I have doubts about the accuracy of today's forecast. It has been very dull until about 15 minutes ago when we had a sprinkle of rain, but it does seem to have stopped now. Later on we might get 5 or so hours of sunny spells, but after that it is tricky to know what to expect. From 4pm there could be thundery showers, but it seems unlikely they will continue until 7pm. We could see sunny spells, ordinary rain, or indeed a thunderstorm. Certainly the temperature rising to 28° C could "boil up" a thunderstorm. Tomorrow could start with mist and fog, and it will be dull until midday when sunny spells may start, and lead on a bit later to full sunshine. Tomorrow could see a very pleasant 26° C.

  So we say goodbye to another month - a month that did have a few nice summer-like days - but that seemed to pass far too quickly. It is quite depressing to think we are now in the 8th month of the year, and there is so little to show for it, and winter is now so close. However yesterday had a few good points.

  One of the first things I did yesterday was to finish the laundry that I had left in it's 2nd rinse water. It was not too arduous to finish it, and get it hanging on the line to dry. The main negative thing was that it delayed me having the full trio of shave, shampoo, and shower - those being necessary prior to going out for my (usually) regular Wednesday lunch time drink.

  I was fully washed, and could have been dressed and ready to go just in time to get to the pub on time, but it would have been a bit of a rush. I would have preferred maybe 20 to 30 minutes to cool off before getting dressed in my outdoor clothes. I think that was just enough to tip me over the edge. I was not feeling great. I assumed that had I made the effort then some fresh air and light exercise would get me in the right state of mind...or something. It seemed easier to give up on the idea for a second week.

  It sort of felt depressing to give in on going out, but as a consolation it was past midday, and so I could have lunch. I decided that it would not only be nice, but that I really should use up a pack of 2 Iceland quiches that had been in the fridge for almost a week.

  Those two quiches, about as wide as a typical beer mat (3,5 inches across), once again seemed tastier than the best that Tesco can offer. They are also quite cheap. I could have bought three packs, or 6 small quiches in total, for £5. They are not specifically low sugar, but as the nutritional panel (on the left) shows, each small quiche contains 5.8 grams of sugar, and I ate 2 of them. That is not a trivial amount of sugar, but it is also not a big amount.

   Instead of drinking Guinness and doing the crossword, I spent the first few hours of the afternoon laying on my bed reading. I remember closing my eyes as if to have a snooze, and I think I did have a snooze, but I can't be sure. It was during that rest period that I got sidetracked. I heard the song "Un Nuit De Paris" played on my playlist, and wondered what album it came from.

  At that time I thought it was by Supertramp. If I had just checked what was on my playlist I would have seen it was actually by 10 CC, but I started off looking for it as a Supertramp song. I soon came across the Internet Archive, and they had a downloadable complete (or almost complete) discography of Supertramp albums. In theory it is probably naughty to offer them because there is no way they will be out of copyright for many years, but I could miss the opportunity, and downloaded the lot.

  I expected they might be low quality, and only good enough for research, but they were very good quality rips with just one small failing. I did not like the brief file names they had been given. I ended up spending quite some time using Kid3, a linux id3 editor, to rename all the files to the standard I like, and get the entire collection in line with (almost) the rest of my mp3 music collection - mostly ripped from my own CDs to make them more easily played on my PC.
  By the time I had finished with those mp3 files, my washing had been out in the sunshine, and was bone dry, and almost feeling hot to touch. It was basically just 4 items - although there was another pair of underpants that I meant to throw away because the elastic in them had failed, and they would keep falling down. I did throw they away but only after they were dry. On the left is one of my two white t-shirts with breast pocket. It has a couple of stains on it that make it less than perfect, but it is fine for informal occasions. Next on the line is a pair of lounge pants (some may call them sweat pants, but I think those would be made of thicker material). Next is my skimpiest pair of shorts. I generally only wear them around the house because I managed to get silicone rubber on them during a small plumbing job, and I can't seem to get it off again. Finally a boring old pair of underpants.

