It is sunny now, and the latest revision to the forecast says there will now be unbroken sunshine until sunset. Of course one problem with a completely clear sky is that it lets all the heat out, and so this morning we had our first frost. It was only a light frost, but a sign of things to come. It is going to be a rather chilly day today. The best the afternoon can offer is just 10° C. Tonight may not be as cold as last night, but once again the temperature may not rise above 10° C tomorrow. The morning may be sunny, but the afternoon will be cloudy, and from 5pm there is currently predicted a 40% chance of rain
 
  I did not feel good yesterday, and I am not fully sure why. When I first got up my chest was aching. It did feel a bit like the sort of ache you get with a heart attack, but it wasn't quite right for that. I thought a good brisk walk would prove that one way or another, and so I took a brisk walk to Aldi where I had planned to do some shopping anyway. The walk didn't kill me, and even felt sort of pleasant.

  While I was in Aldi I became aware, or maybe more aware, of some gurgling (for want of a better word) from my stomach. It was a lot like hunger pains. I tried not to let this influence me in my choice of stuff to buy, but I did end up buying a few things that may not have been totally wise. On the other hand, the way my blood glucose is behaving itself, maybe they weren't too bad a choice.

  Loaded down with 4 big bottles of soft drinks (3 Diet Cokes, as usual, plus a bottle of sugar free Dandelion & Burdock), and 6 cans of soup, plus all the other bits, added up to a slightly slower walk home, but not that much slower. When I got home my chest aches were no worse, and no better. I got to thinking the problem was probably a mix of acid reflux and indigestion, and maybe there was a hint of an ulcer.

  A couple of antacid tablets did give some relief. What gave more relief was some breakfast. I had some cod in breadcrumb-like batter for my breakfast. What was almost a complete, albeit temporary cure was when I had some elevenses. It was a large bag of prawn cocktail flavour crisps. They instantly blew my sugar and calorie budget out of the window, and far away !

  While those crisps stopped the pains from my stomach system, I still had some muscular pain that had made the other pains seem a bit more like heart problems. I think it all stemmed from the overdose of instant noodles for dinner on Sunday evening. I was feeling a bit over stuffed when I went to bed, and every burp tasted like instant noodles ! I think that gastric juices escaped my stomach and burnt where they shouldn't have. I also think that it probably caused me to thrash about a bit while sleeping. Yesterday morning my neck was very stiff, and some muscles/ligaments going to my chest were also aching.

  I did very little yesterday, and spent a fair bit of the day reading and trying to snooze. I also did a bit more to my spreadsheet that catalogues all my best train photos. That spreadsheet is still giving me grief. I am not sure when it happens, but it keeps changing the links to the full pictures from a relative path (picture/nnnnn.jpg) to the full path on my home directory. That is all good and fine when I am looking at it on this PC, but those links won't work on other PCs - probably even more so on Windows PCs. At this time I am not sure what I can do about it.

  I ended up eating far more than I should have yesterday, and that bag of crisps was just the start of the problem. I decided that the crisps should be categorised as my lunch even though I ate them rather earlier than lunch. At lunch time I did restrain myself and eat no more than 4 oatcakes with cheese and tomato. I decided that it would probably be wise to cut out hot chilli sauce, and endure slightly bland food until my stomach problem had calmed down.

  I have to confess that my choice of dinner was not ideal. I had two small ready meals. One was a rather tasty cottage pie, and the other was a rather less enjoyable liver, bacon and mash. Upon eating the latter I remembered a better reason not to eat it. The bacon tastes absolutely foul. It is as if it has gone off or something. It was the same the last time I bought one, months and months ago, and the time before that, possibly years ago.

  I found the cottage pie in particular, seemed quite rich, and I seemed to start getting indigestion again. I quickly took a couple of antacid tablets, and they helped. I had another couple before going to bed a few hours later. Before trying for sleep I started reading "Mostly Harmless" the 5th book in the Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams. As soon as I started reading it I knew I had read it before, but it seems I must have lost or lent my original copy, and the copy I was reading last night was the newly delivered one from Amazon.

  My sleep was better than expected last night. That is not to say it was actually good ! If I laid on my right hand side I could feel my ribs crunching, and there was also the problem of acid reflux when sleeping on that side. I think I might have had a little reflux at the start of the night, but it probably wasn't serious. I most definitely crunched my ribs a few times though, and that is an excellent way to generate chest pains.

  This morning I don't feel that bad, but I am aware of quite a few pops and clicks, gratings and groans from my chest when I make certain movements - movements that are difficult to predict, or avoid. While sitting here writing I have also noticed some growing hunger pains, or maybe just some acid feelings from my stomach. I have decided it would be better to suspend my eating plans for a while and have a couple of fish burgers for breakfast.

  My plan was to try and eat very little today after eating far too much yesterday - and much of it being stuff I should only eat in extreme moderation. Having just been down to the kitchen to start cooking the fish burgers in my mini oven/grill I was reminded that I also ate the second half of a packet of alleged sugar free chocolate chip cookies. That was just 4 cookies, and that doesn't seem excessive, but when I ate the other 4, some weeks ago now, I noticed a blip in my blood glucose reading the next day.

  Considering all I ate yesterday, I was expecting a very big blood glucose reading this morning, and indeed it was higher than the day before, but 8.7mmol/l is not a lot different to many of the readings I was getting at the start of last month when I was trying to be very careful about what I was eating. I think that today I will still try and not eat anything too bad, but it seems I probably don't have to try and starve myself. On the other hand, once my stomach has settled properly, assuming it does, it would be good to try and restrict what I eat. Since my blood glucose suddenly dropped to more sane readings a fortnight or so ago I have been pushing it a bit to see what I can get away with. While my blood glucose has stayed mostly good (this morning excepted - but that was pushing things to the extreme) my weight has gone up a bit. I ought to try and get that down if I can. It won't be easy during the cold winter months !

  Today is forecast to be all bright and shiny, and at the moment that forecast is holding good. I don't really feel like it right now, but I probably ought to go out for a walk today. The only problem with that, if I ignore potential chest aches and stuff, is that it is both too warm and too cold. It is definitely cold enough to put on one of my warmest coats, and to look after my chest, have the front zipped up. On the other hand I will usually overheat like that by the time I have walked a mile. Then if I open my coat my chest will get chilled, and start to complain. Oh well, breakfast next, and then a shower. I think I'll wash my hair too. After that I can worry about what I will do.