It felt cold this morning. If it wasn't supposed to be summer I might have put some heating on for my last hours in bed, and until I had a hot breakfast. The forecast of 14° C at 7am may have been a degree too low, but was probably right for 5 or 6am. It will take until almost early evening before today's temperature peaks at 20° C. It started sunny this morning, and although some hours may only have sunny spells, the last sunshine this morning may be at 10am. The rest of the morning, and most of the afternoon is (probably) going to be in various shades of grey. Light rain could fall at 3 and 4pm, After that the sun may come out again for a few hours, followed by sunny spells until sunset. Tomorrow morning could be very wet, and also rather cold again. It may brighten up from 2pm, and the temperature should climb to 20° C.

  Yesterday was not a good day in a general sense, but it had it's moments. I could not raise the enthusiasm to go for a walk. I can't really describe how or why, but I didn't think I would enjoy a walk, and mainly because I didn't think I had the energy, plus I thought my legs, knees, and ankles might complain.


  After a shower I did end up going for a short walk, but only to Poundstretcher and back. I had quite a few things on my shopping list, and I think I got them all. Top of the list was sugar free, Dark Berry Tango. It seems they have secured good stock of it, and I stocked up with 6 cans of it. I also wanted some large sticking plasters, or sticking plaster strip, and I got both (I find it good for my bunions).

  Among the random stuff I bought was a pair of nice purple rubber gloves - except they are not nice. The colour is nice, and more rubber gloves should be this colour - because yellow rubber gloves are boring, and it is rare for rubber gloves not to be yellow. The trouble with these rubber gloves is that they are lined with what is pretty much a cotton glove. If I had thought about it, instead of thinking "what a nice colour" I would have realised I had tried a pair of these maybe 3 or 4 years ago.

  The problem is that lining. It makes the fingers less flexible, and you lose any sense of touch at the finger tips. It is like trying to work with dead hands - stiff and no feeling. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to pull out the lining in the last pair. I think they were usable after that, but I have a feeling they didn't last long. I can't seem to remember much about them. I tested the pair I bought yesterday when I washed a couple of t-shirts and some underwear.
  Another picture of washing hanging on the line to dry ! I had finished doing the laundry, and had these item on the line just after 1pm. There was hardly any sunshine all afternoon, but it did feel warm, and it was very windy. I think it was not long after 4pm, when it did seem to get very grey, as if it might rain, that I checked it all, and to my surprise it was very dry so I brought it in. Just to complete the story of this washing - halfway through I took off the purple gloves and put on boring, but pleasant feeling, yellow rubber gloves.

  On the whole, yesterday afternoon was very boring, and that was enough to trigger some excessive eating. Most of what I ate would have been individually safe, but lots of little things add up to a big thing. I actually started off with 4 "sugar free" high fibre biscuits. They were nice, and I could easily have eaten the entire packet, but somehow common sense prevailed. They are marked sugar free on the packet, and the nutritional information shows very little sugars in them, but I remember getting some contrary results when I used to buy a lot of them 5 years ago.

   The biggest trouble with opening those biscuits is that they really awakened my hunger - even if it was just boredom hunger. I can't remember the order I did it, but I next consumed half a packet of the micro chipsticks I described some months ago, or I ate a Pot Noodle. It was a crazy idea, but while in Poundstretcher I saw, and got curious about a "Chinese Chow Mein" flavoured Pot Noodle. The worst thing about eating it was that it provided very little enjoyment. I much prefer my Polish, Vietnames, Rumanian and Asian sounding instant noodles.

  I'm sure I ate something else that I shouldn't have done, but I can't recall what. I was partly spared my afternoon boredom by discovering a James Bond film on TV during the afternoon. It was "The Spy Who Loved Me" with Roger Moore as Bond - possibly my least favourite Bond. Although I think I think differently, it must be the case that these films are good even after the third viewing. Why would I have bothered to watch it all otherwise.

  There was several hours gap between the end of the film and the next watchable TV, and it was a very boring gap. So boring that I can't even remember when I had my dinner, or what else I might have done while eating it. Maybe I just read some stuff on the internet while eating my corned beef with salad leaves plus condiments. It was probably before that, maybe while watching the Bond film that I finished the other half of the bag of microchipsticks.

  Later in the evening I watched a very familiar repeat of QI, and then an edition of Have I Got (Boris) News For You. I think the latter may have been originally broadcast as much as 6 months ago, and it was all about the resignation of Boris Johnson. It was pretty amusing. I think it finished at about 9.30pm, and I went straight to bed afterwards - initialy to read for maybe half an hour.

  I didn't seem to sleep all that well last night. I felt uncomfortable a lot of the time, but I couldn't work out why. This morning,, and actually two paragraphs ago, I became aware of the cause - a stomach upset starting to brew up. I was also uncomfortable because I began to feel cold - particularly during the second half on the night. When I changed all my bedding a few days ago I didn't use the duvet, and I have been sleeping under just the duvet cover. That was fine during summer, but now we seem to be entering Autumn it is getting chilly in the mornings. Tomorrow morning could be worse.

  One the things I have already done this morning is to put the duvet inside the duvet cover. it is the only way to hurry on more summer days ! I have also checked my blood glucose and weighed myself. This morning I got the first big discrepancy between the old and new blood glucose meters. The new one gave a rather ordinary 8.7mmol/l, and the old said 9.2mmol/l. The latter is OK-ish, the former is much closer to average. The really good thing is that after my extra eating yesterday I expected far worse readings.

  My guts seem to be in a very turbulent state this morning. On my first, soon after getting out of bed, attempt nothing happened. It took the combined efforts of two lots of hot instant noodles to stir things up. At first everything seemed very normal, and then there was more, and more. When that was over I needed to go back to the toilet 5 minutes later for yet more, but not a lot more. It was after that when I weighed myself. Ideally I would have done it before breakfast, and before a glass or two of drink. My weight has gone up a few hundred grammes, but it is still below my official measured weight on my medical records.

  Assuming my guts have now stabilised, and I'll be waiting an hour or two to confirm it, I feel I want to do something to try and reduce my weight and blood glucose a little. I have an idea for an outing that should help. I am not going to attempt to describe it in case I have a change of mind, but I will say I hope a few trains are involved.