Late yesterday evening the BBC, in their sometimes pessimistic way, were predicting thunderstorms for the early hours of this morning. I heard nothing, but it did seem that the rain that started falling last night continued through all those early hours. The latest revision to the Met Office forecast say the rain should stop after 10am. The BBC say the last rain could be at 4pm ! It is a cool morning with the temperature only now just approaching 17° C. The BBC says 22° C for this afternoon, and the Met Office say only 21° C. Tomorrow could see only 20° C, and maybe 19° C would be more representative of the day. Tomorrow may start bright and sunny, but later on it could be very cloudy, and once again rain could start to fall very late in the evening.
  Yesterday was another day that was both good and bad. Unfortunately the bad was very bad, but also rather enjoyable. That will make sense once I get to that bit and explain it better. The day before yesterday, as I think I might have admitted, was a day when I barely got up, and lolled around all day without washing. I guess I was pretty stinky, but I didn't expect to meet anybody. Yesterday morning it felt really good to get under the shower !

  Unfortunately I didn't think I had enough time to wash my hair, but it didn't seem too bad when I gave it a good brushing. The reason for my lack of time was that I wanted to get to Tesco for some shopping before going to the pub. I actually had more time than I thought I had, and could have washed my hair, and still have had plenty of time. One reason was that I decided it might be prudent to get to the pub a little later for reasons I'll come to soon.

  Tesco's refit continues at a snails pace. Yesterday there were loads of empty shelves waiting to be filled once they had been connected to electricity and any plumbing or whatever. I found all I wanted, and really I found too much ! It would have been better for me if I hadn't found a few things, but at least I didn't find things I would probably buy, but shouldn't have.  While I am still able to usually control my blood glucose by diet I have to be very selective about what I can and can't eat.

  One thing that seemed strange, considering how battered and bruised I felt after my fall at the party only two days earlier, was how it seemed easy to walk to Tesco, and more so how easy it was to walk home. The walk to Tesco and back is always easy to some extent or another, but recently I have felt a bit creaky, maybe stiff knees and such, but there seemed none of that yesterday. I would notice it more strongly a bit later.

  The plan was to go to The Jolly Farmers with two copies of The Metro via Catford Bridge station (where I would get the copies of The Metro). Since I started doing that I would get to the pub well before 1pm, my traditional time of meeting Angela there. It would give me time to tackle the crosswords in The Metro. I knew Angela would not be there*, but I was meeting someone else, and he would not be getting there until almost 2.30pm.

 *As I mentioned yesterday, Angela told me, by text message, that she would not be seeing me for the foreseeable future. One possible reason is that she has too much to do in preparation for her wedding in September, but I think it is likely that she not looking forward to going back to work once her sick certificate runs out. She has not confirmed it, but I believe she is back at work this coming Monday. I suspect it won't be many weeks before she is spending one day a week in the pub at lunchtime - hopefully with me.

  Ayse, our favourite barmaid at the pub, was delighted to see me after not going there for 6 or 7 (or more ???) weeks. she was, of course, delighted to get a copy of The Metro delivered to her. We had a fair old natter about things, and then I sat down to start the crosswords. It seems I am out of practice, or maybe that excess of booze on Monday has killed too many brain cells. By the time I put the crosswords aside I still had not solved three and a half "quick" clues. The cryptic crossword really baffled me. I solved one answer in seconds, but could not solve another single clue.

  I think I mentioned yesterday that the man I was meeting was Dik (Richard) from The Entourage Band. He was after copies of all the pictures and video I had shot at The Manor House Gardens gig last Saturday. I hope he is happy with the memory stick full of pictures and the video because I he bought me two pints of Guinness for it. That took my total up to 4 pints. One thing that probably shouldn't have surprised me is that he knew the pub well, and Ayse knew him by name. He does seem to be on first name terms with loads of shop and bar staff all around Catford, and possibly further afield as well.

