There was some hope that today might include some sunny spells, but the current look of the sky, plus the forecasts, say today is going to be dull. The Met Office say very dull, and The BBC say just dull. As I write this it looks like the met Office is winning. It is rather wet outside after overnight rain, but today is forecast to be dry. It is also forecast to be rather chilly. Depending on who gets it right, today could be no more then 7 or 8° C. Tomorrow may see 11° C, but it will come at the cost of rain all day long - and much of it could be heavy rain.

    Yesterday I did something for the very first time this year ! I went out without wearing a coat. My thermometers said it should have been mild, and in the odd few seconds when the wind dropped it did actually feel so, but most of the time a strong wind made it feel rather chilly.

  Nevertheless, it did feel sort of good to get some fresh air, and one or two waves of ultra violet (the smallest amount above nothing) on my arms, plus walking without a coat always seems more liberating. My destination was Tesco, about 5 or 6 minutes walk away. With no coat, and a strong desire to get out of the wind, I probably made it in 5 minutes. The more amazing thing is that with my chest covered with no more than a simple t-shirt, and feeling chilly, I did not get a single chest pain (although I could feel some click and grating noises from my rib cage as I walked).

  If I had been more aware of some of the rotten days coming I would have changed what I bought in Tesco to "winter" food, but I actually bought a lot more salad stuff. In fact apart from one thing, it was just about all salad stuff, and even the one thing that wasn't could have been eaten with a salad. Even the skinless chicken breasts are destined to go into a salad (and hopefully the oven timer doesn't get stuck when I cook them this time !).

  Walking home was less cold because the wind was on my back, rather than into my face. The actual difference was probably more psychological than real.  I had left to go shopping earlier than usual, and so I was home earlier too - before midday - but I didn't wait for midday before I tucked into my lunch. It was a very unhealthy lunch, but rather tasty. It was a case of seeing them on the shelf in Tesco, and suddenly it was love at first sight (or something stupid like that). "They" were Ginsters "Peppered Steak Slices" eaten cold, and very much enjoyed. I didn't dare check their nutritional values, but I am pretty certain they were very unhealthy.

  That walk to and from Tesco was the only real thing I did yesterday. The rest of the day I spent doing almost, nothing of note. One thing which was notable because it happened so early was my delivery of stuff ordered from Amazon. It arrived at just gone 1pm, and that is a record for Amazon. Also a record was my postal delivery. A few items, including my Polling card came through my letter box very soon after 9am - or as much as three hours early.

  One slightly minor thing I did in the afternoon was to wash up a few bits of cutlery, and a few bowls. One was my big glass bowl that I went on to fill up with a load of salad ready to eat later at about 6pm. When I say "a load" I am barely joking. A bit of this and a bit of that, many times over filled up that bowl to quite a depth. One thing I had forgotten to buy in Tesco was baby potatoes, but I found I still had about twice as many as were needed for the salad. I was tempted to use the whole lot, but I think I am glad I restrained myself.

  Over half the ingredients in the salad were, or hopefully should have been, very safe. I feel sure there is little sugar in green leaves, although there could be in mini sweet peppers (the name suggests there is), and even spring onions could have more sugar in than nothing. It was the tomatoes that probably contributed most sugar. I used "ordinary salad tomatoes" rather than nicer sweet baby tomatoes. The so called salad tomatoes are rather bland, and hopefully contained less sugar than the baby tomatoes. I think the cheese and ham I added should have been safe.
  This was the end result of my salad construction. Once again the view from the top gives no real hint of depth, but it was a much deeper pile than the two salads I pictures in the previous couple of days. Not only did it look bigger, it definitely took longer to eat than the previous salads. It was also rather nicer. Cheese and ham may not be terribly healthy (high cholesterol) , but it was very tasty.

  I had filled in a lot of gaps during the day with reading, and with the last short paragraph read in bed before sleep, I finished the book I was reading, and I am now staring another. Many of the gaps of the evening were filled in by watching TV. I don't think there is much to describe about that TV viewing - it was the same as many nights. The only significant thing is that I didn't stay up to watch an episode of QI, and went to bed at about 10pm.

  Last night was one of those nights when I had some nice deep periods of sleep. but also some periods of insomnia. One reason for the poor bits of sleep, and insomnia, is that I was feeling uncomfortable. I had a mild, but occasionally annoying stomach ache. It was the result of a day of constipation. It was getting uncomfortable, but nothing was moving (except for some wind). That all changed after I got up. It was uncomfortable to start, but once moving...

  I have a feeling I had quite a few dreams about pubs and drinking, but only part of one dream seems to have partly stuck in my memory. In the dream I had gone into what looked a lot like the old Catford Railway Tavern. I had two pints of a really delicious ale. It was slightly spoiled by some gritty sediment, but it seemed to be just usual sediment from a barrel. When I went to pay for the second pint I fished a £20 note from my wallet, and initially thought it was a new issue note with our new kings head on it.

  It was actually a clever fake banknote. Maybe not so much fake as a demonstration note. On the back there was a panel in one corner that contained some notes about it. It was almost as if it was one of several possible designs that were being tested at the printers, and somehow had got mixed in with proper banknotes. I paid for my pint with a proper banknote, and maybe that dream faded out, and then the next scene started.

  I decided I wanted a third pint, and queued up at the bar waiting to be served. Along came a barmaid, and refused to serve me. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but it sounded like she was saying I was too close, with an added mumble of something about health. She never suggested who or what I was too close to, and after a bit I decided to leave the pub. As I turned around and headed for the door I satw the manager, who was actually the old manager of The Catford Ram. I told him about his barmaid not serving me, but he just shrugged his shoulders, and implied he didn't care. I told him I was going to go to The Wetherspoons, and once again he shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care !

  I was rather hoping that my blood glucose readings might be lower than the day before when I checked them this morning. On the other hand, all I said above about what might or might not have excess sugar in my lunch or dinner, was because while I might hope for lower readings, I was not so sure that they might not be higher. Sadly they were higher, and in one case quite a lot higher. The Contour meter read 8.6mmol/l, up from 8.4mmol/l yesterday. The GlucoRX meter read 8.9mmol/l, very much up from yesterday's 8.2mmol/l. The Viva Chek, as almost normally, went off into flights of fancy with a very bad reading of 9.3mmol/l, up from yesterday's 8.6mmol/l. Looks like I need to be a lot more careful about what I eat today.

  One thing that can make things worse is that today should be my day for 2 or 3 pints of Guinness at The Jolly Farmers, but I have some doubts about whether I'll get there today. I am expecting quite a small parcel being delivered by Royal Mail. I had hoped it would come parcel post because that usually arrived here quite early in the morning. I think it is coming via the ordinary postman. Yesterday I suspect it was not my normal postman. He delivered very early, about 9am. My normal postman usually delivers quite late, often between midday and 1pm. The advice sent by Royal Mail says between 10.55am and 1.55pm. The later time is not far short of when I would be leaving the pub. I guess I just keep my fingers crossed that he will be here early enough to still get to the pub at 1pm (just in case Michael, or even Angela decides to join me - both highly unlikely).