Today is one of those days when the forecast has kept changing over the last 24 hours. Some versions showed no rain, and others a fair bit of rain. The very latest revision just shows light rain for 1pm and 9pm. Most of the rest of the time should feature sunny spells. As I type this there is a fair amount of cloud, but the sun is shining, albeit not at full strength because it seems to be shining through very thin cloud. It seems to be a mild morning, and the temperature should peak at 23° C in the afternoon, although like a lot of days recently, the reality could be a couple of degrees higher. Tomorrow could be a very dull day, and after midday it could turn wet - initially no more than some drizzle, but possibly building up to heavy rain by mid evening. it is probably going to feel very cool with the temperature only reaching 19° C.

 Yesterday was another day that was sort of good at first, and then gradually went downhill to another terrible evening. Some of it can probably be attributed to the mild cold I still seem to be suffering from. Some of the negative aspects can be blamed on a stomach upset I didn't realise I had until I realised it at the speed of sound !

  As I wrote yesterday, I had my breakfast and a shower much earlier than usual. That was because I was expecting a delivery, and at that time I had no idea when it might be due. There was some precedent that it could arrive quite early. It was several hours later before I got confirmation of an expected delivery time of 1.20p to 2.20pm.  I didn't really feel inclined to do anything after I had finished writing, and up to the time the delivery was made. I enjoyed a few lazy hour that were mostly spent reading a book.

  While waiting for the delivery I spent some conspiring to plan stuff I might do later. Like many similar things it all end up as nothing by fantasy. One good thing is that the delivery was made very soon after the earliest estimate of 1.20pm. The time stamp on the photo actually says it was early at 1.14pm.  I've shrunk the picture on the left down too small to easily read the boxes, but they came from "beers Of Europe".

  I don't think I was sure just how many beers I had ordered, and only found out when I opened the boxes and counted them all. It was 29 bottles or cans in total, and I had just kept adding beers to my basket until I thought I had reached the magic £100 for free delivery. Sadly I miscalculated and I was a mere 9p short. Maybe I don't begrudge paying the cost of delivery for such a big box of beers.

  One reason for the amount of beers is that unlike most of the beers that Jodie enjoys, which can be stupidly expensive, all mine were far more reasonably priced, and so were probably less than you might pay in a pub. I didn't get them at true wholesale prices, but there was only a small markup as far as I can guess. One of the most expensive beers, and possibly the most expensive was a 14% English barley wine for £5.69. That is probably very cheap for such a beer. I hope it lives up to my expectations.

  Many of the beers I ordered were more to my taste than Jodies, and I ordered with Michael in mind. He is generally a lager drinker, and so some of the "continental" Pils he might find enjoyable - if he manages to be here when we are ready to open them. Tomorrow beer drinking will be mostly from the previous beer delivery, and ideally from even earlier ones. Jodie has a terrible habit of forgetting some of the beers she had once selected herself in favour of the latest, shiniest bottles or can. Of Course if I am so bold as to drink some of the ones she seems to be neglecting she goes into a sulk because she didn't get to try it.

  By the time the beer was delivered the day had mostly changed to being sunny, and I could have carried out my fantasies, which by then had grown to shopping in Savers, Poundstretcher, and then Iceland - all in one shopping trip. I quickly realised that while it might have been desirable to go to those shops, none of it was essential, and so the plan just sorted of faded away. It was almost being back to being lazy.

  I was not totally lazy, and did two sort of important things. One was to have some lunch. I decided that the best thing I could have for lunch, in respect of blood glucose levels, and maybe even calorie levels, was a can of cream of Chicken soup. I didn't go for Tesco cream of chicken soup, which is super healthy, but a can of Aldi own brand soup. Even that reported a pretty low sugar and calorie content.

  Once I had eaten my lunch I rested a bit to cool down, and then I tackled some laundry I had left soaking after my shower - three t-shorts and four pairs of underpants. Although I got sort of bored of it half way through, I was determined to do it all as one job, and not leave it half done. Maybe only with hindsight did it turn out to be far easier than I thought, and I did do it as just one job. Once I had hung it up to dry I found I had nothing more I wanted to do, and so reverted back to laying on my bed reading.

  It might have been while laying on my bed, reading, that I got the very first hints of what would end up as an almost disaster many hours later. I could feel/hear a few mystery gurgles from within my belly. I felt perfectly comfortable (in respect of my gut) and so I just ignored it.

  As dinnertime approached I considered what I could cook for dinner myself, and there were quite a few things I could cook, but somehow they didn't seem to go together well. By about 5pm I decided I would treat myself to a takeaway. This was partly because I paid off my credit cards the day before yesterday, and all my accounts looked very healthy. The only thing I had to do was to wait for a bit because many of the restaurants/takeaway places don't open as early as 5pm.

  At 6pm I ordered a chicken and a lamb shish kebab from a place I have used before, and made a note that it was fairly good in the recent past. I think I ordered the small options of both, but what arrived did seem big for a small, but maybe small for a large. That probably means both were just right. As usual I discarded the pitta bread, and just ate the gilled meat and salad. I deliberately didn't add extra hot pepper sauce for fear of upsetting my guts later when I was going to bed. It turns out I needn't have worried about it for purely negative reasons.

  I ate my dinner while watch the usual early even Star Treks. I was saved from the worst by a phone call from my friend Sue. I'm not really sure the purpose of the call unless it was for her to proudly declare that she had made another move towards getting her rotten/rotting teeth fixed. She is a complete dental phobic, and so it is all a big deal to her to be abole to phone dentists.

