The weather has made a big change to the worst. There would seem to be not a single sign of the sun today, and the early afternoon will be dominated by rain, and some of it could be heavy rain. It is also going to be close to cold with just 16° C forecast. Tomorrow could be a bit brighter, but still no actual sunshine, and it could be a degree warmer, but rain will be a feature for a lot of the day.

   Yesterday was one of those days that had it's good moments, but ultimately it was a bad day - for reasons that I will explain further down the page. The worst thing was undoubtedly the weather - but only because I failed to take advantage of a nice warm and sunny day, although I did briefly take advantage of it when the earlier forecast predicted a thunderstorm.

  The original plan for yesterday was to go out and frolic in the warm sunshine. One possibility was for a walk between Charing Cross and Blackfriars stations along the north bank of The River Thames. Unfortunately reality got in the way. At least I started my day (after writing yesterday's diary) with a nice shower to make me feel clean and sparkling (sort of). What it didn't cure, and obviously wasn't intended to, was a feeling that was a bit like constipation.

  I had been to the toilet twice before that, and so I obviously wasn't constipated, although now and again I passed some wind. Before I committed to anything else I had two phones to make, and that gave me time to cool off after my hot shower. I first tried to call the Cardiology appointments number. I wanted to confirm that a letter that arrived last Saturday, was actually an appointment in 2025, and not for this year.

  I gave up any hope of that number being answered, and phoned the phlebotomy department to book an appointment to finally get the blood tests the nurse had hoped I might have got months ago. I almost gave up on that too when suddenly it went to "your calls are valuable to us" to "you are number 6 in the queue". I suspect that people were hanging up in despair because I went from 6 in the queue to 4, and then was answered in about 1 minute. I now have an appointment for Thursday morning.

  I took a deep breath, and tried the cardiology department again. I came close to hanging up again, but suddenly I was number 2 in the queue. The trouble at this point was that I was getting strong sensations that I needed to get to the toilet - fast ! I grimly hung on, and was finally answered. They did indeed confirm that I have an appointment for May 2025 ! With that done I thanked them, and rushed to the toilet with seconds to spare. I most definitely needed to go, and once seated it was all over in 20 seconds - in one unexpected, gigantic explosion.

  I felt releived and quite tired after that, but I didn't feel confident that it was all over, and that is despite all I had done in the morning seemed to be accountable to all I had eaten in the last 24, and maybe even 36 hours. I laid on my bed, and read a chapter of the book I am reading. My initial thinking was that there was still time to go and frolic in the sunshine later, but after a while my thoughts changed to "I don't think I can be bothered".

  Just that single decision was the cause of wanting to write off the day as a complete waste of time, and yet at that point I had done two important things - my two calls to the hospital. Such was my negative feelings at the time that I decided not fast during the day, and to have some rice crackers and cream cheese. I evidently still had some control over my eating at this time because I couldn't be bothered to get more rice crackers to scoop all the cream cheese out of the pot.

  After more laying on my bed just reading, I decided that while I wasn't going to go for a walk, I did feel OK, and I could go shopping. I went to Tesco the day before, but I wanted to go again to buy another pack of men's lounge pants. This was brought about because the pair I was wearing were many years old,  the elastic waistband seemed to have lost strength, and my gut is slightly smaller than it was, and the lounge pants I was wearing were always just a deep breath away from falling down !

  It was gone 3pm when I went out, and getting close to when an early version of the weather forecast said there would be a thunderstorm. There was a single rather dark looking cloud in the sky, but it didn't even cross the sun. It did feel sunny and nice and warm, and that inspired me to push myself to walk almost as fast as I could. The entrance to Tesco is just a bit further than the 320 bus stop, although the routes diverge for the last few hundred yards. I suddenly realised that the last time I had to get a 320 bus I was in a fair bit of pain by the time I reached the bus stop, but yesterday I was not in any pain at all !

  There were other pains to come. In fact just one pain, and it was the pain of realising that Tesco didn't seem to be stocking any man's lounge pants at the moment. It might be a seasonal thing, and they think they are more needed in cold weather or something. I could have gone home empty handed, or I could still spent a lot of money. Somehow I did the latter ! Most of what I bought was safe stuff, and much of it has a long shelf life.
  Thus Piri Piri Chicken wrap had a short life, and was hardly very safe ! As is obvious, it was on the reduced price shelf, and I was curious about it, plus at nearly half price I thought I should at least get a picture of it to show that sometimes Tesco can be sort of generous when reducing the price of stuff. Sometimes, some stingy manager, only take s few pennies off the price, and so this was a true bargain.

