I was partly constrained with what I could do yesterday because of waiting for two deliveries. Even if I wasn't, the dark gloomy weather predicted for early afternoon put me off going for a walk. In fact it wasn't as bad as the forecast suggested in the end, but I can't seem to remember just how long it was dark and gloomy. A lot of the time it was just overcast, but not too dull.

  To recap on what I said yesterday morning, I started doing things early yesterday. Before 9.30am I had washed a double fitted sheet, washed myself, and my hair, and had got dressed. That was all before I heard from Michael that he would not be going to Tesco until early afternoon, and so I need not have rushed, but it was still good to get those things out of the way.

  I can't remember the precise timing, but I'd guess it was probably before 11am when I decided I had stuff to do in the garden. I shattered the peace of the neighbourhood by strimming the lawn. I was happy to note that some of the bald areas are now showing fresh new grass after I pricked the soil, and scattered more grass seed. There are still a few areas that might need more attention, but there is something else more important.

  I had never used a strimmer prior to buying one a month or two ago, and so, like most of my gardening, I am making it up as I go along. I suppose it should be obvious from the way a strimmer works, that it makes a neater job of cutting short grass. With longer grass it tends to tear instead of cut. Therefore I need to use that strimmer far more often if I am to get a good(ish) looking lawn. Maybe next year, if the lawn is still OK, I might consider buying some sort of lawn mower - probably something like a Flymo.
  One of the important things I did in the garden, at least I think it was important, was to try and support my biggest tomato plant by means of strings tied to the fence. The strong winds the other day, plus the weight of the still small, but growing tomatoes, had caused it to fall over, and pretend to be a ground hugging shrub. My strings should hold it a bit more erect, and stop those tomatoes dangling in the mud.

  The other important thing I did was to water the garden using my hose pipe. I think it really needed a better soaking, but I was hoping that there would be more rain later in the day to help. I gave the tomato and (hopefully) chilli plants growing in pots some extra watering with water dosed with tomato food. I say "hopefully" chilli plants because I am not convinced I haven't got a pot of weeds ! They do have some tiny flower at the top of the stem, like a weed, and I'll just have to see what form the seeds take.

 With the garden taken care of, my thoughts turned to other things. One thing that was always uppermost in my mind was my beer delivery of Mexican beers (as pictured on the left). I noted from the tracking info was looking weird !
  My box of beer had arrived at Amazon's Dartford depot at 2.29am. That was a very familiar part of the process. Then, for some completely unexplained reason, the box was transferred to a Dunstable depot, and arriving there at 10.56am. It was the apparently sent back to Dartford, and left there again at 11.44am. I estimated that it might arrive late in the afternoon, and it did, although not that late - about 4pm.

  In the meantime I fancied some lunch. This was actually a big mistake for reasons that became apparent later. I cooked the last of my fresh meat, if bacon can be called fresh meat. After a good grilling I served it with low sugar baked beans. It seemed to fill a lunch time hole, and was very nice - particularly with some chilli sauce added to the beans. That too may have been a mistake.

  I think it was about 2.30pm when Michael came knocking at my door. He did me proud. Not only had he bought me 4 bottles of Guinness "Original", but he also bought me 4 cans of "normal" Guinness as well as 4 two lire bottles of Diet Coke. The cans of Guinness were a present - a rather unneeded present considering my fairly recent purchase of a tray of 24 cans, but obviously still very welcome. Michael knew I wanted to compare Guinness "Original" with canned Guinness with the widget in the can that give the foamy head when poured.

  After Michael dropped off my shopping my beer stocks were looking very healthy, and I still had the Mexican beers to come. More importantly I had more Diet Coke. I had saved my last two bottles for a "special occasion" - the sort of special occasion that never really happens (like Angela dropping by for a vodka and Coke), and I had been drinking mainly chilled water for the previous week or two (plus, obviously beer !).
  As I said earlier, at around 4pm my Mexican beer was delivered. Once I got the bottles in my hand I was able to check something. I had assumed that all three beers had most probably been brewed, under licence, to a completely different recipe, somewhere in the UK, and probably Faversham. I was wrong. They are actually brewed in Mexico. The significance of this is rather mute these days. Once upon a time most of the lagers sold in pubs was often described as "fizzy piss" (and Fosters probably still is), but imported lager beers (or lager-like) had some much more body and flavour. It was worth paying a little extra for them. I think that many UK lagers are now much improved, but some imported one still hold an edge on them.

