The coldest part of today was probably around 1am when my thermometers said it was just 5° C, but it warmed up a tiny bit after that, and, errrrr, seems to have dropped again to about 5.5° C. The BBC weather forecast page say the current temperature feels like 2° C ! At the moment it looks like the sun could burst through once it rises a bit more. There seems to be a lot of gaps in the cloud towards the east. The latest revision to the forecast shows sunny spells for 11am, 2pm, and 3pm. The temperature may briefly peak at 10° C today, and it should be a dry day. Tonight should not be as cold as last night because of thick clouds that will bring some heavy rain in the morning, but from midday there could be sunny spells until sunset, and those sunny spells may push the temperature up to 11° C for a short while.

  Yesterday was the day to further recover from whatever ailed me on Sunday. Sleeping well after leaving the heater on all night helped a lot, and yesterday morning I didn't feel too bad. In fact while sitting at my PC with the heater on I didn't really have anything to complain about. Going down to the cold kitchen revived a few aches and pains, but only until I warmed up again.

  The reason for my visit to the kitchen was to get my breakfast ready. It was two lots of instant noodles, but with added hot pepper sauce. It didn't take long to feel that inner golden glow after eating those. I find it hard to describe how I felt after that. I had very few, and generally mild aches, but somehow I didn't feel right, and that is the bit I can't describe. It was enough to make me feel relaxing in a nice warm room would be the best thing for at least a few hours.

  It was around 11am when I decided I should do what I meant to do the day before - Sunday. I was feeling so rough on Sunday that I kept thinking I ought to have a shower in case I concluded that some of the aches were heart problem, and I would end up walking to A&E (or possibly going in an ambulance if things took a really bad turn for the worst).  So yesterday I had a shower because I hadn't had one since Saturday morning, rather than any thoughts of hospital visits.

  The water in my shower was very warm, but not hot. It still felt very beneficial, and eased away a few ache remnants. In an ideal world I would have far bigger bath (what used to be standard sized in the 1960s/1970s before showers became more common), and also better control of the water temperature so I could get it  hot enough to be just tolerable, and have a long hot soak.

  After my shower I lazily laid on my bed reading, but after a while I got the itch to try and see how bad I really was. I decided to go and do a bit of light shopping. Initially I thought I might go to Poundstretcher to get some more of their miso soup based instant noodles, but in the end I decided I wanted to go a bit further to The Metro Food Centre where I had seen some large packs of instant noodles that I felt had to be tried.

  I am getting ahead of myself here. I almost forgot to mention that I had some lunch before thinking of going out. I had two small plates of oven chips. One of them had melted cheddar cheese on them. It was quite a substantial meal, and only lacked one thing - a sprinkle of decent vinegar. It was the mention of Sarson's malt vinegar further down the page that reminded me of this, and to go back and write this paragraph.

 The previous time I was in there I bought a pack of 6x120gm "spicy seafood" instant noodles. They were good......ish. Ultimately I found them just a bit too fishy for my liking. Out of the pack of 5 (or was it 6 ?) I still have one packet left that has remained unused/unloved for a few weeks now.

Real time update: the sun is now peeping through the gaps in the clouds having just risen high enough to part clear the tops of the houses to the east.

  To go out I put on a thick sweatshirt to wear under my hooded rain coat. In theory it should have been enough to keep me warm, but I still felt cold. As soon as I felt cold all my aches started up again. I had taken the precaution of painkillers before I went out, but they evidently hadn't kicked in at first. The fact that all the aches seemed to start at the same time was probably a fair indication that my chest ache was just scar tissue rather than heart trouble. One other do or die test was to speed up a bit rather than slow down.

  Another thing I almost forgot, as well as the big lunch I had, was the effect of that big lunch. As well as the aches the cold triggered, I was also suffering, as I usually do, from having a full stomach. The stomach is higher up than the belly, and if sufficiently distended it can push against the heart and lungs. It probably accounted for some, maybe half the discomfort I felt walking to the shop.

