Today starts with a double yellow weather warning - one for fog, and the other for snow and ice. I think what I've seen this morning is thicker than mist, but thinner than fog. I've also seen lots of ice in the form of frost, and also black ice on the pavement outside (felt, rather than seen), but the forecast doesn't predict any snow until 11pm tonight. The latest revision to the forecast now shows 10am as foggy, and light snow from 10pm through to 1am tomorrow morning, and also possibly at 3am tomorrow morning. The maximum temperature today could be just 2.0° C, but it may be higher because I don't think it has started as cold as the forecast says for this morning. If it does snow tonight it will be falling on forozen ground, and so it could last a fair while into tomorrow. Tomorrow is forecast as a very dull day with a maximum temperature of just 2° C. Of course a covering of snow will make it look brighter !

   Yesterday could probably described as a good day - particularly when compared to the preceding 5 or 6 days. I finished writing earlier than usual yesterday morning, but then wasted the time laying on my bed reading. I think I almost had a snooze. Perhaps I did ! It was certainly getting close to midday before I had a shower, and went out to buy some assorted shopping.

  I bought stuff from both Savers, and from Poundstretcher. I bought vitamins and toothpaste from Savers, and a few other things. Then I crossed the Pedestrian road to go into Poundstretcher. Initially I was only going to buy a few things in there, but it ended up more like Xmas shopping. The things I was originally intending to buy  were cheap and cheerful Xmas presents, and so I needed wrapping paper, and while they were a little bit crappy, I also bought a couple of boxes of Xmas cards.

  I was feeling like I had almost got over my cold yesterday morning. Going out to do that shopping felt perfectly normal, and I still felt very normal after I got home, but maybe 20 minutes later I spent 15 or so minutes in the freezing cold kitchen, and that got me coughing again. However it was not severe, and soon cleared up again once I got in the warm. The reason for being in the cold kitchen was to do all the washing up.

  There was not that much to do, but I wanted the casserole dish so I could prepare and part cook my dinner for last night. While I was there I also cooked some lunch. It seemed a stupid idea, even at the time, but I had a strange yearning for a plate of chips. Maybe I was being a bit premature thinking that because I was almost well it wouldn't have too much a negative action on my blood glucose level.

  I have to say I did enjoy those chips. It was actually a quite small portion compared to what you tend to get in chip shops these days. One of the first things I did when I got home with my shopping was to turn the heater on low in the dining room. It still wasn't all that warm, but with hot chips inside of me it felt comfortable enough to do some present wrapping, and Xmas card signing. Maybe it was unfortunate that it wasn't warmer because then I might have taken a bit more care, or pride, or whatever in my present wrapping. They are not the work of an expert, but they ain't that awful !

  I didn't really do anything of any significance for the rest of the afternoon, and until I ate my dinner and watched a bit of TV. I actually had two dinners. I think it was about 5pm when I suffered a short bout of coughing. I thought some hot food might help. I should have had something like a can of Tesco cream of chicken soup, which has a tiny amount of sugar in it, but I seemed to want some instant noodles, and that is what I ate.

  Those noodles, after the spice in them worsened my coughing for a short while, did seem to ultimately stop me coughing. It is hard to remember, but that was about the only time that it felt like I was getting worse instead of better. My proper dinner, at about 6.30pm was a stew of diced beef with leeks and sprouts. I suspect many would disagree, but I found it was very nice. My main TV entertainment was what just had to be a severely edited version of David Gilmour playing in the amphitheatre at Pompei. 

  I thought he would be reprising the famous Pink Floyd concert filmed there, but it was rather different. Maybe less than half of the songs were Pink Floyd songs, but they did have the full, and a bit more (!) Pink Floyd lighting rig. That was followed by Pink Floyd - The Endless River. It turned out to be a sort of concept art piece as much as a music film. It was notable that it was all instrumental with no voices. I have to admit I didn't watch it through to the end. It was one of those things where you are constantly waiting for something to happen, and it never does - unless it happened after I turned off and went to bed.

  I didn't seem to be as tired as I thought I was when I went to bed, and that, plus a strange feeling from my throat, made me stay awake for some time after I had turned the light out. The "strange feeling" in my throat was probably not strange at all. It was the feeling that you'll soon be feeling the need to clear your throat. I tried quite a few experimental cough, usually no more than a "ahem", but nothing really happened. Later on it did develop into proper coughing, but somehow that was when I fell asleep.

  I did wake up once and had to do a lot of coughing until I cleared something tickling my throat. My throat was getting a bit sore by then. Once again I managed to fall asleep. The next time I fell asleep I realised I most have been sweating while I slept. Until then I thought the heater was struggling to keep my bedroom warm as the temperature outside fell way below zero (my old house has little in the way of insulation). The rest of my night was hovering on the edge of too cool and too hot.

  This morning there are some indications that I am close to being well again. For one thing, despite some recklessness yesterday, my blood glucose reading was down to 9.2mmol/l. I doubt it would have gone a lot lower if I was perfectly fit. I have also been exposed to a lot of chilled air this morning, and it triggered no negative reactions. I even seem to have recovered choking on my own saliva in mere minutes - mere minutes ago as I write this !
  This was the view outside at 8.35am this morning. The fog in the distance is very obvious, but the frost doesn't look nearly as spectacular as is did looking down on the same scene from my bedroom window. The other thing that is not obvious is that the pavement is covered in black ice. After taking the picture I posted Xmas cards through the doors of my neighbours to the left and right.  The shoes I was wearing have almost no grip, and I had to be very careful how I walked.
  My second exposure to icy cold air was when I went out into the back garden to put some bird food down. I noticed the frost had outlined old spider webs that were almost invisible beforehand. After putting the bird food on the bird table, I rushed back indoors to grab a camera. In the picture above that fine gossamer web is otherwise completely invisible unless frost rimed. All those random threads are between the remains of a plant, and some support sticks in a flower pot.
  My lightweight step ladder is/was doing duty as a washing line prop. I was aware that it had some web on it, but like in the previous picture, I was surprised at just how much there was of it. I think it started life as a typical orb web, but it and others, have partly collapsed over the months, and now, easily seen with the frost on it, it looks a bit of a mess.

  I think there are three of four things on the agenda today. Either before or after I have a shower I will sit down and write out some more Xmas cards. They will be the ones that need posting. I can't remember if it is still there, but there used to be a post box just inside Tesco. I want to go to Tesco this morning, and I hope I will be able to post some cards while I am there.  This afternoon should be a beer tasting session with Jodie.