Today should be bright and sunny, but rather cold. As I write this the sun is still too low in the sky to be seen, but the sky does look mostly clear. I am surprised the temperature didn't fall enough for a frost. It did come close. I reckon it is still not much more than 2° C right now, and 5° C would seem to be the best we can hope for, and that for only a couple of hours in the early afternoon. Tomorrow could see 10° C, but only at the expense of a dull and gloomy days with many showers in the morning, and probably some later in the day.

  Yesterday was one of those days that included some very high highs, and a few irritating lows. The first thing I did yesterday was to go shopping in Aldi. That went fine - no problems at all, although there was some minor inconvenience from a complete selfish idiot of a driver who blocked step free access to the store. It was possible to walk across the rumble strip across the road entrance, but those triangular bricks, designed so it is difficult to get a trolley out of the store, would also impeded pram and wheelchairs user, and are quite precarious/uncomfortable to walk across.


  I got to the pub in plenty of time to buy drinks for myself and Angela, plus a bag of crisps for Angela. A few minutes later Angela arrived looking radiant. By the time we left she was glowing with happiness. I had brought along the bottle of Smirnoff vodka for her, and also a 1.5l bottle of diet coke incase she needed that as well.

  She wanted to pay for it, but I refused, and said it was a late birthday present. I told her to look in the bag and she found a birthday card in there which she described as very lovely. I had also wrapped the bottle in the Smirnoffs bar towel I recently bought.

  It felt a lot like old times. Angela was very affectionate, and very happy. It is such a joy to see her happy. There have been too many times when various things have left her feeling down. There was even good news about Miranda, Angela's daughter. They had a falling out over something a month or more back, but it seems the scars have healed. There is a plan for the two of them, and hopefully me as well, to go to a gig at The Chattendon Arms on Saturday night. It is hard to believe it, but the way Angela was talking lover boy may not be going (but I bet he does).

  Last night Angela was being dragged along, against her real desire, to an open mic night at The Chattendon Arms. Not actually dragged along, but she felt she ought to go despite preferring to stay in the warm. I can imagine it must be quite boring for her unless there are other to engage her in conversation. Those open mic nights are really for musicians, although depending on those  who do step up to the mic, it can be entertaining (or sometimes embarrassing !) Incidently the picture of Angela was one she sent me last night after she had got ready to go out.

  We had two drinks each at the pub, and then it was time to leave. I walked Angela back to her office, and for the first time in ages, she offered me a nice hug, and a peck on the cheek. That left me feeling really good, and I needed to feel good for what was to come next. My next stop was the pharmacy where I hoped to pick up my next repeat prescription. This time they had messed up big.

  Somehow an extra prescription had been generated 3 weeks after my last repeat prescription, and the pharmacist, a man who mumbled from behind a face mask in a sort of African accent, said that my next repeat prescription was not due until the 17th of this month. I said that can't be right, but he was adamant. After a lot of searching he produced a bag with just three items in it, and that was the prescription I should have had on something like 22nd October. I said that was wrong, and would prove it.

  I took my three items and stomped off home in some very light rain. When I got home I gathered up all my current boxes of tablets, and shoved them in a bag to take back to the pharmacy. Just before I left I looked out of the window...
....there was a lovely bright rainbow out the back of the house. Maybe it is because I am always looking in the wrong direction, but I have never seen a rainbow that starts in the north. I think it is probably because of the time of year. Most rainbows seem to happen in late spring or summer....at least I think they do, but I wonder...

  It was not more than a minute or two after taking a snap of the rainbow that it started to rain in bucketfuls. I had to put on a hooded raincoat to stomp my way back to the pharmacy. When I got there, dripping all over their floor, I emptied my bag of tablet boxes onto the counter, and started chanting away 4th of the tenth, 4th of the tenth, 4th of the tenth.... The pharmacist checked the boxes, and they all said they had been issued on the 4th of the tenth (October). He admitted there must be some mistake, and set about getting all the other drugs for me to complete my prescription.

  The rain had all but stopped when I went back home to another annoyance. There was a letter from EDF, the energy company, it asked me to pay an outstanding amount on my gas bill. It wasn't much - either £24 of £42, and I can and will pay it soon. It seemed a bit odd because my gas consumption doesn't change much through the year because I only use gas for the multipoint water heater these days. In the same envelope was my electricity bill. For that I was a couple of hundred pounds in credit ! That was strange too because I seem to have used an awful lot of heating over the last few months, and I was expecting to be owing them a small amount.

  With everything else sorted out I was finally able to have my lunch rather later than I thought I would have it. It was almost the last of the Indian takeaway I had the previous night. It was chicken tikka (dry - no sauce), and rather delicious Bombay aloo. The meat was probably good for me, although there is always some doubt about whether any sugar was used in the recipe. The Bombay aloo was also possibly suspect.

  I only waited an hour after my late lunch before having dinner almost an hour early ! It was a rather delicious concoction of mine. It was cheese on ham on nan bread. The nan bread definitely tasted sweet like it might have sugar in it, but there is reason to think I was mistaken. A little later, while watching some TV, I had some salted peanuts and cashew nuts to nibble on.

  The last thing I watched was a second edition of QI. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that long ago that I saw the same episode being repeated on Dave, but it was one of the better episode, and I was happy to watch it again. After it finished, just before 9pm if I recall correctly, I took my book to bed to read for half an hour or so. I got to the end of the chapter, and thought hat would be a good place to stop. I put the book down, turned out the light, and then nothing happened.

  Well maybe nothing is not quite correct. I thrashed around a lot trying to find that mythical comfy spot, but sleep just would not come. It was getting on for 1am before I finally fell asleep. It felt like rotten sleep with unpleasant dreams and more short periods of insomnia. By 6am I was finally getting the hang of sleep, but I never got a chance for any deep sleep. As 7am approached I got a message through to say I was to expect a deliver between 8 and 9am.

  I had to get up, and although I could have done it later I had a shower. I then got dressed, and ready to take in my "parcel". Before all that I checked my blood glucose level. I was convinced it would be another high reading like yesterday (9.3mmol/l), but I was shocked, and very happy to see it was down to a very acceptable 7.7mmol/l.  Either the Indian food was more benign than I thought, or it was all the walking I did yesterday. I can't put a figure on it, but Aldi and back, Ladywell and back via the pharmacy, and then to the pharmacy and back, must have added up to over 2 miles, and maybe even approaching 3 miles.

  My "parcel", or in reality 2 heavy boxes, were delivered at a few minutes past 8am. They were two more beer advent calendars ordered via Amazon, but delivered by DPD. It is a shame that Amazon drivers never seem to get up until mid morning, and all my deliveries by Amazon drivers arrive at more irritating times far later in the day.

  I've had some breakfast (oven cooked battered cod), and once I have finished writing this I can, and probably will lay on my bed reading, and hoping to doze off for an hour to catch up with some of my last sleep from last night. The next big event will be this afternoon when Jodie and I, probably plus Michael, will be making a start of some of the beers from the beer advent calendars.