This morning has started with sunshine and long sunny spells. The latest revision to the forecast has changed some hours this afternoon from sunny spells to sunshine. That hasn't changed the afternoon temperature, and it is still predicted to be 22° C.  The temperature should be the same tomorrow, and although most hours may only feature sunny spells, they should last all day, and maybe a few of those hours will feature full on sunshine.

  One of the things I forgot to mention yesterday morning is that I had already been to Tesco to get some shopping before I started to write. I chose Tesco, instead of Aldi because I had more trust in Tesco to have at least one manned checkout open. In fact I think there were two open (and the self service checkouts were hardly being used at all. I tried to restrict what I bought to mostly safe stuff, but I did take a chance on two items.

   One item was a bag of Conference pears. They were described as sweet, but  it also said ripen them at home. I only had one yesterday, and in my opinion they were perfectly ripe enough - not too hard, and not too sweet, but crisp and crunchy, and with just enough sweetness to stop them tasting tart. The other item was a wholemeal bloomer loaf. I carefully checked, and like the wholemeal rolls it had no sugar added to it. It was nice, but there was a catch. It had a huge air bubble inside, and that severely reduced it's use for making sandwiches.

  The only other notable thing I did yesterday was to do quite a big load of washing. I hand washed a pair of shorts, three t-shirts, and some underwear. The sun hadn't come out when I hung it on the line to dry, and I was feeling a bit pessimistic about whether it would ever come out. Fortunately it did, albeit only as sunny spells, but when I brought that washing in it was mostly warm and dry. As usual the sleeves of one t-shirt felt very slightly damp where they were shaded from the sun.

  During the course of the day I made myself two delicious cheese, tomato, basil and mayonnaise sandwiches. It was while cutting off the last slice of bread that I discovered there was a gigantic air bubble in the middle of the loaf. I don't think I will be having any more sandwiches using that loaf....or maybe if I sliced it lengthways....Hmm, I'll have to think about that.

  After two sandwiches, and the conference pear, I decided to take it easy for dinner, and I just had two cans of soup. I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but Tesco cream of chicken soup has 0.6gm of sugar per half tin. Heinz "reduced sugar" cream of chicken soup has 2.4gm of sugar per half tin. The Tesco stuff is a bit thinner, but just as nice. In act it is probably nicer because the Heinz stuff feels a bit slimy. If you are watching your sugar intake it is a no brainer about which to choose.

  My second tin of soup had more sugar in it, but it was still generally a low sugar soup. It was "Plant Chef" red lentil with peppers, and is rather nice, although I have to confess that now I've had a few cans of it, the novelty value has worn off. It is still nice, but not as nice. An hour so after dinner I topped up with a handful of peanuts.

  I had intended to get to sleep early last night because I wanted to get up early this morning, but I didn't get to sleep any earlier than average, and I think it was slightly later. I had a lousy night ! It was probably the chilli sauce I added to my soups still affecting me. I didn't seem to know if I was hot or cold when I went to bed, and I gradually peeled the duvet back more and more. I woke up around 1am (I think) totally uncovered, and feeling cold.

  In my desire to wrap myself up nice and warm I managed to "pop a rib". Quite what actually happened is a mystery, but not a new one by any measure. It felt like my ribs were grating together, and that gave me chest pains. Long experience told me they were not the sort of chest pains to worry about, but that didn't make them any less uncomfortable. Rolling over to my other side reduced the chest pain to a minimum, but started off something like lower back pain. I even seemed to get the same pain that I get from a muscle in the back of my right thigh when sitting down writing (like is already starting now).

  All that discomfort made getting back to sleep really hard, but I managed it, and probably slept for several hours before doing it all over again. It seemed to feel like I was awake for far longer than was probably the case. In fact I think I might actually have been dreaming I was awake at times. I certainly did have a very long series of small dreams. It was like I was exploring a huge house that was owned by a sort of friend. The most memorable bit was a back room that was huge. It may have once been a ballroom, but tiered, plush red seats at the far end made it look more like a cinema or theatre. I was expecting a gig to start, but then I seemed to be in a different room.

  It was inconvenient that this morning I had to be up early. I was aiming for sometime between 6 and 7am, and I actually got up at 6.15am. The reason was, as I mentioned yesterday, I had a 9am appointment with the practice nurse for a diabetic checkup. I wanted plenty of time to have a shower, and wash my hair, and have some breakfast. The latter was because I stupidly believed that having food in my gut to digest would lower my blood pressure. It is often quite low after dinner in the evening. It is usually very high in the surgery when it is checked on an empty stomach.

  I was at the surgery 5 minutes before my appointment, but I wasn't seen until at least 9.10am, and I am not sure why. I saw no one come out of the room, and I think I was probably the first patient. I guess the nurse was just tardy. It all went pretty much as expected. I found out why my diabetes had been noted as well controlled. The nurse brought up the results of the last 5 blood tests. They are usually yearly, and so in the last 5 years the last result was best of all.  She made no mention of the other things that were tested for. I guess they were all satisfactory.

  What wasn't satisfactory, and I knew it wouldn't be, was my blood pressure. She tried several time to get a good reading, but they were all too high, and she had to fall back on my printout of my home readings - which are usually very good. My weight was more or less what I guessed it to be - a lot higher than last November when I had lost a decent amount of weight, but still lower than when I was admitted to hospital in 2019 after a probable mild heart attack.

  As I expected, I am going to be referred to the foot clinic in the hospital. I am surprised I have got away with not going there beforehand, but all the walking I did last year did take its toll on my feet. The blood thinner I am on, Clopidogrel, means I bruise very easily, and I have two black toenails (although one is now showing signs of growing out). It will be interesting to see what the foot clinic make of my feet. I have dark suspicions it may not be good.

 Apart from giving a urine sample, that is to dropped into reception later, it is now all over for another year - I think ! Now I am torn between two things. I would like, and probably will to some extent, try and have a snooze soon. Later on it should be pleasantly sunny, and maybe I might go out for a walk, although I have to confess I have little enthusiasm for it at the moment. The only reason I can think of that I might do it today is the weather may slightly deteriorate to the extent of less sunshine, in the coming days, although they may still be dry days.