The BBC said the day would start at 2° C. The Met Office said 3° C. The lowest reading thermometer I could see said it was 4.1° C. The new and improved forecast has added sunny spells at 11am and 1pm, but like yesterday I doubt they will increase the forecast high of 5° C today. This morning has started off a very dark grey, but the clouds could turn close to white from midday. It it not going to be a nice day. Tomorrow will be nice in as much as it should be a bright sunny day, but it will also be very cold. The afternoon high may be just 2° C, and the morning and evening 0° C.

   There were bits of yesterday that were good, and bits that were bad. They all hinged around the one significant thing I did yesterday - a shopping trip to Tesco. Prior to that I had a shave, shampoo and shower. That felt good, and indeed was one of the good bits of yesterday.

  That shower and shampoo made me feel quite good. All the steam was good for my airways, and for a while I coughed less, and my nose ran less. I was feeling good for a walk to and from Tesco. Like last time I went there I didn't cough during the walk there, and during the walk home again, but I did silently clear my throat at least once while in the store.

  Top of my shopping list was a couple of bottles of Diet Coke, and also bird feed. Not a lot further down the shopping list (which I stored in my head, rather than writing it down) was a few cans of beers. Among some assorted foodstuffs were a packet of wholemeal rolls. Half of the pack of four would be a significant part of of my lunch. I don't think I ate any other food I bought in there yesterday.

  Two of those wholemeal rolls were to make hamburgers using some beef burger patties I had bought last week. I cooked all four burger patties that were in the pack, but I only used two of them to go in the rolls. I have to confess that I found them quite disappointing. Maybe the reason the likes of McDonald's add so much other crap is that  just bread and the burger pattie is rather boring. I had the other two patties with a just a squirt of low sugar tomato ketchup. Theye were fairly nice.

  During the afternoon I should have got back to the clothes I left soaking in detergent, but I was distracted by two things. The first was just laying on my bed snoozing. The other was drinking some "beers" I had bought on Tesco. I had bought three cans of beer in Tesco. The first I had was 8% and quite nice, although for some reason I can't remember what it was.

  The second can is pictured on the left. Despite it using the same brewing methods, and sharing some of the ingredient, I don't believe it should be called beer. Even "modern sour beer" as it says at the bottom of the can, is a misnomer. It is a brewed fruit "thing"! It was easy to taste the mix of raspberry and strawberry. The combined into a sort of "red berry" flavour. The coconut added a distinct and pleasant taste, as did the vanilla.

  The vanilla is listed on the other side of the tin as a sort of after thought. What is not listed in the secret ingredient - battery acid ! It could be described as tart, sour, or just acid, and it had a bad effect on my cheeks and tongue. My cheeks almost shrivelled up, and I nearly bit the inside of them a couple of times as I forced this drink down. The amazing thing is that Jodie likes this style of "beer".

  The third can was rather delicious. It was an imperial stout flavoured with dulche de leche - Argentinian milk toffee. It slipped down a treat, and at 11.5% it was the strongest beer I had. What I couldn't find out was what it's sugar content was. If real dulche de leche was used it would be quite sugary, although if added to the wort early enough that sugar would be converted to alcohol. I made the assumption that it would contain a lot of sugar, and decided to call it my dinner, and not eat any more for the rest of the day.

  The "rest of the day" was a lot closer than it might have been. After watching The Simpsons on Channel 4+1 it was 7.30pm, and I felt weary enough to go straight to bed. I turned the heating up high, and ended up sleeping uncovered most of the night. That was very useful when attacked by some strong coughing, or just wanted to go for a pee in the night. One very odd thing about last night was a feeling that I was in two parts. The part of my laying on the bed seemed to be different to the part that was coughing and spluttering.

  It was sort of weird, and I can't really explain it.  What I do know is that I was coughing a lot more than I expected to. I had been thinking I was getting close to the end of this illness, but although it felt a bit different, it seems like I was just as ill as the previous few days. One change was that I seemed to be coughing up thicker mucus from deeper in my lungs. I saw very little of that mucus, but I did manage to spit a bit into the hand basin while I was in the toilet for a pee. It seemed to be a pale yellow, and not laced with any nastiness.

  It did feel like I coughed so much in the night that I must have emptied my lungs, and as I type this I am going through a calm period without much coughing, it does seem there is no more mucus to cough up.....but it probably only seems that way. There was a lot of time when I was awake last night, but between 7.30pm when I went to bed, and 6am when I got up, I must have got at least 6 or 7 hours of sleep, and maybe more.

  I don't think I feel that good this morning. I have already had a quick 10 minute nap while writing all this. What is sort of good is that by not eating after the beers yesterday, I managed to scrape though under the red line when I checked my blood glucose. It was 9.8mmol/l and I am sure the illness is pushing it up. I suspect that skipping dinner, as I have done twice now, is potentially good for me - if only as a reminder I can eat less without feeling too bad about it. It could be something to do more often when I am not fighting an illness.

  I was hoping to feel a lot better today because I want to see Angela in the pub at lunchtime. At the moment I think I could feel OK going there after I've had a hot shower, but there is the potential of a strong amount of guilt to see Angela when feeling ill. It is a rotten cold, but on the other hand it is possible this is what she had several weeks ago. That was tested as Covid. If this is Covid, and it may well be, she should be immune to it. I think I will have a hot shower, and see how I feel.