It was a mild morning thanks to all the clouds, and from what I can see of the sky it seems unlikely that the forecast for full sunshine at 8am is very, very optimistic. The latest revision to the forecast tells pretty much the same story as the screenshot above. The main featured will be sunny spells either side of 4 hours of dullness in the middle of the day. It should stay dry until late tonight, but with an afternoon temperature of just 15° C it is going to feel quite cool. The BBC weather forecast tells a different story - a maximum of 17° C, but no sunshine at all, and light rain starting as early as 4pm and continuing into the night. They even predict a thunderstorm at 2am tomorrow ! Tomorrow may be dull, 16° C, and with rain in the middle of the day.

  Yesterday was quite a good day, and I can probably thank the warm bright sunshine for a lot of it. However the day didn't go in any expected direction. I think it took me longer to finish writing here than expected, but maybe not by much. It was still enough to add to a series of cumulative delays. Another slight delay was when I decided I just had to wash my hair as well as having a full shower. I probably should have had a shave too, but I'll probably do that today.

  The next thing on my list was to test the new fabric conditioner I had bought from Aldi on Monday. I started off leaving a couple of t-shirts and some underwear soaking in detergent for maybe half an hour, but this time I was determined to not just leave it soaking all day, and all night. After half an hour or so I got back to it, and did three rinses before trying the new fabric conditioner. I was a bit wary of the smell in concentrated form, but the t-shirts only seem to have a very light fragrance.

  By the time I had hung up the washing it seemed like all the morning was over, and I didn't fancy going out. What I did fancy was laying on my bed, now over half illuminated by the warm sunshine, and pretending I was on a beach in warm sunshine. After maybe 15 minutes or so I was on the point of falling asleep, but I was quickly awakened by a phone call from an unknown number.

  It turned out to be from my doctors surgery, and I think it was one of the doctors. They may have even said their name, but I didn't catch it, and initially I thought it was the nurse. The call was a sort of doctors consultation about my current drugs. She wanted to know if there were any problem, or if I felt I needed anything different. I did mention that since coming off Clopidogrel I had seen a slight rise in blood pressure with initial readings typically as high as a systolic pressure of 133mmhg, but subsequent, more relaxed readings, down to a more typical 117mmhg. I haven't had any very low readings since coming off Clopidogrel. I was told not to worry about my blood pressure unless it reached 140mmhg.

  With my medication sorted out I asked if she was looking at my medical records as she made the call, and if so, could she tell me what my test results were from the blood and urine samples from 2 or 3 weeks ago. Apparently my blood glucose results were very good, and that it seems I am managing my type 2 diabetes very well. My renal function was good, and there was no (or no excess) protein in my urine.

  I didn't really have time to take all the information in, but I am sure that to my great surprise my liver function was described as "excellent" - double whiskies all round !! The only reading that wasn't in the preferred range was my total blood count. A figure of 4.5 was expected, but it was actually only 4.4. Apparently that was so marginally below optimum that the doctor was not concerned about it, and suggested it could have been caused by mild de-hydration when my blood sample was taken.

  The final thing was about my Covid booster shot. Apparently it has still not appeared on my medical record. The doctor suggested that the hospital may have been just too busy to send the record, although I would have expected it to be added automatically. It seems that the hospital and GP records are not that linked. The doctor said she had sent a note to the hospital to remind them to make sure my records were kept up to date.

  I guess all that good news left me a little bit excited because I was unable to relax enough to have the snooze I was just about to start when the phone rang. I still laid on my bed, but this time I read a few pages from a book before deciding to do something active. That activity was to get the hoover out, but before I could hoover the dining room I had to do some tidying up. I then started the hoovering - which I always find is hard enough work to build up a bit of sweat - particularly in the front room which was feeling quite warm from all the sun it was catching. I ended up hoovering the dining room, some of the front room, all the hall - and that included a collection of fine spider webs above the front door.

  It seems hard to imagine what became of all the time, but I think that it was around 3pm when I finished the hoovering. Actually, in one respect I still haven't finished it, and deliberately left the hoover in the front room with the idea that sometime soon I will hoover the stairs and landing - possibly my bedroom too ! It seemed far too late to consider going out, and I felt like a rest anyway. I had a snack of rice cakes and cheese while catching up with stuff on the internet.

  At some point, and I think it was a bit close to dinnertime, I felt like a bowl of instant noodles. I tend to try and not to have them that late in the date, and particularly when I know I have a big dinner to look forward to, but I had them any way. Maybe my subconscious knew something I was otherwise unaware of. It was that my dinner was smaller than I assumed. It was the second half of the dinner I had eaten the previous night. There was hardly any gravy left in it, and 10 minute in the microwave dried it out even more. It ended up small, but concentrated flavour - which was very nice.

 Last night I watched the full compliment of TV, two Star Treks, The Simpsons, and 2 episodes of QI. I almost turned off the second QI because it all seemed very familiar. On the other hand it was a funny episode, and so I watched it until the end at 10pm. I then went to bed and read for maybe half an hour before turning out the light, and falling asleep fairly quickly. I seemed to have a good sleep last night, and even thought that getting up at just gone 6am seemed a good idea.

  This morning it seemed that my control of my blood glucose was confirmed again. When I checked it the reading was just 8.0mmol/l - not far from the hallowed (hallowed ???) grounds that start with a seven. The main annoyance is that while it seems I am good at controlling what I eat, I just can't seem to control how much I eat - and such and ideal seems further away than ever on the autumn, going into winter, days.

  All being well I should be seeing Angela at lunchtime. She is back at work, and so hopefully she will be going to the pub for our mostly regular Wednesday meetings. Before that I want to pop out to get a bit of special shopping for a special care package for Angela, but I don't know if what I want is seasonal, and out of season at the moment. There is one way to find out.....