  Of course the conversation ended up going far and wide as it usually does with Sue. It is one reason I try not to have phone calls with her because they can go on for hours and hours. After maybe 90 minutes I began to feel like I would be needing the toilet soon, and so I hoped to bring the call to a close. Before that could happen I thought I might be OK to let go a fart. I was wrong. It was a slightly wet fart. That seemed a really good reason to bring the call to a quick close.

  I was still saying goodbye while I was sitting on the toilet, and it was far more than farting, although much gas was involved in the jet powered diarrhoea I very soon realised I was suffering from. Once I got rid of Sue I could concentrate on the main subject, and it felt like I was sitting on the toilet for about 15 minutes. As much as I did in those 15 minutes (if indeed it was really as long as that) I knew I would be back for more - because that always seems to happen. I might have had a 10 minute respite before I was back on the toilet for a second helping.

  I guess I felt OK after that, and I started making moves towards going to bed. I think there was something I might have watched on TV at 9pm, but I couldn't be bothered with that, and went and laid on my bed to read. I'm not sure how long I was reading for, but it must have been as late as 10pm when I turned the light out, and turned over to try and go to sleep. Two things stopped me getting to sleep, One was that I was feeling hot and sticky, and the other started a few minutes later - it was yet another attack of heartburn, or something that felt like it.

  Once again I got up and sat at my desk waiting for the pain to subside. To help it on it's way I took some antacids, and I even took a couple of paracetamol. This time nothing seemed to work, and I mostly just had to wait for the pain to go away by itself. While waiting I did get an additional mild ache. It felt like I needed to go to the toilet again. I expected it to be another splattery attack of diarrhoea, but it wasn't. It wasn't very large, but it was about the most normal poo possible. That was a huge surprise. 

  Meanwhile my heartburn seemed to almost gone away, and I went back to bed to try and sleep again. The heartburn came straight back, but it wasn't quite as bad. Once again I went back to my desk chair, and say there, trying to read some technology news on the internet to help pass the time. I could barely concentrate on it, and almost, but not quite, falling asleep while sat up. It was as 2am approached that I went back to bed, and tried to sleep. This time I really did sleep despite some mild discomfort. The best thing about it was that was not as late as 3am like some recent occasions.

   I can't say I slept very well at all last night. I woke a few times for a pee, or at least thinking I might need a pee, but there were other reasons why I didn't not sleep well. It still felt like a sticky night, and I was sticking to the under sheet, and I had to turn my pillow cover around a few times because it was getting damp from sweat. I was also coughing a lot. It seems my cough had changed to a slightly throaty cough instead of a dry cough.

  Yesterday I tried to keep my throat wet by sipping drinks a lot, but sucking on a couple of sugar free sweets was probably more effective. The only problem is that I dared not have more than 2 or 3 because they can have a laxative effect. In the end that would not have mattered because something else had caused a mega laxative effect ! I managed to stay in bed until 7am, but it seemed I just could not sleep any more, and the last half hour or more in bed, trying to sleep, was a waste of time, and I got up maybe a bit less than an hour later than usual.

  This morning I do not feel great. My nose seems to have dried up, but my cough is a bit bothersome. This feeling bad is more than the mild, but irritating effects of what I presume is a cold, rather than Covid 19, and more than bad sleep, but I am not sure what. It is not, but has some similarities to a hangover. One easy to describe symptom is that I am having an hard time writing with constantly correcting spelling, and sometimes having to add words that I seem to have skipped over writing. It is not that much different to much of my writing apart from in magnitude.

  Two positive things are my temperature and blood pressure. Both easily measured in real units, and this morning my blood pressure is a very nice 108/47, and my temperature is, if anything, very slightly low at 35.8° C (although my body temperature always seems to be lower that the "official" 37.3° C). One bad thing is my weight. Despite seeming to flush several kilograms down the the toilet last night, I seem to have put on over a kilogram - which is doubly odd considering I thought I ate moderately carefully yesterday.

  I also thought my blood glucose measurements should have been good this morning after considering what I ate yesterday, but I have to remember that being ill can raise those measurements. Apart from a sort of foggy/soggy feeling, a cough, and a lack of sleep, I don't consider myself to be more than mildly ill, but three blood glucose meters can't all lie.

  The contour meter read 8.3mmol/l, and that could be considered good compared to the averages of many months ago. The GlucoRX meter read 8.6mmol/l, and that is only just over my old target of 8.5mmol/l. The Sinocare meter gave the kindest reading of all at just 8.1mmol/l. All these readings are undeniably good, but the whole thing of having the shish kebabs last night was to get readings of 7.9mmol/l or hopefully less, and I failed to achieve that even if the Sinocare meter came very close.

  It is another Wednesday, and I should be looking forward to a couple of lunchtime pints in The Jolly Farmers with my favourite barmaid, but I don't really feel like going. For one thing it is almost 11am, and it will be a bit of a rush to have a shave, shampoo and shower to get ready to go out. Plus I am not sure it is a good idea to go to the pub to cough over people, and I wouldn't enjoy my Guinness if I have to keep stopping to cough.

  It is possible that I would cough less in the fresh air. That was often the case while I was working, and going in when feeling a bit like I feel at the moment. Once I am cleaned up I might possibly take an experimental walk towards Savers, and if that goes OK I could buy a few things in there, but only a few things because I would then, assuming I still feel fairly OK, go into Poundstretcher to get a few things from there (or more). Ideally I would get all that stuff in my rucksack, and then would have a bag free to go and buy some food and stuff from Iceland. If I ever manage all that I could relish having .a long snooze in the afternoon with no guilt at all (apart from missing my lunchtime in The Jolly Farmers).