The forecast seems to be unsure as to when it will be dull, or very dull this morning. The reality seems to be that it is currently very dull, but it is dry. It is also one of the coolest mornings we have had since summer ended. It is just 14° C right now.  No sunshine at all is predicted for today, and so the temperature will only rise to a mere 18° C. In turn, that means a cold night, and maybe just 13° C at this time tomorrow. The could be a fair bit of sunshine tomorrow, but the maximum temperature tomorrow could be as low as 16° C. It feels like October, or even November weather is almost upon us !
 
  I guess I should record yesterday as being a rather good day. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't, or at least not like life used to be, or I imagine it used to be, but for the current standard it was pretty good. On the other hand, there was some specific negativity involved.

  The negativity was to do with walking through the park in both directions. I don't know if it was just lack of practice, or continual deterioration of this time ravaged body, but I found the walk to be like hard work. I also found myself running short of breath. Now that needs to be qualified. I wasn't gasping for breath, and I wasn't really even breathing that deeply. It was more like my damaged chest, damaged when my chest was opened up for my quad heart bypass operation, and then not properly healed because I was too impatient to allow it to knit together properly, could not take big enough breaths.

  The core problem is that I wanted to walk as fast as possible - because that is what I do - and I was pushing myself to just over the comfort level. What I should probably do is what I think I did 2 or 3 years ago, and that is to do more hill climbing. It was really hard at first, but for a lot of 2020 I was able to walk up most hills without too much bother. I can't say it was actually easy. It was more the case that it was possible.

  My drink with Angela at lunchtime was very enjoyable. All the warmth seems to be back again, and I was let into a few more family secrets. They were volunteered - I wasn't prying. It is always a warm feeling to be taken into confidences, but maybe there were other influences at work. Angela got caught by a work problem, and was almost half an hour late getting to the pub.

  In between telling me some of those secrets she was gazing at the TV where the Queen's funeral procession was being televised live with all it's pageantry. Angela was really getting into it, and she was quite emotional about it. I found that depth of emotion a little surprising considering Angela is very strong on her Greek heritage, although she was only 3 years old when her parents brought her to England, and so has lived almost her entire life here.

  For me it was a bit of a boozy session because it was an extended lunch break. Angela decided that after starting her lunch break late she was entitled to end it late. She pushed an extra 15 minutes on that, and we didn't leave the pun until almost 2.45pm. During that time, including the half hour that I was there earlier than Angela, I definitely had 2 pints of Guinness, and maybe three. There even seemed time for a double Jamesons before we left the pub.

  As usual, I walked Angela back to her office. We parted on a nice warm hug, and some poignant words. Angela said "God willing she would see me next week". I was not quite sure how to take that. I don't think it had any morbid undertones. It was more like an affirmation of how important our weekly meetings are. Although she still maintains that she deeply loves lover boy, it often feels like I can give something to her that he can't.

  My origanal plan was to walk along the main road to the Tesco Express store where I wanted to buy some chillies, and probably other random stuff I noticed in there. I couldn't be bothered to do that, but I did walk home via the pharmacy to pick up my repeat prescription. This time it was all ready for me to take away, and it was all complete. On the way home from the pharmacy I went past Michaels house, and he was outside cutting the grass in the nice sunshine. We chatted for a bit before I continued towards home. He said he was shopping in Tesco today, and would pick up 4 bottles of Diet Coke for me.

  When I got home I made some lunch, and ate it. It was no more than some rice cakes with cheese on them. I seem to be enjoying rice cakes a little too much lately because only about 15 minutes passed before I wanted more of them ! I had another three with the last of some Stratford Blue Cheese on them. I then headed to my bed to read and maybe to have a snooze.

  Just before that I loaded up my PC music player with about 6 Pink Floyd albums. As I lay on my bed I heard half of the first song of the first album. The next thing I knew was that the first song on the next album was just finishing. By my reckoning I was snoozing for about 45 minutes. I have to say I enjoyed it, but it didn't fill me with new energy. On the contrary it left me feeling mellow, and unenthused about doing anything beyond cooking my dinner.

  My dinner was a chicken stew - or was stewed chicken with beansprouts and sliced mushrooms. I had intended to buy the chillies earlier o spice the stew up a bit, but with no chillies I spiced it up with ground white pepper. It made me think it was a spice I should use more because it was rather tasty. Just like chillies, it brought me out in a fierce sweat half an hour or so later. I should add that I did add quite a heavy sprinkle of white pepper to the stew about 10 minutes before it finished cooking.

  My original intention was to stay up to watch QI, but when I saw it featured Johnny Vegas I decided not to watch. It may be that being extremely thick is just his act, but he does it so well that I can believe he is as thick as pigshit, and it gives me the creeps to watch him. In theory I was having an early night, but I was getting close to the end of the book I was reading, and I continued to read it until I had finished it. After that my mind seemed too active to relax enough for sleep, and it must have been almost 11pm before I fell asleep. So much for an early night !

  Last night was another of those nights where it seemed like I was not sleeping, but hours passed without noticing. Obviously I was sleeping better than it felt like. I feel sure I had some great dreams about something or another in the night, but all memory of them has completely faded away. I do remember some of one dream that I had in the last hour or so before I woke up.

  The start of the dream, and it's setting is too vague to describe, but I seemed to be out for a walk somewhere in the Elmstead Woods area. The bit I remember is coming across a narrow road bridge over a railway line that was in a cutting. Looking to my right I could see two parallel railway lines heading towards the bridge. Looking to my left I could see some point work in the distance. I seemed to think I had discovered the lost railway line to Elmstead Woods.

  There is no such thing in real life, but this was a dream so that didn't matter. I didn't know my exact location, but it felt like I was near Elmstead Woods. Things took a turn towards the strange when I looked down over the parapet of the bridge to my left. Instead of two railway lines I could see the ballast where one line should be. The other line still had rails, but was blocked by a diesel engine. I don't meant a diesel locomotive, but a big engine block, plus gear chain etc, from a locomotive. There was no obvious way how it could have got on the line as it passed through a moderately deep cutting, nor did it seem possible to get it out, but that didn't matter because that was when I woke up.

  I wondered if it was wise to check my blood glucose so soon after rising. It turns out that today it was wise because I was sort of thrilled to see it was just 7.2mmol/l, or 0.3 less than the target I have been striving for for so long. It seems switching over to my winter diet is paying off. I have just looked at my reading since the start of the year, and the worst readings, including some dangerously high readings, have all be around the summer months. That is counter intuitive because you would think that in the cold months I would eat far more "hearty" meals, and on hot days far less. I guess it all shows how weird I really am !

  There is only one important event today, and that is the delivery of a box of beers that I postponed from yesterday. That was a very prudent thing to do. I have just been notified that it is out for delivery, and the expected time is estimated to be between 12:56 and 13:56. If it arrived at that time yesterday it would be right in the middle of my lunchtime drink with Angela. Today there is no problem, although if it were earlier this morning I might possible have gone out for a walk, or trainspotting, or something once it was delivered, but by the afternoon I will probably be too relaxed for anything like that. Maybe tomorrow.....