The latest revision to the weather forecast has cut the mist down to just 10am, although there is a slight haze even as I write this. It seems that most of today will feature dark clouds, and they might rain at 4pm, 7 and 8pm. 8pm may see heavy rain. Once again the afternoon is forecast to reach just 5° C. Tomorrow may see lighter cloud for much of the day, but still no sign of the sun. The temperature tomorrow might see 8° C in the afternoon.
 
   It is hard to decide if yesterday was a good or bad day. It was neither if the definitions are taken to extremes, but at mild definitions it could still have been either. Maybe it was biassed towards the bad, but the day still had a few good points. One good thing was a short walk to the shops, and the other was finding some vague information about a medical condition that is causing me some discomfort recently.

  This medical condition is to do with aching elbows, wrists, and arm muscles. Sometimes it reminds me of angina, but angina never made my joints ache, and angina comes on after doing things that get the heart working harder. I had already worked out that most of the aches and pains were all caused by cold weather. Even standing in the cold kitchen for 10 minutes would cause a flare up that usually included chest pains as well.

  I checked the NHS website, and it gave lots of ways that muscles and joints might ache, but very few had both aching at the same time, and mostly they ignored cold as a trigger. Then I found medicine.net (or something like that, and I forgot to make a note of it). It had an article about why we ache on cold weather. Once again it didn't perfectly agree with my symptoms, but it did come close.

  That website hit the jackpot because it mentioned scar tissue becoming inflamed - that is exactly what can happen to all the scar tissue in my chest after my heart bypass operation in 2013.  The problem is that it said that there is no agreed reason why it should happen. It said there was a thought that barometric pressure (the air pressure as measured by a barometer) might play a big part. It is interesting to know these things even if it gives no help to alleviate the problem.

  One thing that does alleviate the problem was once again proved yesterday afternoon. Although there was no urgency about it, I did want to go to Savers to stock up on some supplies of washing up liquid, some toilet cleaners, and a few other items. It was already something like 2pm when I decided I ought to have a shower before mingling with the public. While I was at it I could also wash my hair and have a shave to save time today. Standing under the shower, with hot water cascading over my body cured every ache and pain I had, and it lasted for quite a few hours.

  It was very dull when I walked to Savers, and in that respect it was not an enjoyable walk, but stretching my legs, and a bit of fresh air were sort of good. While in Savers I did buy one "naughty" thing, and it was a six pack of crisps. I only bought them so I could taste the sausage and tomato flavoured crisps. I actually started with the smoky bacon crisps to get them out of the way because normally I don't like them. Maybe they have changed the recipe over the years because it seemed to be a less intense taste, and more importantly one that I wasn't burping up for the rest of the day.

  I did do some unfortunate eating yesterday. Breakfast was the usual instant noodles, and they don't count because they are a constant. Lunch was a pile of bacon and what was supposed to be something like fried bread cooked in the bacon fat. I don't think my mini oven gets hot enough to fry bread like that, and I ended up having something closer to damp toast. It was not the healthiest of lunches !

  A little later in the afternoon I had the two packets of smoky bacon crisps, and either before or after that I had a couple of small oranges. I think they have been much later in the morning. My dinner was the lamb cooked in stock, with potatoes and white cabbage (the latter added for the second stage of cooking - the first stage being done the day before). It was nice, but not as good as the previous time I made it when I added rosemary instead of mint. I think that maybe rosemary goes better with the cabbage.

  As I write this I am on high alert waiting for a delivery being made by DPD. Between 9.43am and 10.43am I am expecting my 12 pack of bottles of of Caribbean hot pepper sauce to be delivered.

  I filled in a lot of gaps during the day by reading, but yesterday evening I was mainly watching TV. It included 2 episodes of QI (one an XL version) and an episode of Have I Got News For You. I think it was during the first QI that I got the munchies, and stupidly decided it was time to taste the two packets of sausage and tomato crisps. I think it was the final nail in the coffin !

  I was in bed within minutes of it turning 10pm. I read for maybe half an hour before turning out the light. It all seems very vague now, but I don't think it took more than 5 or 10 minutes before I was asleep. It was probably about two hours later when I woke up. I think I had hit the jackpot ! I seemed to have been sleeping with my left arm sticking out from under the duvet. I woke up with that arm feeling like it was freezing, and to top it all it seems I had been sleeping in such a position to give myself a dead arm with all pins and needles.

  I made sure I kept that arm well tucked in when I went back to sleep. The rest of my sleep was O)K, and probably fairly typical. The only oddity was a dream. It seemed to be one of those dreams that repeats - although, having said that, it might be that I spent a little while puzzling over it when I woke up for a pee. I could be confusing my waking thoughts as being another dream, but maybe it was all a dream.....

  I remember the course details of the dream, but no fine details, and most annoyingly, no context for the dream.  There were two important details in this dream. One was a woman with a slight religious persuasion, although that didn't seem pertinent to her actions. The other detail was a dense series of small ponds in a grid layout, and each pond would seem to be covered by a hinged four pane window. The only action was that the women cleaned the glass of one window, and cleaned all the silt and muck out of one pond as an example of what could be done to all the ponds, and how nice they would look. I have no clue what the inspiration for the dream(s) could be, or if they had any meaning.

  This morning the chickens came home to roost. All me excess/unwise eating pushed my blood glucose up to 9.0mmol/l. That was quite a rise, but 9.0mmol/l is no danger unless it stays that high for too long. I just take it as a warning that I ought to be careful what I eat today.  That might be easier said and done. Today's dinner has to be some Chinese style marinated pork steak type things that I bought at reduced price the last time I was in Tesco. By now they will be a couple of days past their sell by date. Chinese stuff always raises alarm bells for possible high sugar levels.

  Apart from trying to be careful what I eat, the main thing for today will be a cold walk in the park, two or three pints of Guinness, and at least an hour in the pub with the lovely company of Angela. I think I will do what I did last time and get an early train, picking up a couple of copies of The Metro on the way. I must try and do all the quick crossword this time before Angela gets to the pub, but I guess it all depends on if the clues are hard or easy today.

  After a few Guinnesses, and a walk through the cold park, it will be hard to control what I might have for a late lunch, and from then on anything could happen.....and by then I should have a large surplus of hot pepper sauce to inspire me to eat more....oh dear, never mind.