I didn't see any mist at 7am, although maybe the air had a sort of soft quality. The latest revision to the forecast has added rain for 9am, but it still says it should be dry, but still very dull, from midday. One significant change to recent days is that the afternoon temperature could be a several degrees higher at 13° C. Tomorrow may see 15° C, and there could be some sunshine, and maybe some sunny spells between heavy showers in the afternoon.
 
  Yesterday was a busy day by comparison with the previous 7 or more days. It all started with a shopping trip to Tesco, and ended with some useful housework done - including some hoovering ! I didn't think the morning rain would end, and so I walked to Tesco in the rain, and that had some unexpected consequences.
  What you are seeing in the picture above is actually just below the knee, and is a rather painful graze.  There was also some bruising, but that didn't appear until later. What happened was I stepped aside to let an old lady pass as I walked to Tesco. I was wearing my hiking boots. They have a fair amount of tread on them, and I didn't expect them to slip on a wet granite kerbstone, but they did. The kerbstone was angled because there was once a driveway there.

  It all happened very fast, and I can only say what I think happened. Basically I put my right foot on the sloped kerbstone, and as I lifted my left foot the right slid towards the road, and down I went. I would like to think that I automatically slapped the ground as I felt. It is a thing that is supposed to lessen the impact of the body falling, and it taught in things like Judo classes.

  Anyway, I ended up on my bottom on the wet ground. It was a bit of a mad scramble to get up, and I don't think I did it with any dignity. Nothing was broken, but I was aware of my knee stinging underneath my undamaged trouser leg. I continued to walk to Tesco, and got all my shopping. I think it had almost stopped raining when I walked back home with a full rucksack and shopping bag. One of the first things I did was to take the picture above once I could take my jeans off.
  It was not quite so painful as the knee, which had a stinging sensation, but a bit later I became aware that my left hand felt quite tender. I had been aware of it straight after my fall, but it seemed so minor compared to the knee that I forgot about it. I think there was some grit in the wound, but most, if not all, I was able to brush away. It is possible there is still a bit of grit embedded in there somewhere. Unless I specifically provoke it, the area is not painful. I note this morning that I can see a few more abrasions towards the thumb, and that the ones in the picture are more sharply defined.

  Maybe it was the shock of the accident, or maybe it was because they were reduced price, or maybe it was simply that they looked nice, but I bought a 2 pack of Scotch eggs, and a 6 pack of cheese and sausage rolls while in Tesco. I knew they were a bit naughty to eat, but they slipped down nicely when I had them for lunch straight after taking photos of my wounds.

  Prior to going to Tesco I had a shower, and at the end of the shower I put some laundry into soak. After maybe 30 to 40 minutes after eating my lunch I thought I ought to start doing the next stages of washing that laundry.  I got almost to the end when I took a breather for a special reason. Among the t-shirt and 4 pairs of underpants was a hand towel. I knew that towel would probably need a few extra rinses, but fortunately not as many as a bath towel. Also, I have decided that towels towel better when rough, and so I didn't use any fabric conditioner on it.

  While taking that break I did something unlikely - I got the hoover out, and hovered the living room, hall, and the dining room. I must admit it was only the dining room I did with any thoroughness. Now that was a shame because the next thing I did I should have done before the hoovering. I cut up two large boxes that had come with my last two orders for beer. I didn't notice it at the time, but I dropped several small slivers of cardboard that I could have hoovered up if I had done the two things in the right order.

  It was probably about 4pm before I finished the last of the laundry, and hung it up to dry. I yesterday morning I had written that I would be doing that laundry, and would put some heating on in the dining room to speed up it's drying. I then said that with the dining room comfortably warm I could do more sorting and filing of old paperwork. I did do a tiny bit of that, but I spend most of the time washing up and preparing my dinner.

  It was about 5pm when I finished everything, and time to settle down to three episodes of assorted Star Treks.  During the final, and stupidly long commercial break before the first Star Trek finished, I went down to the kitchen to do the final preparation to my dinner. It was to add a whole, but fairly small, head of broccoli to the diced beef stew, and leaving it cooking again in the microwave.

  During the first, and annoyingly long, commercial break of the next Star Trek episode I went down to the kitchen, and ate my dinner. I ate it while watching the rest of the Star Trek episode. Even though I thought it was a moderately small head of broccoli,  it was quite a big meal - fortunately a mostly safe meal.


