Only the latest revision of the BBC version of the weather forecast gives any hope for today. It says light cloud all day instead of the Met Office's dark clouds. The latest revision of both forecasts has not changed the forecast a single bit today. One very small change in the latest revision is that is that the afternoon temperature should now reach 11° C. Tomorrow could be just as grey, and only 9° C, It is also worth noting that for all of today and tomorrow there is a 10% chance of rain at any time. 10% usually means it will be dry, but on rare occasions it does rain.
 
    Yesterday got off to a good start if I ignore the very painful sore throat I woke up with. That sore throat was finally cured by my hot, instant noodles, breakfast. Once the sun broke through the somewhat misty clouds, which happened very soon after 8am, the sunshine was very uplifting.

  Once I had finished writing here I had a shower, and prepared for my first fresh air in several days. I walked to Tesco where I bought some essentials, and forgot to buy other essentials. The forgotten essentials were a couple of vegetables - mainly a small white cabbage, and perhaps something like string beans, but possibly broccoli. The essentials were ingredient for a salad. other semi essentials were some Abbey brewed beers.

  It was nice in the fresh air as I walked to Tesco. It felt like it was clearing all my airways out. My nose didn't run any more than usual, and I can't recall coughing. It was almost like I was over my cold. Coming home was the same, and once again it felt like I might have conquered my cold, but it wasn't to be. Half and hour, or maybe a full hour, after getting home, and relaxing, my nose got very stuffy, and I started to cough every now and then.

  My cold returning, albeit less severe than the day before, was a bit depressing. It felt like I would never be able to go out and enjoy the sunshine. Of course the way today is forecast, I find I don't have any desires to go out at all, although I probably will, but more about that later.

  One thing that partly brought some cheer was my lunch. It was a bigger lunch than usual, but almost all the ingredients were pretty healthy stuff. It was a stripped down ham salad - basically lettuce and tomatoes as the main salad ingredients, but with the addition of a small amount of potato salad, and some crunch croutons. It was all a big excuse to have some tomatoes. I very rarely eat tomatoes these days because they have a very high sugar content (as do many fruits).

  One thing that spoiled my salad, but more spoiled the occasion, was when I discovered all my olive oil had gone off. I hadn't used any of that olive oil since at least last summer, and some of it was from possibly the year before last. To make matter worse it was stored on the window ledge, and I knew that strong light was not good for olive oil. I thought it wouldn't matter because I expected to use it all up quite quickly, but that didn't happen because I was given a free bottle of good quality olive oil by the little supermarket on Catford Bridge, It was on it the last days of it's shelf life. At that time it was rather delicious, and I used that in preference to the Tesco bought Olive oil that may have ended up being a few years old before I washed it down the sink along with the other couple of bottles of olive oil that had gained a sort of rancid smell.

  After lunch I had a very lazy time. I was just idling away the time reading and trying to snooze until early evening when I intended to open a few beers I had bought in Tesco. I didn't think I felt that bad until I tried to snooze. Laying on my back meant my nose wasn't dripping, and in fact it didn't even seem to be dripping into the back of my throat. That seemed to be a good sign. The bad thing is that as soon as I started to relax I needed to cough. I think it started later the day before, but yesterday was a day when my dry cough had given way to a wet cough.

   Sometimes it would still be dry, and at other times it could be quite productive. It certainly didn't seem to want to let me sleep. There was one time when I did start to snooze, but woke up violently. I can't say for sure what happened, but I think I had started to choke on my own mucus. By the time I had quickly sat up and tried to work out what had happened it was all over. I couldn't be sure what it was. Maybe it was just a fog horn intensity snore or something. All I know is that it seemed to feel most unpleasant for a second or two.
  One thing I was trying to do yesterday evening was to remember when I acquired the poster shown in the picture above. I know I got it when shopping for imported beer with Jodie, and I guess it was probably after I took redundancy from BT in 1992. That would make the poster 30 years old. The shop it came from was somewhere on the road from Penge to Norwood Junction.

