09:57 BST

   Oh dear, it seems the forecast is almost right. I think I would describe it as medium heavy rain, rather than full heavy rain, but it is most definitely wet outside ! The rain may slacken off after 1pm, but then at 6pm there could be a thunderstorm. That didn't appear in yesterday's forecast for today, but it has survived at least one revision so far this morning. Of course, The BBC do like to slip in a thunderstorm to their forecasts from time to time, and it is rare that there is actually one. The Met Office forecast generally agrees with the BBC forecast, but it doesn't show any hint of a thunderstorm. It is going to be a cold day with a maximum of 17° C. Tomorrow should be brighter, dry and with some pleasant sunshine, but it will still only just make 19° C.
 
  It seems I am off to a very late start this morning, and there are various reasons for it. Most will be described later, but one simple one to start with was getting up a lot later than usual. There was a good reason for that, and it too will be described further down the page.

  Yesterday had a few good points, but overall it was a disappointing day - mostly of my own making. I did have a fantasy that I might go to Aldi again to buy some heavy, and/or big stuff that I couldn't get the day before yesterday when I went shopping in Aldi. That never happened, and it was mostly because by the time I could have been ready to go out, it felt much too later to bother. I guess it could happen today, but I don't think I will say I am even thinking about it. I'll just leave it as "if it happens, it happens".

  Maybe the main thing I did yesterday was reading. I seemed to read many chapters, albeit mostly short chapters of the book I am currently reading, "A Stainless Steel Trio" by Harry Harrison.  In some respects it took me back to possibly decades ago when I seemed to find occasional days when I could spend hours reading. I did that without guilt, but yesterday it somehow I felt guilty to spend so much time reading even if there was little else to do.

  One thing I should have had time for was to have a shower, and wash my hair. That would be in preparation for going out in the evening to a gig. I kept putting off the shower, until by late afternoon when I realised I was never going to be in the right mood to go to a gig, and so didn't need to wash. It was pure circular logic that one reason I realised I would not be going out was because I hadn't washed !

  Until maybe mid afternoon I was still fairly sure I might go out, and because of that I made sure I had a fair lunch, and a bit later a naughty snack. My lunch was mostly a couple of white rolls with ham and some salad leaves - almost the same as the previous day except I didn't add any tomatoes, but I did add some mustard. The snack I had later was some crisps and some Pepperami sticks - nice, but a long way from healthy eating.

  It got to about 5pm, and that was about the latest I could have washed my hair and had a shower. I just didn't feel like it, and by then I was plotting a takeaway for my dinner instead of the fasting I would do if I went out. I turned on the TV, and settled in to watch the usual fare of Star Treks on Sky Mix (Freeview channel). A little before 6pm I ordered a couple of shish kebabs. The restaurant I used offered lower prices than many, and a "large" seemed to be about the same price as others "standard".

  I ordered a large chicken shish kebab, and a large lamb shish kebab. This was the known safe (usually) grilled meat with salad (plus a pitta bread for each kebab that I discarded). Both were very nice, and maybe a little bigger than expected. I found myself very full after eating both. A little later in the evening it would emerge there was another reason to feel a bit bloated, but initially it was just a bloaty sort of feeling when I tried to go to bed.

  The last Star Trek finished at 8pm, and then there was an hours wait until a new episode of The New Avengers that I wanted to watch and record. Actually, I am not sure why I wanted to record it because I seemed to have remembered the feeling from when The New Avengers was first aired - i.e. that it wasn't very good, but then again, the last series of the original The Avengers was even worse. In theory The New Avengers should have been a breath of fresh air, but it turned out to be mostly action with a very thin plot.

  The New Avengers finished at 10pm, and by then I had done all my preparations for bed during commercial breaks. I turned the TV and jumped straight into bed. I didn't feel as tired as I thought, and read for a while to relax. When I finally turned the light out, and turned over, I was still feeling very bloated.....and something else. What that something else was, was starting to be revealed by a series of very smelly farts.

  It was not long before I realised I needed the toilet. I got out of bed, and went and sat on the toilet. I did indeed need to go, and initially it all seemed very normal apart from the thought that I had already done what seemed like sufficient poo for the day in the three visits I made in the morning. Oh well, one more little poo should clear the system.....oh no it wouldn't. I ended up sitting on the toilet for about 15 minutes. It didn't seem possible there could be any more, and yet 5 minutes later I was back on the toilet again.

  Like the last time this happened, I couldn't think of any good reason for it. Obviously it was tempting to blame the kebabs, but if they were polluted it would be more likely to cause me to throw up. That didn't happen, although possibly with the help of some antacid tablets, I was burping a lot for a while. That burping was probably also helped by the 3 cans of fizzy beer I had been drinking with my dinner.

  There was some residual worry that more visits to the toilet might be needed, and also some residual discomfort. On top of all that, the "excitement" of it all seemed to kill my feelings of being tired. Once again, it was almost 3am before I got into proper sleep. It was one of those sleeps where I knew I was dreaming a lot. I can only half remember some images, like freeze frames from a movie, of those dreams, and not enough to even try to describe all the things that was going on.

  The good thing is that, apart from getting up to pee a couple of times, I seemed to sleep soundly until around 8am - a record for me in recent, and maybe not so recent times. I did not feel good when I got up, and it was probably more mental than physical. Things did not get off to a good start. After a pee I weighed myself, and was dismayed to find that despite flushing away what seemed to be kilograms of matter down the toilet, my weight had risen a lot. Fortunately, before I had drunk more than a mouthful of water, I realised I needed another pee, and after that my weight was still more then yesterday morning, but not by such a large amount.

  There was better news when I checked my blood glucose readings. The Contour meter read 7.9mmol/l, and that is in the light green (starts with a seven) area in my spreadsheet colour coding. A little lower would have been wonderful, but it is still very good for this month. The GlucoRX meter read 7.7mmol/l, once again in the light green, and only a bit over my current target of 7.5mmol/l. The Sinocare meter let the side down again, but only just, with a reading of 8.1mmol/l - good but not great !

  At least my blood pressure is good this morning. On the first and only attempt it was a nice 105/43. It could have been a lot worse if I had tried taken it an hour or so earlier. My already grumpy feeling morning was made worse by an early morning call from my "friend" Lee. He had almost nothing to say, but he would not stop talking, and most of it was about stuff I had little reason to be interested in. I think my life is bleak lately, but his must be so much bleaker because much of what he wanted to say was about other people I have never, or hardly heard of doing stuff I am not interested in, and sounding very banal anyway.

  I almost had to tell Lee to shut up, and to bring the conversation to an end. I wanted to finish getting my morning pills ready to take, and to make up my breakfast (a large single bowl of Kimchi flavoured instant noodles). I now take my pills half way through my breakast. It is mainly so there is some food to buffer the likelihood of burping up cod liver oil capsule taste - which is pretty foul !

  It is now so late that in another 45 minutes it will be midday, and I haven't done anything else apart from what I described in this morning's writing, and doing the writing itself. At this point I should be describing what I might do today. I am very sure I'll soon be having a shower, and maybe washing my hair. It is such a filthy grey and wet day that it is likely I won't be going out anywhere.....and yet... although it is very wet looking outside, I don't think the rain is as continuous, and as heavy as forecast. I guess I might go to the shops or something to stretch my legs.  I thing I must do is to clean up the kitchen, and dispose of the remains of last night's kebabs.