Yesterday seemed typical weather for summer version 2 ! The morning was sunny and bright, and then it clouded over until around 6pm (possibly closer to 7pm) when it started to rain. The rain was supposed to be heavy, but it only seemed like light rain to me. It was also one of those odd days when the morning was warmer than the afternoon. The temperature reached 17° C by 1pm, and it started to cool off minutes later.
       

  The screenshot of the early forecast doesn't show the sunshine I saw when I first opened the curtains, but reality has caught up with the forecast. It is quite dull now. The latest revision says the first rain will be quite heavy at  1pm, and then lighter rain at 2pm. It might then stay dull, but dry until 7pm, and 8pm when there will be some light rain. This afternoon should see 18° C. My thermometers say it is already 17° C, and so it may be a bit warmer than forecast later. It may be worth noting that The BBC predict light rain for most of the day, and even a thunderstorm at 3pm. Tomorrow is currently shown as starting with an hour or two of sunshine, and then getting very wet for the rest of the day. Just 16° C is forecast. Once again the BBC predict thunderstorms for tomorrow !

   Yesterday was another good day that ended badly. It initially seemed like I should be in a dreadful rush during the morning, but it was actually almost slow paced. Maybe things didn't seem take as long as I thought they would. The first thing I had to do was to finish some laundry that I had left soaking for almost 24 hours.

  The worst thing about leaving laundry soaking for 24 hours is that particularly on a cold morning, after the bathroom window has been open all night, the detergent the clothes are soaking in is freezing cold, and somewhat slimy feeling (but it is actually just soapy). There was less stuff to wash than I thought - it was just a single t-shirt, a pair of lounge pants, and just three pairs of underpants. I finished the job faster than expected, and once it was all hanging up to dry, on the big clothes horse with a desk fan blowing at it, I could have a shower without having to share the bathtub with a big bucket of soapy water !

  With the laundry finished faster than expected, I didn't have a shower straight away, but had a half hour rest, maybe even 45 minutes. I didn't think any more than a basic shower was needed. My hair seemed fairly clean, and I couldn't be bothered having a shave. After I had dried myself I got dressed ready to go out, although I did so quite slowly to give extra time to cool off a bit after the hot shower.

  My destination, when I went out, was to Tesco. There were quite a few things I needed form Tesco. Top of the list was probably packets of instant noodles, and I must have bough 8 or even 10 packets of assorted flavours. Also important was some more bottles of Diet Coke. While most people are glugging tea or coffee all day, I drink Diet Coke ! I also bought a few "naughty" things. One of which was the much derided Gingsters Cornish Pasties.

  The walk to and from Tesco seemed generally OK. I think my right knee may have seemed stiff for a minute or so after leaving home, but I don't think I remember any angina pains despite walking moderately fast. It was still nice to get home again. Once home I had a surprise. I was sure I had picked up a one litre bottle of Jamesons whiskey, which was on special Clubcard offer, but what was in my bag when I got home was a 70cl bottle of Bushmills whiskey - that was also on special offer. Weird !

  Once I had put all the shopping away I did two things. One was to cook a packet of tomato and red pepper flavoured rissotto rice. It must have been years ago when I bought the pack of that rice, and I decided I was going to have some for my dinner. I may not have added quite enough water when I microwaved it because at the end of the cooking time it was so thick that it was almost like clay, although the individual grains could still be seen. A sneaky taste before I cling-filmed the pot, and set it aside for much later, confirmed it was as tasty as I hoped it might be.

  It was because I was cooking the rice in the microwave that I had the Gingsters Cornish Pastie, I had just bought, cold, straight from the packet. I don't care what some think, I thought it was very nice. In fact I wonder if the mistake those who say they are crap make the mistake of heating them up ! After having that naughty little lunch I had a lie down, and read some pages from my book. I also ended up having an unintended snooze for maybe 20 minutes.

  I couldn't stay relaxing because I was expecting Jodie around for a beer tasting. I had a few things to do to get things ready for it. What I wasn't expecting was to get a phone call from Jodie saying "Help !".She had brought a few beers with her, and then gone via Lidl on her way here, and had bought more beers there. She wanted me to rush out and meet her as she came out of the multi storey car park by Tesco.

  In theory I was perfectly happy to meet her, and carry one of her bags for her. The only trouble was that I had to rush up stairs to change my "drinking trousers" to outside trousers (with my house keys attached) before rushing down the road. Just changing my trousers seemed to be hard work, and by the time I found Jodie I was a bit short of breath, and my chest was starting to hurt. It was definitely hurting by the time we got home.

  One of the first things Jodie did when we got home was to tell me off for drinking the two super strong Imperial stouts that I had on Sunday night (I think) and pictured here on Monday. I thought they were among the small cans that Alan had brought over for me because he and Jodie didn't much care for them. Apparently not, and Jodie had been really looking forward to them. Oh well, she will have to order some more, and then keep them away form me.

