Page composed using
Seamonkey composer1
home
site map
February 2021 March 2021

previous day
next day

Thursday 4th March 2021
Lockdown day 345
Shopping embargo day 88 224

07:45 GMT


  Yesterday was a horrible day. As per the weather forecast, it started off with mist and fog, and then was just dull and overcast. Some sunny spells were expected, but later revisions of the forecast pushed them later and later. The last revision said the first sunny spells would start at 3pm. What we actually got was rain. Rain had originally been forecast for 5pm, but once started at 3pm (plus or minus 20 minutes or so) it didn't stop until sometime this morning. Most of it was light rain, but sometime it became fairly heavy. On top of all that, I don't think the temperature even hit 9° C, let alone the 12° C promised in the morning version of the weather forecast.
once again the forecast for fog was
                                right
   It was certainly foggy when I first peeped behind the curtains at first light, but it is clear now. At the moment it doesn't appear to be raining, but it certainly looks very soggy outside. The revised forecast still says the rain should finish before 10pm, but the rest of the day will feature thick dark clouds, and there will still be a 10% chance of rain at any time. It is going to be cold - just a shivery 6° C for almost the whole day. Tomorrow may feature mostly light cloud with maybe an hour of darker cloud, and maybe an hour when the cloud is thin enough to let an occasional sunbeam pass. Once again it is predicted to be another chilly day, but maybe the temperature may rise to 7° C - a whole degree higher than today !

  I could best describe yesterday as feeling like a Sunday. It was generally boring, and thanks to the awful weather, quite depressing. I think I allowed some of the nice, spring like days towards the end of February to raise too many hopes, and now I am reaping the consequences of over optimism. We have returned to winter weather ! It is going to be some time before there is any reason for optimism. It looks likely we will have some frosty mornings coming up before there might be hints of improving weather.
They're back  It is hard to remember what I did yesterday because there was so little to remember. One thing I did do was to order some more beer. I checked several places before I found a reasonable couple of mixed cases of beer One was another German beer collection. I don't think there will be anything excitingly new in it, but German beer is usually reliably nice.

  The other mixed case was rather different - a selection of Samuel Smiths brewery beers. I didn't realise they had such a selection. A couple of them are fruit beers. They could be horrible, but if brewed like Belgium fruit beer that could be very nice. It has been a long time since I've seen and drunk and Sam Smiths beers in any local pubs, but I used to like one of their beers.

  It should be fun when these beers are delivered. The last time I used https://www.realalestore.co.uk they were quite quick, and I think I should get my beers in time for a boozing session on Sunday.

  One of the places I checked for beers was Amazon. One advantage of ordering from there is the possibility of free delivery. The order I made yesterday comes to over £60, and so I get free delivery on it without going through Amazon. One thing I saw on Amazon was a big shock. It seems someone has resurrected the long dead and buried "Party 7".

  I have no idea what gigantic brewing conglomerate now owns the rights to the name Watneys, and the use of "Party 7", but I hope they fill it with better beer than the original Party 7. The original beer was the equivalent to the Austin Maxi car - it had 4 wheels. Sometimes worked, and could lumber from point A to point B, but it lacked any hint of excitement. The best that you could say for Watney's Red Barrel was that it was like beer - and no more !

  One of the things I was trying to do yesterday was to resist the temptation of comfort food. By conventional types of comfort food I succeeded. By conventional I mean food that usually has a high sugar content. Stuff like cakes, biscuits, ice cream and the like. I had nothing like that, but I probably ate too much of slightly more safer food - but only safe in terms of not affecting my blood glucose level by any great amount.
4 of 5
                                      beers I drank yesterday
  I suspect these 4 beers, plus one other not pictured, probably had the second most bad effect on my blood glucose level. What probably had a bigger effect was an Aldi "Cottage Pie" ready meal. The sad thing is that cottage pie didn't even seem to taste that nice. It was nice-ish, but I had hoped for more. I should have eaten it with some green vegetables, but I opted for two, still not fully ripe, nectarines and two small Cox apples for dessert.

  The best thing about my sleep was not the sleep itself, but the result of thinking about my dreams as I lay in bed trying for one more hour of sleep at just before 5am. Many of my dreams, maybe going back years, have featured a building that has two or more entrances, and where you have to select the right entrance to get to some places in the building. One dream last night included a sequence where I left the building to take out some rubbish, and then re-entered the building by the wrong door. I then had to take a very convoluted path to get back to where I had started from.

  It was while I was awake for 15 to 20 minutes, between sleeps, that I suddenly realised the inspiration for these odd building arrangements. The buildings have always been different, and the business inside the building has mostly been different, but in many cases it was often something to do with education. The latter was the clue that made me realise where the inspiration originally came from.

  My secondary school, Catfords Boys, had two main buildings. The lower forms were in an old Victorian built school house. From the third year and up a new 1960s built building was used. It had a north and south staircase, although I can't remember them ever being names as such. There was no connection between the two staircases at ground level. The only connection between them on the 1st floor was via a corridor that had offices of it, including the headmasters study. I think it was officially off bounds, but no one wanted to go down it anyway. The 2nd and 3rd floors had a corridor the entire length of the building with classrooms off it. The top, or 4th floor had the science labs. For some strange reason the lab technician room blocked the corridor. That meant that you had to use the correct staircase to get to the labs either side of the lab technicians room.

  I seemed to have a fair nights sleep with some entertaining dreams. Unfortunately I woke up feeling very stiff and creaky. It even felt like my blood pressure was high - and it was. They say you can't feel blood pressure, but there are clues if you look for it. My systolic pressure was 130mmhg. That is not dangerously high, and possibly low enough where no medication would be needed for anyone with no bad heart history. This morning I upped my dose of Bisprolol to 10mg after a day or two of just 5mg. It all suggests that I really need 7.5mg, but that is not a standard dosage. I just checked my blood pressure again, and it is now back down to 116mmhg - which is about perfect.

  Even my blood glucose is not that bad this morning. It has gone up to 8.2mmol/l, and that is higher than I like, but OK, and possibly even good after what I ate and drank yesterday. I can't see it being any lower tomorrow. That is partly because today may be another very sedentary day, but mainly because it's a Thursday, and that means it is boozing day ! I may make things worse by going out to the little supermarket on Catford Bridge a bit later. There are a few things I would like to get from there, and there is a strong probability I will get more stuff - maybe some of that nice Turkish bread if they have any that takes my fancy.
  previous day