Yesterday's weather was very unpredictable, and certainly didn't follow any version of the weather forecast. Having said that, the morning was forecast to be dull, and it was, but by midday things seemed to change fast. An early prediction of rain at midday didn't happen, and I think the sun came out instead. It didn't stay out for long, but from then on, even when cloudy it still seemed quite bright. From mid afternoon there were many nice sunny spells. The temperature was forecast to reach 22° C, and that was about right.
       

  The morning has started with a clear blue sky, and non stop sunshine (albeit a bit low in the sky at the moment). Yesterday's prediction for today showed sunshine for most of the day. Since then every revision has cut it back an hour. The latest revision shows just sunny spells from 11am, and the same until 1pm, after which we may lose the sun for the rest of the day. Despite the lack of sunshine, the temperature could still peak at 24° C by late afternoon.  Tomorrow could see 26° C, but the sunshine/sunny spells could be quite erratic.

   I think I failed to mention it yesterday, but yesterday was my birthday. It was no big deal. Most birthdays since I became a teenager have been generally low key. Maybe there have been one or two good birthdays since then, but my 69th birthday was very much like a normal day.

One of yesterday morning's problems was that my "weather station" said the pressure was dropping, and that rain was imminent. The rain didn't actually happen, but I did note that my legs agreed with the prediction. They did feel quite stiff and creaky in the morning, and it persisted for a while before they eased up.  Curiously that might have coincided with an upward arrow appearing in the top section of the display on the left, and the raindrops from the cloud disappearing. Later still the cloud was replaced with a nice happy looking sun.

  As I mentioned yesterday, I had originally planned to go to Manor House Gardens, a 20 minute ride away on the 202 bus. That would have been to take some pictures of the one single band that was to appear on their live stage (mostly it was things like school choirs). I think my stiff legs in the morning set a flag in my brain that said I was not going to do that even before I consciously knew about it. The same was true of my possible shopping trip to Aldi.

  None of this stopped me washing my hair, and having a shower. Maybe I thought there might be a possible chance of some sort of visitor during the day, but mostly it was because I felt smelly.  After finishing my shower,, and putting in some clothes to soak in detergent, in one of my big builders buckets, I got as far as brushing my hair, but before I could blow dry it I got a phone call.

  It was my big sister phoning to wish me a happy birthday. We had quite a long chat comparing notes about medical stuff. I think I vaguely knew my sister had had a pacemaker fitted, but it seems that it was not long ago when it's 10 year battery life was used up, and it had to be replaced. I gather it is simple procedure that is done under local anaesthetic - at least I presume it must have been because my sister said she was talking to the surgeon during the procedure. I guess it might have been something like an epidural that numbed everything surrounding the site of the operation.

  I think we spoke for about an hour, and when we hung up it was time for some lunch. As I suggested it might be, when writing yesterday, it was the last pack of two slices from Iceland's "3 for  £5" offer. I got the flavour completely wrong when describing it. I thought it might be chicken and mushroom, but it was labelled cheese and ham even if it didn't taste like it. Maybe there was a hint of cheese flavour, and something gooey in it. I'm not sure I detected any ham in it though. After that lunch I laid on my bed, closed my eyes, instead of picking up my book, and the next thing I knew was that it was 3pm.

  I had slept through the gig I originally wanted to go to ! I waited 5 or 10 minutes to acclimatise to the real world, and then went to finish the laundry I had left soaking in the morning. It was just a single t-shirt, a pair of lounge pants, and rather more pairs of underpants than I had realised were in the laundry bag. I kept think I wouldn't do it, but I did it all with no breaks. It was sunny outside at the time, but I was not sure there would be enough sunshine to dry the stuff if I hung it on the line, and opted to dry it all indoors on the big clothes horse.

  When that job was done I had a snack. It was some rice crackers, and this time I did not use the squeezy cream cheese, despite having two unopened tubes of it in the fridge. I sliced up some nice Cheddar cheese. I can't suggest any figures that make me think that was healthier than cream cheese - it was sort of a matter of faith...or something. My dinner was also a sort of matter of faith.

  I could have grilled some burgers, or taken something out of the freezer, but I had decided I was going to have soup for a nice light dinner, that would hopefully not cause any chance of acid indigestion as some rich foods seem to be doing a lot recently. The "act of faith" was because I chose to ignore the reported sugar content of a luxury can of Baxters Cream Of Tomato Soup. It did look like the sugar content was probably as high as a can of full sugar Coca Cola. The can was a year past it's "best before" date, and that seemed a good excuse to eat it, and as expected, it was rather delicious.

