The sun has already had a couple of goes at burning through the clouds, but hasn't made it yet, but latest revision to the forecast still says it should break through at 10am to initially give some sunny spells, and maybe from 11am burst into full sunshine until almost sunset. It could look good, but the flaw in the plan is that it will still be rather cold. This morning felt extra cold because the temperature has been so low for the last few days. It was 4° C a little earlier, and it seems the best we can hope for is a brief spell at 6° C at 11am, and the rest of the day it will be back down to a meagre 5° C before dropping again towards sunset. Tomorrow may well feature a frost, but the day is predicted to be very sunny, and the temperature may rise to a less chilly 10° C.

  Ultimately, yesterday was a bit of a disaster. I felt pretty crappy in the morning, although some hot breakfast, of a couple of bowls of instant noodles, made me feel a lot better. I still felt tired, and I still had a few hints rather than actual symptoms of a cold. Fortunately they faded out as the day progressed, but I still didn't feel that great. It left me in a bit of a "I don't care" sort of mood with regard to my blood glucose level.

  The two bowls of instant noodles were relatively safe, but I do better with only one bowl. At lunchtime I had two cans of soup instead of just one. This, like the earlier noodles, was to warm me up. My temperature, which had started as a tiny weeny bit higher than usual, was within normal limits all day, but I still felt chilly, and had to have the heater up high for a lot of the day. The afternoon sunshine, although not heating up the outside world, did provide a fair bit of heat through the windows of my bedroom.

  I really didn't feel like doing much yesterday. In theory I was saving my energy for the evening. With few distractions my thoughts turned to eating, and I had afternoon snacks of baked crisps, and a couple of nice sweet oranges. There were two things I did in the afternoon. One was to have a good scrub under the shower so I would be ready to go out in the evening. The other was to make quite a few visits to the toilet.

  I think I am currently suffering from IBS, but in this instance I wonder if the "I" stands for insane. Maybe it has been since I changed my typical diet, to one that experiment suggested would keep my blood glucose lower, that my visits to the toilet changed - and keep changing. I have had few large and heavy, a few very rare wet and runny, and just lately to has been small and frequent coupled with large gas generation. It will be nice if this all settles down, but for the moment it is spoiling things.

  Yesterday afternoon I did a lot of preparation for going out. I burnt a DVD data disk of all the pictures, edited and unedited straight from the camera, for Max of Lord Algea who I was supposed to have been seeing last night. I looked up all the train times. I charged he batteries in the two pocket cameras I was going to take, and as mentioned above, I had a good scrub under the shower. I also pre-cooked my dinner that I assumed I would eat when I got home late in the evening.

  or the whole of the afternoon my guts felt a bit uncomfortable. I think at something like 90 minute, maybe even 2 hour intervals, I went to the toilet, and thought "that must be it", but it never was until the last time at about 30 minutes before I had planned to go to the station. As I said somewhere above, it was "small and frequent", and I just couldn't trust it to be all over. By itself that was bad enough, but I also still felt tired, and "not quite right". I was also wary about the probable effects of going out in the cold and damp again (although last night was actually dry).

  My only reason to go was to see Lord Algea doing a 45 minute support slot, and so with trains only every 30 minutes, I really had to get it right first time. As the time to leave approached I realised it seemed to be all weighted against me, and I decided to give up, and have my dinner at about my normal time of 6pm. It was very nice, but it seemed it was very small. It was a couple of lamb neck steaks that seemed big until cooked. I flavoured it with some fresh rosemary, and also added a sprig to the new potatoes I had with the lamb. I really enjoyed it, but I would have been happier if it had been twice the size.

  I thought I would have an early night last night. I thought I deserved and needed an early night, but it didn't happen. During dinner I checked the TV, and there was a documentary about Eric Clapton on. It didn't really grab my attention, but it was worth listening to while I read while laying on my bed. When it finished I thought I would try for some sleep, but sleep never came. I went back to the TV and watched a repeated episode of QI and then a repeated episode of Have I Got News For You, both on Dave.

  I got back to bed at just gone 10pm, and soon after that I did go to sleep. I had the heater on full for most of the night, but I still felt a bit cold unless I made sure I stayed covered with the duvet. I think I ended up sleeping OK. I didn't seem to wake up any more than usual, and possibly less. When I did wake up I seemed to get back to sleep quickly enough. I remember having a lot of dreams, or maybe it was a long one in the last hour before waking up, but the details escape me.

  Despite the double noodles in the morning, the two cans of soup at lunchtime, the baked crisps, and the not previously mentioned single toffee, plus the potatoes with my dinner, my blood glucose was back down to 7.4mmol/l this morning. It was 8.3mmol/l yesterday morning, and I don't think I could account for it being that high unless I was fighting some mild infection. This morning's figure is rather satisfying, and proves that despite the bad effect it seems to be having on my gut, it, whatever it is I am doing, is the right thing.

  I have already been to the toilet three times this morning, and so I am not in the clear just yet ! Other than that, I think I probably feel mostly OK, but I don't feel terribly dynamic. This morning I ought to go shopping in Aldi, but if I leave it too late I might go to Tesco instead. Neither is essential today, but I haven't got that much food in the fridge. I'll see how that feels, and (assuming I do go shopping) if it feels good I may be tempted to wrap up warm and have a walk in the sunshine early this afternoon.

  Some brief news: I've heard from Patricia, and she will be coming to London this summer, although whether it will be a flying visit, or if she will want to stay here a few days is currently unknown. I also heard from EDF energy about my gas and electric bills. The gas bill is worse considering I use very little gas. The price of that has really gone up. I owe them £26 for the last quarter because my standing order has fallen behind again. I was fearing the electric bill because it seems I have been really bashing my fan heater in my bedroom, leaving it on all night, and stuff. The total bill is horrendous, but so is the size of my standing order, and the amount I have to pay is actually slightly less than my next standing order payment for this month (and should be paid before the due date). It looks like I am basically doing OK....so far !