Today will still be generally cold, but it marks the start of the temperature starting to rise. Today should see the temperature rise to 5° C, and tomorrow could see double that. Most of today is going to be what I would call "lightly overcast". 5 and 6pm could see some rain (the extra hour has been added in the latest revision), but the rest of the day should be dry. Tomorrow morning could see a lot of rain, but the afternoon should be dry, and it might be sunny for a while. There may be rain again in the evening. By early afternoon the temperature may rise to 12° C. That will feel warm after the recent freezing temperature, and maybe actually warm in the sunshine.
  I said that I felt OK yesterday morning, but that wasn't strictly accurate. What I really meant was that I didn't seem to feel any worse than I do most mornings - feeling like I'm 106 years old, and on my last legs. The thing, that with hindsight, made yesterday morning different was those aches and pains didn't fade away after getting up, but stayed with me for much of the day. This was obviously one of the common side effects of my Covid vaccination - short lived 'flu like symptoms. I even had the headache, and eventually the fever that are also common.

  There was another type of symptom that doesn't feel physical, and so is less easy to explain. I felt a bit tired, but lethargic is a closer description. I was able to do stuff, as I was able to demonstrate later, but I just didn't really want to do anything except relax. Relaxing probably made some of those aches and pains worse, but laying on my bed, with the sunshine pouring through the windows onto me, felt bloody good.

  While it was good relaxing, I also felt I ought to do something, and that something would test my body quite well - it was to hand wash a large bath towel. It was probably not that long after 10am that I started the process of washing that towel, but I had to stop. I noticed that the water in the bath wasn't draining away. It took seconds to realise the most likely cause of the trouble, and a few minutes more to get a sort of confirmation.
  The problem was that the water had frozen in the waste pipe from the bath. As the picture shows, the waste pipe sags in the middle, and it would be there that the water that turned to ice accumulates. This is all because I didn't do a proper repair when the pipe was knocked out of the downpipe, and the clip to hold it up broken. This happened several years ago now when those thieving bastards cut down the tree in my back garden. I guess I am lucky they didn't do worse damage.

  Maybe it was some infra red re-radiating off the fence at the end of the garden, which is now getting some sunshine around the middle of the day, that helped melt the ice, and the water in the bath drained away. I could then carry on washing the towel. I knew that being a towel it would take 5 or more rinses to get most of the soap out. For this reason I didn't attempt to do it all at once. I stopped about halfway through to have a breather, but eventually I got it done, and hanging up to dry. I guess it was good that despite how bad I was feeling in assorted ways, doing that hand laundry didn't seem to be particularly taxing in the end.

  It is hard to put a time on it when it started, but by the evening I was really buzzing - and by that I meant I was almost light headed, and feeling as if I were a bit drunk. By 8pm my temperature had risen to 37.5° C. That is above "normal" but not by much, and still lower than the 37.8° C often quoted as the sort of fever you might get from a covid infection. It was the first time I have heard my thermometer do a double bleep to indicate my temperature was high. I must admit I didn't even know it did that.

  To enhance the effect I drank two bottles of strong beer, and a bottle of a weaker beer. The combined effect was like 12 pints of Guinness on a great night out, in a pub, and with a great band playing. I guess it would have worried many, but I preferred to enjoy it. Once my temperature started to drop I realised that the fever probably marked the turning point of these side effects. That may not be strictly true, as I will explain soon.

  It is hard to describe my sleep. After I had read possibly a whole chapter of the book I am reading, I turned out the light at 8.30pm. I have no idea when I went to sleep, but I seem to think it was probably a lot earlier than I thought at the time. Last night was one of those nights where I seemed to be awake a lot, or maybe just quite often, but with long periods of probably good sleep in between.

 I almost seemed ready to get up at 5am, but managed to stay in bed until around 6am. I am undoubtedly deluded, but it often feel like I feel better this morning than I have for ages. There is probably a hidden catch to this idea, and also one a lot less hidden. While my usual aches and pains are at an unusually low level, I seem to be suffering from what can only be described as hay fever. There is an almost persistent itching in my nose, and I am producing prestigious amounts of snot. It is obviously inconvenient, but otherwise of no consequence.

  I probably made this "hay fever" worse by dusting the vents of my fan heater a little earlier. That released a plume of semi-cooked dust into the room. I hope that doesn't prolong what I hope is just a short period of snottiness. I said it was of no consequence, but forgot that if it does go on too long then my nose will get sore from all the blowing. There is the possibility that this is a typical winter cold, but I would have thought yesterday's fever would have killed that. If it is a cold then the only place I can imagine picking it up from was when I was in the hospital getting my jab on Friday morning. It would be a bit of poor show when you have fought off the virus of the century only to come down with the common cold.

  I am now unsure what I will be doing today. I think I feel good enough to enjoy a walk, and fresh air could be good to clear out my nose. I might even go for a short walk to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge if I can keep my snot under control. The more difficult decision concerns a possible boozing session this afternoon. It would be less fun if my runny nose, and frequent sneezing interferes with the enjoyment of the beers. More important than that is that Jodie may want to stay away if I have a cold, and I can't say I would blame her. Tomorrow I will reveal how the day actually went !