09:05 BST

   The ground was wet when I first opened the curtains, but it seemed like the rain had stopped by then (approx 8.30am), and the first rays of the sun could be seen through a small hole in the clouds. The sky is now just about clear, at least an hour earlier than forecast, and we have nice sunshine. If it lasts, as per the forecast, it should drive the temperature up to 22°C. Tomorrow could see a lot of rain. In fact it could almost rain all day, and much of the rain could be quite heavy. It will also be a cool day with a max of 17°C currently forecast.
 
  Yesterday was an almost good day. Perhaps it was an OK day. With hindsight it was possibly even very slightly good, or to put it another way, my perceived sins appeared to come to nothing. All will soon be explained - I hope.

  The weather was very gloomy yesterday morning, but somehow I didn't let it bother me too much. After I finished writing I had my usual rest - laying on my bed reading, and I even let my eyes close for a while - but I know I had to have a shower because I wanted to go shopping in Aldi.

  I think it was gone midday before I was ready to open the front door, and head out into the weather. I hoped I had missed the forecast rain or drizzle, but in a way it could also be the other way around - the drizzle missed me. That is not 100% accurate because I did feel a bit of fine drizzle on my face, but I think it had finished before I had gone 20ft down the road. My walk was not perfectly comfortable because I was trying an old pair of shoes that seemed to have very little wear.

  That lack of wear was a good enough clue that maybe I hadn't worn them because they were uncomfortable. It seemed they were only midly uncomfortable, and oddly enough it was only one of the pair. The discomfort was just enough to slightly slow me down, and that meant that I didn't seem to suffer from any angina, or even breathing pains. In good shoes, and maybe in rain, I would have probably walked a lot faster, and ended up with angina by the time I got to Aldi.

  Although I had a few ideas of what I wanted to buy in Aldi, I had a few surprises in there, and bought several things I hadn't even imagined. One thing was a small box of 4 x 330ml cans of Brewdog ALD IPA - a special own label brew. I can imagine Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Lidl, and maybe even M&S all selling the same beer with a different own label.

  I bought two "novelty" packs of meat. One was a middle east inspired, marinated lamb chops, and the other was a couple of "Chinese inspired" pork burgers. While in the bakery section I had a learning experience. I fancied a couple of wholemeal rolls. I thought I specifically wanted wholemeal rols because they usuallly have a very much lower sugar content, but not from Aldi. The white rolls next to the wholemeal roll said each roll had 2.5gm of sugar in it. The wholemeal rolls said 4.7gms of sugar. My choice was very obvious - the white rolls !

  The rest of my shopping was probably very run of the mill, and not worth commenting on now. I had two moderately heavy bags, plus a very heavy rucksack to lug home. Such effort would be expected to give me some bad angina pains, but didn't. Maybe it is because I ended up walking quite slowly because of the load, and also because my legs were very stiff and almost creaky again. It seems I might have found my own cure for the angina - being unable to walk far and fast - the cure that is as bad as the illness.

  It is possible that angina pains were just about to start as I arrived at my front door. I definitely felt quite knackered, and maybe there was a hint of chest pain starting. I was certainly glad to get home, and ultimately to rest, but forst I had to put my shopping away. I then made up two ham and salad rolls using the white rolls I had just bought. They were very satisfying, and maybe even better than the reduced price Brie and bacon sandwiches with a 30% off sticker that I threw in my shopping trolley.

  After eating I had a short rest, but then had to do a bit of light work. I had some washing up to do, and quick wipe up of the kitchen work surfaces, plus a very light tidy up of the dining room, ready for a beer tasting session a little bit later in the afternoon. In fact it was not as late as expected because Jodie arrives soon after 3pm. I remembered her telling me it would possibly be an early start, and an early finish.

  I was a fairly good drinking session, although we drunk less than usual. One bog can the Jodie opened was a coffee flavoured stout. I declined trying any of that, and opened up on of the cans of Brewdog ALD IPA. Like most (possibly all Brewdog beers) it was not that nice. As I remarked to Jodie, it was as if they let the Brewdog dog, swim in the beer ! I guess it wasn't quite that bad, but it did have a slightly odd taste. I guess if that was all I had to drink, I could have learned to love it.

  As usual, Jodie spent a lot of time on her phone, but she did bring me a copy of The Metro so I could do the crosswords. Maybe it was just me, but both crosswords, the quick and the cryptic, seemed easier than usual. I finished the quick crossword possibly in less than 10 minutes. I managed to solve 10 and a half cryptic clues, and with the aid of a very strong beer I might have managed more.

  Yesterday was another Thursday where Jodie was going on to some sort of official beer tasting event. It was ticketed entry, and at £22 a ticket, and only 4 third pint glasses of beer to sample, it seemed a very expensive way of drinking beer. To get there she was meeting Alan in The Three Hounds by Clockhouse station soon after 5pm, and then they would wander down the road to the tram stop,. Get the tram to Beckenham Junction station, and from there a direct train to Brixton where the beer tasting was taking place.

