The latest revision to the weather forecast has changed some dark grey clouds to light grey clouds, but the forecast stays essentially the same - no sunshine, and a maximum temperature of 8° C - which at least is slightly less cold than yesterday. Tomorrow may feature some sunshine and sunny spells, but it will only be 7° C - colder than today !

   Some of yesterday wasn't too bad. I made sure I kept myself warm, and that reduced the symptoms of my cold, or as I now suspect it to be, a viral infection. It could even be Covid, but it is more similar to the common cold, and possibly identical to man 'flu !

  The most important job of the day was to turn up the gas supply to my water heater so I could have a hot shower instead of a warm shower. I also washed my hair while having my shower. I must admit that hot water did feel good. If it was easy to make very small changes to the hot water temperature I could have been tempted to increase it by a degree, or two, but it would be easy to slip and end up with scalding water.

  During the night I had been drying the laundry I had done the day before in the dining room, and while it was very close to dry I wanted to get it bone dry, and I replaced the desk fan with a fan heater on low. Once the dining room had warmed a bit I decided I would put up the Xmas lights. I can't be bothered with a tree, but those battery powered, LED strings of light can be hung anywhere. I don't really believe in Xmas, but the extra coloured lights are a treat compared to the grey weather outside.

  Jodie came over in the late afternoon for another beer tasting session. I primed myself with other booze because I think I had predicted that Jodie would spend ages fussing about with stuff before opening the first can. First she had to check all the stuff she had bought in Bromley on her way over.  Then she had to inspect the beers in the Bier Company advent calendar I pictures yesterday. I was relieved that there were some beers in there that were of interest to Jodie, but many seemed to be pale ales, and I don't either of us is looking forward to those.

  Many of the beers we had yesterday were Jodie's favourite fruit sours. They are not my favourite ! Some were OK, but one made my cheeks shrivel so much that I almost bit the inside of my chin. We finished the session with a couple of small whiskies. They were from my newly bought bottle of Haig Club whisky with a special Xmas label. It was heavily discounted if bought with a Tesco Clubcard - down from a very over inflated £28 to just a more reasonable £17.

  After Jodie left I could have had some sort of dinner, but after my ultra high blood glucose reading in the morning, I decided to not eat any more than the instant noodles I had for breakfast. I suppose being ill helped a lot because I just didn't feel hungry. It is something I should try and cultivate to do it more often. As far as I can recall it was only the second time in long ages that I had gone to bed without eating.

  I think I watched just one episode of 'Allo 'Allo on one of the cheap Freeview channels before deciding I would go to bed. I'm not really sure when that was, but I feel sure it was before 9pm, and probably as early as 8pm. Towards the end of the drinking session my cough got worse, and by the time I went bed my nose had started running again....well maybe I didn't leave it long enough to actually run, but it did need frequent blowing, and each tissue could only hold two blows.

  During the night I seemed to wake every 60 to 90 minutes, and after each time it was like when I first tried to go to sleep. I would have to keep blowing my nose, and coughing up mucus until eventually I somehow fell asleep. I think it was sometime not long after midnight that I woke up and found my pillow and other bits of my bed wet with sweat. I took that as a good omen - I hoped it was the sort of fever that marks the start of the end of an illness.

  It was no surprise that with such disturbed sleep I would have plenty of dreams, although I can only loosely describe one dream, and that was probably several different bits of dream woven into a sort of longer narrative. It was set in a supermarket where I was both shopping, and also a technician for the checkout equipment. That equipment was part telephone exchange, and part computer. The central processing unit seemed to be like the 1930s designed Director equipment from Forest Hill telephone exchange - that I was most proud to keep in excellent condition.

  I think that dream took a step in a different direction before I woke up. I can remember telling someone who I think was a manager, that the planners has put the porn store next to the central processor - which was "interesting" but not a great idea from a security point of view. Sadly I never accessed the porn store, and I had no idea of what delights I might, or might not have had.

  By 5am my bedroom was getting a little bit cool, and so I turned the heater onto full blast, and went back to bed. Once again it seemed to take a long time to get back to sleep, but I suspect it was possibly no more than 10 minutes. At some point I must have woken up just long enough to kick the duvet off to the side. It seemed quite warm when I woke up, and got up at just after 6am. My body temperature was quite high, although far from a fever. It was 36.5° C - a temperature I don't usually reach until the afternoon.

  Since then my temperature has dropped to 36.2° C - and that after eating a hot breakfast (at least half an hour before taking my temperature). Thanks to my serious fasting yesterday, my blood glucose reading was down to a more normal 8.7mmol/l, although that is still probably a little high considering the length of the fast, although it is possible one or more of the beers I drank could have had a significant amount of sugar yesterday.

  One other bit of good health news is that after being constipated for a couple of days (I think two days ago I did just a very small amount in first thing in the morning) I can announce I am no longer constipated. "Breaking the seal" was very uncomfortable, but after that there was no stopping it ! I have noticed that constipation doe affect my blood glucose level, but there is no easy rule because it depends on what I have eaten. Holding on to something that takes a long time to digest probably increases my blood glucose, but I think all my high reading recently have had far more to do with being ill.

  Compared to last night I feel a lot better this morning. My nose has almost dried up, albeit still feeling a bit stuffy now and then. My cough seems to have reduced, but after all the coughing I did last night it does feel slightly sore to cough, and it is back to almost a dry cough. At this point I have no idea if this is progress or not. The nature of this cold keeps changing, and some changes are better than others - until they change again.

  Today I will keep warm, and take things easy. The only thing on the agenda is an Amazon delivery that is arriving days before originally predicted. I only ordered it yesterday, and selected free delivery (without Prime), and the original estimate was for deliver towards the end the week, but it seems it is coming today.  If I feel very good later on, perhaps after a hot shower, I may attempt to go to Tesco, but maybe it would be safer to stay in the warm.

  I definitely want to feel well enough to go to the pub Wednesday lunchtime. I would also like to feel exceptionally well for my arduous plan for Friday - going out in the evening to just beyond Stratford to photograph The KT Bush band. At the moment the Met Office are predicting a 30% chance of light snow at midday on Friday. That is almost certainly wrong, but on the other hand they, and the BBC agree that the daytime temperature on Friday may be no more than 2° C, and the temperature will turn negative by early evening. I am definitely not going out in that if I still have a cough !