It was maybe an after after sunrise that the world turned nice and sunny (where world=Catford). Sadly it will only last until midday, and then from 3pm we can expect rain, and much of it could be very heavy. It is going to be a cold day with the temperature peaking at just 9° C, but tomorrow could see just 9° C. Tomorrow could be even colder with the temperature only reaching 7 or 8° C, but at least it should stay dry, and with white clouds it should be moderately bright.

    Yesterday was mostly a good day, but things started to go wrong in the later half of the afternoon. It was easy to blame booze for it, but maybe there was another reason that only became apparent this morning. More about that later.

  The good thing about yesterday morning was the sunny spells. They made me feel good after the very soggy day the day before. I had a nice shower, and washed my hair ready to go out a bit later. My new leather jacket arriving around 10am was another thing to feel good about, although as I mentioned yesterday, it was a tighter fit than I was expecting. It was still wearable though - even fully zipped up.

  I am glad I did zip it up before going out because even while the sun was shining there a sudden downpour of rain as I walked towards the station via the mini supermarket on Catford bridge. It was quite a handy test of that new coat. It kept me perfectly dry, and it kept me warm, but not too warm. After buying two lots of genuine Turkish delight, in assorted flavours, from the mini supermarket, I went to the station where I grabbed two copies of The Metro to take to the pub.

  As ever, I took a few pictures of trains while travelling the single stop between Catford Bridge and Ladywell, but my timing was such that I only saw two trains, and neither was one I had never taken a picture of before. I arrived at the pub with my coat still zipped up, and it was still feeling moderately comfortable. The great thing was that it didn't seem to annoy/inflame my chest scar tissue.

  Ayse, my favourite bar maid, was pleased to see me after missing the previous Wednesday lunchtime, and pleased to get a copy of The Metro, and shocked but happy to get her New Years present of the Turkish Delight. After some chat, which included how I had seen the new year in while sitting on the toilet, which amused her, I sat down and started on the crosswords. I am unsure why, but even the quick crossword seemed unusually hard.

  In the end I only managed about half the quick crossword, and just two of the cryptic clues. I was getting near the end of my second pint of Guinness, and thinking I might need a third pint if I was to solve any more clues, when in walked Michael. He had been to the Post Office just up the road, and wondered if I was in the pub. We had two pints together before leaving. Once again I zipped my new jacket up to keep out the cold, but after 4 pints it was starting to feel a bit tighter.

  I think Michael might have got a bus the two stops towards home, but elected to walk with me through the park. About halfway through the park the sun came out again. I was feeling slightly warm, and decided to unzip my coat. It felt quite good like that, or at least it did at first. Once I got home, where I had turned off all the heating, I felt a little cool, but not so cool that I wanted to turn the heating on. Instead I opted for some hot food.

  I assumed it was the beer that was influencing me when I decided I wanted not one, but two medium sized bowls of instant noodles. It was, if nothing else, a chance to try two more flavours foung in the Polish shop I had never tried before. One was quite intriguing. About 95% of the writing on the packet was in Polish, but in the bottom right hand corner, almost concealed by a fold, it said Five Spice flavour, and indeed it had a sort of hint of Chinese about it.

  After eating I lay on my bed and read, and tried to snooze. I think I did snooze, but I am not sure if it was 5 seconds or a full hour. It was nearly 4pm before I woke up, and I felt cold and hungry. It seemed like a good time to put some heating on, and I gave in to the desire for food. I had a small pile (10 ?) of rice crackers with cheese on them. All that cheese was not good calorie-wise, but both the crackers and cheese are known to contain very little sugar.

  The cheese and rice crackers were certainly a lot healthier than my dinner. I was supposed to have lamb and sprouts, but I fancied more bacon. I cooked a whole pack of bacon, and because there was a little room in the pan I added some sausages before giving it all a long roasting/grilling in the mini oven/grill.  To make matters worse I splattered the whole lot with Tesco low sugar tomato ketchup. It was enjoyable at first, but I began to realised I was over stuffing myself.

  After amusing myself (if "amusing" is the right word) with some television I went to bed soon after 9pm. I was feeling a bit stuffed, and I had to take some antacids because the bacon and sausages were repeating on me. My stomach actually felt sort of painful as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep. Eventually I got up again, and tried again an hour or two later. With hindsight I can see that there was more to it than the obvious symptoms I have described.

  Once I did get to sleep, probably around midnight, I did seem to sleep quite well. Once again I think I only woke up once for a pee unless I count when I woke up at a time I might have got up at if it were summer time, and the sun had risen hours earlier. I did have a pee than, and I also turned the heater up full. I then slept for another two hours, and woke up to a nice warm bedroom.

  I also woke up to a peppery feeling in my nose, and gallons of snot pouring out. It seems that 4 years to the day since my last very snotty cold, I have come down with a cold again. It is a shame really because from the neck down I possibly feel better than usual, but now my nose is getting sore form constant blowing, and I am getting through man sized tissues at a prodigious rate !

  The good thing is that despite the illness, and despite all I ate yesterday, my blood glucose readings were pretty good this morning. The contour meter read just 7.6mmol/l. If I had used fresh blood on the other two they may have read similar, but the GlucoRX meter read 8.0mmol/l and the Sino Care meter read 8.9mmol/l. I should have taken the last reading again with fresh blood, but I was too distracted by my dripping nose to stop to do that.

  The original plan for today was a beer drinking afternoon. I am not sure if Jodie is back from Finland yet, and I suggested to Michael we could possibly go to a pub instead of drinking here. Now it seems it would be better if I stayed isolated, and just drunk whisky by myself with the heater turned up high to keep my room nice and toasty. Of course if the sun was going to stay out a bit longer today, and maybe if it was a few degrees warmer, I might have chanced going for a walk. Sometimes fresh air can help dry out a dripping nose. Maybe not today though. Perhaps today I should go back to bed, with a bucket under my nose to catch the drips !