A web page with no
adverts, no cookies, and no scripts
|
Page composed
using
 1
|
|
Saturday
27th July 2024
|
08:19
BST
Yesterday
was fairly nice. It
probably included some
duller hours rather than
sunny spells all day,
but otherwise the
forecast got it fairly
close to reality. One
thing it didn't show was
rain, but the rain I saw
only seemed to be about
a dozen drips of rain,
and I think it was not
long after midday. If I
hadn't seen a few drops
of rain on an open
window I would not have
known it had happened.
It seemed a warm enough
day, and once again the
forecast of 23° C, may
have been a a degree or
two short of the actual
temperature. I wonder if
Catford being in a sort
of valley between two
rows of hills, traps a
little more heat than
the wider area.
Today's weather looks a
lot like yesterday's in
the current forecast,
although there is a slight
difference because 4 and
5pm are only shown as
cloudy. Actually the
latest revision now shows
4, 5 and 6pm as light
cloud. Once again the
maximum temperature is
shown as 23° C. Tomorrow
should see more non stop
sunshine, and that might
push the temperature up to
25° C.
Yesterday was a bit
like the day before in as
much as it was a fine day,
but terrible evening and
night. The nest thing was
that it definitely felt like
I was 99% over my cold. That
turned out to be very wrong,
but during the day I could
enjoy feeling just about
normal.
I must admit I had a
very lazy morning. Some
interruptions while I was
writing here in the morning
meant I finished writing
quite late. Rather than be
rushed I laid on my bed
reading for half an hour or
more. I am getting very
close to the end of the
book, and spending more time
reading is a bit of an urge
now. It was probably a
little after midday before I
had a nice shower. That made
me feel good.
After allowing a
little bit of time to cool
off I got dressed and went
out shopping to Tesco. It
was nice walking in the
sunshine, and I could keep
up a fair speed with no
issues (although fair does
not equal fast). Perhaps
particularly in the fresh
air, or maybe that is when I
made a point of thinking
about it, my nose didn't
drip, and it was only on the
rarest occasions that I had
to do a small quick cough to
clear my throat.
Even when I went in
Tesco's, and it seemed to
feel rather chilly near the
fresh fruit and stuff, I
didn't have any revivals of
my recent cold. Maybe it did
induce a brief tightness of
the chest, but that was
probably my operation scar
tissue rather than anything
else. On the whole I felt
pretty good, and after my
recent cold that felt extra
special. The trouble is that
it didn't seem to last.
My first priority in
Tesco was to get some
bottles of Diet Coke,
although because of the way
Tesco is laid out there were
actually the last things I
put in my basket. I was also
looking for some simple, but
tasty foods I could eat with
the minimum of preparation
if I got home very late in
the evening today or
tomorrow. I found a few
reduced price pastie type
things, and also a reduced
price quiche. They were not
exactly healthy options, but
OK for unusual
circumstances.
The walk home in the
sunshine was very pleasant
again. What was less
pleasant was that I had many
things I could munch on, but
I couldn't, or didn't want
to, eat them because they
were for today and tomorrow,
plus I had already eaten
some junk food I had bought
from Iceland the day before.
It was because of my high
blood glucose readings that
I was going to try and make
yesterday a bit like I was
expecting today to be.
If things went to
plan I would be having a
normal breakfast in the
morning and nothing to eat
until maybe mid evening. I
had already broken that with
the Iceland snacks, and I
did not want to make it
worse. I didn't really do
much in the afternoon,
except more time spent
reading my book. One thing I
did do was not much in
theory, but it did take up a
bit of time.
It was to pack my
photographic rucksack with
the cameras and stuff I
expected to use today. It
wasn't just the case of
shoving everything in the
rucksack, although that is
mostly what it amounted to.
My dream of getting a
perfect, and compact way of
getting two cameras, a flash
gun, and a spare lens, never
really realised as hoped. I
did have a sort of plan, but
it was still shove anything
in anyhow.
There was a little
more to it than that. I made
sure the main and spare
batteries were topped up,
and that there was enough
space on the memory cards. I
also set new folders on each
camera. One other thing was
to check the lenses worked.
I knew my best lens worked
OK with my best camera (The
Nikon D610), but I wanted to
double check that the wide
angle lens would be OK on
both cameras.
When I used my fish
eye lens at the Hilly Fields
gig a couple of months ago,
I found it had severe vignetting
problems when used with my Nikon
D610 camera. That
camera is a full frame
camera whose image sensor is
the same size as 35mm film.
That gives it a wider field
of view than my other
cameras, and that means it
can "see" the inside of some
lenses, and the pictures
come out with a sort of
black shadow around the
edges. In most cases it is
easy to crop off, but the
fish eye lens give a very
weird view. I can still use
it, but have to remember to
leave plenty of space at the
sides so the vignetting can
be cropped off.
Another lens problem
is that I have a few lenses
that were very good, but
quite cheap because they
need older Nikon cameras
that have the focus motor in
the camera body. In the case
of my Nikon D610 and D300
cameras that is no problem -
they can drive lenses with
internal motors of those
needing the external focus
motor. What might have been
a future problem was that in
swapping lenses around I put
a lens needing an external
focus motor on my Nikon
D3200 camera. I rarely use
that camera now, but leaving
a lens that won't focus on
it might have caught me out
when I came to use it. The
D3200 is a fairly
lightweight camera, and I
might start to use it for
rail photography, although I
have two other preferred
cameras for that.
