The forecast has got off to a good start. The sun is still too low in the sky to see it, but the clear sky is obvious, and the eastern horizon is nice and bright. The latest revision to the forecast has produced one change for the better - 3pm is now shown with sunny spells. The maximum temperature still stands at a shivery 5° C. One other change I just noticed is that the rain is now shown to start at 11pm. Tomorrow it's back to grey skies, and rain, but the temperature may rise to 8° C.

   Yesterday seemed to be a nice day, although maybe only in one respect. I was feeling a lot better. It was as if I did have some sort of cold or other malady. I still had the occasional twinge, but on the whole I was close to pain free a lot of the time. I should have been able to do more, but maybe just feeling less pains was a reward itself.

  After what is now a typical morning - writing this, reading stuff of the internet, and then having a lie down to read or occasionally to snooze - I finally had a shower, and felt ready to go out shopping. At the end of the shower I put three t-shirts and two pairs of underpants into detergent for what was quite a long soak. After that, wearing a moderately/slightly warm coat, I took a stroll to Poundland.

  One thing before I went out was at the bottom of the stairs, in the cold air down there, I found myself lightly wheezy, and my chest felt a bit funny. I predicted it could be a bad walk, and maybe one I would have to turn back from. In fact I had hardly gone three paces before I felt absolutely fine, and a slow walk turned into a semi brisk stroll. The only bad thing was that cold air was making my nose drip.

  I had a few ideas of what I wanted from Poundland - shampoo and conditioner, plus a wireless mouse. Of course I bough more than that. I noticed they had the Gullom branded "sugar free" choc chip cookies. They are not as sugar free as the label says, but better than nothing. I bought two packs, and I also bought a couple of airtight containers so I could keep them for long periods, and feel no need to finish them off before they start to go stale. That started off working, and I only had 4 of those cookies yesterday instead of half, or more of the packet.

  I don't know why I did it because they are not good for me, and I am not keen on prawn flavour crisps, but I bought a big bag of them. They would form my lunch and later snacking, and a[art from the 4 previously mentioned choc chip cookies, I don't think I ate anything else until dinner time.

  The walk back home, was like the walk there, only marred by an occasional drippy nose. Everything else felt fine. It boded well for a bit of walking today. Maybe the best thing about walking there and back was that it was all done in the dry....well, there was no rain falling, as the forecast said there should be, but there were plenty of puddles around.

  Once I got home, and put my purchases away, I went into lazy mode. I scoffed a pile of crisps while reading tech news on the internet, and than flopped down onto my bed to read my book, and because that book is so bloody heavy, I put the book down after reading 3 or 4 pages, and closed my eyes. I might, or might not have had a snooze. I think more time seemed to pass without noticing it while my eyes were closed - which sounds a lot like sleep.

  Upon rousing myself, I practically forced myself to get back to the laundry I had left soaking. As I did it I started to feel like I wanted to take a break, but I persevered, and did the rinses and fabric conditioner before an extra energetic bit of wringing it out by hand, and then hanging it on the big clothes horse. It was so cold (about 14° C) in the front room that I put the fan heater on full blast, pointing at the clothes horse for maybe 3 hours to give the drying a head start before turning off the fan heater, and just using a desk fan to help the clothes to dry.

  There is one other significant thing I did yesterday. After seeing my bank account looking healthy a few days ago, and with my next pension payment due in a week today, I thought I could afford to order a box of beers. With plenty of beers already here, but most of the to Jodie's taste, I decided I would order some winter ales for myself. There are some that Jodie might like to try, but essentially I claim full ownership of the new order. It is possible it could arrive as early as Friday. Sounds like a boozy weekend coming up !

  I don't think I did anything of note until it was time to switch on the TV (or more specifically, start the TV app on my PC) for the three Star Treks of the early evening. Star Trek: The Original Series, was a once good, but now boring episode. Star Trek: Enterprise was a better choice than a dull Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager was not one of the very few good episodes that were made.

  At about 6pm, with Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise starting, I had my dinner. I had a perfectly good dinner in the slow cooker, but maybe it was that big bag of crisps I ate....well, I just didn't really fancy a big hot dinner. I still wanted to eat, and I ended up eating rice crackers and cheese. I washed them down with a couple of large whiskies. At 8pm I wasn't ready for bed, and I did some TV channel hopping until I ended up watching QIXL followed by Have I Got News For You. The latter was particularly amusing. It was an episode made after Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister !

  It was after 10pm before I went to bed, and once in bed I read for another 20 minutes or so.  I then fell into a deep sleep. I woke again a few hours later for a pee, but was soon back asleep again. At just after 4am I woke again for a pee, and usefully put the heater on full before falling asleep again. I remember one dream, and it seemed to be a long dream. It was set in an Indian restaurant, but very little happened to write about. The only notable thing is that I never acually got served a meal while sitting in there.

  I slept a long longer than I thought I would, and it wasn't until just gone 7am before I woke up. I think I could have turned over and gone back to sleep, but although the need for either was not urgent, and I did feel a small need for a pee, and a small need for what turned out to be a very satisfactory poo. I then checked my blood glucose readings. They were very good. The Contour and Sino Care meters gave readings of 7.9 and 7.5mmol/l. Both very good, but for some reason the GlucoRX meter gave a magnificent reading of 6.7mmol/l. It is only recently that I see an occasion 6.x reading.

  For once I know what I am doing today. It's a Wednesday, Ayse, my favourite barmaid should be back from her holiday, and I'll be going to The Jolly Farmers for a couple of pints of Guinness. There is a rail strike on today, and so I shall have to walk to the pub, and although very cold, it should be bright and sunny. that will make the walk nicer.

  The main unknown is whether to do the shorter walk and hope I can get copies of The Metro in Lewisham Hospital, or do the longer walk, and get the Metro from either Catford Bridge station, or Catford station. There are trains from the latter station, and so at least the gates will be open to go inside to where the papers are kept. On my way home I should be collecting my latest repeat prescription from the pharmacy - so I had better not stay too late, and drink too many pints of Guinness !



  I almost forgot.....Seen in Poundland, but not bought - Christmas Pudding flavour crisps. I embraced the idea of sprouts flavour crisps a few years ago, but this time they have crossed the line. Crisps are savouries, and not sweets !!!!!