I was hoping that the latest revision for today's forecast might be a bit better, and in a very small way it was. The latest revision shows only some light rain for 11am, and the rest of the day as dry - dry, but mostly gloomy. Maybe 11° C is a very small improvement over yesterday's 10° C, but I doubt it will be noticeable. Tomorrow may feature some heavy rain, and once again the temperature will be 11° C.

   Yesterday was one of those typical days that were both good and bad. Maybe the root cause of the bad was the weather - it was worse than expected. I didn't expect it to be that good, but also not too bad. Unfortunately the little bit of good was far outweighed by the bad - rain and gloom !

  The most definitely good bit of the day was going out for a walk through the park to meet Angela in the pub. Depending on the revision of the weather forecast, there seemed almost equal chances of walking through the park in heavy rain, or in bright sunshine. The reality was an occasional brief hint of sunshine, and light, spitting rain.
  This was the only photo I took as I walked through the park. I had found out how to to a wide angle shot on my new phone's camera (it is ridiculously easy once you stop looking at the "Settings" menu, and look at what is on screen, and particularly the zoom slider). As I took this picture two things are not obvious. One was that there was a light spatter of rain, and the other was a streak of blue low in the sky. It has come out as just a brighter streak with the merest hint of pale blue. If that sky was to the south, and not to the north, we might have had a bit of sunshine through that thin gap in the clouds.

  I didn't want to hang around in the park while it rained, and I took the shortest route to the pub where I arrived maybe 15 minutes earlier than I needed to. It is worth mentioning at that point that I sent my usual txt message to Angela to say I was heading to the pub. Her reply was an unusual, but delightful, "Yippeeee X". I think Angela arrived at about 1:05pm. Her txt reply made me think she was about to just drop work and rush to the pub early.

  One Angela arrived we exchanged more Xmas gifts. I had already given Angela my Xmas gifts the week before, but I had something a bit more substantial for her, and said it was her late birthday present (She went down with her almost fortnight of Covid around her birthday date). My present was a litre bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. Angela returned the favour with a one litre bottle of whisky. Unfortunately it was not one of my favourites, but it was still most welcome.

  Despite getting to the pub early, I only had two pints of Guinness. The hour passed by all too soon, and it was time to walk Angela back to work. I felt really good at that point, and I was further cheered by a very slight possibility of meeting Angela in the pub tomorrow (Friday). I doubt it will happen, but it is nice to hear her suggest it. It all depends on what time she leaves work. If she is allowed to go at midday she will probably go straight home, but if it looks like she has to work a full day then she will have her lunch break, and it could be with me in the pub.

  Just like as I was approaching home after my visit it Maryland station, and the Cart And Horses pub on Tuesday, I suddenly felt very tired after hugging Angela good bye. It came over my very quickly, and all I could do was to completely stop for 15 seconds to check my phone. Once I started walking again I couldn't seem to slow down, and the more tired I became, the faster I walked so I could get home sooner. I arrived at home feeling knackered.

  Worse than that was that I had started up the cough that was the main symptom of whatever illness I had the week before. It wasn't just a cough, and maybe the cough was the less bothersome bit. The worst bit was a sort of rawness in my throat, and top of my windpipe. It is hard to explain, but while I say it was the worst bit, I should probably say the most annoying bit. That and the gloomy weather, plus the prospect of maybe not seeing Angela again until the new year, left me feeling quite depressed.

  I guess it was annoying because every time I have been out for long than just a quick dash to the shops, it seems I have a relapse of my mystery (but probably Covid) illness. Each time I have a relapse it takes almost 24 hours to get over it - mainly by staying warm indoors, and then everything is fine until I start taking lungfuls of icy air. The depression thing is thinking this is going to last until warm and sunny days return.

  After getting home from the pub I fancied some lunch. Liken the day before it was melted cheese on bread (done in the microwave for speed). I added a little bit more flavour by opening a jar of hot dog sausages that has been hanging around for ages. Possibly like every hot dog sausage I have ever tasted, they were just made of almost tasteless pink mush. It has always made me wonder why Americans like them so much, and also why I bother to buy them. Maybe the latter is in the hope that one day I will actually find a nice hot dog sausage.

  A week ago I ordered five more books by the author Edmund Cooper. Two of the arrived yesterday (and more might arrive today). I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon resting and reading. I finished the last book I had been reading, and started on one of the new ones to arrive. By the time I had turned out the light, to go to sleep, I had read at least a third of the book. It is nice when a book comes up to expectation. Edmund Coopers SciFi books mix the serious with the humorous in just the right proportions with some added sexy bits - not explicit sex, but with enough detail to allow the mind to fill in the bits in a delicious way !

  While the books, and some TV were good distractions, they weren't enough to distract me from hunger. I hadn't prepared, and part cooked the dinner I intended to have, and I am not sure I would have wanted a full dinner after my large lunch. What I had was possibly almost as bad. I had two cans of soup, and a large bowl of instant noodles. It was enough to give the feeling of oncoming acid indigestion, and therefore took a couple of antacid tablets before I went to bed.

  I am undecided as to whether to say I slept well or badly last night. I guess it was a mixture of both. I think I had one unusually long period of sleep in the middle of the night, and during that I must have had the sweats because my pillow was very damp when I woke up. I do remember a couple of time when I couldn't decide if I was getting too hot or too cold.

  I can only remember a bit of one dream because I seem to have stolen a line out of one of the recent books I have read. It was another dream of being lost in north London. I had gone to north London to wish my girlfriend (which is a definite novelty in my dreams) well on her first day at a new job. I was hugging her, and she was "pushing her pubic area against mine" (the words stolen from one of the books). Our parting words were something like "if I can find a quick route home, and back again, I'll come and stay with you tonight". I never did discover a quick way home. I couldn't even remember how I had got there in the first place. The last bit I remember was looking at bus routes on a bus stop trying to find a way back to south east London.

  I'm not sure what time I actually went to sleep last night, but I doubt it was later than 10pm. I do know when I woke up though. The first time was about 5.30am. In summer I would have been happy to get up then, but I thought that another hour would be good. I actually got almost another two and a half hours. It seems I needed that sleep. I think I feel better for it, and apart from a couple of light tickles in my throat, I seem to be mostly over my relapse of my relapse of my cold/'flu/covid again.

  I'm not surprised that my blood glucose has crept up a little again, but only by a tiny amount. This morning it is 8.7mmol/l. Considering what I have been eating, that is not bad, and maybe I can kid myself it is lower than I might expect. Today much could go wrong eating wise. This afternoon should be the last beer tastings session with Jodie until after Xmas. We may crack open a few strong seasonal beers, and I may well get drunk - if I can manage it.