  I was definitely not feeling good when I got to the shop, but slowing down, and the small amount of warmth from the shops soon had me feeling a lot better. I made a beeline for the instant noodles, and grabbed two 5 (or 6) packs. One was "hot chicken" flavour, and the other was "spicy" flavour. I also bought a small bottle of proper Sarson's malt vinegar, and a can of East European style beans and smoked sausages.

  I don't know if it was painkillers kicking in, the internal heat generated by walking finally percolating through my body, or if it was the contents of my stomach having been digested enough to start travelling down the intestines, but the walk back home was more comfortable than the walk to the shop. Of course it has always been the case that walking too home is easier than walking away from it.

  There was very little rain as I walked to the shop, and it has all but stopped on the way home (another reason to feel better). When I got home I left my raincoat on, and went out to put some bird food on the bird table. With that deed done it was probably around 3pm. That was far too late for lunch, or which I had had quite enough, and far too early for dinner. It also seemed that I was not really hungry, but I was so tempted to try one of the new instant noodles I had bought. I gave in to temptation, and tried one of the "hot chicken" flavour noodles.

  It was nice and filling, plus all the spices, as well as being made up with boiling water, made a quick job of making me feel very warm. I spent the rest of the afternoon just reading and resting until it was time to watch some TV. I was a bit carried away with my reading, or I thought it was more interesting than TV, and read right through the first Star Trek at 4pm, and only started watching half way through Star Trek: Enterprise at 5.30pm.

  Another things I forgot that should have been a lot further up the page. One little job I did after my lunch was to fully pay both my credit card bills. It is a little chore I hate doing, although on this occasion it as tempered by the fact that both payments were a lot lower than expected. After buying my new camera, and a new phone I had made a deliberate effort to curb my spending for as long as I can resist temptation !

  I wondered what my blood pressure would be like after that almost painless bit of banking....oh, and I had also paid my BT phone bill. Doing that also allowed me to see that my current account balance is still staying fairly steady. That suggests I am managing my money quite well. Anyway, my blood pressure, taken at 11.40 BST (12:40 in current GMT time, was a rather good 97/67. Actually that is possibly a little too low, but I seem to be fine on it.

  For a couple of hours in the evening, while I was watching TV, I turned the heater up full because the outside temperature was falling fast, and it was getting a bit cool in my bedroom. As bedtime came closer and closer I turned the heater back down to low ("one bar" in old parlance). I was feeling quite comfortable when I finally went to bed at about 10.30pm. I took a couple of Ibuprofen as a precaution before getting in bed.

  I guess I'll never know if I really needed those Ibuprofen tablets. Maybe it was just leaving the heater on low that allowed a very good, or apparently a very good sleep last night. Even my dreams seemed to be somehow gentle. I don't remember much about my dreams, but I am sure I had many off them. Probably most were completely inconsequential. I remember fragments of one which was set at a sort of party that featured several musicians I know. The only salient points I can remember was that this part was attended by a couple girls who had come down from Scotland, and that one band member was evidently a cocaine user because he constantly had snot dripping out of his nose.

  After two lots of instant noodles for breakfast, two small plates of chips for lunch, an extra, big packet of instant noodles mid afternoon, and a big, but just beef and cabbage stew for dinner, I expected to see a large figure when I checked my blood glucose this morning. Once again I was surprised to see it was only 8.1mmol/l, and once again my running average for the month dropped a tiny bit.

  It is too early for the sun to shine straight into my bedroom, and so it won't be warming it up just yet, but all the dazzling sunshine is still a wonderful sight. Hopefully it will last for some time. There is a fair bit of cloud to be seen, but it is very high, very thin, and very broken up - there is hope for a lot more sunshine. It enthuses me, but today is not the day to need enthusement. This morning I want to go to Tesco to get a few items for my next couple of dinners. This afternoon I though I was expecting a large box of beers, but when I looked at the email again I see it was talking about next week. Even so, I told Michael that today, while I thought I would be staying in, awaiting for a delivery, would be a good day to spend a few hours this afternoon transferring the contents of his old phone to his new phone, and generally setting up the new phone. Having done the whole procedure on my own new phone a week or two ago, the precess is still fairly fresh in my mind, and providing there are no problems it shouldn't take more than 2 hours maximum.