The screenshot above was actually taken just after midnight when the forecast was revised for the new day.  Of course it has changed since, and for the worst. It seems it was only half an hour or so go that the first rain fell, but if the latest revision turns out to be correct, we can now expect non stop rain until 10pm tonight. Some of the rain will be heavy, and some light. Some may even be no more than drizzle, but it still all adds up to a filthy day. The best we can hope for today is just 13° C. Oh, and the BBC predict thunderstorms during the start of the afternoon ! Tomorrow promises to be a far better day. Most hours might feature some sunshine even if it is just a few minutes of watery sunshine, but some hours, particularly, but non exclusively, in the morning should feature full strength sunshine for the whole hour. It could push the temperature up to 19° C for an hour or more.
 
   I have to admit I am struggling to concentrate on writing this morning. I feel lousy. I think it is mostly a bad weather thing, but it could all be in the mind. Anyway..... Yesterday was not a bad day, although I was feeling a mild version of today's crap version.

  I felt quite slow and uninspired yesterday, and for most of the morning I just mooched around, and spent a lot of time on my bed just reading, and laying there with my eyes closed. I don't think I fell asleep and had a snooze, but I felt so lazy I might not even have bothered to remember a snooze even if I did have one. Before the morning was over I had to force myself to finish doing some minimal amount of laundry - just a single face flannel, and a pair of underpants. Both needed special cleaning for reasons.....

  Having got those two items hanging up to dry I had washed my hair, and had a shower to get myself clean prior to Jodie arriving for a beer tasting session at approx 3.30pm.  Once my hair was dry I resumed "lazy mode".  Once I was nice and relaxed, and not paying any attention to the time, I got a text message from Jodie to say she was on the train, and that she was carrying a heavy bag of 8 cans of beer, and I could I meet her nearer the station and carry the bag for her.

  It was not far from the main road when I met Jodie, and I was feeling bad after going from relaxing to rushing around in the space of a few minutes. I was walking as fast as I dared when I met Jodie, and I could feel some early hints of angina. We walked back here at a more moderate pace, but I was still very glad to get home, and sit down. I was also looking forward to a nice beer, but Jodie had to fo her usual messing around with her food, and her phone, before she opened the first can of beer - and it was an awful beer that she declared to be very very good. Yuck !

  I gulped that beer back as fast as possible, and then opened a nice ale for myself. The next can was like a worst version of the first, and after one mouthful I poured the rest of my glass into Jodie's glass. The other mildly annoying thing was that she wanted to order some new beers, and get them delivered here. She said she would go halves on the cost. It is possible that one or two of the seven, stunningly expensive beers, might be drinkable, and there is a slim chance that they could be enjoyable.

  The big problem is that they only deliver on Wednesday's and Saturdays using their own driver. I warned Jodie that if they arrive after midday on Wednesday I will be out at The Jolly Farmers (hopefully meeting Angela again). Some of the other beers we had (half each) were not too bad, and maybe more than one was quite tasty. I'm not sure how many I had, but if I had not had a few extra ales it would have been a very slim session. I may have had about 4 points of medium strength beers, and so I was halfway between drunk and sober at the end.

  My lunch, before I started drinking, was a small apple,a nd four tiny oranges (pingpong ball sized). It was actually a split lunch, or maybe lunch and a snack. The other bit was more tortilla chips with cream cheese. My dinner was more sophisticated. It was two black pepper flavoured pork burgers that I grilled with baby tomatoes, mushrooms, and a yellow bell pepper. I topped it off with some sugar free choc chip cookies.

  perhaps I had over done it because later in the evening I had feelings of bloat. Much, if not all of it, was trapped gas - possibly most of it was from the sometimes fizzy beers. Like many nights recently, I felt slightly uncomfortable, but nothing that bad until I tried laying on my side to try and get to sleep. From then on I was burping a lot, and one burp brought along some bile. I know than that once again I would be getting heartburn, and sleeping would be impossible until I tamed it.

  At first nothing seemed to help, and the heartburn was starting to feel a lot like angina coming on.  What helped a lot was going for a poo. I only had the merest hint that I might need one, but atfer time and patience I dropped quite a substantial stool. After that, another two antacid tablets started to calm everything down, and I eventually managed to fall asleep. Also like recent nights, the first few hours only featured what I can only describe as ragged sleep.

  Later on I slept better, and from 4am, with the heater turned on full blast, I had some good sleep, or at least good enough for some dreams. There were two dreams that left some memory, and I think I'll describe what I think was the later one first. In that dream I had been seen to some sort of conference by work. It involved some heads of state, and even the king for a brief period of time. I had not idea what I was doing there.

  After some very boring speeches things got quietly even more boring. I was sitting in ranks of tables, and sitting next to a "foreign dignitary". He had a heavy accent, but very friendly in a comic book sort of way. I noticed on some shelves behind him there were packets of cigarettes. I asked him if they were his, and he replied he didn't smoke, but he recognised then as being from his country. I asked if he would mind if I helped myself to them. He said yes, "no probem", and I stuffed as many packets as I could into my trouser pockets.

  The more interesting, although ultimately a great disappointment of a dream, seemed to be about commuting to work in the morning in what was usually a very lightly used train (it was going out of London, and most people were coming into London to go to work). It was one of those dreams where you knew the back story before the dream sort of started. In the back story I would often see a not pretty, but not unattractive Indian woman. We started to say good morning to each other, and she would sit closer and closer, although I don't think was said any more than those polite good mornings.

  One the first of the two days in the dream she sat almost right next to me, and complained that it was cold that morning. I jokingly held out my arm as if to cuddle her, and she accepted a brief cuddle, and said that she felt warmer. On the next day in the dream she say right next to me, and we started cuddling again, and this time it was a closer, tighter cuddle. On this occasion her raincoat was open, and I saw she was wearing something like a sari, and there was some bare flesh around her waist. I was just about to dare to ask her if I could stroke that bare skin when I woke up. I was rather disappointed.

  I was double disappointed because in the dream I felt fine, but when I woke up I felt terrible. Today's awful weather really got into my bones and joints, plus I had something like a stomach ache - a stomach ache that having a poo did nothing for, but a hot breakfast left me feeling much better - except now I feel really tired and want to lie down, and ideally have a snooze - and doubly ideally, in a fantastical sort of way, a snooze that lasts until tomorrow morning which should be a much nicer day.

  For all the negative feelings, I am happy to say my blood pressure was in the "optimum" area, and my blood glucose readings were far better than expected. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l. That is a bit higher than yesterday, but still in the desirable sevens. The GlucoRX meter read a better 7.6mmol/l. The Sinocare meter just went into the eights, and so not quite so good, although still only a fraction higher than the Contour meter with a reading of 8.0mmol/l.

  My original idea for today was to go to The Petts Wood May Fayre. In previous years there have been some good bands to see, but the best this year is not even quite to my taste (although often semi photogenic). With The net Office predicting almost non stop rain, and the BBC throwing in some hours of heavier rain with thunderstorms, I don't think I can raise the enthusiasm to go out to Petts Wood, or indeed anywhere today.

  Today can be a day of just moping around, having fantasies about what I could tomorrow when it should be (which doesn't mean it will be) a nice bright sunny and warm day. Maybe I might force myself to do something useful like more video editing today, and ideally keep myself amused enough to distract myself from eating too much. Not ending up bloated will make going out tomorrow much easier.
        







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