  I probably should have stopped at a single can of soup, but I fancied another, and I chose a can of Tesco smoky lentil and red peppers soup. The sugar content of that was about a tenth of the tomato soup. I didn't even stop there. It may sound like a very strange combination, and it was, but the last time I was in Aldi I bought a small jar of pickled herrings, and I had been trying to find a good time to try them. Curiosity got the better of me, and I open the small jar, and ate the lot.

  As soon as I tasted the first bit of herring I noticed a sort of sweet taste that made the vinegar seem less acidic. I checked the nutritional information, and found the jar was loaded with sugar - even more than was in the tomato soup. That was a bit of a blow. All I could hope for was that most of, if not all the sugar was dissolved in the vinegar, and most of it went down the sink when I drained the jar using the handy plastic strainer inside it.

  There was nothing on TV last night to stop me having an early night (and when I say nothing, I mean a great big fat ZERO). I was in bed reading very soon after 8pm, and about half an hour later I tried for sleep. I did get a hint that maybe I was gong to get some indigestion, and took a couple of antacid tablets as a precaution. They seemed to work OK, and I think I was possible asleep before 9pm, or at worse, not long after.

  I woke up a lot in the night. Mostly it was because I needed a pee - not surprising after all the sugar I had consumed. The good thing is that I seemed to have no trouble getting back to sleep again. I do remember dreaming a lot during the night. There was one dream I can't remember the contents of, but do remember one of the facts from it, and it seems like I may have dreamed the same thing twice to help remember it. It was about a gym. I don't actually remember seeing anything in it all, but instead of the "usual" 8ft high ceiling it was 16ft to cater for acrobatic or just show off people keeping fit.

  Another dream was another in my post retirement, being back at work, dreams. In this dream I was on a training course, and I was getting very bored. Somehow I ended up laying on my workbench with a duvet over me. The teacher who had been asking other people about stuff asked me me what I was doing. I said I was doing nothing because no one had said what the course was about, and you (the teacher/instructor/whatever) had failed to offer any explanation or other information. Being already retired, and getting on well with it, gives you a lot of power over those who might try to get you to do stuff because the worst they can do is get you fired - and I had already left work anyway !

  Despite waking up many time in the night, or at least so it seemed (was every time actually real ?) it seemed like I had had a good sleep last night. I seemed to think I felt far better than I expected to do. After sitting at my PC for a long time my legs, particularly my knees, did feel really stiff for a while, but before all that.... It was handy that I did a nice poo, and had a good pee before I had any breakfast, and was able to weigh myself. It seems hard to believe, but I seemed to have lost 600gm since yesterday morning, and I am not far short of the slightly lower weight I was a week ago.

  Of course it was with great apprehension that I checked my blood glucose readings this morning, It turned out I needn't have worried. Somehow I had all three readings in the light green area. The Contour meter read 7.7mmol/l. The GlucoRX meter read 7.8mmol/l, and the Sinocare meter read the same as the Contour meter, 7.7mmol/l. All readings are slightly over my new imaginary target of 7.5mmol/l, but nevertheless, all are very good, and so I treated myself to a double small helping of instant noodles for my breakfast.

  I have come up with a new, and probably rather daft theory about my low blood glucose readings after eating stuff that theoretically has a high sugar content. The theory says that some things like ice cream have a lot free sugar in them that rushes straight into the blood stream, and then the Empagliflozin drug I take shoots it straight through the kidneys, and then is flushed out in my urine. Of course the flaw in this theory is "why does it not work for stuff that doesn't release it's sugar only during digestion ?".
  This was the view to the north at just after 10am this morning. It looks very lovely, but if the forecasts are to be believed it will soon be clouding over. Looking to the south just now I can see a fair bit more cloud, but it needs to thicken a lot before the sunshine turns into sunny spells. Both the BBC and Met Office do a rare thing and agree that the last full sunshine will be at 11am, and that midday and 1pm will only see sunny spells. From 2pm it will be dull....or will it ?

  I still need to get some shopping, and I can't decide if I am going to Aldi or Tesco, but I am fairly sure it will be one or the other today. Later this afternoon I think Jodie and possibly Alan will be over for some beer tasting. That is unless Jodie snubs me because I turned down her off of meeting in Catford (probably in the Wetherspoons) late yesterday afternoon. She would be coming with Alan. She does have an excuse to not come. Alan's mum's birthday is today, and Jodie though he was going over to see her (somewhere near the coast I think), and thought that maybe she was supposed to be going with him. Maybe he is only going for a quick, early afternoon visit, and can do both today. Hopefully they will both make it, and I have an excuse for beer - I didn't have any yesterday, nor on Friday.


 





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