At first it didn't seem like there would be much sunshine today, but the latest revision to the forecast shows sunshine/sunny spells for 8am, 10am, and then midday through to 3pm. With just light cloud predicted for other times, it seems feasible that the sun could break through at other times too. Sadly, only 8° C is likely to be the highest temperature today. There is an alternative view on the BBC weather forecast. That shows sunshine or sunny spells from sunrise to sunset, and a top temperature of 9° C for most of the afternoon. Tomorrow should reach 10° C, but it seems the whole day will be a bit gloomy.
 
    Yesterday was a day when I was ill, but sometimes forgot it. When laying on my bed, reading or trying to snooze, with warm, or even hot feeling sunshine streaming through the windows, it was easy to think I felt OK.....but then something would happen that reminded me I was not OK.

  The biggest problem, and it was generally triggered by any expose to cold, even a visit to the cold bathroom, would see my nose pouring, and a cough resume. Those two things were the worst thing about the cold, but there was also a sort of feeling of fatigue. It was a "can't be bothered" type of fatigue rather than a plain "can't". Having said that, when I did put my mind to it, I had little trouble washing a hand towel, a flannel, and some pairs of underpants.

  I guess that bit of laundry was the only thing of note I did other than eating and drinking. As I mentioned yesterday morning, it was my intention of trying to eat carefully yesterday. Somehow I succeeded in doing just that. I had my usual instant noodles for breakfast, and I had a lunch which was mostly just the last of the ready roasted chicken I had bought from Tesco a couple of days earlier.

  Apart from tomato sauce, I had no more than whatever chicken I could pick off the bones of that chicken. It was the day before when I pulled off all the big lumps of meat for a dinner that I didn't eat the night before, but did eat last night. I made a sort of stew with those big bits of chicken, and added a lot of white cabbage, and runner beans to the stew. Looking back I realise that the ready cooked chicken was probably good value in as much as I got 3 or 4 meals from it.
  Last night, just after dinner, I tried an experiment. It was one of those experiments that would produce some sort of good result even if not the desired result. The desired result was to break the link between my runny nose, and my cough. It was my belief, and probably a correct belief, that one triggered the other. The link could possibly be broken by drinking 4 bottles of strong beers, although apart from the extra vitamin B from the live yeast in this style of beer, I didn't bother to speculate how it might work apart from getting drunk.

  All the beers, apart from the Rodenback Grand Cru, which was closer to 6%, were in the region of 10% -or to put it simply, very strong. Even if they failed as a medicine, they would still be very nice. Fortunately the monks who brewed the two beers on the left of the picture, are very learned men, and were often the only healers around. I think their Abbey style beers did have some positive effect on my cold.

  I probably drunk the last drops of the last beer, as much as an hour before I headed for bed. That was after Have I Got News For You was shown on Dave. It finished at 11pm, and I then went to bed. I'm not sure what time it was when I realised I was coughing a lot less, and was only having to give my nose a very infrequent light blow. For a lot of the night I slept well, although I did wake up to go for a pee about as often as usual (these days).

  I guess it might have been 4am when I realised that although I wasn't coughing, and I had managed to use the same tissue for half the night, I did have a very painful throat ache. It felt like I had been gargling with broken glass. It didn't seem to stop me falling asleep again on several occasions. It was this period of time when I had some dreams that I can just about remember the salient points from.

  I think I had several dreams that were almost identical apart from small differences. All seemed to be set in something like a hospital, and all seemed to involve blood pressure monitoring. There was at least one person, and possibly myself too, who was wearing a very strange blood pressure monitoring device. The device was like two sheets of stiff card with windows in it through which could be seen inflated balloon type things. There was no apparent way it was held to the arm, and no way of inflating the balloons, controlling it, or getting a read out. It was all very strange.

  My throat felt extra raw when I got up. It was quite painful to swallow my own spit, but that didn't stop me preparing a bowl of hot spicy noodles. Before I did that I checked my blood glucose. I know I was fairly careful about what I ate, but at least one f the strong beers did seem quite sweet, and yet my blood glucose reading was an excellent 7.3mmol/l ! I could maybe have a little light treat today provided it was early in the day.

  Eating the hot spicy noodles was initially quite painful, but the more I ate, the more my throat pain seemed to fade away.  Of course the steamy spiciness did affect me in other ways, and in particular it got my nose running again, and that started my cough again - or it could have been the other way around. I'm not sure how long ago it was that I ate the last noodle, perhaps half an hour, but since then my nose has partly dried up again, and my cough is now quite minor. The best thing is that the sore throat has not returned.

  I sill feel sort of lacking in energy, and I have a belief that it would take little to trigger off my nose and/or cough again. I think it would be best if I didn't attempt to go frolicking in the sunshine today, but maybe I will take a chance on a quick shopping trip to Tesco. In particular I would like to get a spare box or two of man sized tissues. These last couple of days have taken a large chunk of my stock of tissues ! I might get some tomatoes and lettuce for a cheese and tomato salad. Tomatoes usually contain a lot of sugar, and these days I steer clear of them despite loving them. Maybe they will be my "little light treat" today.