco, and it probably won't be long until I
do (packing in as much shopping as possible
before the 24th July, and compulsory face
masks), I will spend a bit more time looking
for bargains that I can store for weeks or
months. The only things I can't buy are frozen
foods because my freezer is very small, and
already rammed full. I really need to defrost
it, and gain enough space for two more packs
of fish fingers !
My second shopping trip was to
Poundstretcher. Once again I was mainly
looking for canned food. They often have very
cheap cans of stuff from makers you have never
heard of before. Some of it can be despicable,
but stuff like canned beans and peas are just
beans and peas. It is the sauces that things
like beans may come in that are not very nice.
Once again I had a heavy load to carry home.
Some of the weight was bottles of cheap
bleach. I probably need even more if I am to
keep out of shops for a couple of months or
possibly a lot longer.
After my second shopping trip I
relaxed, cooled off, and I may have had a
quick snooze before preparing the dining room
for my guests. I gave the table another quick
wipe over, and put out a selection of beer
mats, and apart from stuffing the hoover into
the cupboard under the stairs, that was about
all I did to the dining room. Although they
were clean and polished several weeks ago,
when I shifted the drinks cabinet, I gave a
few glasses another clean and polish. Then it
was just matter of waiting to hear from Jodie,
and find out when she estimated she would be
here. She said about 3pm, and so told Michael
to get here for 3pm.
Unfortunately Jodie missed her train
(possibly 2 trains) and arrived around 3.40pm.
By that time Michael and I had got through the
first bottle of beer, and were starting on the
second. In one sense it was good that Jodie
was late because Michael had no idea how bad
that back room had been, and was more
interested in my progress in the garden. I was
told off for letting to many weeds re-grow,
and for not watering it. As I think I probably
said before, with the garden starting to look
like a garden, I could, and did spend more
time in the back room.
I have to confess this was a specially
posed picture. I know that Angela will
eventually see it, and I wanted to subtly
point out that if Angela had been able to
visit she could have had her favourite vodka.
There is nothing I'd like more than for Angela
to visit, but I know she won't in case lover
boy blows his top about it.
What a happy picture. I think we all
agreed that it was a far better drinking
session than in a pub, or at least as good as
in a pub before they were all closed. None of
us are happy with the restrictions put on pubs
re-opening again.
I can't decide if I
look happy or drunk in this picture -
probably both !
I have to admit
that I was feeling quite drunk at the
end...or maybe it was after the end when I
was able to relax, and not fight it any
more. I was certainly drunk enough to
open, and drink, a bottle of French beer
that I could have bought 20 years ago. It
was sealed with a wired Champagne cork,
and that should have given it a long life.
I should have kept it on it's side to keep
the cork damp, but it dried out years ago.
Fortunately it seemed to have only let gas
out, but still kept bacteria out. If it
wasn't completely flat it might have been
nice. It seemed to have acquired a taste
that hinted of prune juice. Maybe that
cork hadn't kept all the bacteria out
because this morning I had the runs !
One fresh item I had bought from
Tesco in the morning was a half price pack
of mackerel fillets. They needed to be
used the same day. I had then for my
dinner, and inevitably they left my house
smelling of fish, but it could have been
worse. It could have been smoked haddock,
very nice, but that really stinks the
house out. I had my mackerel grilled, and
served on a bed of salad leaves doused
with vinaigrette. By the time I ate that
my drunkenness had probably reached a
peak, and I can't remember how much I
enjoyed it. All I can remember is that it
was "OK".
I think I was in bed, and probably
asleep before it got dark last night. If I
hadn't woken up with a hangover, and maybe
a bit of acid indigestion, at 2am, or
thereabouts, I would have said I slept
well last night. I don't think I got back
to sleep properly for well over half an
hour. Later on, as sunrise
approached, I can recall having a dream
that should have been erotic, but somehow
wasn't. I don't know where I was in the
dream, but it was somewhere that had a
photocopier. It was a big photocopier, and
somehow looked like an armchair. It had
just been serviced by a lady technician,
and to test it she stripped off her
clothes, and sat on it to take pictures of
her "nether regions". She seemed quite
good looking, and it should have been
exciting, but it was more like late 1950s
porn - there was always something, often
leaves from a potted palm, in the way of
the bits you really wanted to see.
The good thing about drinking in
the afternoon was that my hangover was
over by the time I finally got up. Once
again I was scared to get on the scales,
but I really should have after my fifth
visit to the toilet. The laws of physics,
even if they clash with biology, say I
must have been considerably lighter. I
still checked all my other health
readings, and they were all OK, but not
"good". My blood pressure was almost up to
my target (instead of being fair way below
it). My blood glucose was up again, but
not by much, and was far less than
expected after all that beer yesterday. I
expected it to be over 9mmol/l, but it was
only 8.3mmol/l.
This morning I was up, washed and
dressed for a relatively early morning
visit to Aldi. I actually got there after
9am thanks to my unstable lower digestive
system, but it was still fairly quiet.
Once again I loaded up on stuff to keep me
going as long as possible after the masks
debacle happens. As well as food I also
stocked up on extra consumables. I
currently have 67 rolls of toilet paper.
Provided I avoid dodgy beer that may last
me into the great Brexit famine in the new
year as lorries coming or going through
Dover are stacked from one end of the
country to the other while the government
tries to remember how to do customs and
excise using paper after their latest mega
million spend on computer equipment turns
out to be another waste of money.
I also remembered to get spare
washing up liquid, plus detergent and
fabric conditioner. Lugging that
back, plus 4 x 2,25 litre bottles of Diet
Coke made for another few heavy shopping
bags - and that was without counting the
tinned stuff I bought. I did buy a few
fresh items. In particular I noticed, for
the first time, unfrozen chunky fish
fingers. I cooked them for my breakfast.
Very soon now, after hard work, and
breakfast, I'll probably have a
snooze...although if I waited for another
hour I could call it a siesta. I don't
know what else I might do today. I
probably should do some stuff in the
garden, but I could also try to sort out
more stuff to throw out from the dining
room. At some point, and it could be
today, I have to rationalise all the stuff
I have crammed into the cupboard under the
stairs. I am pretty certain I could throw
away as much as a third of it - in small
wheelie bin sized increments over the
coming weeks and months.
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