  My dinner was quite a special dinner last night because it used some of my home grown potatoes. For me it was a bit of a feast, and very unhealthy. I half cooked the potatoes in the microwave, and then cubed them - aiming for cubes around the size of Oxo cubes. I put the cubes in an oven proof dish along with cubed spam and some peas. I then baked it all until the potatoes were starting to get crispy. If I had a bit more patience I would have left them in the oven for a lot longer until they were more like cubical chips. I had sprinkled olive oil on them, and for a change to chilli sauce, liberally dusted them with ground white pepper.

  I have no idea what to call such a dish, and so I think I will settle on calling it just very tasty. The white pepper did not appear to make it very peppery, but it had a similar effect to chilli sauce - it made me sweat a bit less than half an hour after eating it. It also was like chilli recently, in that I now seem to get heartburn after eating spicy food. For the second evening running I had to take a couple of antacid tablets to stop the pain.
 After dinner I did some beer tasting. The first thing I wanted to taste was one of the bottles of Guinness Original. I had been told it wasn't a patch on the canned Guinness with the widget to froth up the head with nitrogen. I partly disagree. The creamy head does make the canned Guinness initially nicer, but unless you drink it fast it settles down, and then I think it would be difficult to tell the two apart.

  After the Guinness I tried two of the Mexican beers. The first one I tried was the Pacifico Clara. It was very nice, and I am going to enjoy more of them. The other tried was the Modelo. I wasn't quite so happy with the taste of that one. There was something about it I didn't like, but nothing that would put me off drinking it. Sometime during the week, maybe on different days, I will get reviews from Michael and Jodie. Jodie in particular invited her self around once she heard what I had bought (I sent her a picture). I already know she rates them all very highly, and so it is not a fair test. Michaels opinion will be more interesting.

  I went to bed feeling bloated, but at least the antacid tablets had killed the heartburn by then. Like recently, I did and didn't feel tired. I found it hard to get comfortable, and I was happy to carry on reading until my eyelids were really drooping. By then it didn't take long to fall asleep when I turned the light out. I think it may have been gone 11pm. I slept the first half of the night with the duvet pushed aside, but my bedroom had cooled own a lot by the early hours of this morning, and I was glad I had put a duvet in the duvet cover.

  I seemed to sleep very soundly, and for unusually long periods last night. I can only remember one dream - mainly for it's weirdness. It involved travel, but that travel seemed instantaneous. I am not even sure if I was looking at the view of where I was at the three places I seemed to be, or just maps showing where I was supposed to be. It was only the last destination where I had a view of where I was, but it was like being on stage with a bland 2D backdrop. For some reason I thought I was in Malaysia. I was looking at a counter, or display of jungle produce, and the seller was saying how nobody wanted to buy it. It was mostly rather odd looking foodstuffs. Next door to it was another counter that was selling made up white bread rolls filled with stuff from the jungle, and they seemed very attractive. I am not sure if I have seen something similar elsewhere (in real life) but these rolls had a cardboad sleeve with a sort of flap that held the roll open to display the filling.

  I am sure there are reasons buried deep in my brain that generate some of these dreams that seem to have no analogue in real life. Maybe the food thing was a feeling of hunger, but that shouldn't happen. I was shocked when I got on the scales this morning. I seem to have put on another kilogram. I really need to curb my appetite. It would be good if I could avoid eating anything at all today, but I know that is not going to happen.

  I am not sure that I can blame it on the beer. I would have expected my blood glucose level to have been very high this morning, but in fact it was lower than yesterday. It was just 7.2mmol/l - a little lower than my better monthly averages, and even closer to my loose target of something less than 7. This is another great example of my blood glucose and weight not tracking each other. I think I have to blame it on fats and oil rather than carbohydrates this time. The spam, with added olive oil, was certainly quite oily.

  My blood pressure was also getting a bit higher again this morning, and so I have resumed taking the Indapamide tablets I temporally suspended taking as an experiment. Once I am back to very low blood pressure readings I will experiment with the Bisoprolol tablets next. They have always seemed to have only a small effect on me, and it is only a small change that I want - mainly to stop some of the very low readings I can get in the evening.

  I really should get out and do some walking today, but I don't think that is the answer for my weight problem today. I think that is more dependent on what I eat. I can still burn a few calories at home if I pull my finger out and do some stuff here. I have some t-shirts and underwear to wash, although I think it will all have to dry indoors today...but I might take a chance. I have gardening to do - mainly weeding, and particularly to staunch the ivy that is trying to gain a foothold again at the base of the back fence.

  The other thing I am thinking off is to possibly paint one wall in the dining room. I guess I could probably manage two walls if I really put my mind to it, but there is a problem. Both walls I could do end at bookshelves (or one end of them does). I am not ready to unload those bookshelves, and so I would have to try and paint up to them very carefully. It is unfortunately going to look a bit weird until I can complete the job in the future, but at least on one wall the join will be masked by the curtains of the window.