The forecast for this 1st day of December almost looks cheerful. The latest revision has extended the sunny spells from midday until almost sunset. Curiously enough it has changed the hours before midday to feature dark clouds instead of light clouds. When I look out my window I can see light, and well broken clouds. The sun is still low in the sky, too low to clear the house roofs to the east, as I write this, but it looks that once it is a bit higher we could easily get a sunny spell. This afternoon the temperature may only reach 9° C, and in following days there is a distinct downward trend. Tomorrow may only see 8° C, and with the forecast predicting no sun, and some hours featuring heavy looking dark clouds, it could be a most miserable day.

   Yesterday features a mix of the good and bad. The worst of the bad was starting off the day with a very high blood glucose reading. It was in the danger area, but I knew why it happened, and could steps to get it lower again. The other bad was that during the morning I realised I was on the first steps of (probably) going down with the common cold. My nose was not running, but stuffy. I was also starting to cough.

  I wondered if it was wise to go out, but a semi-hot shower seemed to help a lot, and of course I had a strong desire to see Angela. Once I did go out the fresh air had a very positive effect, and I hardly coughed at all while I was out. I had a bit of a strange journey to the pub, and I still hadn't heard from Angela. I was going to go to Ladywell by train - mainly so I could pick up a copy of The Metro so I had the crossword puzzles to amuse me if I was sitting in the pub alone.

  There was a lot of disruption to the trains yesterday morning because of a signalling problem at Hayes. Once upon a time the network was more flexible, and the human signallers knew their stuff. Trains could be terminated and restarted at Elmers End, and some trains could be sent to Beckenham Junction instead of Hayes. The latter was mentioned in the "travel alert", but it didn't look like it happened.

  I just missed one late running train that was running, but the next two were shown as cancelled. I had time to walk all the way to the pub, but I didn't feel like walking when there was an easier choice - a bus ! I had to run the last 10ft to jump on a 185 before the doors closed, but I made it. While on the bus I sent a text message to Angela to say I was going to the pub, but if she other plans it wouldn't matter because I had The Metro with the crosswords to amuse me.

  I had assumed Angela was not going to the pub because she did say she would let me know if she was going. By the time I got to the pub I assumed I would be spending the session on my own. I had actually arrived 20 minutes early, and was sort of looking forward to a long session, but just as I was ordering my Guinness my phone blipped, and it was a message from Angela saying "see you soon xxx".

  My guess was right - Angela was looking forward to swapping notes, and reliving some of the excellent time we had at Brian's 70th birthday party on Sunday. She was on good form, and her lunch hour seemed to pass so quickly. My original thought, after getting to the pub so early was that it was going to be a three pint session, but the time whooshed by so quickly that I only had my usual two pints.

  Walking Angela back to work was not as good as it could have been - yesterday the sun didn't come out as we left the pub. It is almost supernatural the way the sun has come out so many times in the past when no sunshine was forecast. I guess it was just late because there were unexpected sunny spells soon after I got home from the pub. I left Angela after a brief, but warm hug, and walked all the way home as usual. I can't say it was effortless, but it was possibly not as bad as some times.

  It wasn't long after I got home, and able to relax, that I started to cough again. It wasn't, and still isn't, more that, say, 50 seconds of coughing followed by a pause of sometime more than half an hour. Actually I pulled those figures out of thin air because I have never got a stopwatch out, but they are probably good enough to illustrate the rate lies somewhere between very annoying and ignorable.

  What was less ignorable was a feeling of fatigue. It did feel like I had a cold, and I didn't really feel like doing much except keeping warm. One solution to keeping warm was a couple of cans of hot soup. I could have gone for the ultra low sugar Tesco cream of chicken soup, but I fancied something a bit more substantial. I had a can of Scotch Broth, and a can of Irish Stew - both with lower sugar quantities than many other soups.

  Once I had that hot soup inside me I felt very sleepy, and I didn't let a cough stop me going to sleep. I may have only been asleep for half an hour, but it felt good. What didn't feel good was when soon after waking up I went down to the cold kitchen to do the last preparation for my dinner. It was cold down there, and the water from the cold tap was icicles as I washed the sprouts and mange tout. My fingers almost went numb, and I developed a few unwanted pains as I worked over the sink.

  I spent most of the evening watching TV. I even watched an episode of QI that featured that thick idiot Johnny Vegas without turning off. There is no better illustration of how ill I must have been feeling ! I was quite looking forward to bed, although I did wonder how I would sleep with that annoying cough. I took a couple of Paracetamol in the hope it would improve my chances of sleep, and I think they did.


  I seemed to fall asleep quite easily, and I slept for over two hours before I woke up feeling really hot, and sweating under the duvet. For a while I fought the idea of throwing back the duvet. I assumed I had a fever, and keeping warm would help to cook the bug causing my illness. After a while I got curious because aprt from the heat and sweating, it didn't actually feel like a fever. It seems I was right. It was 31 minutes past midnight when I check my temperature. The display in the picture to the left is saying my temperature was 35.7° C - a long way from a fever, and precisely my average temperature !

   After checking my temperature I went back to bed, and with only some of me under the duvet I was soon asleep again, and seemingly sleeping well. I did seem to have a right mixture of dreams in the hours before I got up. I can't describe them in any details, but they included having a girlfriend I don't think I actually saw (possibly the worst erotic dream EVER !), apparently living or staying in Argentina - and Argentina where everyone spoke perfect English. Also there was a dream about Argentinian food, and in particular, biscuits. It seemed their favourite was something that looked like a refried Yorkshire pudding !

  I think I woke up at 6am, but only seemed to open my eyes long enough to check the clock. Having checked the clock I just felt asleep again. It was just gone 7am when I woke up again. I didn't feel good, but I didn't feel bad. That was a bit like my blood glucose reading. It wasn't good, and it wasn't bad. It was 9.0mmol/l. That was far, far better than yesterday mornings terrible reading of 11.3mmol/l. It was a shame I hadn't managed to get it under 9.0mmol/l, but to do so would have needed some fasting, and I didn't feel up to that what with my possible cold, and the real cold outside.

  This morning I have to message Jodie with the vague news. I warned her yesterday that I was not feeling good, and said I would update her this morning. I don't feel that bad provided I feel warm, and I have no fear of drinking lots of beer, but I guess I am infectious, and Jodie may prefer to stay clear of me. I hope Angela hasn't caught anything off me, although I was probably exposed to some bug on Sunday, and we were both there at the party. If Jodie does come over it will be a normal afternoon beer tasting session. I might possibly go out ton the shops later, but I'll see how I feel before going out, and how I feel once out in the cold. I'll probably turn back if I start to cough too much, but on the other hand, it did seem the fresh air and exercise was a temporary cure for me yesterday.