Soon enough 6pm was
getting close, and it was
time to prepare my dinner. I
intended to keep it small
and simple, and I did mostly
achieve that idea. The main
bit of dinner was a couple
of cod and chorizo fish
cakes I had found on the
reduced price shelves. My
original idea was to have no
more than those tow fish
cakes, but I couldn't resist
having some cheese flavoured
coleslaw with them. I had
three small sugar free choc
chip cookies as a dessert
afterwards.
I was hoping that
dinner would be light
enough, and eaten early
enough not to give any
heartburn - maybe aided by
the Esomeprazole tablets I
am taking once a day. I went
to bed, initially to read,
as early as 8.30pm. I didn't
read for long, and turned
over to try for sleep. I did
get a hint of heartburn, but
it was mild enough to be
ignorable. Another thing I
got was a few throaty
coughs. I still managed to
fall asleep, but an hour or
two later I woke up.
One reason for waking
was because I think I needed
a pee, although I don't
recall there being any
urgency to it. Maybe the
bigger reason for waking was
that I had a full on attack
of a very chest cough with
plenty of tickly mucus
involved. At the cost of
probably destroying my blood
glucose results again this
morning, I took a shot of
cough syrup. It seemed to
help a bit but the effect
didn't last long, and after
a while it actually got
worse.
Like the heartburn
problems, it was only really
annoying when I was laying
down. Getting up, and
sitting in my desk chair
helped a lot - at least to
the extent it was easier to
cough when upright, but it
may not have had much of an
effect on the frequency of
my coughing. On the whole I
felt terrible, and it just
got worse.
I was very aware that
more doses of cough syrup,
or different specifications
and uses, would make a
complete mockery of my blood
glucose readings, but I had
little choice. This morning
I debated to even bother
checking my blood glucse,
and maybe to delete
yesterday's terrible
readings. For the moment I
have kept the readings
because I think I had a
legitimate reason for them
being so high.
I tried many time to
go back to bed, and to fall
asleep again, but I think my
first new bit of sleep was
not until 3am. By then I was
feeling so tired I was
falling asleep in my desk
chair. I think I slept for
an hour, and I woke up from
a dream that had the
potential to be scary. I
seemed to be with two other
people, and curiously enough
the other two seemed to be
the same person in a
different place. We were in
a sort of small estuary or
harbour. Two of us were
going along the top of a a
slippery wall about 10
inches above the water. The
third person seemed to have
ended up walking in the
water, and as they walked
forward the water seemed to
get deeper. I am unsure of
his fate by I followed the
other man and we came to the
end where it was slightly
tricky to do a very long
stride onto a pillar with an
top about a yard square, and
from then on scramble down
onto a road. I got as far as
on the pillar when I woke
up.
It would be another
hour before I was able to
get back to sleep again, and
it was probably not more
than about another half
hours sleep that I got.
Prior to going to sleep I
thought it was cooling down,
and I turned the heater on
low. It is possible that I
had a fever then, but I
didn't seem to be aware
enough to check my
temperature. When I woke up
my room thermometers said it
was about 25° C, and that is
usually a nice temperature
to sleep with no duvet. I
didn't have the duvet over
me, but still woke up
drenched with sweat. That
time I did check my
temperature, and it was
35.8° C. That is a long way
from a fever, and fairly
typical for me when waking
from uncovered sleep.
After having a pee I
tried to go back to sleep,
and I think I did for maybe
20 minutes, and then a bit
more. Maybe it was a lot
more because I know it was a
few minutes after 7am when I
got up, and I can't for all
the rest of the time. I did
the usual and went for a
pee, plus tried for a poo
(which didn't happen) before
scrubbing my hands, and
checking my blood glucose. I
shouldn't have bothered
because I knew it would be
awful - and it was. All
readings just over the red
line. The worst was the
GlucoRX meter with a reading
of 10.5mmol/l. At least
during all this trouble my
blood pressure remains good.
This morning it was very
slightly higher, but 107/55
is still very good.
Today I was really
looking forward to going to
Chattfest in the garden of
The Chatterton Arms. I could
still go, but with the way I
feel, just even from the
point of view of last sleep,
I doubt I could enjoy it
that much, plus I would feel
guilty about coughing over
everybody else. I could be a
sort of typhoid Mary ! I do
wonder, despite a lack of
all the most popular
symptoms, very much
including a lack of any
fever (or at least I haven't
managed to capture any
spikes in my temperature)
whether I could have
something like
Covid-19. Last night,
and to a lesser extent, this
is more like a common cold
from the days when I was a
heavy smoker.
Chattfest is on all
day today, and I could
possibly go later today if I
started to feel good, or
there is a second chance
tomorrow if I have a good
night tonight. I would hate
to miss all of it, but it
would be more public
spirited to not pass this
lurgy around - and the
chances are it is passed on
as airborne bugs from
coughing.
In the meantime I not
even going to stop for a
shower, but I'll be laying
on my bed reading, and
hopefully feel like a nice
long snooze. At some point,
after the hot sweaty night I
will have a shower if only
to make me feel better for
myself. If I am still
coughing, but otherwise seem
to be OK, I might be brave
enough to do a bit of
gardening - aka strimming.
The garden waste wheelie bin
was not emptied on Thursday
(I think t is supposed to be
every Thursday) and there is
little room left for more
cuttings. I may have to
leave the debris from the
strimmer where it lies. If I
had many times the energy I
might have, I should
probably attempt to dig it
all in so it can decay into
natural fertiliser.
2379 words
today
|
v |
|
