We have just had the first sunny spell, and it looks like it is trying for another. There is a lot of blue sky visible as I write this, but it is not in the right place for the sun. The latest revision to the weather forecast only shows just 4 hours, 8 and 9am, 2pm, and 4pm when sunny spells are expected. It could get dull for an hour or so after midday. Just 15° C is forecast for today, but that could feel good if the sun is shining. I have a gut feeling that there could be more sunshine than shown in the forecast. Tomorrow could be a bit dull, with no sunshine at all, but it should stay dry, and the temperature is expected to only reach 14° C.

   Yesterday, with it's nasty wet start, set the tone of the day. I turned my thoughts inward, and ended up doing very little, or at least very little that was worthwhile. Later in the afternoon, when the sun did break through, I wondered if I should go out, but by that time I had part seized up, and walking didn't seem like it could be enjoyable.

   I spent most of the morning, or what was left of it after writing here, just laying on my bed, and resting my eyes. I don't think I snoozed, but I'll admit I may have done. Between midday and 1pm I spent a little time in the kitchen. Initially it was to do the washing up, and then to prepare my dinner, and my lunch. Lunch was interesting, but failed to meet expectations. It was boiled potatoes with some sliced Polish smoked pork.

  Some of the potatoes I had cleaned, sliced and boiled were for my dinner. Dinner was to be Chinese "five spice" flavoured stewed pork with potato and bean sprouts. One extra thing I added, but forgot about until halfway through eating it, was some ready made crispy fried onion. It probably added a little more fibre to my diet, but most usefully it thickened up what would have been thin stock into a very nice gravy.

 One oddity that might have provided some fibre, and not too many gms of sugar, were the crisps pictured on the left. They were based on oats, but seemed very, very light in texture. They were very crispy but almost dissolved on the tongue. A big handful would dissolved to less than a level teaspoon full. I'm not sure about "Sizzling Mexican Salsa", but they were were a mild lime flavour, and I would rate them as half a chilli for heat. They made an nice and unusual snack.

  I had many hours to use up before I could have that dinner. I had/have some clothes in the laundry basket, and it would have been useful to have washed them, but I couldn't raise the enthusiasm. I started off the afternoon, after my lunch, reading as much as a couple of chapters of the book I am reading, "Glory Road" by Robert Heinlein. It is one of his odd books that is closer to Fantasy than SciFi. The two main characters are a reluctant hero, and very feminine, and beautiful, but also very strong, all action woman.

  A bit later in the afternoon I finally did a few useful things. I edited (top and tailing, plus advert removal) four episodes of The Avengers I had recorded on my big TV down in the front room. It is one of those jbs that are mildly frustrating, or mildly tedious, but give mild satisfaction when finished. The worst thing about it was the realisation of how much of a backlog of recordings I still have to go through.

  Once upon a time there was a series on one of the Freeview channels called "Big City Metro", and it showed off the "underground" rail system in many big cities around the world. I recorded a lot of them on cheap VHS tapes on a poor quality recorder. Watching them back many years later is no pleasure. The pictures are noisy, and you keep having to fast forward to find the start, and then fast forward over all the adverts.

  These days advert breaks are even longer, but now I have the facility to edit them out. The best thing is that the recording is all digital - that actual digital data stream as broadcast. Hopefully, assuming I am still alive in 10 years, my archive of, for instance, "Secrets Of The London Underground" will look as fresh as the day it was originally broadcast when I play it back.

  Last night was not a very exciting evening, but I managed to just about amuse myself until 9pm when I went to bed. As usual I read for 20 to 30 minutes before putting the book down, and turning out the light. It was another of those nights when it seemed I would never get to sleep. I didn't seem to feel tired, but at a wild guess, a mere 10 minutes passed before I was sound asleep.
  My evening was partly eased by a few beers, or at least it should have been. The sad fact is the beers in the picture, plus one more from the same series, were a bitter disappointment. The one on the left seemed to be a bit insipid, but the one on the right did have a sort of roasted coconut taste, but all these beers seemed to be very thin. These flavours would be much better in a thick stout.

  I must have slept so well that I was up before 6am this morning. I can only recall waking to go for a pee about twice in the night. I do remember fragments of two dreams that had a common theme - tunnels - and that could be terribly Freudian ! In the first dream the tunnel was a railway tunnel, all smoked stained raw brickwork, and it was behind a door in a bedroom that had my bed, and 3 or 4 others in it.

  Not a lot happened in the dream, although there was a lot of speculation about the tunnel. One obvious thing was that it was cold and damp in there, and so I had no desire to go in. It was thought there were rats in there - another reason not to go in. One really weird idea was that marsh gas, methane, accumulated near the centre of the tunnel, and a a stray spark could send a wall of flame down the tunnel for a few moments.

  That dream possibly happened around 1am. I think it might have been around 4am when I had a dream that included a second tunnel. This one was clean, and lined with white tiles - evidently based on passageways in a deep tube station. The image of looking into the tunnel is clear in my memory, but I can't seem to recall doing any more than just looking down it. I'm sure a doctor with a goatee beard, and Austrian accent would say these dreams are to do with sex, and the lack of action was to do with old age impotence, but maybe I just happen to think Tube stations are fascinating places !

  After all the potatoes I had, plus other stuff, including the beers, I had doubts that my blood glucose readings might have been modestly high this morning, but again I was wrong. The Contour meter read a very good 7.3mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read a very slightly higher 7.6mmol/l, and of course the Sinocare meter read highest of all at 8.1mmol/l, but even that is pretty good.

  Now the tricky bit - what am I going to do today ? One possibility is that I might try and go out early this afternoon when, in theory, the sun could come out. I have a destination in mind - Colindale Tube Station on The Northern Line. It is due to close for a complete refurbishment, and installation of lifts for step free access early in June. It would be nice to get some snaps of it in it's pre-refurbishment state.

  I was going to say that going out all hinges on whether the constipation I had yesterday would be over today, but I am happy to say that since ending the paragraph before this one, I have had a poo ! I rather expect there will be more to come, but maybe this single one will allow my blood pressure to drop the small faction needed for my blood pressure meter to say the reading is "optimum", or one better than "normal" ! ... I am happy to say my blood pressure is now "optimum" !

  If the weather doesn't seem good enough, or I feel uncomfortable in any way, there are plenty of things I could do today, and it could include a shorty walk around the park or something. As noted further up the page, I realise I have a huge backlog of TV recordings to edit, and correctly name. I also have a enough laundry waiting to be washed that I probably ought to do that anyway. What I actually do today will have to be revealed tomorrow.
      







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