  By the time I had finished putting that laundry away it was time for the run of 4 different Star Trek episodes.  Sadly they were mostly dull episodes, but still good enough to pass some time. I think it was around 5.30pm when I decided it was time for dinner. There were several things I could have had but nothing really excited me. I did consider ordering a takeway, but even if it was the safest I could imagine, there could still be an element of doubt as to its sugar content.

  After so many days of very high blood glucose readings I was doing my best to try and moderate my sugar intake yesterday. The two small quiches I had for lunch were definitely not the nest I could have had, but there was also the need to eat them before they had been in the fridge so long that they would have spoiled. For my dinner I decided to go for the simplest possible solution. Although I ate more than was ideal, I thought that rice crackers (almost no sugar) and just plain cheese (also very low sugar content) were my best option (although it was a matter of faith rather than research than the crackers and cheese had a very low sugar content).

  The last Star Trek finished at 8pm, and there was nothing on TV that seemed worth looking at. I pottered around a bit, and I was in bed, and ready to try for sleep at 9pm. The fact that I can remember little about it suggest that I fell asleep very easily. I know I had no acid reflux/heartburn problems, and I don't think I was coughing much. The worst thing was that my bedroom was a bit too warm, but not enough to spoil my sleep, but warm enough to sweat all over my pillows !

  I can't seem to remember anything about the night beyond a few inconsequential facts. I can remember having a dream that seemed to be centred on a stored charge phonecard. The only other thing I can remember about that dream is a random pile of facts or images that I can't make any sense of. I do remember waking up at around 5am and going for a pee. I feel almost certain that I must have got up to pee at other times, but I can't seem to remember anything about them. It was almost as if I had not got up to pee in the night, but I must have done because the level in my bottle of (initially) chilled water shows that during the evening, and in the night, I drunk well over a litre. Actually, come to think of it, I do remember taking a drink several times in the night, but still no memory of going for a pee !

  I didn't even feel any strong urge to go for a pee when I finally got up at around 6.30am, although I went anyway, and I did pee a fair amount. Nothing in particular felt any better when  got up, but somehow I had the feeling that I did feel better than the days of the previous week. Maybe it was just the lack of any bad things that seemed positive..,and in a way that is true.

    All this apparent lack of peeing should suggest, as it hasn't quite a few time recently, that my blood glucose is not high. For the first time in a week there is some positive news about it. This morning the Contour meter read 8.9mmol/l. That is still a bit higher than desirable, but close to normal. The GlucoRX meter read 9.2mmol/l, and that is bad. I checked it a second time and it insisted it was right. The Sinocare meter, often tending the read the highest of the three, gave the lowest reading this morning. It was 8.7mmol/l, and although a tad higher than my old target of 8.5mmol/l I would consider it fine if all three meters gave the same reading. It would still not be ideal, but "good enough" for now.

  My eating strategy is paying small dividends even if it is not having any positive improvement on my blood glucose. This morning I seem to have lost another 100gm - and that is after only a tiny poo this morning. These small loses of about 100gms are starting to add up to a useful loss, although this morning it is only the same as one unique day in last June. I have no idea what happened on the day in June, but it might have been something like a stomach upset that completely emptied me ! Just recently it has been a small incremental drop each day rather than a sudden drop followed by an instant gain. I think that today I am 0.9kg lighter then when I was weighed at the doctors surgery when I saw the nurse for my annual checkup.

  Of course the big mystery is why, if I have been eating in an almost super selective way, and losing weight because of it, why is my blood glucose almost out of control. It could be that my pancreas has finally given in, and I am on my way to insulin injections. The other possibility is those Esomeprazole tablets I have been taking. Their whole purpose is to effect the digestive process by reducing the production of stomach acid. I can't even think of what mechanism it could be, but my suspicion lies with those tablets. As of today I have stopped taking them, but it could be a few days before they are clear of my system. If my blood glucose suddenly drops I will probably have found the cause. If nothing changes except for the return of heartburn, then I will go back on them.

  I predict only two things for today. One is that one I am up, washed, and dressed, I will go and got some shopping from Aldi. I think I have a yearning for some ready cooked roast chicken today, but there will plenty of other things to go in my shopping trolley. Later this after I should be seeing Jodie for another afternoon beer tasting session. I hope we see Michael as well.