It was not very warm
outside yesterday, but with it
being a very sunny day, it was
warm in my south facing rooms. I
noted the downstairs front room
warmed up to 20° C just from the
sun shining through the windows.
Outside it barely reached 9° C.
Even before sunset the temperature
started to fall, and it was 5° C
(and possibly less) by 11pm last
night.
This morning started with
a frost ! There is a still a
frost on the cars outside that
are in the shade. My
thermometers say it is between 3
and 4° C as I write this. The
semi good news is that the sun
is now almost high enough to
shine over the rooftops to the
east. The bad news is that it
looks quite cloudy, and it
currently seems unlikely we will
get the promised sunny spells.
It seems even less like that we
will get the full sunshine shown
for 9 and 10am in the latest
revision. Most of today will
feature white cloud, and the
temperature may only rise to 8°
C for just two hours at 2 and
3pm. It will be another rather
cool night, although maybe not
cool enough for frost in the
morning. The day could start at
5° C, but it might warm up to
11° C despite the whole day
being lightly overcast.
Yesterday was
a very successful day when
measured by certain metrics. In
other respects it was slightly
boring. I did a few small
things, but in some respects I
did very little, and in one
specific case I did nothing !
Doing that special nothing was
quite a challenge, or maybe it
was easy. All will be explained.
The great challenge was
to fast for the whole day up
until dinner time. I needed to
do it after I saw the
devastatingly high blood glucose
readings in the morning. As well
as not eating anything at all
until dinner time, I also didn't
drink anything but tap water. I
sort of did that without
thinking why I was doing it, but
it may have been that I feared
the gas from Diet Coke would
stir my guts up, and make me
feel I was hungrier than I was.
There was one other
significant thing that I did
yesterday, and that was to
finish washing a hand towel,
t-shirt and 2 pairs of
underpants. The t-shirt was
white, and so I could only wash
it with undyed or light blue
stuff, and the other stuff was
light blue. I'm not sure if any
blue dye came out of anything,
and so there was no "blue
whitener" effect. As usual, the
hand towel needed almost twice
as many rinses until the rinse
water was no longer foamy.
That is one trouble with
washing towels. They do seem to
soak up detergent, and only
reluctantly let it go. It is not
so bad with a small hand towel,
but a bath towel can be a real
bugger ! Anyway, the deed was
done, and I hung the four items
on the big clothes horse in the
front room. I was surprised to
see it had warmed up to 20° C in
there just from sunshine coming
through the windows.
The other thing I did was
less taxing that doing the
laundry. It was to do the
washing up, and to prepare my
dinner. I allowed plenty of time
for dinner to not only cook, but
to spent time just soaking up
some of the spices and stuff. It
was basically diced pork with
pak choi and a couple of
chillies with a sprinkle of
Chinese five spice powder. I've
never had a lot of luck with 5
spice powder, but it did seem to
work yesterday, although I
slightly overdid the sliced
chillies. It all became a bit
too hot to appreciate the
spices.
I passed quite a lot of
yesterday just reading. Some was
technology news stories from the
internet, but a fair chunk was
reading the next Robert Heinlein
book in my collection. I am sure
there is a recommended reading
order, but maybe that doesn't
kick in until his later novels.
I have started on date order,
and I am currently reading
another of his stories targeted
at juveniles. It was written in
1951, and called "
Between
Planets". It could be 20
or 30 years since I last read
it, but I seem to remember a lot
of it - but not enough to spoil
it.
At 5pm I started watching
TV, and an episode from Star
Trek: The Original Series. It
was entitled "The Tholian Web",
and although mostly well
remembered, there were a few
bits I didn't remember - maybe
about 5%, and so it was
reasonably engaging. When it
finished at 6pm I rechecked my
blood glucose readings to make
sure my blood glucose had come
down enough for my to enjoy my
dinner. If it hadn't I would
tried to continue fasting,
although I doubt I could hold
out much longer.
I had last eaten over 23
hours earlier before I did that
blood glucose check yesterday
morning. I saw rather a good
improvement !
