This morning has started off fairly mild, at 11° C, but as I write this it is very dull outside. It may brighten up a bit before the sky turns from white to dark grey, and the first rain falls - possibly from 11am, and it is forecast to be heavy rain.  That rain is supposed to continue through until late afternoon, but there could be another shower, or more, a bit later. The temperature could peak at 12° C at 10am, but after that it was slowly decrease down to maybe 7° C by the end of the day.  Tomorrow morning could start as low as 4° C (BBC) or 5° C (Met Office), but from there the two forecasters really have very different forecasts. The BBC forecast a fairly sunny sunny day with a high of 11° C. The Met Office present a very dull day, but say it should be dry, and they agree on a top temperature of 11° C.

   Yesterday was a fairly OK to good sort of day, - except for late evening when it wasn't so good. I had a moderate amount of things to say about the day before yesterday, and the start of yesterday morning, but still managed to finish writing quite early, although I had also started writing earlier than I often do.

  After I had finished writing I had a little rest, as I usually do, and then tackled the clothing I had left soaking in detergent for almost 24 hours. It was nasty and cold, and I was so glad that I do this sort of thing wearing rubber gloves, but it still felt nasty and cold ! It was only two t-shirts, but I was surprised how many pairs of underpants I had to wash. I had found about three pairs lurking under a t-shirt in the bottom of my laundry basket (actually a sort of bag, and not a basket at all).

  Once all that washing was hanging on the clothes horse to dry I could have a shower. Had I started to finish that laundry a lot earlier I might have hung it on the washing line in the sunshine. On the other hand it was not that warm, and the sun doesn't really hit the washing line until the afternoon. Anyway, I had a shower, and then left a single hand towel soaking in Bio detergent. I'll have to finish washing that towel this morning before I can have a shower this morning.

  It felt like everything was a mad rush yesterday morning, but I didn't really rush, and I had plenty of time to go and do a small shop in Tesco before one of the highlights of the day - a beer delivery. I must admit, it was great service. It took about 26 hours between ordering the beer, and it being delivered at just gone 1pm yesterday.

  As usual, I went for all the "just in" selection at Beer Merchants (dot com), and chose what I wanted from there. I selected some that might suit my tastes, and some that I hoped Jodie would like. The first thing I did was to shuffle the existing beers in my two small beer fridges, and I managed to find enough room to put all but 3 or 4 cans in them to chill in the 2 or 3 hours before we might start to drink them. It was while putting the cans in the fridge that I realised I might have made a tragic mistake. Some of the alleged IPA style beers were described on the cans as sour. Jodie likes sour beers, I don't !

  Jodie arrived late because she went for another look around Lidl to see if they had any special beer left. They recently had a special beer week, and she could only manage to carry a single 4 pack here, and she was hoping she would get the other she fancies, but alas they had sold out of ALL the special beers they had had in stock the first time she was there.

  There were still quite a few beers waiting to be tasted in the fridges without go for the new beers. Two of them were quite nice, and I enjoyed my two half can servings of them. Jodie was then keen to try two beers in particular from the new batch. Sadly they were disgustingly sour beers - sour enough to strip the enamel off my teeth. I only had a taster of about half an inch in a small tumbler such as whisky might be served in. Jodie had the rest, and I had some a different beer.

  One unfortunate thing was that Jodie had bought some things to have for her dinner while, or even partly before she started drinking. Apart from all the usual fussing around of her preparing her dinner, yesterday was a lot worse. She had bought a reduced price/out of date mix of vegetables that for some reason were supposed to be cooked in an oven, but looked like they could just as easily be microwaved. Maybe cooking in the oven may have boiled off some awful odours given off by what seemed like decaying broccoli, but I doubt it. The kitchen soon filled up with the stink of a compost heap. Jodie decided that she could not eat the broccoli, but she did bravely eat the peas !

  A bit later on we were joined by Alan. He had brought a CD over of a band they had recently seen, and allowed me to rip it to mp3 files. We listed to some of it later. It was OK, but there was nothing that attracted my full attention. Half an hour after that we were joined by Mark. He, Jodie and Alan were all going to a gig later. It was some weeks ago that I gave Mark the far too small for me leather bikers style jacket that I had bought because it was described as being a lot bigger than it was in reality. It fitted Mark, and I'm told he wears it a lot, although not when he was here yesterday.

