The sun has been trying to shine since sunrise, but there always seems to be a bit of cloud in the way. The latest revision to the forecast says full sunshine from 9am - which is now 3 minutes away as I write this, and seems unlikely. With luck there will be some sunny spells dotted through the day, but the cloud looks so patchy at the moment that is is probably going to be a matter of chance that a thin bit of cloud lines up with the sun, but fingers crossed it will happen. The latest revision to the forecast now shows a whole 4 hours at 6° C. Tomorrow morning could start with the temperature an almost warm by comparison to recent days. It may be 7 or 8° C, but it will also be accompanied by drizzle. Most of the day should be dry, but the evening could get very wet, but also actually warm. Some very strong winds during the day will blow warm and wet air over us, and the temperature could reach 12 or even 13° C as midnight approaches.

    I'm not sure if yesterday was overall good or bad. It was a bit of both, but the good bits were more comfortable than the bad, and I suppose that swings it towards yesterday being a good day. It was certainly a very lazy day, and that plus keeping warm, did seem to make most of my pains fade away for some of the time.

  It does make me wonder if all the pains I have suffered since last Sunday was something more than letting my chest get cold. I sometimes wonder if some of my extreme susceptibility to cold might be something like long covid, or maybe some other disease. The confounding thing is that it doesn't seem consistent enough. On the other hand there is some consistency in the way some very low level pain simmering in my chest, and it is easily aggravated by some physical movements like reaching out to grab something, but not movement associated with anything physical enough to raise heart action. I am still fairly confident that this is not a heart problem even when it often feels very similar.

  Of course there are something things that override, or distract from any pains. That suggests some of the pain, or at least it's intensity, or bothersomeness, is related to boredom. For a short while yesterday I had some excitement, and during that excitement I hardly noticed any pain (although I might have paid for it later). It was about 11am when my doorbell rang, and rang again while I struggled to put some shoes on, and go downstairs.
 It was the man from Royal Mail bringing me a box of beers. The amazing thing is that it was less than 24 hours since I had ordered them. That was pretty amazing. I didn't have enough time to pull a top on when I went to answer the door, and so I exposed my chest to cold air for 20 seconds, and also to not as cold air when I took the box in, and opened it up. Manhandling 24 cans of Special Brew is not exactly relaxing stuff, and yet for that period of time I was hardly aware of any aches or pains - except maybe my right elbow, but even that was not too bad.

  It was the day before yesterday when I had a mad idea that I would stock up on some silly strength lagers. I am expecting this case of 24 cans to last many months because it is only now and then when I get the urge for a strong lager. I also ordered a case of 24 cans of Skol super lager, and this morning it was reported to be at Yodel's local delivery depot. I expect I will get them today.

  When the doorbell rang I think I was having a snooze, and once I had taken in the box of beers, and cut up the box the case came in, I went back to laying on my bed. With the sun coming through my bedroom windows, onto my bed, it was nice to lay there feeling the warmth of the sun. I did consider getting up to have a shower, wash my hair, and start some laundry, but I used the excuse that the waste pipe from the bath was probably frozen up again, and so the bath couldn't be used.

 I did get up for long enough to cook some lunch. It was not a great choice of food for when I am battling to keep my blood glucose level low. It was a small-ish plate of thick oven chips. I must admit I did rather enjoy them. Eating them did have consequences, and by a twist of fate it was not for the better. Meanwhile I went back to being very lazy, although I include reading the book I am currently reading as being lazy too.

  The book was intended for youngsters, and it was originally written as short stories that were serialised in a kids magazine, and maybe intended for boy scouts. The whole lot was put together as the book "Farmer In The Sky" written by Robert A Heinlein. Being written for youngsters it is very easy to read, and yet it does contain a lot of semi adult information. It was written in 1950 when the only known rockets were the German V2 weapons, and it is all extrapolated from there.