  Also found on the reduced price shelf was some cooked and sliced, ready to eat, Piri Piri chicken. I bought two packs of that for future (probably one today) use in a salad. I also bought a ready made salad (at full price), and although I later realised I didn't enjoy it, that took priority over a self constructed salad. Some of the rather large cost at the checkout was a one litre bottle of Tesco own brand blended Scotch whisky. I also bought a couple more cut glass (sort of) whisky tumblers, although with hindsight I wondered what I did that.

  Going home with quite a lot of shopping slowed me down a tiny bit, but it was also another painless walk. Once I was home I scoffed the Piri Piri chicken wraps. I had some feelings of guilt about it, particularly as it seemed to be getting close to dinner time, and the nutritional panel made them look more like a meal than a snack. The ironic thing is that they were not very nice, and needed pepping up with a generous sprinkle of hot pepper sauce.

  At some time in the afternoon I edited (top and tailing, plus advert removal) of a single episode of The Simpsons recorded on my TV. I think it was while waiting for the clock to creep around to dinner time that I edited a recording of Have I Got New For You. In an ideal world I could have edited another dozen TV recordings, but just the two seemed to be all I wanted to do yesterday.

  I had a Tesco, ready made, tomato and mozzarella salad for my dinner while I watched an episode of The Simpsons on live TV. That was all I intended to have, but it just did not satisfy me. There were many worse things I could have eaten as an "after", and that could have been several packets of crisps, but I chose a small Miso Ramen instant noodles that come in their own pot. I really must double check, but I think they are one of the smaller portions of instant noodles I have. They did fill the spot - a nice spicy filling.

  By about 8.30pm I was feeling almost ready for bed. I think it was almost 9pm before I actually went to bed, and I was soon asleep. Last night could almost have been a re-run of a couple of nights ago. I seemed to sleep deeply and dreamlessly until about 1.30am when I woke up for my first pee of the night (as far as I can remember), and then couldn't seem to get back to sleep again for a couple of hours.

  I turned the heater on low before I went for my pee, and turned it off again a little while before I got back to sleep again at nearly 3am. At 4am I woke up again, and turned the heater back on. It was running until a little while after I got up. With the grey sky outside, and the temperature as I write this just barely 14° C, I don't think it will be long before I turn it on again !

  I can't seem to recall many dreams, and I can only remember just one tiny bit of a dream well enough to describe it. I seemed to be in something like my old bedroom at my mum's old place, although nothing was quite where it should be. I seemed to be going to bed, but found a young woman in my bed. She patted the bed as if it were an invitation to get in with her. She seemed to be almost fully dressed. I got in, and she grabbed my hand and sort of squeezed it in friendly fashion rather than for comfort.

  After a while I was stroking her lower thigh. She seemed to like it until I went a bit higher when she froze. It seemed I had crossed a threshold she was not prepared for. The odd thing is that the whole exchange was silent - neither of us spoke a word. I knew I had to stop, and did so. I was soon awake. It was one of the most disappointing erotic dreams in ages !

  As usual, after eating more than intended, and at least one thing (the Peri Peri chicken wraps) seeming to have far more sugar in than is good for me, I was quite apprehensive when I checked my blood glucose. I needn't have been. The readings were actually rather good. the Contour meter read 7.6mmol/l, or just 0.1 above my imaginary target. The GlucoRX meter was a tiny bit worse at 7.7mmol/l, and the Sinocare was again a tiny bit worse at 7.8mmol/l. All readings in the light green. One day I'll manage one or more in the dark green (extremely good) area, but for that I will somehow have to get back in the mood for a lot of long walking exercise.

  In other news about my health, my blood pressure remains very good almost any time I measure it now. It seems that doubling the dose of my anti angina drug has been beneficial in more than the original reason for doing it. Also my weight remains rather good. On one of my health recording spreadsheets I noticed that my weight this morning, although up at least 100gm on yesterday, is almost exactly 3kg less than a strings of weight readings in January. I can remember feeling quite smug that over the holiday season I had lost weight while most people had gained weight. Since January it has been up and down a bit, but as a long term thing it is definitely a lot lower !

  Today is cold, dull and miserable, and the weather forecasts are adamant that it will soon be very wet too. I cannot imagine going out, even to the shops today. I don't know what I will do today - except be depressed by the weather. The chances are I will edit a few more TV recordings, and just generally mope around. I'll have to dry them indoors, but I may wash a few tea towels and a few bar towels. Other than that, I have only recently started to read a new book, and there are possibly another 400 to 500 pages of that to read. I shouldn't be bored, but I probably will be, but I hope I can keep control of my appetite today.....but I am already thinking about dinner. Today could make reading my weight and blood glucose tomorrow morning a scary thing !








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