  After we left I felt "merry" enough to want to try and walk home. Walking home from the pub used to be easy, but I had got into the habit of going home by train - even though it actually seems to only save about 0.2 miles of walking. Yesterday it was warm, but not too warm, and despite the lack of real sunshine it was still very bright outside. The big unknown was the shoes I was wearing, but I seemed to have no trouble walking home at all....almost.
  Some would argue that Lee Cooper make "cheap" copies of Converse trainers, but somehow these green trainers seem more comfortable than many pairs of Converse trainers. I wore them partly because they are lighter than my proper hiking boots, but also because I was sure I had walked fair distances in them without trouble. My feet were still comfortable when I arrived home. It is possible I had attempted to get carried away and walked faster than I could sustain. I think I stopped twice to get my breath back, but only long enough for a count of five - typically it would be to take a picture, but yesterday I just imagined that was what I was doing.

  Of course I had a camera with me, as well as my mobile phone, but I had mainly taken the camera for train spotting. In the very short journey from Catford Bridge to Ladywell I managed to get about 6 snaps of trains and their numbers, but sadly, on this occasion, I already had pictures logged of those trains.

  Of course the real reason for trying to walk too fast for too long was because I had drunk 4 pints of Guinness, and only had one pee while in the pub.  To my surprise I didn't even have to run to the toilet once I got home. I made a more sedate visit there about 10 minutes later. Before that I had a sort of late lunch to attend to. Maybe one problem yesterday is that it was getting on for 4pm when I got home. (I just checked, and it was 15:55 when I took the picture of my green trainers while standing on my front door step, according to my camera's clock).

  I can't recall how they were named, but my lunch was a potentially dangerous meal of a pack of ready made potato cubes with rosemary and garlic butter. They needed 45 minutes in the oven to cook and partly crisp up. I should mention I only bought them because they were marked £1 off on the Tesco reduced price shelf. I cooked them before I went out, but gave them 10 or 15 minutes in the oven when I got back.

  There was too unfortunate things about them. One was that the first third, or maybe half, tasted delicious. I should have stopped there because the rest started tasting boring. The other unfortunate thing about them is that my type II diabetes can only tolerate things like this is small amounts. The worst was still yet to come. By the time I had eaten them it was getting close to Star Trek time, and that also is when dinner time is coming up.

  My original plan was to eat a port pie, sliced up, and part of a salad, and by itself it could have been OK, but I was stacking up the odds against myself. I didn't bother with the salad, or even getting a clean plate. I just put the pork pie on the plate I had used for the potato cubes, and smothered it with low salt and sugar ketchup. I still felt hungry after that, and during the first commercial break in the next Star Trek (Enterprise) I gave into temptation and had a couple of whole grain rolls with ham and mustard in them. They were very nice, but very ill advised.

  After the third Star Trek (Voyager) finished at 8pm I was starting to feel ready for bed. There were a few things to do first, but before 9pm I was laying on my bed trying to keep my eyes open while reading. I was possibly asleep by, or very soon after 9pm. I slept very well - or I think I did. One thing I tried to do was to keep well hydrated through the night. During the first hours of sleep I did sweat enough to dampen my pillows. I possibly slept too well though because I only managed to drink just under 1.5 litres of water through the night.

  That should have been plenty to stop getting a false blood glucose reading, but this morning I hit the jackpot ! My blood glucose reading was 11.4mmol/l - a long way into the red zone ! It is very worrying because although all that food I ate last night was bound to raise my blood glucose, I didn't expect it to raise it that far. I now wonder if my pancreas has finally broken. I have to admit it is very much clutching at straws, but I have some doubts about the test strips I got via Amazon. I have an unopened pack I got with my recent repeat prescription that I may open to double check my readings if they remain high. My immediate plan is to drink more chilled water, and re check my blood glucose near lunchtime. If, which I doubt, the reading is substantially lower, I may have a light lunch, but otherwise I will have to fast all day.

  One plan for today was to go to see the garden bar of the new Catford Constitutional Club with Michael (Jodie is busy and we won't be seeing her this Thursday). The garden bar is actually on the roof of the builiding that hold the main bar - the old Argos building in Catford. maybe today is not the right weather for a garden bar exposed to the elements. It could be a good idea to not drink (booze) at all today.  If, as the Met Office suggests, and the BBC doesn't, it dries up, and brightens up later, I might have to force myself out for a bit of exercise. - maybe just a 3 mile walk in the linear park of something.