  With the beers that Jodie brought with her, the two boxes of beers I had delivered on Wednesday morning, and two small fridges full of beers, we had quite a selection to consider. I let Jodie decide what beers to try, and inevitably she chose cans of no more than medium strong, horribly cloudy sour fruit beers. I tasted half an inch of them in a glass, and then opened a can of something I liked.

  Most of what I had was low to medium strength, and I seemed to be unusually sober at the end when Jodie when to get a bus to Bromley to meet Alan and have more beers. She left later than usual, and so I had my dinner a little after 7pm. It was only a couple of big spoonfuls of the tomato and red pepper risotto rice, and two "southern fried" flavour fish burgers (like big square fish fingers). I thought it was a fairly light meal.

  It went down well, and then was soon forgotten - particularly while watching an episode of QIXL on TV. That finished at 9pm, and I felt ready for not just bed, but sleep. It was another occasion where I didn't even manage to read a single page before I turned the light out. I seemed to be comfortable, although maybe there was a hint that my bedroom was just starting to cool off, and also a sort of hint that maybe I was getting indigestion again. I did seem to be burping a lot despite stopping drinking any fizzy drinks some time ago, and switching to just plain water.

  I fell asleep very quickly once I had turned the light off, and I think I may have slept for almost 2 hours before waking up. At that time I needed a pee, I was feeling quite cold, and I seemed to have raging heartburn ! I had my pee, turned the fan heater on low, and then tried to do something about the heartburn. I must admit I was not fully convinced that it was heartburn, and a couple of antacid tablets didn't seem to help at first. maybe I got impatient for them to work because the next thing I tried was a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in some water. I did some pretty powerful burps after that, but it did seem to work. At least an hour had passed, maybe an hour and a half, but I did get back to sleep again.

  I had two notable dreams I was going to describe, but one seems to have slipped from my memory. One partly survives, except it is so disjointed that it must have been many shorter dreams, and it seems they did not happen in logical order. The dream started with me being on an old slam door train. We weere going along at some speed when I noticed the door was not latched. I tried twice to open it a bit, and then slam it shut. It was on my third attempt that I was helped by another passenger, He grabbed the handle/knob or what looked like an extra Yale type lock, and managed to latch that as the door closed.

  The next thing we were passing by a depot (that does not exist in the real world) at New Cross, and we were looking down at it from a viaduct (that also does not exist). One prominent thing I saw was a pair of sidings that seemed to dip into a pond, but must have been the result of some flooding. The water was so deep that we could only see the top of a carriage at the deepest point. In the next scene out train was at ground level, and somehow I had got off in the depot.

  I knew it was place I was not supposed to be in, but with the opportunity there, I had a little explore. The weirdest thing I saw was a half sized old slam door train painted in traditional Southern Region green. It looked like it was actually operational, but needed a narrow gauge line to run on, and presumably could only carry children or dwarves. The next bit was very confusing because it seemed like I was back on the first train I was on.

  That train was going very slowly because we were stuck behind s very slow freight train. We were literally just yards behind it. Suddenly we were diverted to an avoiding line so we could pass the freight train, and still get to Catford bridge on time. The diversion took us up on a viaduct again, but it was shared with a road. Just like trams in, for instance in Croydon,  we were on rails, but among quite heavy traffic.  I think the dream ended about then. I've managed to write so much about it that it is hardly worth me trying to remember the other dream that I thought I could remember.

  I woke up at about my usual time this morning, but after missing a couple of hours of sleep in the night, I managed to get back to sleep, and only got up just before 7am, and just in time to take a screenshot of the weather forecast. When I saw the forecast, or more particularly the very pessimistic BBC forecast, predicting almost a full day of rain, I was very tempted to try and sleep even more - ideally until tomorrow....but there were things to do, including a rather productive visit to the toilet.

  I have decided I feel worse than my health indicators suggest. My blood pressure, taken just now, was 98/40. Maybe that is almost a bit too low, but just walking up the stairs would see it shoot up. My blood glucose readings are just about back to normal again. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l - a little higher than desired, but still in the light green. The GlucoRX meter read a very good 7.4mmol/l. The Sinocare meter agreed with the Contour meter with a reading of 7.9mmol/l. My weight also seems to be going back down again after the recent peak.
    Looking at the very latest update to the BBC weather forecast, as above, it seems that today is about as horrible as can be imagined ! As I write this there are quite a few blue areas of sky to be seen, and the sun keeps coming out, but if the BBC is right, even if it is a lot more pessimistic than the Met Office forecast (which seems to be starting to catch up with the BBC) then it is definitely not a day for going out. In fact it is the perfect day to be perfectly lazy, and that is what I will be aiming for today....The trouble is there are a few things, even if it is just washing, and polishing yesterday's beer glasses, that I will probably end up doing, and that will ruin any attempt to set a world record of being lazy.

  One thing about today is that it is the run up to the run up of being ready for my CT scan early on Sunday morning. Tomorrow I will ideally fast from early evening, probably late afternoon until I get back from the CT scan. I also will have to drink nothing but water from late afternoon. I may, and I stress may, try and do these things today as practice for tomorrow. 


 





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