  I treated myself to a large (750ml) bottle of blue label Chimay to wash my dinner down. Chimay is one of those odd beers that can taste very weird, even sort of slightly unpleasant, for the first mouthful, but gets wonderful after a couple more mouthfuls. It is a dark, Abbey brewed beer, and the blue label version is 9%. There are also red label, and white label versions (possibly others). The white label is stocked by Tesco, but only in 330ml bottles.

  I followed up the Chimay with a 330ml bottle of Delerium "Nocturne" the 8% version of their range of strong Belgium beers. It followed the Chimay very nicely. When the third, and final Star Trek had ended I was feeling sort of mellow, or at least I should have, but the last Star Trek was an episode of Voyager, and many episodes I find rather annoying. Last night's episode may not have been one of the worst, but it was there in the top ten !

  I was feeling almost sleepy after the beer, but I thought I would stay awake to watch QI that was on 20 minutes after Star Trek: Voyager finished. It was one of those episodes that was good in places, but a little tedious in other places. One of the guest was also very close to being annoying. Once QI had finished I went straight to bed.


  As usual I read in bed for a while, but it wasn't long before I put the book down, and turned out the light. I expected to go straight to sleep, but I didn't. The first irritation was the graze on, or actually just below the knee, seemed to keep rubbing on the sheet, and that was quite uncomfortable. That slowly triggered other previously unnoticed aches and pains. I have no idea why I had to be in bed to notice that I had a tender area in the buttocks region. It was not really noticeable unless I laid in a certain way, but other aches started to surface.

  By 1am, several hours after initially trying for sleep, I had had only a little sleep. It seemed to be time to take a couple of Paracetamol tablets.  They can take up to an hour to become effective, and I spend some that time exploring my body for extra aches. There were some muscular aches from bits of my legs, and also arms, although the arm aches seem to be a fixed feature these days. I note that one source of pain, when the muscle is used in a certain way, is directly about two little red spots. I feel certain they are scars, or something similar, from when I had two of my Covid shots (there is something similar on the other arm). It does seem likely that those Covid shots damaged the muscle(s) in some way. I guess it was a small price to pay for not choking to death on my own mucus filled lungs.

  Even after the Paracetamol had taken effect I did not sleep perfectly, and had some periods of insomnia. Those periods of insomnia were generally pain free, but it was when getting up for a pee in the night that the worst symptoms surfaced. My right knee joint (not where the graze was) felt quite stiff and painful for the first ten paces as I walked to the toilet. On one occasion I had quite a pain from my right hip, but only when standing in a certain way. The pain was sufficient that once I realised a small change in stance would stop it, I didn't care to experiment to find out how it happened.

  When I finally gave up trying to sleep, just before 7am, and when it was light outside, it was mildly painful standing up, but once I got moving it seemed most aches faded away. The gravel rash on my left hand was still a bit tender if I put weight on it, but otherwise was not noticeable. I noticed some momentary pain as I pulled a pair of lounge pants past the graze on my knee, but nothing since.

  I wondered what my blood glucose reading would be this morning after a large dinner, two bottles of strong beer, and the rather scrumptious lunch I had. That lunch was very suspect. Sometimes the nicest things are the worst for my health. Maybe fortunately although very nice, they weren't in the "Ambrosia" category. This morning my blood glucose was up from yesterday's exceptional low, but at 8.3mmol/l it was still very satisfactory.

  I allowed myself to have one of the bigger packs of instant noodles for breakfast this morning, but before I could that I had to go downstairs. That was a potential harsh test of my knees and hips and stuff. In fact it was no worse, and maybe even slightly easier than most days, these days. I did notice an unusual light pain from my left ankle. It is possible that I over stretched a muscle down there as I fell, but apart from a brief twinge it was completely ignorable.

  A bigger test of my muscles and joints, etc, will be when I go for my Wednesday lunchtime visit to the Jolly Farmers for a couple of pints of Guinness, and the crosswords. I won't be walking there, but I will be going there by train after picking up a copy of The Metro at Catford Bridge station. On the other hand, it is not a completely lazy way of getting to the pub. It is still almost 80% of the direct walk to go there partly on the train.

  The only fly in the ointment today is that I think I am expecting a very small parcel delivery - just a single lens hood for one of my Canon lenses. It will be delivered by DPD, and they often arrive early in the day, but I have not heard from them so far this morning. It is possible it might be an afternoon delivery, and if so, I hope it is after I am home again from the pub. Hopefully it might be before I go to the pub.