During the night I don't think the temperature fell below 10° C, and it was most definitely 12° C this morning. By 2pm it could be up to 14° C. That would feel very nice if there were any sunshine, and that might not be impossible. The forecast does say just like cloud this morning, although as I write this it should be heavy cloud, but to my amazement we have just had a minute or two of sunshine. That could have been a fluke, but the clouds do look very thin, and I can even see blue behind some of them. Today could be dry, but there is a 20% chance of rain at 8 and 9pm. That almost makes it very likely, but no rain is shown on the weather charts. Tomorrow could be a lot like today, although the heavy clouds are shown in the morning, and lighter clouds in the afternoon. The temperature may only be 13° C.
 
   I think I can describe yesterday as being a good day. It was even a bit productive, although really that was just limited to hand washing two t-shirts and 5 pairs of underpants. For most of the morning I was actually in a pretty lazy mode/mood. Life got more interesting in the afternoon, and featured an Amazon delivery, surprisingly early in the afternoon, and some beer tasting.

  Although I have worked out the best way of putting the cuff on when using my new blood pressure meter, it can still be a bit hit and missing. I did consider buying a new Omron meter because I had no trouble with the cuff on my old, and now faulty, Omron meter, but they are really quite expensive compared to the majority sold by Amazon. I have my doubts about their accuracy, but I wondered if a wrist mounted meter might prove easier to use.

  I ordered a reasonably cheap, but well known name branded wrist blood pressure meter on Wednesday 15th, and selected free (not Prime) delivery. I was amazed that it was delivered just one day later, and amazed that though it did not leave their Dartford depot until almost midday, it arrived here at a very reasonable 3pm.

  It is a bit vague but the box suggests it was designed in the UK by Salter ("Innovation since 1760"), but actually made in China. It is a fairly clean looking design, and the instruction leaflet, despite being in about 2pt type, very small, seems to be written in genuine English, and not the more familiar Chinglish.

 Setting it up was much simpler than the previous new Blood Pressure Meter, and using the wrist strap is very easy. It takes a bit of time to get over the novelty of a new meter, but every time I have tried it, it has given a sane, even if not good reading. Since yesterday the novelty has almost worn off, and not long after I started to write today, I paused to take a reading. The first one was typically a bit high, but the second reading, taken a couple of minutes later, was, as shown in the picture, very nice. Incidently, the black blob on the left of the LCD display is the "diagnosis" and is next to the light green square with Opt (for optimal) written on it. I decided not to waste time trying to get a lower reading.

  Michael was the first to arrive for our beer tasting session, and Jodie arrived maybe 10 minutes later. Once again Jodie brought more beers with her despite me having a fridge full of beers. To give her her due, she did bring a couple of nice beers. They were thick and syrupy porters. If my blood glucose ad not been so high yesterday morning I would have enjoyed indulging in them, but I limited myself to just a small taste of them.

  Michael was not too keen on them - partly because they were rather strong. That meant Jodie had to drink the majority of them, and she was trying not to get too drunk. With Jodie drinking so slowly I pulled out a few beers that were mainly just for me and Michael (although Jodie did ask for a taste of them). It ended up as quite a good session. Jodie did not contribute too much to the conversation, but it is hard to get a word in edgewise once Michael starts talking 10 to the dozen.

  I did quiz Michael to see if he had heard any more than I had about Angela, but it seems not. It remains a mystery about what happened to Angela beyond her apparently having some sort of fall. Considering it now seems she has broken a leg, it sounds likely it was a fall down stairs, and probably after one too many vodkas, although this is all pure guesswork.

  After Michael and Jodie had left, Michael first, and Jodie maybe 20 minutes later, I turned the mini oven/grill on to finish cooking my sausages. I was going to have something with the sausages, but I guess I was too drunk to want to bother preparing and cooking vegetables. All I had with them was tomato sauce. I enjoyed eating them while watching Star Trek: The New Generation. I followed Star Trek by an episode of The Simpsons.

  Since the TV schedules for Dave changed in the last week, there is a large blank spot until 9pm when they show a single episode of QI. I may have found something else to watch if I had surfed all the channels, but soon after 7.30pm I decided to turn off the TV and read for a while. It was like the previous night (or the one before that ?), and having already brushed my teeth, I turned the light out, and was asleep no later than 8.30pm. In fact it might have been very soon after 8pm.

  I didn't seem to wake up again until around midnight. I needed a pee, but more irritatingly, I needed to cough - a lot ! It seems I can go longer and longer without coughing, but it seems to refuse to dry up completely. The most annoying thing was how it would seem to stop until I lay my head on the pillow, and then I would get that tell tale little gurgley tickle in my throat. I then had to try and cough up a little bead of mucus. It seemed it would never end.

  It must have been getting on for 1am when it seems to have almost stopped, but my mouth felt dry. As I rolled over to grab my drink I seemed to dislodge a big gobbet of mucus. I managed to avoid choking on it, and once coughed up that did seem to be it for the night. I then slept quite well until about 5am (ignoring at least one more dreamlike visit to the toilet for a pee). By 6am it seemed like my sleep was over, and the emphasise the point my cough started up again for a while. Oddly enough, it was a dry cough.

  I did take some care about what I ate yesterday, but with drinking in the afternoon, I didn't really skimp on lunch. I had 4 rice cakes with cheese on them. The first two were Marmite flavoured, and seems so nice I had another two, but the second time they were 2 chilli flavoured rice cakes with cheese on them. As mentioned further up the page, I had a whole pack of 10 pork sausages (small ones, although not as small as chipolatas) with "reduced" sugar tomato sauce on them.

  It seems remarkable that is all I had to do to see a big drop in my blood glucose this morning. Yesterday morning it was a very high 9.7mmol/l, and this morning it was a lovely low 7.8mmol/l. It feels unlikely that just two slices of Sourdough bread could make such a profound difference. It is almost as if my recent (and current ?) cold has stopped affecting my blood glucose chemistry.  I think today I will have two slices of that sourdough loaf as toast with melted cheese on it, and see what happens tomorrow.

  As for the rest of the day.....it's a sort of mystery. I will probably go to Tesco today, but the real mystery is what I do tonight. I would like to go to a gig in The Railway pub a few minutes walk from West Wickham station. The band are a new band called 100 Mile Club, and the only thing I might have against them is that they play "modern" rock music - i.e. stuff I have probably never heard of. The real decision is whether I feel well enough, and more importantly, will I still feel well after going out in the night air. Part of me thinks I ought to try and just force myself to go out, but the other half says it could be foolish until I know 100% I am over this cold.