Yesterday featured some occasional falls of drizzle despite the forecast saying that it would be a dry day after some early morning drizzle. On the whole, the day was quite cloudy, sometimes very dull, but I am sure that once or twice I did see a small patch of blue sky. The main feature was that it was cold, a temperature more suited to March, just 15° C.
       

  There was some weak sunshine earlier, but now it has got very dull. Hopefully this is just a temporary thing because the afternoon is forecast to feature a lot of sunny spells - enough to push the temperature up to 18° C (it was shown as 19° C until the last revision capped it at 18° C). Tomorrow should feature a lot more sunshine, and the temperature could rise to 22° C - it might even feel like the start of May instead of the start of June !

   Yesterday was probably quite good, although nothing like expected. I managed to rush through everything I needed to do, writing yesterday's electronic diary, having a shower, in plenty of time before Lee was due to arrive to change my leaking mixer tap, except he phoned up and said he had something else he had to do, and promised me he would come today.

  That was disappointing, and I sat back to think how I could replan my day. It was not a lot later that I got another phone call. This one was from the hospital, and it was the offer of using a cancelled appointment to have a 24 hour blood pressure machine strapped to me like some sort of convicts ankle tag, except the blood pressure monitor cuff goes on the upper arm with a control box that can be hung on a belt. That will take place at midday today, and I will have to cancel Lee if it seems he will turn up too late to change the mixer tap.

  That took me up to lunchtime, and I had a lunch of a couple of cheese and bean pastie type things. I bought them from Aldi on a whim. They seemed to have the possibility of being nice, but turned out, not unexpectedly, to be rubbish. I doubt there was more than a spoonful of beans in them, and a similar amount of grated cheddar. Once melted it left no more than a thin smear of cheese. 90% of the middle of the pastie was just fresh air ! The whole thing tasted of pastry !

  Not long after lunch I got a call from another friend. He said he had a dental appointment near me, and asked if it would be OK to drop in for a chat, and pick up a few things had had left here years ago. I said yes, and just before 3pm he arrived in that typical post dentistry state of a numb mouth, and slurring speech. He was one of my friend I usually only talk to on the phone no more frequently than once a month, and often a lot longer.Such calls can last for hours.

  Talking face to face about diverse topics from music to technical stuff, plus how the body starts to fall apart as it ages (he is still in his early 60s, and I'll be 69 later this month !) kept the conversation flowing easily enough that I don't think either of us noticed the time flying by. I did notice it had gone 5pm, and thought I ought to start bringing it to an end so I could prepare some dinner. It was actually very close to 8pm when my friend left.

  I must admit I had gone past the point of maximum hunger, and if I had really steeled myself I could have gone to bed without any dinner, but a germ of an idea seemed to lodge in my brain, and I ended up ordering a takeaway. I was sane enough to order just a couple of shish kebabs - one chicken and the other, lamb. It was 9pm before they arrived. I had ordered them from a place I had ordered from them several times before, and all with slightly variable results.

  I can imagine the shop/restaurant gets quite busy on a Friday night, but that is not a great excuse for serving up very sparse kebabs. I ordered large kebabs, but I seemed to get small ones. Previous orders had been earlier in the week, and very early in the evening. Those seemed to have much bigger portions, and that portion included a lot more salad. Last night, as well as not that much meat, there was very little salad. Oh well, it made it more healthy I suppose.

  I ate my very late dinner watching Have I Got News For You on BBC1 - so it was not a repeat, and was about most of the latest news. In practice it was mostly election stuff. I was hoping to hear about Donald Trump getting found guilty on several accounts after his recent court appearance. Sadly he was not even mentioned. I think the whole show was about the recent electioneering prior to July's general election.

  Have I Got News For You was only a half hour show (I thought it was usually longer), and so I re-tuned to Dave to watch the last half hour of an old episode of QI. That finished at 10pm, and I slowly headed for bed where I read until just about 11pm. Once I put the book down, and turned out the light, I quickly fell asleep. I think it was about 1am when I woke up for a small pee, and then couldn't get straight back to sleep because of some mild heartburn. It took 15 minutes or so before a couple of Rennies sorted that out.

  I think I awoke again for another small pee sometime between 4 and 5am. It was either before or after that when I had a not actually, but sort of erotic dream. In the dream I was still in bed, in a bed in a corner of quite a big room. Across the room a young (early 20s) girl was just getting up, and was walking around topless. I have to say my imagination cojoured up some magnificent boobs on her - not big, but perfectly shaped, with very nice looking nipples.

  I wanted a closer look, but by the time I had got out of my bed she had a blouse on, and was doing some work. She had started with a newspaper clipping about sunbeds, or sunbathing, and had turned it into a 3D animation with scrolling text. It seemed to be a very professional effort, but like a lot of things seen in dreams, it seemed to be out of focus, and I couldn't read the words.

  Ideally I would have liked an extra hour in bed, but I forced myself to get up just after 6am. The idea being that I need to get ready to rush out to the hospital after Lee has changed the mixer tap, and double checked it for leaks, but only if he can get here early enough - probably around 10am. I guess this morning I feel very "average", and that is probably not too bad. One plus point is that without even having a decent poo, I seem to be back to losing a little bit of weight - not much, but I am relying on lots of "not much" to add up to something useful.

  I almost had a really great blood glucose reading this morning. The Contour meter read just 7.0mmol/l, still in the light green, but hovering on the edge of a magnificent reading in the dark green area (between 6 and 7).  The GlucoRX reading was not quite as good, but 7.6mmol/l is only just over my new target of 7.5. The Sinocare meter read 7.2mmol/l, and I am very happy with that.

  So the plans for today starts with a shower, and getting dressed ready to go out after Lee has finished his work here - if he gets here in time. At midday, plus an unknown period of waiting to be seen, I get my 24 hour blood pressure recording device fitted. In theory it should not take long, but I expect there will also be a tedious lecture on do's and dont's. I assume an appointment will be made, presumably the same time tomorrow, when I go back to surrender it. That may possibly include a chat about the results.

  Last night I obviously didn't go out to a gig, and I have doubt's I will be going out tonight - particularly while wearing the blood pressure monitor - but I guess anything is possible. One thing I will do today is a little bit of exercise. That will be walking to and from the hospital. It will be interesting, or maybe frightening, if the blood pressure monitor, possibly set for one reading per hour, but it could be more often, triggers while I am walking home, and getting angina pains. I can imagine my blood pressure peaking quite high under such circumstances. On the other hand, that could be good diagnostic information for the cardiologists.


 





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