After a few dull hours at the start of the morning, yesterday was generally sunny and bright. It was also warm too. The temperature peaked at 26° C.
       

  Unlike yesterday, today has started with clear skies and lots of sunshine. All yesterday's sunshine must have really warmed up the earth, houses, etc, because it was not a cold night, and we seem to have started at 20° C according to my thermometers. We may have continuous full sunshine today, and that should push the temperature up to a glorious 29 or 30° C. Tomorrow may only see sunny spells, although even those could fail for a few hours in the afternoon, and so the temperature may only reach 24° C.
 
   Yesterday was a good day. Seeing the nurse in the morning was good. Going to Tesco a little later in the morning was good. Eating a small heap of nice stuff for lunch was good. A double beer tasting/drinking session in the afternoon/early evening was good, and eating some tasty stuff afterwards was good, but the latter was probably my downfall.

  Although it was still slightly cool, it felt sort of good walking to the surgery in my second lightest pair of shorts, and a pair of very light plimsolls....although I must admit those plimsolls were not nearly as comfortable as they generally were several years ago when I used to wear them very frequently. The best surprise was that (if I have the names the right way around) is that the nurse I saw was Jen. She is the one that believes in more carrot, and less stick. The nurse I was hoping not to see again (although she is far prettier) is all stick and no carrot.

  We got off to a fine start when the nurse could not find a working blood pressure meter. She had to accept the picture I had taken of my blood pressure at 7.45am, earlier in the morning. To my surprise at the time, it was a really good reading. I expected far worse at that time, although far worse would have been perfectly acceptable. I didn't get off going on the surgery scales, but the nurse interpreted the non digital, circular scale at only 200gm more than I had measured at home under ideal conditions, and probably 2 or 3kg less than I was last weighed there.

  Next came the diabetic foot check, and there was some lack of sensitivity on some of the more battered toes, it was all judged to be OK.  I got her to look up my last blood test results. The one done at the hospital, for the cardiology department, measured loads of stuff - mainly to do with the kidneys and liver. All but one were in the middle of the predicted ranges. The one which was high was a test for Creatine. It was not very high. I am unsure what the significance of creatine is.

  My last diabetic blood tests were done a week after the hospital ones, and date back to May. They were all perfect. As I had hoped for at the time, my blood glucose level had dropped a lot, and was back in a pre-diabetic region. It confirmed my own, home readings using my three blood glucose meters. Oddly enough, May was not a very good month, and my average readings for June were far better.

  The last thing the nurse did for me was to check everywhere on the computer system for any notes about my visits to the cardiologists at the hospital. The last notes were my discharge notes from my 2 days stay in the hospital in March. What I was hoping she would find was the instruction to double the dose of the mononitrate anti-angina drug (and less importantly another drug I have been on for years. She has sent an internal message to the staff doctor at the practice asking him to message the hospital cardiology department to get the increased doses verified.

  I hope, although I suspect it is unlikely, that the message may come back down the chain in time to be included when I order my next repeat prescription - which could be on Monday, but I'll put it off until I am almost about to run out of drugs. Other than that, it was a good appointment because it was evident that I have been doing the right things, and that sort of implies that I know what I am doing - even when sometimes the results are not as expected !

  As usual, on my annual diabetic check-ups with the nurse, I came away with three printed sheets requesting blood, and urine samples. Normally the blood tests are all listed on one sheet, but because of the hacking of the systems of the main pathology labs they uses, it seems it is being split to two labs - and one is in Swansea ! I told the nurse that since it was only May when I gave the last samples, I would wait at least a couple of months before giving new ones, and she was happy with that.

  After I got home again I had a short rest before changing into bigger shorts, with more pockets for stuff, and much more comfortable shoes. I then went shopping in Tesco. The thing I wanted most was to get 4 bottles of Diet Coke, but I also wanted to get something to celebrate a good visit to the nurse.....Something "bad" that I could enjoy as a one off before getting back on the controlled sugar and to a lesser extent, calorie diet.

 One thing I had in mind was some ready cooked chicken, and I bought a small tub of maybe a dozen, maybe as much as 15 "hot and spicy" chicken wings. I also bought a small tub of ice cream, and a few other things for later. The other things included a 5 pack of Korean (I think) "hot chicken flavour" instant noodles. Each was about a 100, possibly 120gm bag.

  When I came out of Tesco, where they had the air conditioning up enough to make it feel quite cool inside, I felt just how much it was warming up outside yesterday. I did almost enjoy the walk home in the warm sunshine, but it was spoiled by the first angina pains just starting as I got home. They very quickly went away once I was inside, and not rushing around. I may have been trying to walk too fast on my way home because I had gluttony in mind.

  Once I had put away most of my shopping I dived into the tub of hot and spicy chicken wings. I gave them a minute in the microwave to bring them up to room temperature, and they were pretty nice. They were also very messy to easy ! The other negative thing is that chicken wings are always fiddly to eat, but still enjoyable. The only bad things is that I had eaten all be three of them when I felt I had probably feasted enough, but it seemed stupid to leave just three behind, and I scoffed those too.

  Of course I should have stopped there, but I had left the small tub of Tesco Madagascar Vanilla ice cream out to soften, and I had intended to eat all that too. I did, and it was very nice, but I did feel unusually full at the end of the gluttonous session. It seemed the best thing I could do was to lay on my bed and read, and also have a snooze. I did snooze as well as read, and it all felt rather glorious with the window open, and sunshine coming through it.

  Fortunately I had made sure everything was ready for a drinking session almost the day before, and there was nothing significant to do before Jodie arrived bearing 5 more cans of "beer". Sadly all were slightly to severely sour "pastry" beers. I only had a very small measure (probably less than a quarter pint) as tasters of them all. One was almost nice, and one was definitely nasty. I had a couple of more conventional beers to fill in time waiting for Jodie to finish her portions, and open a new can.

