I suspect that today is one of those days that is hard to forecast. There should be sunny spells today, but their length and timing is hard to say. The one thing that may be correct is that the sunny spells probably won't be when shown in the screenshot above. Having said that, I do note that the latest revision to the forecast has not changed anything. This afternoon should see 22° C. Of course the BBC has a slightly different idea about the weather. They currently say only midday to 2pm will be without sunshine, and they also say it will be a degree cooler at 21° C. Tomorrow may feature non stop sunshine, and the temperature should reach 27, or even 28° C.

  Yesterday was one of those days, or even another day, that was both good and bad. I can't seem to decide whether the good or bad was more significant. This is probably because the bad was not too bad, and the good was not all that good. Enough of these riddles, and time to describe which is what, what is which, or something like that.

  Yesterday was the second day when I didn't go to the toilet for a poo. I can't say it was uncomfortable, but it did leave an element of doubt - sooner or later something might happen, and I was worried it might happen while I was out.  It was my intention to go to the Jolly Farmers for a couple of pints of Guinness, hear some gossip, and do the crosswords in The Metro (free) newspaper.

  I had a shower fairly early yesterday, and then say around for quite a long time before going out. You could say it was an act of faith to go out when I hadn't been to the toilet, and I guess I would say the same. It seemed to be a comfortable walk to the station to collect a couple of copies of The Metro. I then got the first train to Ladywell station.
  I was lucky enough to get a train with the 2 car 466034 on the rear. There is nothing special about it except that I didn't have a photo of it recorded in my big spreadsheet of train photos. The picture above was taken as it was leaving from Ladywell station after I had got off it. Out of the 43 class 466 trains, I have photos of all except for 9, and it is possible some of those 9 are in long term storage.

  Getting the picture of the train was my first, and maybe only bit of good luck yesterday, and from then on things went slightly downhill. When I got to the pub I found Ayse, my favourite barmaid, was not there. I suddenly remember she had said she would be on holiday for two weeks. The replacement barmaid was pleasant, but no fun.

  I realised I had taken a chance about possibly needing a toilet, and on the rain, all for nothing. I only stayed for one pint of Guinness, but because it was quiet in the pub I was able to complete the quick crossword, and even managed about 7 cryptic clues before I decided to head for home again. Upon checking the times of the trains I realised I would not get to the station in time for the next train, and I didn't fancy a 20 minute wait for the next.

  There was some light drizzle at this time, and maybe I could have stayed dryer if I had sheltered on the station, but I thought I could feel some sort of movement in my bowels, and thought it prudent to walk straight home. Maybe I was trying to walk too fast, mostly because of the light rain, but it seemed to be very hard going, and I had to stop a couple of times, just for a few seconds, to get my breath back.

  The walk home was rather different to the long walk I did on Monday. Monday's walk tested my legs, and their joints. Yesterday I didn't seem to get a single ache from my legs, and I also found the Vans trainers I was wearing seemed very comfortable. (It is a shame that my seemingly identical, but red coloured, pair do not seem comfortable - for reasons unknown). Yesterday I was getting upper body aches, including some neck ache. It could be the start of something akin to angina, or more likely it was just the cold and wet.

  When I got home I did make a beeline for the toilet, but only for a pee. I had precooked some sausages in the mini oven/grill that I tucked into (cold) once I was able to relax. In theory they were known to have a very low sugar content, but the large tomato I had with them would have had a lot of sugar in it, although probably a lot less than an equivalent weight of little baby tomatoes.

  I did very little for the rest of the afternoon. I read for a while, and I had a snooze, and I had more to eat. I had some rice cakes with cheese, and I had half a small packet of "Sugar Free" chocolate chip cookies. They were from the same maker , Gullon, as some plain sugar free biscuits which did seem to be sugar free. Despite what it said on the packet, I have serious doubts about just hoe sugar free they really were.

  At 5pm it was time to watch some TV - the usual three episodes of three different series of Star Trek. During the first commercial break after 6pm I made my dinner. It was flavoured chunks of ready cooked chicken on a bed of salad leaves. I didn't really like it, or at least it didn't seem to be satisfying. I then probably confounded my earlier mistakes by scoffing the rest of the chocolate chip cookies. I should mention at this point that these cookies were only about 1.5 inches wide, or maybe half the size of usual chocolate chip cookies - so I could almost hold every cookie in the small packet in the palm of one hand.

  After the three Star Treks I did a bit of this and a bit of that until 9pm. One of those things was to give the cryptic crossword clues anther good hard stare. I actually solved two more, but it was still a very poor show. By 9pm I was reading in bed, and while doing so my mind was off wandering the stars (it was a SciFi book). Once I put the books down, and tried to sleep, I started to feel all sorts of aches and pains. None were terribly significant, but together they distracted me from my wanted sleep.

  I took a couple of paracetamol, and maybe before they had fully taken effect I was fast asleep. I can remember a few things about my night. I know I got up about every two hours for a pee - usually I can manage one or two 3 hour block of sleep. It is probable that there was another influence having an effect. During the night I started to pass a lot of wind, and my guts were gently gurgling.

  I am sure I had a variety of dreams, but only one sticks in my mind because of it's novelty value. In the dream I had been to dinner at Angela's place the day before. In the dream Angela lived next door. My neighbours on the other side were Dan from M.T. Pockets and his significant other. In the dream I experienced that strange thing where you can see someone, but they are little more than a blank. I can't describe a single thing about Dan's "significant other", but she was definitely with him when they knocked on my kitchen door asking to take a short cut to Angela's home.

  It was a dream that was more memorable for the situation rather than any action. I remember things like looking through Angela's very big picture windows (only in the dream), and seeing her daughter, Miranda, and a few others in there, but nothing happened. I'm not sure if that made it a good, bad or indifferent dream. Probably indifferent.

  I have no idea why, but I seemed to run out of sleep very early this morning. I could have got up before 5am, but I persevered, and I think it was more a case of keeping my eyes shut, rather than sleeping, until almost 6am before I got up. Then there was mixed news. My blood glucose reading was generally not very good. My old meter gave a definite bad 10.1mmol/l - just over the red line. The new meter gave a reading of 9.5mmol/l. That is undesirably high, but still just about safe. I think the blame falls partly on the large tomato I ate, and mostly on the supposed sugar free chocolate chip cookies.

  Partly better news is that I finally managed a poo this morning. It was a bit uncomfortable passing it, but I am sure I have had worse. It was substantial, but not enough for two days, and before the morning is over I would not be surprised if I went one or more times. There does seem to be a loose correlation between constipation and high blood glucose readings, and maybe this morning's high readings could also be explained by constipation. Therefore the more of the backlog I can pass today, the better it will be.

  There is a big element of the unknown today. It is probable I won't hear from Jodie today. If her plans came out right she is back from a week or more at a rock festival in Finland, but she is probably recovering from alcoholic poisoning. Therefore it is possible that today could be the day when I join Michael for a look at the rooftop garden bar of The Catford Constitutional Club in the old Argos building in Catford. Before that, and with the prospect of a dry and sunny day, I might wash a brand new fitted sheet - possibly two !