  As soon as Jodie left I started to cook my dinner. It was to be the middle east inspired (I think the packet actually gave the name of the country) marinated lamb chops. I grilled those in the mini oven/grill. I accompanied them with some boiled baby potatoes and some partly steamed, frozen mixed vegeatables. I ate it near 6pm while watching the usual Star Treks. It was quite tasty, and it seems the marinade on the meat was not full of sugar.

  Now the peculiar thing was that I judged myself to be stone cold sober after not drinking all that much, but for some reason I turned to TV off at 7pm instead of 8pm. Maybe I just decided I couldn't be bothered to watch Star Trek: Voyager, or maybe I just forgot it was one because I didn't want to watch it....or maybe I watched the first  5 minutes and realised it was one of the terrible episodes.

  Anyway, I laid on my bed to read, and when what I thought was 9pm approaching, I turned the TV on, and was surprised that the next programme was an episode of M*A*S*H. I could have watched that, but went back to my book for another hour before watching, and recording another episode of The New Avengers. Curiously enough it was one episode that I could remember seeing when broadcast many years, maybe even decades ago. It was not a bad episode.

  I went straight to bed when it finished at 10pm. I didn't seem to have any obvious aches or pains to stop me going straight to sleep, but non obvious ones soon reared their heads. Much is written, buy others, as well as me, about dreams, but few write about those unknown seconds or minutes as you fall asleep, or try to. It maybe be seconds, but sometimes feels like minutes.

  I turned the lights out, turned over, and everything still seemed to feel good. I closed my eyes and started to relax.....but.... I can't remember everything, but it went something like this: First of all a wisp of my own hair started ticklin my forehead. I dealt with that, but possibly the same single strand of hair started tickling my ear. Then I decided it might be more comfortable to move one hand half an inch from where it was, and change the angle of my arm by a few degrees. Then I heard a strange noise, and it turned out to be the hard disk in my PC doing some sort of maintenance movement. It stopped after a second or two, but then I started to hear a strange noise that I soon realised was a fox calling for his (or her) mate. Then I decided I would be more comfortable if I moved one of my feet a couple of inches. Then I brished another bit of hair aside.......at some point I fell into a deep sleep.

  On the whole I slept well last night, but these days that includes getting up for a pee or three. I can rememeber having a long series of dreams, but I can't recall enough information to relaly describe what was going on - assuming I originally knew it in the first place. It seeme to be about people becoming infected with some, possibly on purpose, and some sort of experiment, or maybe by accident. The had to go to Ongar railway station (once at the far eastern end of the Central line, but now part of a preserved railway) to get some sort of cure in one of the rooms of the railway station.

  I know I was awake, and went for a pee at 5am, but I remember nothing more until I woke up, and got up at about 6.30am. After another good pee, and a poo, I got on the scales, and despite eating a few suspect things yesterday, it seems my weight has dropped by 200gm this morning. I'll need a lot more 200 grammes to get back to my recent lowest weight, but I am almost back in the same ball park now.

  That made me wonder how my blood glucose was doing. Just recently my blood glucose had dropped at the same time my weight went up. My first blood glucose reading, usingthe Contour meter was rather good - just 7.6mmol/l. That was better than expected after eating several lots of bread, and the boiled potatoes with my dinner. The GlucoRX meter was not quite as good, but 8.1mmol/l is not too bad. The Sinocare meter was worst of all, but 8.3mmol/l is also not that bad.

  Last night, a bit later than usual, my blood pressure was a tiny bit higher than usual. I think it was hight than "optimum" and into the "normal" area. That is still perfectly OK, but nothing to brag about. It was 121/47. I think I was a bit too tired to relax and try for a better second reading. This morning my first measurement was quite good, but slightly higherthan usual. This time I did a second reading, and it half (or maybe a third) worse. The systolic pressure went up to 111mmHg, but the diastolic went down to just 41mmHg. My pulse rate went down to 54 ppm (Pulse Per minute). That is pretty typical for my morning readings.

  Today I have two things on my mind that I might do, although the chances of both are a bit slim. One thing is to pay another visit to Aldi. I noticed a few things in there I might have bought, including vanilla flavoured Diet Coke (or possibly Coke Zero) in packs of 12 330ml cans. I could in theory easily fill two shopping bags with stuff that should have a long life, and so less temptation to eat any edible prematurely.

  The other thing I think I might stand a small chance of doing is going to a gig. The band G Force are playing in The Fellowship Inn, Bellingham. They play some decent music, and the place is easy to get to now I know the easy way - by bus. The 336 bus stop is easier to walk to than Catford Bridge station, and although the pub is next door to Bellingham station, it is an even longer walk, with stairs at the end of the walk to Catford station. It is only a short walk from the bas stop to the pub, and a similar length walk to a bus stop with laods of buses going back to close to home. provided it is still dry and bright, it seems almost possible that I will go....and to make it easier I think I would be trying my lightweight Nikon D3200 camera with flashgun. It is half the weight of my precious Nikon D610 camera with big heavy lens !