. The latest revision
hasn't changed much to that shown in the
screenshot above. 10 and 11am have changed to
just sunny spells, but the dull, and one hour
of very dull, hasn't been changed. The
afternoon high is still shown as 19° C. The
BBC forecast almost comes in line with the Met
Office, but they extend the sunny spells to
midday. They also agree on it being 19° C this
afternoon. Tomorrow may start a little dull,
but from 4pm until sunset there could be non
stop sunshine. The BBC say only sunny spells,
but they have them starting as early as 10am.
Both agree on an afternoon high of 22° C.
Yesterday, apart from starting with a
silly (rather high) blood glucose reading, was
another good day. Like the day before I felt
good in a way that I can't really describe. It
was like my body was just working better. Of
course the prospect, and later reality of
meeting Angela was a boost to my mental
health. I had been watching the weather
forecasts in the morning, and I came to the
conclusion that the weather would be very kind
- and it was !
There were some clouds, but also lots
of lovely blue sky, and mostly it was sunny.
Here's another look at the sky taken
just after the one above as I walked through
the park to get to the pub where I was meeting
Angela. I took my time getting ready in the
morning. I started with breakfast. I was in
two minds whether to have breakfast after
getting a blood glucose reading of 9.9mmol/l,
but I decided that it would be beneficial to
have something inside me before doing any
boozing.
After finishing writing yesterday's
edition of this daily scribble I had a wet
shave, washed my hair, and had a shower. That
also made me feel good. I was still a bit wary
of the weather, and so when I went out I stuff
one of my nasty plastic rain coats into my
courier bag. I am happy to say it stayed in
there all the time I was out, and it is still
in there this morning. It was quite a pleasant
walk through the park - probably more pleasant
than usual for some reason - it just felt sort
of nice.
As usual, I took the long route to the
pub. This meant walking almost (within about
50ft) to the Ladywell road exit to the park,
but cutting through the grounds of St Mary's
church, and then approaching the pub in same
direction as home. Last week (I think) I took
some pictures of some poppy flower buds on the
path around the back of the church. Yesterday
I noticed there were mature, and to some
degree or another, opium containing poppy seed
heads in great profusion near the front steps
of the church. Some say you can make a very
"relaxing" tea using the seeds from these seed
heads, but I don't drink tea, and so I've
never tried.
Angela was in good form when she
arrived at the pub. We had a very pleasant
hour together. One thing of interest, was that
like me, she saw almost nothing of the Queen's
platinum jubilee celebrations, and we both
could almost have not realised anything was
happening except for all sorts of reminders,
such as special "party" gigs being advertised
on social media places.
I brought up the subject of hobbies
during our chat. I said how I had been
thinking how Angela listens with something
more than patience, when I talk about some of
the stuff I do - like playing with computers,
and taking pictures of trains. I praised her
for her attention to stuff that others would
find very boring, and then suggested it was
because she had no hobbies of her own. She
broadly agreed with that, but I did say that
one of her hobbies could almost be being very
house proud. Of course she claims not to be,
but I reminded her of how clean and today her
home used to be when I was frequent visitor,
and also how bright and sparkling her bathroom
was. She said it was not so good now,
but somehow I don't believe her. I think she
is underplaying her talents in that area -
possibly because she is not used to praise for
such things. I think, or at least I hope, she
liked it.
One of the exciting things we discussed
was one particular upcoming gig. On Saturday
her lover boy is playing drums for a band
called Crosstown Revival. It is at the easy to
get to Chatterton Arms just the other side of
Bromley town. I knew that Angela thought she
had to go, but that she didn't really care for
the music they play. At the merest suggestion
that maybe I could keep her company, like I
did at the Whitestar gig a few weeks back, her
eyes lit up. It looks like I will be spending
another evening in a pub with Angela while
lover boy is safely tucked away behind the
drums. There was even talk about Angela not
going there, but having a drink together
somewhere more local.