  The book uses the classic device of one of the characters, a young boy in this instance, asking someone more knowledgeable about some aspect of space flight. It gave Heinlein the chance to explain some real science which was state of the art for it's time, and while some of it was speculative of the future, was basically sound science. It is curious to think that in 1950 all the basic science was known for rocketry, and all they lacked was the dreamed about super fuel to actually make it happen. Of course some modern micro electronics, and computers for controlling the rockets would have been handy, but the assumption then was that rockets would be manned, and piloted by skilled pilots who wouldn't need modern navigation equipment.

  After eating those chips at lunchtime, I decided I needed a very safe dinner, and the (usually) consistently safe meal would be shish kebabs. I was going to order two shish kebabs, but I made the mistake of ordering from a place I knew was not that good. They didn't even list a lamb shish kebab, and I ended up ordering one lamb donor kebab and one chicken kebab. Neither was very nice. The chilli sauce was not hot, and it seemed to be almost syrupy. The worst thing is that because I had spent over £20 I got a free portion of chips. The odd thing is also getting a 10 or 20% discount for ordering over £20. The total price, including delivery, was £18.94.

  To make matters worse, the order was delivered a bit late. It was obvious that the kebabs had been slapped together with no care, and as my notes from a previous order noted, there was very little salad with them. They arrived after the two Star Treks had finished, but I had the pleasure of watching a Who concert on Sky Arts as I ate my kebabs. I really should have discarded the free chips (actually "fries", and not chips), and maybe saved them for a snack today, but I ate at least half of them. With hindsight it was all very stupid considering the only reason I went for kebabs was because I had eaten chips earlier in the day.

  I think I was in bed a bit before 10pm, but I read for long enough to be sure that I didn't turn the light out until well after 10pm. On the whole I seemed to sleep well last night. I did have a few dreams, and all I can remember about one of them was that I was eating baked beans. Another dream was very weird. It was directly influenced by the book I have been reading. In the book, the main character, a prepubescent young boy has a younger step-sister, and they don't get on. He calls her "the brat" and other derogatory  names.

  In my dream I too had a sort of wayward younger sister, although I am sure both of us were considerably older than the youngsters in the book. I have to admit that the dream was extremely weird in so much as it was essentially about a toilet. I was about to go for a poo on the toilet when my bratty sister rushed into the toilet and sat down on the toilet still fully clothed, and announced she was going first. At that point I hadn't even pulled my trousers down, but then again neither had she. Essentially the dream ended there on that stalemate. If it continued I suppose I would have left the room to allow her to get on with it - after all, she was actually sitting on the toilet, and possession is three tenths.....or something.

  One thing about last night was that it does seem that I must have had sufficient sleep because I just couldn't seem to get back to sleep after waking up a little after 6am - I tried for nearly an hour ! After three very productive visits to the toilet yesterday, I wasn't expecting much, or even anything this morning, but it seems I was not empty, and I although it wasn't that much, it was definitely not a trivial deposit, and enough to feel satisfied.

  I was expecting a very bad blood glucose reading this morning, and I was not wrong. On the other hand, apart from ruining what could have been a great end of month average, it was not terrible. The better, or weirder, thing was that all three meters very closely agreed. The GlucoRX meter read 9.0mmol/l. The Contour meter read 9.1mmol/l, and the Sino Care meter read 9.2mmol/l. At least they were all well under the red line at 10.0mmol/, but all those chips really left their mark !

  One good thing is that so far this morning my aches and pains are hardly bothersome. I still feel reluctant to expose my chest to too much cold air, but maybe there is a better reason not to go out today. One currently great unknown is when and if my second case of strong lager will be delivered today. I feel fairly sure that Yodel do work on Saturdays, and if it arrived at the local delivery depot in the small hours, it should be delivered today.

  That restrains what I can do today, but I am sure I can fit in a shower this morning, and hopefully wash my hair too. It is well overdue a good wash. Once I have used the bath for washing me I can put my builders buckets in it and wash somwe clothes. The one thing I think I will avoid today is going shopping. There is stuff I need, but I feel it would bring too many temptations on a day when my blood glucose has started off too high. It could be a bit of a boring day.