Yesterday
morning=
11.3mmol/l
10.9mmol/l
12.6mmol/l
Yesterday evening
=
7.2mmol/l
7.5mmol/l
8.4mmol/l
I used the same meters and I
have shown the results in the
same order. They show quite a
big drop, and although I knew my
dinner would be very safe
anyway, I could enjoy it without
worrying about the consequences.
I will also admit that I had a
small handful of peanuts while
the last bit of cooking was
taking place just before I ate
it. I also ate a small lump of
cheese as a sort of dessert.
I continued to watch TV
until 10pm. I could have watched
another edition of Have I Got
News For You, but I thought one
was enough. I went to bed, but
only managed to read a few pages
before I could feel my eyelids
drooping. I put the book down,
turned out the light, and
nothing happened. I expected to
go to sleep instantly, but it
really only took about 10
minutes. It was possibly even
quicker than that, but time
seems to drag in such
situations.
I did seem to get rather
a good sleep last night. I still
woke up a few times for pee, but
as I would later find out, it
wasn't because of high blood
glucose. As is often the case, I
remember dreaming but not the
dreams themselves - except for
the end of the last dream. In
that dream I wanted to use a
toilet, but the only one I could
find free was in quite a
disgusting state. Ideally I
wouldn't have liked to sit down
and done a poo, but I settled
for standing up and doing just a
pee.
When I got up, not too
long after 6am, I was moderately
keen for a pee - so the dream
was not lying in that respect. I
assumed I wanted a poo as well,
but that was no more than wind.
In theory I should have felt
good this morning. In one
respect I did, but only as much
as I didn't feel bloated. I
should have felt full of beans
after what I believe was a good
sleep, but I still felt sort of
sluggish, and while nothing was
painful, I had quite a selection
of mild aches.
There was better news
about my blood glucose levels
this morning, although I think I
expected better than I got. The
Contour meter read 7.8mmol/l, or
just about above my imaginary
target. The GlucoRX meter read a
slightly better 7.7mmol/l, and
the Viva Chek meter read
8.4mmol/l. Once again that meter
read higher than the other two,
but even 8.4mmol/l is fairly
good.
Incidently, if you have
ever wonder what mmol/l stands
for it is milli moles per litre.
It is the definition of moles
that is hard to understand. If
you have time to waste, you can
read about it here -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)
There is one thing I hope
to do today, and that is to
limit what I eat. I'm off to a
semi-fair start. I had a single
bowl of a medium sized packet of
instant noodles for breakfast.
Ideally I will slip lunch, but
in reality I will be lucky to
make it very moderate. The
reason is today could be quite
boring, and there will be no
sunshine* for most of the day to
lift the spirits. I may have to
try and bury my head in a book
or something.
* The 9am sunshine turned out to
be a sunny spell lasting no more
than 2 or 3 minutes. It seems
the 10am sunshine stands no
chance of happening.....on the
other hand, the latest revision
to the forecast has added sunny
spells from 1pm until sunset. It
feels unlikely, but fingers
crossed.... Of course the BBC
weather forecast shows sunny
spells all day, but I guess 30
seconds of sunshine in a single
hour is still classified as a
sunny spell.
One thing I will do today
is to wash my hair, and have a
shower. I did neither yesterday,
and I feel a bit grubby. It does
mean I could possibly go out
today, but maybe for nothing
more than a bit of shopping. I
just don't seem to feel up to
walking exercise lately, and it
is mainly because I expect to
get chest pains, although only
one of several recent walks has
produced any chest pain. There
is a possibility that the chest
pains could be a mix of inflamed
scar tissue with "loose ribs"
(or whatever) and acid
indigestion. I do find myself
taking antacids fairly
frequently these days. It could
be the result of taking lose
dosage aspirin for the last 20
or more years - and I rarely
take it with a meal as
recommended. Maybe I ought to
make a point of taking it with a
meal - maybe switch it to the
evening with my evening meal.