Almost too soon it was 1pm and time for
Angela to go back to work. When she arrived at
the pub, maybe 5 minutes after me, the sky had
gone almost black, and the idea of a
thunderstorm seemed a real possibility, but we
left the pub into blinding sunshine - and the
sunshine continued, sometime as just long
sunny spells, for the rest of the day. After a
hug goodbye I walked home through the park,
and it almost felt like I had the same sort of
energy I felt the day before, but I had not
steps or escalators to climb, and so never
really found out if I did have those reserves
of energy.
When I got home I felt hungry. I felt
the ideal thing to do was to try and fast
until dinner time, but I knew that was not
going to happen. Fortunately I had a fairly,
but not wholly safe solution - a ready made
Tesco side salad. I gave that a good covering
with shaved Parmesan cheese, and a generous
amount of mayonnaise. I would have liked an
oil and balsamic dressing, but I am wary of
the sugar content of balsamic vinegar. I must
try and get some of Aldi's ready made dressing
because I have used that with impunity
(although I had never thought to check the
ingredients list).
That salad almost kept me going
until dinner time, but in a moment of weakness
I cracked open a 150gm bag of twiglets. At
least they are known to have a very low sugar
content, and by dinner time I had eaten half
the bag, and after dinner I had half of what
was left in the bag. ! I mostly kept myself
busy enough on my PC to not have an afternoon
snooze. I even started watching TV earlier
than usual when I noticed The Smithsonian
channel had a couple of programmes, using NASA
original footage, of the events around the
Viking Mars landers.
My dinner was a tried and trusted
recipe I devised a few weeks ago now - well
grilled bacon on heaps of mixed lettuce
leaves. Once again I doused it all with
mayonnaise. It is surprisingly nice, and
somehow feels quite satisfying. I watched just
one edition of QI last night, and then ignored
the following edition (on Dave) because I was
feeling tired. I was in bed, reading, by about
5 minutes after 9pm, and when it was still
light outside. I read a few pages from the
book I am reading, and felt very tired. I put
the book down, turned out the light, and
nothing happened.
I guess I must have had a few short
naps, because I can't believe I stayed awake
for three hours. It was past midnight when I
fell asleep almost properly, but only for a
little over an hour. I woke up with an itchy
foot. The itch seemed to be somewhere on the
ball of the foot behind my right big toe, but
the exact position was a mystery. It is an
itch that can't be scratched, and although
almost ignorable when out of bed, and moving
around, it seemed to grow in intensity every
time I tried to relax and go to sleep. This
time, cooling it by massaging in alcohol hand
sanitiser only helped a tiny bit, and then not
for long.
I had no option but to get up for an
hour, and spend some time on the internet. I
don't know if it was an exact hour, but an
hour is close enough. It seemed to be gone
when I got back in bed, but I did feel at
least one short "tickle" from it. Eventually I
got to sleep, but while I never suffered from
that itch for the rest of the night, I still
slept badly. It seemed so difficult to get
comfortable. I couldn't find a single position
where nothing ached, and then it was either
too warm or too cool. I managed to stay
in bed late this morning, but in the 10 hours
between going to bed, and getting up, I doubt
I got even half of that as sleep.
After all that it was a surprise to
check my blood glucose this morning and find
it had dropped right down to an excellent
7.7mmol/l. It didn't really feel like I had
worked at all for that low a figure, although
I guess I had taken logical precautions. I
guess most of me feels fairly OK this morning,
but it is going to need something amazing to
distract me from the nagging idea that I slept
so badly last night.
There were two things I was going to do
today. One was some laundry, but after a late
start, it is now getting a bit late to start
that laundry, and get it on the washing line
before the sun goes in for the rest of the day
- probably. It should stay dry, but it is
getting very cloudy already. The one thing I
shall do today is go shopping in Aldi, and I
hope to shop very selectively for safe stuff -
and nothing like that nice, but rather big,
high sugar content macaroni cheese I bought
the last time I went shopping in there. As
nice as it was, which was maybe only 6 out of
10, it sent my blood glucose through the roof
!
I am sure that Jodie is in Finland, and
so there will be no Thursday afternoon beer
tasting today. That means I can do a few odds
and sods, plus a bot of reading, and hopefully
get in a few snoozes today.
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