  Jodie left quite early yesterday because she was meeting Alan at London Bridge before going on to see a gig by Orange Goblin at the Signature brewery up in north east London (near the end of The Victoria line). One thing I forgot to mention is that I bumped into Michael on my way back from the surgery. He suggested he would like to join us for a drink later, but didn't think he would have time. I hadn't heard from him again until literally 10 minutes after Jodie had left. he was asking if we were still drinking. I said no, but I had only just stopped and would be happy to have a few more cans with him.

  He arrived about 10 minutes later, and we got through about 4 cans each - and two of mine were very strong lagers !  It seems that the problems with his wife, her dementia, and move to a care home, are now approaching, if not and end, some sort of stability. His current problem is convincing a couple of banks that he has power of attorney for he finances. Once he is able to set up standing orders, or whatever, for the care home, he will be able to relax more, and maybe we will see a bit more of him.

  It was about 7.20pm when Michael went home, and that meant there was still 40 minutes left of Star Trek: Voyager to watch while I ate some dinner. I started off by putting some fishfingers in the mini grill/oven to cook, but after the booze I wanted some NOW ! I suddenly remembered that I had a chicken Caesar salad kit in the fridge that was already 2 days past it's use by date, and so I ate that as a sort of starter. I then ate the fishfingers by themselves, and wrapped up with some supposedly zero sugar choc chip cookies.

  It was a nice enough dinner, but it did leave me a bit overfull. Until recently that wouldn't matter, but it was priming me for another night of terrible heartburn.....or was it angina ? I am now very much thinking that it is actually angina. Antacid tablets or liquids don't seem to work all that well, and not at all last night. The clue is that it only goes from hardly a hint to very strong when I turn onto my side. I am imagining my distended stomach crushing some small arteries leading to the heart. That may be just fanciful, or it might have some element of truth.

  Hopefully when the hospital cardiology department finally come up with a cure for my angina it was also stop this late night "sort of a bit like" angina. Last night was a pretty terrible night, and like several times before, I didn't finally get to sleep until 3am.  Another clue that it is arteries being squashed at night is that the pain goes away after sitting in my computer chair for a while. I think it may have been twice last nice when I got up, sat in the chair for maybe 15 to 20 minutes, and then rushing back into bed, and falling asleep for maybe half an hour before waking up again in bad discomfort. Maybe by 3am my digestive processes had moved a lot of the partly digested food into the intestine, and away from those arteries.

  I would like to discuss this idea with the cardiologists, but I have no idea when I will be seeing them next. In the meantime I have to continue to do what I have done OK one quite a few days in te last weeks - eat a smaller dinner quite early in the evening (ideally about 5pm). When I have managed that I have had no troubles going to sleep.  It is possible that I got as much as 5 hours of very poor quality sleep, made up of an hour here, and an hour there, last night. I don't exactly feel tired as I write this, but I would not be surprised if I have a snooze once all my writing is done.

  I should be able to describe one of my dreams last night, but it is so complex even I don't really know what was going on. It involved travel, and apart from a general feeling I was going home from somewhere unknown, I really don't know where I was going. What I do know is that it involved trains and buses, and one would morph into the other at times. I think it started with getting a wrong train at London Bridge, and then having to change trains at New Cross. The New Cross of my dream had long curved platforms that were in the middle of a main road.

  I think it was a train that I got off at New Cross. I decided to go to the far end of the platform to watch for the next train approaching. What I spotted was a 47 bus that would take me back home, but because it was only a fraction of the length of a train I had to run along the platform, which was dangerously narrow in places, to get to where the bus would stop. I made it in time to catch the bus, and bought a ticket. That ticket said I was on route 162 (a route I have never heard of), and at the same time there was "route 178" etched in all the bus windows. I think I stayed on the bus until we came to a bus stop at the bottom of a small hill with Lewisham station on the top. I think the dream ended as I was halfway up that hill.

  I managed to have a lay in until just gone 7am this morning. I would have tried for more, but I didn't think I would get back to sleep, and after maybe 10 minutes I gave up trying. After going for my first pee after getting up, but no poo (until at least an hour later) I weighed myself. I expected the worst, but it was nit as bas as I feared.  Even without a poo I was only 400gm heavier than yesterday, and I have a theory, maybe a bit of a thin theory, that it will not be hard to correct that if I am fairly careful today, and maybe tomorrow.

  Even my blood glucose measurements were not the disaster expected.....well two of them weren't. The Contour meter read 8.5mmol/l. That is on the dividing line between good and bad. The GlucoRX meter almost confirmed that with a reading of 8.6mmol/l. So far, so good, and maybe even wondrously good considering what I ate yesterday. My first reading on the Sinocare mete was in the pink area at 9.0mmol/l. I hoped that was one of those odd errors, and so I put in a fresh test strip, and tried again. This time it was 9.4mmol/l. That is still safely under the red line (10.0mmol/l), but is most unsatisfactory, even if it was probably about what I expected. Oh well, at least my blood pressure is still in the "optimum" range at 110/48.

  Today is a day where I have some wishes on what I might do, but no definite plans to even move those wishes up a notch to possibilities. There are two things I would like to do today. One is to get to Chain's gig at The Fellowship pub in Bellingham tonight (starting at 8.30pm providing there is no football on). Apart from the walk to Catford station, which I would have to take slowly, and hope the lift to the platform is working, it is right next to Bellingham station, and so easy to get to (one single stop). I would also like to spend some time in the hot sun. I don't think I could walk far enough to make that worthwhile, but a thought suddenly occurs - maybe today is going to be the day I try out my new strimmer in the garden.