This morning has started cool but otherwise pleasant. There has been some sunshine, and it looks like there could be more of it, but the latest revision predicts a 30% chance of a shower at 11am and then between 1pm and 2pm. From 3pm there could be sunny spells until sunset. The latest prediction says the temperature will only reach 15° C today. Tomorrow may feature a bright morning with sunny spells, but most of the day is currently forecast to be dull, and a similar temperature to today.

  It's at this point I stop writing for a while because I need to wash my hair, have a shower, and then go to Aldi to get some shopping. I shall resume in an hour or two.

 
  It could be said that more has already happened this morning than happened yesterday. I had one plan for yesterday, but it didn't happen for a few reasons. That plan was to go to a late afternoon gig, but the events of the morning eventually discouraged me. As I mentioned yesterday, I had been constipated while writing. As soon as I finished writing I became aware that it was definitely time to go to the toilet, and 5 minutes later I was no more constipated.

  Unfortunately it didn't end there. It wasn't as bad as last Friday morning by a long shot, but I still had to make 2 (or was it 3 ?) more trips to the toilet during the remainder of the morning. By then I was quite convinced I was empty, but it left my belly feeling sort of tender. It was a feeling a bit like hunger, but also nothing like hunger. I think this is all indicative of one of those bowel problems that older (and younger) people get. Things like colitis, IBS, or even ulcers. Oh well, it will probably go away, and anyway I've had worse in my time.

  I had a lot of time to spare yesterday late yesterday morning, and half the afternoon. The obvious thing would have been to continue playing with Jodie's mum's old PC. I had been making some sort of progress the previous day, but somehow I couldn't raise the enthusiasm for it yesterday. What I did do was to go back to my long term project of making a spreadsheet listing all the electric and diesel trains I have photographed over the years.

  I don't think I would have started this project if I knew how long it would take. If anything I should have just stuck to the original idea of just recording all the South Eastern class 465/466 "Networker" trains that are now just starting to be phased out on services through Catford Bridge station. That is how it started. It was just a crazy idea to see how many I had seen out of all those that were made, but then I got carried away.....

  It may be a long job, but it is fairly easy, and in some ways rather nostalgic seeing sights I had first seen 10 or more years ago (and by "sights" I am talking about stations more than trains, and maybe even towns and the seaside). I found myself sitting at my PC for hours, gently plodding along. Sitting down was not that good for my tender stomach, although I can't really describe it as causing any pain as such.

  Anyway, it got to just past 4pm, and a little past the time when I should have been going to get a bus to Greenwich (where the gig was), and my guts still felt delicate, I hadn't even had a shower or changed my underwear. Not only that, but I had just got to a particular outing to north London that featured some diesel trains that have now probably been scrapped. I decided I would carry on working, and ignore the gig.

  During the day I had mostly just nibbled on some "Snax" - triangular Doritoes corn snacks. I guess it is that corn has a lot more fibre compared to potato, but whatever the reason, it seems that corn snacks (tortilla crisps) affect my blood glucose less than potato crisps. By 5am I had eaten nothing but these "Snax", and fancied something a little more mearty. It was a bit too early for dinner, and I didn't have that much in the fridge anyway, and I ended up scoffing a small tin of Spam with some low sugar ketchup and mustard.

  I left dinner until a bit later than usual, and just had three cans of soup. One was a Tesco cream of chicken soup that has about the lowest sugar content of any soup. Another was a strange Baxters soup - a minestrone with bacon and Orzo pasta. I thought it was time to use it and never buy any more again because it is not very nice to my personal tastes. The third soup was a Aldi pea and ham soup - lovely and thick, great with plenty of chilli sauce, and also quite low in sugar.

   I didn't feel the need to rush to bed early last night, but I was in bed reading for some time before I tried for sleep. It is all a bit hazy when I try to remember how long it took to get to sleep, and when that might have been. That suggests it was quicker than it seemed like at the time, but still gives no real clue as to when it was. I will hazzard a guess that t was about 10pm when I fell asleep. On the whole I seemed to sleep quite well. It may be an indication of how well I was sleeping, or maybe it was just an indication that last night was not as cold as the last few nights, but it wasn't until about 4.15am that I turned the heater on.

  Maybe I could have had a lie in this morning, but my sleeping came to a rapid end with the arrival of a text message. A duplicate, graphical version, was also sent by email.
  I had just over half an hour to get myself decent to take my parcel (actually quite a large box) in if it arrived at 7.48am. In fact it was about 8am when it arrived so I had a little more time than that. I find it amazing that DPD, who were the couriers, can find people who can get up early in the morning, and Amazon can't ! It is annoying when I have to almost waste the whole day waiting for Amazon to deliver something. It is rare they get here before 3pm, and between 5 and 6pm is more typical, but the very latest I have even had was about 9.30pm !

  My parcel/box contained all sorts of old crap - much of it I shouldn't really eat. I seemed to have ordered about 4 big multipacks of crisps or snacks among other stuff. There were things I took a chance on that I wish I hadn't. The Fray Bentos individual pots of BBQ sausages and black bean stew seem to have horrendous amounts of sugar in them. Even the "low sugar" granola, something I very rarely eat, and actually use mostly as bird feed, is not that low in sugar by my reckoning.

  However, I am continually learning what is good and what is bad. Until recently I would have thought that corn tortilla crisps would be very bad, but after eating what I thought was rather too much of them yesterday, I was surprised that this morning my blood glucose was spot on my personal target of 7.5mmol/l. It was not quite as good as the two days of 6.9mmol/l, but it was still low enough to reduce my monthly running average down a notch. There still seems a chance that my end of month average might be one of the best this year. On the other hand, if I get too carried away eating some of the stuff in my Star Bargains box I could throw that target away - a long way away !

  At this point I should have been shopping in Aldi (as I said I would nearer the top of the page). I haven't been there yet, but I have had a shower and washed my hair. I have also put away all the stuff from my morning delivery, and cut up the cardboard boxes, and put them in the recycling wheelie bin. I also took out all the bottles and cans from the last week and put them in the recycling bin.

   I have also had a pleasant conversation with Angela. I think she phoned to see how my third Covid booster jab went. She was reluctant to get it, but now I have reassured her that I am fine  after having mine, she will pop along to get hers today. She is back at work now, and now has a good excuse to leave her office for maybe an hour, depending on how busy they are in the vaccine centre in the same hospital she works in. She said that we may be able to meet on Wednesday, and promises to give me a nice early warning of yay or nay.

  It is not essential I go shopping in Aldi today, but habit means I will probably go a bit later. Other stuff on the agenda today is to tidy up Jodie's mum's old PC that is in bits all over the dining room table. I have one single medium bath towel to finish washing. I might even chance putting it on the washing line to dry for a few hours. I need to hoover the dining room which is covered with flecks of cardboard after cutting up the boxes of my morning delivery. In theory there should be nothing left to do except to have a boozing session with Jodie later this afternoon.