  When I gave Mark the jacket he said maybe we would do a swap. He said he had a long leather coat, I think it could be described as trench coat style, but it was far too big for him (he had been given it by another friend). He brought it over yesterday, and I tried it on. It almost fitted me well, but my gut bulges just a little too much, The good thing is that it looks that with a bit of simple needlework I can moved the buttons over a few inches, and that should make it fit OK, and there will still be a good overlap at the front to keep the weather out. I am sure it will be far too hot to wear it until at least mid, and probably more like late autumn, but it could make a nice winter coat. I could almost the envy of some goths !!

  Jodie, Alan, and Mark left quite late, sometimes around 7pm, and after they had gone I gave my dinner a quick warm up in the microwave. My plan had been to try and stick to the sort of diet I had put myself on before my MRI scan. It is amazing how quickly a plan can fall apart ! For instance my lunch was two cheese and onion Cornish style pasties (and I still have two left from a reduced price pack of 4 that I will have to eat, probably for lunch again, today).

  My dinner was a bit safer. It was casseroled diced chicken with stock, herbs and spices plus some leek, and a couple of small potatoes. It may well have been fairly safe, but I had a "dessert" of some rice crackers and cream blue cheese. It all didn't seem to be too much, and I didn't feel over full when I had finished it. I have a feeling that one of the beers I had in the afternoon was a bit sweet, suggesting it's sugar content may have been high for a beer - which if properly brewed allows the yeast to turn all the sugars in to alcohol.

  There was nothing on TV at the right time to distract me, and after spending maybe half an hour reading from the internet I went to bed to read my book for a while. Things got a bit hazy after that. I think I had put the book down, and fell asleep not too long after 9pm (and possibly before). I may have slept for an hour before waking up and feeling awful. Maybe most of it can be blamed on a hangover, but I think in reality it was a mix of things. I definitely had a sort of hangover-like headache, but I had a lot of other aches. Fortunately none seem to be heart related, but one almost mimicked that. It was acid indigestion, and the clue was my burps tasting of my dinner.

  A couple of antacid tablets cured that, but the stiff neck, a few other aches, plus feeling cold were literally because I had kicked the duvet aside, and I was cold ! I can't remember clearly, but I think I may have fallen asleep with the heater off because I thought it might be a mild night. It seemed to take over an hour before I felt comfortable enough to fall asleep again.

  Once I was asleep I generally seemed to sleep well, and as far as I am aware it was not until something like 4am when I woke up needing a pee, and feeling cold again. That time I turned the heater up full. After a while I was sleeping deeply again, and I can't seem to recall any hint of dreaming all night. I woke up again, and got up just after 6am. By then my bedroom was really very warm, and yet I could still feel a few cold drafts in the room, but it was generally comfortable until I did a lot more moving around, and then it seemed to be too hot. As I write this I have the heater off despite it being very gloomy, and moderately cool outside - although my thermometers do say it is almost 13° C.

  I was not sure what to expect my blood glucose meters would read, and so it seems neither did they. They gave a right mixed bag. The Contour meter read a modestly high 8.8mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter almost agreed with an even higher 8.9mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read a far better 7.8mmol/l for some unknown reason. The other two readings did concur that my blood glucose, while still in a very safe area, is much higher than my recent expectations. I might have to have a very frugal dinner tonight - perhaps just some fruit. I still need to finish the other two cheese and onion pasties that I never should have bought, and so it seems like I will not be able to get rid of the single kilogram I seemed to have put back on in the last few days.

  Today is a tricky day to predict. I hoped I might be expecting my new Nikon lens to be arriving today. It might still be possible, but the last tracking info showed it still to be at Goole in Yorkshire, but at 6am it still might have been in transit. If it does arrive today then I will spend a bit of time comparing it to the nasty Tamron lens that I am hoping it will replace, and produce nice sharp pictures.

  I am also expecting an Amazon delivery today at almost anytime today, but because it contains medical items (blood glucose test strips) it is often prioritised. It is apparently all coming in one parcel, but the rest of it is just computer stuff, and so has a lower priority. I very much doubt it will arrived before 1pm, and 5 or 6pm would probably be more likely. It is useful that the weather is going to be lousy today, and staying waiting for parcels is probably the best use of a day like today.
        







2142 words today