Last night the forecast for today said it would be wet this morning, but the afternoon would be dry, with some sunny spells, and maybe 21° C until cloudier skies and rain fell in the early evening. That has all changed, and keeps on changing. The latest revision shows some light rain as I type this, and that has happened, but it seems to be brightening up a bit now. Another shower might be due at midday (40% chance), and a heavier shower at 2pm (60% chance). There might be a dry period, possibly with a sunny spell or two, from 3 to 7pm. At 8pm there is just a 30% chance of a shower. Tomorrow may feature sunshine or sunny spells until mid evening when there could be light rain. The temperature will be like the last day or two, 21° C.

   I read that many people were complaining of vicious hay fever yesterday. Some described it as like snorting white pepper. Mine wasn't quite that bad, but it was the worst I can recall getting it. My usual spring and autumn hay fever is generally no more than a slightly, but still annoying, drippy nose. For time my nose was almost pouring early yesterday morning. Someone put forward a convincing theory that the recent rotten weather meant all the flowers suddenly released all their pollen in one go as soon as the sun came out.

  My nose just about dried up by mid to late morning. It is a sort of paradox that it was actually going out into the fresh air that seemed to help most of all. I went for a quick shop in Poundstretcher to buy bird feed, and a wire feeder for peanuts that the small birds can cling to. With three hanging bird feeders on the go now I have a couple of small birds becoming regular visitors. I think one is a wagtail, and the other is a blue tit (although I have to admit that without taking some close up photos my identifications should be taken with a pinch of salt).

   With the new bird feeder set up, and a pile of stuff on the bird table, I could almost relax, but with the prospect of a dry, and warm afternoon I decided to hand wash a double fitted sheet and a pair of pillowcases. It was fairly easy going, and because I could hang them outside I didn't have to try and wring every last drop of water out of them. It didn't matter if they dripped on the garden path, although I think I did wring them out enough that they didn't do that.

  I had a rest after doing that laundry, and spent the time reading until it was time to set things up for another Thursday afternoon boozing session. It was a curious session in as much as it felt like a very light session as we were drinking, but I did feel the effects afterwards....or did I ? I'll come to the main reason for my doubt in a minute. Maybe it was the booze that left me feeling very hungry, and with few things to choose from to eat in the fridge, I ended up having two supermarket (Aldi) Indian curry ready meals.

  Neither came with any rice even though I thought one of them would. The one in the big (but shallow) plastic dish was a chicken shazlic (I think), and the container looked to be the type that was split into two with rice on one side, and curry on the other, but it was all curry. It was a rather nice curry. It was rather better than the other by a long way. The other was lamb rogan ghosh, and while the sauce was nice-ish, the meat was hard to identify as being lamb.

  My doubt about how much the booze was affecting me is based on two incidents that both point to an upset stomach - the latter incident being a strong confirmation of it. In the morning I made one light and one usual visit to the toilet. In the early afternoon I had to go two more times. The second was getting a bit violent, but I felt OK after it. Nothing more happened until I had gone to bed, and was laying in the dark trying to get to sleep.

  In that half asleep/half awake state I was sensitive to noises. There were several times when I heard a noise that made me think there might be a small rodent loose in my bedroom. It wasn't a gnawing sound, but more like a sort of rustle. I woke up a bit more and realised the noises were coming from inside me, from my gut. There then followed some gaseous emissions, and then one potential gaseous emission seemed to feel like it might be more than gas. That was at almost exactly midnight.

  That was my cue to rush to the toilet, and I am very glad I did or I would have had another sheet to wash !  I must have sat on the toilet for almost 15 minutes until it seemed like I might be empty. It only took a few minutes to realise I wasn't, and so it was back to the toilet for another 10 minutes or so. After that I didn't even try going back to bed. I sat at my PC reading stuff for almost an hour. During that time I made one more visit to the toilet. My guts felt quite render, but I seemed to be empty. It was close on 2am before I went to bed, and fell asleep.

  This morning my guts still feel tender, and now and then I feel like I might need to go to the toilet, but nothing has happened when I've tried. My blood glucose is high this morning. It is 9.0mmol/l. I guess the curries carry some of the blame for that, and the beers wouldn't have helped. There is one unknown still, and that is how much my stomach upset may have upset my blood glucose. If I cold, or other simple illness can raise it, then maybe galloping gut rot can too.

  It was probably stupid, but I was feeling hungry, and cooked some bacon for breakfast this morning. I was probably playing with fire because the bacon was past it's use by date by a week or two, and there was a slightly unpleasant smell as I opened the packet. It seemed to dissipate very quickly, and the well cooked bacon tasted delicious. It was just a shame I didn't dare have something like baked beans with it.

  On the whole it is a rotten morning - mainly on account of the weather, but also because I feel sort of off colour. However I do have some plans for today. Perhaps I mean just one single plan, and it is based on the naive idea that this afternoon may be dry and warm. I have a bath towel and a hand towel that I want to wash, and if this afternoon is warm and dry I will wash them and hang them out to dry. I did have one more possible plan, but that was based on yesterday's forecast that said the afternoon would not only be warm and dry, but sunny too. That doesn't seem likely now, I very much doubt I'll be going out for any walking today. Tomorrow may be a possibility until the sunshine predicted for tomorrow is replaced by a forecast for hail all day sometime during the night !