  I had noticed the shop from a bus I was on that passed it. I have no idea where I might have been going on a bus in that direction. When I mentioned it to Jodie she said we ought to investigate. The shop did indeed stock quite a good range of imported beers, and we bought maybe a dozen bottles. For that the shop keeper gave a bottle opener each. I asked if they had any other beer memorabilia that we might have or buy. Initially he said no, but disappeared into a back room, and came back with the Sixtus poster. It is about 14" by 12", and barely fit in a spare carrier bag I had in my pocket. He said that they hadn't stocked the beer for some time, and he was about to throw it out.

  I can't imagine it took 30 years until I finally got to taste these excellent beers, but I can't remember an earlier occasion than the last 12 months where I had specifically ordered some from the beer importers who sell such beers online (for instance https://www.beermerchants.com/). In my last order I got a bottle of number 8, number 12 and a special Xmas brew. I think the 12 is 10%, and the 8 is a Tripel that is around 8%. What brings this story to a conclusion is that I saw, and bought 2 bottles of the 10% beer from Tesco yesterday. It is a shame they don't stock the full range.

  My dinner was a nice healthy meal of meat balls with a whole, but small, fist sized, head of cauliflower, plus a red bell pepper. It was nice, and at other times it might have been enough, but at more miserable times, I felt something was missing. Maybe if I had had some potatoes to add to that stew it might have rounded it off nicely, but I had no potatoes. What I did have was what I should not have dared to have, but I did !

  I have mentioned on many occasions, when I have I had a very low blood glucose reading, that I had a small bit of Madeira cake in the cupboard that I bought a year or three ago from Aldi. I kept promising myself that if I got another very low blood glucose reading I would treat myself to cake for breakfast. One thing stopping me doing it recently was very cold morning making hot noodles more desirable.  Last night I cut off a thick slice of cake. I knew it was a really stupid thing to do, but I did it anyway. The good thing is that despite it being probably a year past it's sell by date, it was still rather nice.

  After watching some TV I started to head for bed at 10pm. I felt tired, perhaps aided by three (33cl) bottles of 8% beer, and decided I would only read for a short while before trying for sleep. I don't think it was long before I fell asleep, but it seemed impossible to stay asleep for any longer than an hour. I would wake up either with a cough, a snotty nose, or a dry mouth, and sometimes all three ! Although in theory I got quite a lot of sleep, I don't think it was good sleep.

  I ended up getting up earlier than I wanted to because I was feeling sort of rotten. Of course since I have been upright I have hardly coughed, or needed to blow my nose. It, once again, feels like this cold is just about over. Maybe today it will be, and maybe tonight I will get a good night's sleep, but I may do something that will ruin it all again.

  Although eating that cake last night was a stupid thing, maybe it was also an interesting thing. It was not a complete disaster. This morning my blood glucose measurement was 9.4mmol/l. That is high, but still safely, buy a useful margin, under the red line at 10.0mmol/l. It still seems that these days I can tolerate more sugar than I used to, although a lot of it depends on the time I eat it.

  Of course saying it depends on the time is a bit of a kludge. I base my diabetic health on my morning glucose reading, but that ignore potentially dangerous glucose spikes at other, earlier times. On the other hand, it does seem my rolling averages do seem to agree with the official laboratory blood tests. The doctor and nurse say my blood glucose control is very good, and so I guess I am doing something right.

  Today I could be bored, and the gloomy weather could also cause bad depression. Ideally I should go out, and today I do have an opportunity to do some potentially interesting photography. At midday there is a protest to the local council about the extending of the Ultra Low Emission Zone to the outer (one non London) boroughs. Apparently there will be a stage where people will address the crowds, and in an ideal world there would be some protest singers. I somehow doubt there will be any high action, but you never know. What is more certain is the the cold grey air will have me coughing and snotting on the way home - probably - but it could be worth it just to get out of the house for a while.